Leaning closer to him, she pleaded, “Can you do me a favor?”
He looked over at her warily. “Sure.”
“Can you pretend you are with me?” she asked.
“Chantal,” he groaned.
“Please. I’ll return the favor, whenever you need it.”
Please say yes
. She watched as Dom neared their table.
“Does this have anything to do with the guy heading our way?”
“In a way, yes.” She wasn’t in to making anyone jealous, but he had no claim over her, and she was sick of him treating her like shit.
Bryan placed his arm over her shoulder, puller her closer to him, as Dom reached them.
“Chantal,” he said.
“Dom.”
“Who’s your friend?” Dom asked.
Placing her hand over Bryan’s, she made the introductions. “Dom, Bryan. Bryan, Dom.”
Bryan reached out to shake Dom’s hand.
Dom just stood there looking at it, and folded his arms over his chest. Bryan dropped his hand down and then covered her hand that was on his thigh.
Chantal could see the vein pulsing on the side of Dom’s neck. His fingers started to twitch and she knew he was angry. So be it, he was the one that pushed her away, not the other way around.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Dom asked.
‘Sorry, I’m busy.” One she said that she turned and faced Bryan. She could feel Dom’s eyes burning into the back of her, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t keep doing this with him. She was moving on, end of story.
She knew the second he left; it was like her soul had left her body.
“Who the hell was that guy?” Bryan asked her.
“Someone that isn’t that important,” she whispered.
“Channy, you can’t fool me. The way the guy looked at you, you would have thought he owned you.”
“No one owns me, Bryan. No one,” she hissed.
She wasn’t anyone’s to be owned. That would never happen. She owned herself, and no one was taking that away from her.
“Ok. Tell me more about your shop,” he inquired.
She could do that; it would take her mind off Dom being in the same room.
******
D
om drove towards Joey’s bar to meet Marcus. Although he had already asked him to take over some of his clients, he wanted to know if he was interested in joining him with this client that had requested him. Parking his truck, he made his way inside and stood at the bar to order a drink.
Moments later, Marcus walked in and made his way towards him.
“Dom,” he greeted, slapping him on the back.
“Marcus. How you been?” he replied, leaning against the bar.
“Won’t complain. Not to be rude, but what did you want to talk about? There’s a sweet little thing waiting for me in a hotel room.”
Shaking his head, Dom had kind of figured that was the case. Marcus was never alone; he was always with a woman or several at one time. “A client asked specifically for me. I wanted to know if you’re interested in meeting them with me. I’ll half the commission and bonus with you.” After he said that, he noticed Marcus was not paying any attention to what he had just asked. Turning around, he found what had grabbed his focus. Sitting in a booth in the back corner was Chantal. The site of her always made him lose his breath. All her attention was on Marcus. As he continued to watch her, she was slowly devouring Marcus and he was doing the same to her.
Fuck no. There was no way in hell that was ever going to happen!
Pushing past Marcus, he stomped over towards her. He had not noticed the guy sitting with her, until then.
Who the fuck is this guy?
Before he arrived at their table, the guy wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, almost onto his lap. Dom growled. This guy was really getting on his nerves.
He stopped in front of them. “Chantal.”
“Dom.”
Her voice ran over his body, igniting it. His cock twitched in his pants. Her voice alone could set him off. The sultry tone she always used around him turned him on so bad.
She attempted to introduce them. The guy had guts Dom decided, as he lifted his hand to him and waited for him the shake it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he was making it clear that if he shook the guy’s hand he would end up knocking him out for being so close to her.
Calming his breathing down, he asked, “Chantal, can I talk to you for a minute?”
She turned her body away from him. “No, I’m busy.”
Shit!
He knew she would act like this. All he wanted to do was remove her from the dickwad and have her for his self. But, no. He couldn’t make up his damn mind on what he wanted. It wasn’t fair, but he did not want her with anyone else.
