Sweet Surrender (34 page)

She rubbed her hand over her belly. She wanted that with him, but she made her choice, and was now regretting it. She watched as Nate pulled the woman towards the dance floor. He spun her around, and then there was the dipping, and then the grinding of body parts. She wanted to be sick. She could not watch another woman do that to him.

Once their food arrived, she tried to eat, but couldn’t. She could not keep her eyes off of Nate. When she looked his way again, there was another woman with him, as well as the first one. Both were rubbing their hands all over his body, and he never once stopped them. She needed to stop staring at them.

“Skylar.”

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked if you were alright. You haven’t touched your food.”

Picking her fork up, she faked a smile. “I’m fine.”

Nate’s laughter came across the room again. How was she going to deal with seeing him here with those women? She was not going to look his way again. Concentrating on what Jack was saying was hard, but she did.

“How is everything going with the baby?”

Swallowing her food, she replied, “Good. Have an appointment next week to find out the sex, we did try last time but couldn’t see anything.” She laughed.

“What are you hoping for?”

“As long as the baby is healthy and has all ten toes and ten fingers, I’ll be happy with either.”

He grinned. “Do you have someone going with you for the next appointment?”

She was shocked at what he said. Was he asking because he wanted to be there? Although it was thoughtful of him, she didn’t think it was a great idea, as Nate would want to be there with her.

“Um, yeah I do. Craig will be there, and Nate if he still wants to.”

At the mention of his name, she glanced across the room to him. One woman was sitting on his lap as the other pushed herself into his side. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea now. She couldn’t stand the thought of them hanging all over him.

Standing slowly, a sharp pain shot to her side, and she gasped before leaning against the table for support.

“Skylar, what’s wrong?” Jack asked in a worried tone.

“I just felt a little light-headed,” she lied. She needed to get out of here.

As she took a step away from the table, the pain intensified.
Holy shit, that hurt.
Gritting her teeth through the pain, she started to move away from the table with Jack following closely behind.

The room was beginning to spin. Everyone around her was blurry, and it started to scare her a bit. She fumbled, and latched onto the closet person she could to balance herself, as Jack did tried to help from behind her. Once her breathing was under control enough, she looked up to whomever she held onto, and mumbled, “Sorry.”

Turning back around, she slammed into a hard chest, nearly losing her balance again. Strong hands stopped her from falling backwards. Looking up, she groaned as Nate stood in front of her with his two female friends right beside him.

How did she end up across the room in front of him? She was sure she was heading the right direction to the front door. But her body knew where it wanted to go.

“Skylar, what are you doing here?” Nate asked.

Breathing through the pain as much as she could, she heard Jack answer for her. “We were having dinner, together.”

Nate looked between Jack and her, and a frown came across his face. Interesting. So he didn’t like the fact that she was on a date with someone? Well, the feeling was mutual.

“Nate, you promised we were leaving. Not stopping to talk to some random,” his friend whined.

Nate ignored her, still looking at Skylar.

“Some random?” Skylar piped up.

Jack wrapped his arm around her waist, laying his hand over her belly, and pulled her closer into him.

The pain in her side was getting worse; she needed to leave, immediately. Moving around Nate and the two women, she walked as best she could to the front door. When outside and close to Jack’s truck, she heard footsteps coming up fast behind her.

“Skylar.”

She needed to get home and away from him.

“So, you are on a date, then?”

“Of course I am. I told you, we both need to move on.”

Opening her door, as Jack walked around to his, she gripped the doorframe and tried to lift herself up, but was stopped by the pain shooting down her left side.

“Oh, God!” she yelped.

Jack was out of the truck and at her side in a flash, but so was Nate. She turned around to go to Nate, but Jack was in front of her before she had time to move his way.

Nate growled at Jack but he ignored him completely. Looking down at her, he asked, “Everything alright?”

“I’ll be fine once I get home,” she whispered to him.

Nodding, Jack moved past them, and helped her into his truck.

“Are you in pain?” Nate asked.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she replied.

“I’ll meet you at your house.” Nate suggested, and then he turned and started to walk towards his truck.

“Don’t bother. I’ll be fine after I have a shower.”

“I don’t care, Skylar. That is my child you are carrying and if you are in pain or anything, I will be there for you and
our
child.”

Ok!
She was not in the mood to argue with him. Once he was near his truck, both women jumped out as he spoke to them.
Neither of them look happy at whatever he is saying!
Right after that thought flitted through her mind; both of them looked her way, giving her a death stare.

“Really, but you promised us a hot night of fun, Nate,” the brunette said, loud enough for her to hear.

“Sorry ladies, not going to happen,” he grumbled towards them.

“What is the deal with the fat chick? We can give you more then she can ever do,” Blondie said.

Fat chick! She was Goddamn pregnant, for crying out loud.
She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut to hold back the tears. He was back to his normal ways.

Closing her door, she called out, “Go have your hot night, Nate. That was your plan all along anyways. I’ll be fine by morning. I don’t need you there. Jack will look after me.”

She nodded towards Jack, and he started the engine.

“Skylar—”

“Just go do what you had planned.”

Jack reversed out and drove out of the parking lot. She looked out of the side mirror, seeing that Nate stood there watching as they left, and the two women jumped back into his truck. She really felt sick, knowing that he was going to spend the night with both of them.

Why couldn’t she just trust him? Her body did, but her heart thought differently. Damn heart. She couldn’t jump into another relationship or sleep with someone as quickly as he could. And she wasn’t going to start now.

“What time will Craig be back?”

Looking at her phone, she answered, “He should be there now.”

“Ok. If he isn’t, I’ll stay till he gets home.”

“Thank you. Sorry for ruining our night.”

“You didn’t ruin it, Skylar. There is no way you could possible do that.”

