Violet Chain (4 page)

“Vi, come on, stop it,” Vince said as he walked into my office. I lifted my head. He sat on my desk, twirling my chair towards him, then placed his hands on either side of my face, wiping my tears.

“What are you doing in here? Don’t you work?” I asked him sarcastically. He let out a chuckle.

“I saw Harrison walking out of your office, I was worried, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine, Vince.”

“No you’re not.” He was right, I wasn’t. I burst into tears and he took me into an embrace immediately.

“When does the pain go away, when does it stop?” I cried out.

“Oh, Vi, love is a beautiful but horrible thing, isn’t it,” Vince sang.

Vince used words as inspiration, but right now his words were not inspiring me or making me feel better, in fact they were making me feel worse. And besides, what did he know about love anyways? He went through women faster than I went through underwear.

“Vince, can’t you just say don’t worry, Vi, it will get better?” I mumbled. He squeezed me quickly, before releasing me.

“Okay, I promise it will get better.” He smiled.

“When?” I needed an answer. I couldn’t take going through this anymore. The hurt was swallowing me up, the pain severing me into small broken pieces. I was becoming an entity of despair and hopelessness.

“I can’t tell you that, but I do know this, you have to let go before you can move on if that makes any sense.”  I knew he was right, but letting go was harder than he thought. How do you let go of a man you have loved for four years? How do you reprogram your mind to think of a man as your past that at one time was your complete future?  My shoulders slumped as I let my forehead hit the top of my desk. This was so frustrating.

“My head hurts,” my lips mumbled as I tapped my forehead against the surface of my desk over and over.

“It’s because you keep head-butting your desk! Stop!” Vince responded as he placed his hand under my forehead, using it as padding between my forehead and the desk. He pushed my head up, forcing me to sit up.

“How do you do it?” I asked him.

“Do what?” he answered.

“You know, date a bunch of women?”

“Vi, I really don’t feel comfortable talking about my lady friends with you.”

“Do you sleep with them all?” He lifted his eyebrow with a smirk across his face. “That is so disgusting!”

“Vi, like I said, I don’t feel comfortable talking to my little sister about my lady friends.”

“Maybe that’s what I’ll do, just sleep with a lot of random men,” I said, thinking of the brief reprieve from thinking about Harrison during my night of passion with Chain.

“I don’t think so, Vi,” Vince growled. I smiled at him.

“I’m just kidding, Vince, relax.”

His eyes turned serious. “Look, it’s just going to take time, you need to relax and ride it out. I promise it will get better, okay?”

I smiled at him. “Okay.”

He stood up. “I have a meeting in five; I can cancel it if you need me to stay with you.”

“No, go, I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

He gave me a quick hug then made his way to the door. “If you need me, you know where to find me. I’ll catch you later,” he said before he turned and left my office.

***

Throwing myself into my work, I let the morning pass by me and concentrated more on the task at hand. I was in charge of the human resources department, but my father often had me doing things in the marketing division.  I was setting up a new client we had signed called Larsen’s Electronics. We were launching a large campaign for the company—billboards, commercials, customized marketing packets, the whole shot. I glanced over at the time on my computer and realized I was in jeopardy of being late for the Larsen’s marketing meeting. I finished up inputting the final information for the client and made my way down to the conference room.

The meeting was intense. I listened as the marketing manager threw out ideas and the graphics department displayed sketches of the billboards. I was very impressed with the billboard sketches; I had to admit that we had the best graphics designers on staff.

I was exhausted as I left the conference room and made my way back towards my office. I felt a hand grab my arm from behind. I turned and my father smiled at me.

“Hi, Daddy,” I said as I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, little girl, how are you doing?” he asked me with worry in his eyes.

“I’m good, Daddy.”

“That little shit Harrison isn’t giving you any problems is he? I swear, Violet, if he does, I will bounce his ass out of here in the blink of an eye, you just let me know, okay,” my father said, furrowing his eyebrows. 

“No, Daddy, everything is okay.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah.”

He smiled as he kissed my cheek. “I love you, little girl, if you need anything you just come and see me, okay?”

“Okay, I have to get back to work, I’ll see you later,” I said as I hugged him and turned to leave.

Sitting at my desk, I stared out the window of my office, thinking. Why was I having such a hard time getting over Harrison? He cheated on me for God’s sake, what more of a wake-up call did I need?