Shaking his head, he made his at back to where Marcus stood.
“So, who is that fine piece of ass over there that you were talking to? I would love nothing more than to get to know her, real well.”
Marcus didn’t care for anyone but for himself. Every woman was a piece of ass to him. They were only to have fun with, never to settle down with, as they would take everything from you, and then your manhood.
“That so called piece of ass you refer to is Chantal. Don’t even think about going any further with her, or I’ll break your fuckin’ legs,” he growled. He couldn’t help it, but Marcus wasn’t getting anything from her.
“So, you making a claim on her then?”
He watched as Marcus calmly leaned against the bar, staring at him. How he wished he could claim her, in every way possible
.
“Just stay away from her.”
“Unless you claim her as yours, Dom, that’s not going to happen. Like they say ‘it’s an open bar to everyone.’”
Yeah, he knew exactly what he was saying. She wasn’t his, end of story, unless he claimed her. She was free to do whatever she wanted, and that was not him. The way she acted towards him, she had had enough of his crap and moved on. She wasn’t going to wait for him anymore. Know he knew why, since she said she had wasted the last 5 years for him. He never paid that much attention to her because he wanted her, in more ways than one. He held himself back from her, and he should never have done that to her. He might have lost her for good now, by the look of things. Thanks to him not listening to his head instead of his dick.
––––––––
A
fter Bryan had left the bar, Joey had come up and finally asked her out to dinner. She was so giddy she nearly fell over right in front of him. She always loved spending time with Joey, but this was different. They were actually going out on a date.
She was so nervous that she had shoved a bunch of clothes in her bag and drove over to Skylar’s. She had been on plenty of dates, but for some reason this date was different from all the others. She really liked Joey a lot. She had met him that first night she moved here to Greens View.
Twenty-five years old and going to live with her parents, again. “Why am I moving back with them?” she asked herself. That’s right, because her father wanted her to work for his company, again. And keep a tight leash on her. She could not stand the guys that worked for her father. They were all sleazebags. Not trying to give herself a big head, but every other time she was working there they all seemed to think that they could get into her pants and further their position up the ladder, by proving to her father that they were worthy of his daughter’s love. What a load of crap that was? The only thing they all wanted was the trust fund, nothing more. There weren’t in it for love—money, just money.
There were so many money hungry people out there that they would do anything to have it, no matter the cost or who they hurt in the process.
That is how she met Derek, working as an accountant for her father. One day, while she was dealing with an arrogant client in the office, he had come to her rescue when the guy laid his hands on her. Thank God, her father wasn’t in at the time, as something bad would have happened. Although, it would probably have been pretty close to what Derek did to him. Her father would of done the same, or worse.
They started to date, and both of her parents approved. Her mother told her that he came from a great background; his family was well known through the community, had a shit load of money, and donated to charities. She didn’t care for that; she wanted someone to love her and only her.
Close to their two-year anniversary, she had made plans to celebrate. The plan was that she would finish early from work, arrive home, set up tea light candles everywhere, cook his favorite meal which was: rib eye steak, medium rare, honey carrots, and smooth mashed potatoes with a sweet mushroom gravy. Then she would slip on the new black lingerie she had bought for him and seduce him.
That all went out the window when she arrived home. As she walked through the door, she heard noises coming from their bedroom. Moving towards it, she was shocked as to what she saw.
Derek was there on their bed, that they had made love on countless times, with the new secretary her father had hired.
She could not believe what she was seeing. She watched as he lifted the bitch up and down on his cock, just the way he used to do to her when she was on top of him.
Ripping her shoe from her foot, she launched it across the room, hitting the girl on the head.
Derek threw the poor girl off the bed, moving to get up, and that is when he noticed that she was standing there in their room.
He didn’t even have the decency to cover himself up, or apologize for what he had done. She was to blame for him sleeping with someone else, as he told her, “You are too vanilla for me. We never try anything new; you are just too plain for me.” His exact words.