She sat, leaning to one side, trying to take the pain away from the other. She didn’t know why she was having this pain, the baby wasn’t due for another couple of months. Maybe it was all the stress her body was taking on. If it was still there in the morning, she was going to make an appointment to see the doctor. She really hoped it was nothing; she could not deal with any bad news right now.
My baby is safe
, she kept telling herself. Once she got home, she would have a shower to relieve the pain and crawl into bed with a tub of her favourite ice cream. She would worry more if the pain hasn’t gone by morning.

––––––––

A
lot of things had changed in the next couple of weeks after her drunken night.

Dom wasn’t there the next morning when she awoke, which upset her, but as the day progressed, he made it up to her. She received a huge bouquet of her favourite flowers, tigerlillies. He had remembered. Then when she arrived home, there was clothing laid out on her bed, with a note.

Chantal,

Tonight is our night. Wear what I have picked out for you. Be ready at 7p.m.

Dominic.

She could not hide her smile
. We are finally going to have our first date!

She did everything she normally did: washed her hair, shaved, covered her body in her favourite scent of lotion, and slipped on the lingerie that she had bought the previous day. He had made no note about what she was meant to wear
under
the dress he selected for her, so that was a surprise for him. The dress was black and off the shoulder. The tight material clung to her curves and the hem hit just below her ass. Unsure about the length, since she had never worn something that short, she was a little worried about showing so much skin in public. But she went with it anyways.

On their date, Dom had taken her to a sweet little restaurant in town; she was shocked at how romantic it was set up, as they were the only couple in the restaurant.

He fed her all night, starting with the appetisers, then the main, but dessert was a different story. There was only one plate, with a triple chocolate mousse cake. One spoon. The staff had left for the night, leaving them there alone. Obviously, Dom knew the owners, or had paid a lot of money to have the restaurant rented out.

As soon as the first spoonful hit her lips, she was soaked. He had worked her up all night. Light touches here and there, rubbing his hand along the hem of her dress, lightly stroking up her thigh, but not once did he touch her where she needed him the most.

They had ended up as far as inside his truck before he was inside of her. He ripped her thong from her body, before slamming into her hard. The echoes of her screams filled the truck and car park, but she didn’t care. It was over within minutes, which didn’t bother her, it had been the most powerful orgasm she had ever had in her life. She almost blacked out from the force of it.

Several days later, sitting at her desk as customers looked around her shop, she couldn’t remove the grin covering her face even if she wanted to. Dom had spent every moment he could with her, alone.

That was the only problem. Joey was never around. She had tried calling and texting, but always got back that he was busy with his bar. Maybe she should stop by on the way home and see how he was doing.

At the end of the day, as she packed up what she had to, she reached for the new package that had arrived with the new shipment of lingerie. She had picked this one out especially for him. Loving how it looked on the site she bought it from, she knew this would be his favourite.

Parking her car at the back of the bar, she walked in and sat in a booth, waiting to see Joey. Looking around the room for him, she couldn’t find him at all. She was getting ready to go into the back office, as a majority of the time he was there, when she noticed him walking back into the bar carrying a carton of booze. Rising from her chair, she walked up and stood there, waiting for him to notice her. After what felt like forever, he turned and frowned.

“What are you doing here?”

Well someone wasn’t in the best mood!

“I came to see you. Haven’t seen or heard from you in almost two weeks.”

“I’ve been really busy,” he grumbled.

“Joey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Chantal. You should go.”

“Why can’t I sit here and talk to you?”

“Because I don’t want you around here,” he snarled.

Gasping, a tear slid down her cheek. Pulling her bag over shoulder, she moved back away from the bar.
How could he say that to me!

“Chantal, I’m sorry. I’ve had a crap week.”

“No, I know when I am not welcome,” she cried.

Running from the bar to her car, she tried to unlock it with shaky hands, but dropped the keys in the process.

“Chantal!” Joey yelled.

Shaking her head, she needed to go home. Joey wrapped his arms around her, holding her in place.

“Why were you here, Chantal?”

“I came to see you. You haven’t stopped by or rung in so long.”

“There is a reason why I haven’t done that, baby. I love you, Chantal. I have for a long time now, but seeing you with Dom is hard for me. I know you love him the way I do with you, but you will never love me the way I want you to.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. “That still doesn’t give you the right to speak to me like what you just did in there, Joey.”

“I know, and I am truly sorry for that.”

“I do love you, Joey, just not the way you want me to. But I don’t want to stop seeing you. I love being around you,” she whispered.

“I know how you feel, babe. But I need more, and you can’t give that to me. It’s unfair to me; being around and seeing you act all lovey-dovey with Dom. That is what I want from you, and I will never get that.”

“I can’t stop what I feel for him, Joey. I have tried.”

“I know you have, Chan. Maybe it is best that we don’t see each other for a little bit,” he whispered.

Spinning around, she gasped. “Joey,”

“Chantal, please do this for me, ok. I need to get my life back on track. You are all I think about now, and I can’t keep doing that.”

She nodded. “Can we do something as friends soon?”

“We will babe, just give me a little while, and then we can do whatever you want.”

“Ok.” Joey let her go, and stood back. Sliding into her car, she reversed out and watched in her mirror as Joey’s silhouette got smaller and smaller, and then eventually disappeared from her eyesight.

Why did this have to happen today?
She really did love him, but not the way he wanted. Why did she have to be the one to have two gorgeous guys in her life, wanting her love?

––––––––

I
t had been a week since Chantal last saw Joey. She really missed him being around, but she stayed away just like he had asked her. It was hard to do. She missed him badly.

She had tried ringing Skylar to see what she had been up to but got no answer. They hadn’t spoken much lately and she was on the verge of driving over there, but she stopped herself. Maybe Sky just needed time to herself with everything that was going on.