How was someone vanilla, she never understood that at all? They had tried things, but obviously not what he was after.
Then he told her the one thing she never wanted to hear. “I was only with you for the money, babe. Nothing more. I just put up being with you for sex, and that didn’t work either. I needed more, and that is why I have been sleeping around behind your back. You can’t, or never will, give me what I want.” The asshole had the nerve to laugh at her.
Well, she would show him. You never messed with the Winters family, as her father had always told her. She packed up all of her stuff and tried not to hear what he was saying about her. “You’re so prissy.” “You need to remove the pole that is stuck up your ass.” The one that really hurt the most was, “You will never find anyone to love you, just for you. They will either only be with you for the money or because they enjoy boring vanilla sex. Which won’t last. They will only do the same thing I just did to you. Go and find someone better.”
She rang her father and told him what had happened. The next thing she knew, Jason, Warren and Gavin were at her front door waiting for her to leave. As she was helped into her father’s town car, Jason and Gavin walked inside. She never saw them come out, as Warren drove the car away. That was the last day that she ever saw Derek. She had asked what had happened after she left, but was told to forget about it. No matter whom she asked, she received the same answer.
A week after leaving Derek, one of her friends was having a party at the local bar. Not knowing that many people in town, she decided to go. Once she arrived, she met up with Renee, one of her good friends she had gone to school with, and whose party it was. Wishing her a happy birthday, Chantal walked up to the bar to order them drinks.
There was a group of guys sitting to the side of the bar at the end, and she tried to stay clear of them while ordering, but it never happened like that. One of them decided that he wanted to get personal with her and cornered her at the end of the bar. She had nowhere to go. When the guy put his hands all over her, although she did try to remove herself from him, she couldn’t, as he was a lot stronger and bigger than she was. A hand snaked out and ripped him away from her. She looked up, way up, into the eyes of her rescuer.
That is the night she met the owner of the bar, Joey. After that night, she found herself spending more time at the bar. Being around him was fun. She had never laughed or cried so hard in her life than she had at what he said or did. The one thing she wanted at the time was for him to ask her out on a date, but he never did. They spent a fair amount of time together, but not once did they go out together.
Smiling to herself, she remembered how back then she had loved hanging out with Joey. He was close to being her next best friend, besides Skylar. They would sit down and talk about anything, and she missed that.
Maybe she could get Joey to tell her why he had stopped talking to her back then. He was slowly opening back up to her, but it was not like it was then.
Pulling up in Skylar’s driveway, she ripped her bag out and quickly ran inside. She needed to sort herself out and what she was wearing. She was a ball of nerves. She was never like this around him, but between the fact that they really hadn’t spent that much time together and the shock that he had actually asked her out, she was nervous as hell. She never got that with anyone. She could go up to any random person and start up a conversation.
“Skylar!” she called out.
Skylar waddled into her lounge room and sat on the sofa. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
Chantal grabbed her hand and pulled her up, and then down the hall to her room. “I have a date.”
“That’s nothing new,” Skylar mumbled.
What is her problem?
She was fine the last time that she had seen her!
Throwing her bag onto Skylar’s bed, she turned and faced her. “Is everything alright?” she asked.
Skylar sat on her bed. “Yeah. I’ll tell you later, I don’t want to ruin your night. So, who is the lucky guy?”
Blushing, she whispered, “Joey.”
“What?” Skylar gasped.
“Joey asked me out on a date.” Pulling her bag open, she ripped all her clothing out that she had bought. “I need your help picking something out.”
Looking to the bed, Skylar said, “Usually you’re fine at picking out an outfit.”
Moving the items in piles, she smiled. “I know, but I want this to be perfect.”
“Where are you going?”
“Just going out to dinner, that I know of.” Nodding, Skylar went through all the clothing on the bed, setting aside what she thought would be perfect for her to wear. “I’d go with anything in this pile,” Skylar said as she pointed to it.