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It wasn’t about being with Harrison, it was about being Harrison’s girl; my whole adult life had revolved around it. I had completely lost my identity, I had lost Violet Townsend. How did I let that happen?

I refocused, swearing off men and making a promise to myself I would never lose me again. Never again would I be at a man’s beck and call, never again would I live only to please a man. And never again would I allow someone to break my heart. I could never survive another heartbreak.

“Violet,” Callie called out as she walked into my office.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked her happily.

“I’m here for two reasons.  First I wanted to make sure you were alright, how are things going?”

“Better than I expected.”

“Did you talk to Harrison?”

“Yes,” I muttered sadly.

“It will get better, Violet,” she reassured me and I knew she was right and I knew I was healing, but it was just going to take time.

“So what was the second thing you wanted to ask?” She smiled.

“To see if you wanted to go to lunch. I’m meeting David down at Mesus.” Mesus was a Mediterranean restaurant that had been Callie’s and my favorite since we were teens.

“Yeah, just let me get my purse,” I responded. I reached into my desk drawer, snatching my purse, and then followed Callie out of my office.

The office where I had my main headquarters was 8,600 square feet in its entirety. When I first leased the place, it was just David and me and the place seemed enormous. After five years, sixty employees later, the place felt like a sardine can, every inch used to the maximum of its capacity.

At the insistency of David, I went out and purchased a 50,000-square-foot building four stories high. It was under renovation and we hoped that it would be move-in ready by the end of summer.

I strolled up to the glass doors of the building and pushed them opened. As I made my way to the reception area, I noticed a woman in her early twenties with chin-length strawberry-blonde hair and big dark brown eyes sitting at the dark maple receptionist desk.

A smile beamed across her face as I approached. “Good morning, sir.” She grinned, her ruby-stained lips shimmering.

“Hello, sweetheart, what’s your name?” I asked her.

She let out a giggle before saying, “Candace.”

“What a beautiful name, for a beautiful young woman.”

She blushed. “Thank you, sir.”

“You can call me Chain, darlin’.” A hand gripped my shoulder and before I knew it I was being whisked away.

I turned to see David. He removed his hand as we walked down the hall. “That was rude, David.”

“We’ve gone through over fifty receptionists in just five years. I would like to keep Candace for a while,” he uttered as we continued to briskly walk down the hall.

“So I’m not allowed to talk to a woman I employ?”

“The talking always leads to me having to hire a new receptionist, so no, I don’t want you talking to her.”

“What is your problem, David?”

“My problem is that you seem to think the receptionists are your little playthings. This is a place of business, Chain, not your personal brothel. Until you learn to keep your dick in your pants, the receptionist is off limits, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mother,” I mumbled sarcastically.

We stopped near the conference room doors. “The shareholders are pissed, you realize you are over four hours late. Where were you?” David queried.

I cleared my throat, straightened my tie and answered, “I slept in.”

“Slept in,” he repeated incredulously, before opening the conference room door.

The meeting with the shareholders was to decide whether or not to allow a new franchise to open up in all of our malls.

I had started the business while working at a real estate office. David and I were both in college at the time, him studying law, me studying architecture.  I was fascinated with the building industry, so after soaking up all the information I could, I quit college and ventured into building. First I started with remodeling offices and after securing a few investors, I began building malls. The first mall I built was in California and the success drew in more investors and within a span of five years, I had built over sixteen malls. My goal was to have my malls in every single state within the next ten years.

I sat down and slid out my business cell. I carried two cell phones, one business and one personal. Being the owner of a large corporation, I found it necessary to have down time, to keep my head straight and my sanity intact. Business could be very brutal at times and I needed to take time to escape from it, so after hours, I made sure to have my business cell shut off.  I turned it on and glanced at it to see if I had missed any calls, when I noticed a new text. I picked it up and pressed on the message. Pictures began to fill my screen and I smiled as I saw Violet’s beautiful face. Using my thumb, I scrolled through the pictures—they were the pictures that Callie had taken last night. As I continued to scroll through them, the night’s events began to replay in my head.

That woman was a wildcat, more than I had ever handled before, very flexible, willing and uninhibited. She let me fuck her whatever way I wanted, wherever I wanted and however I wanted. She feared nothing. I had her bent over the balcony, her legs wrapped around me and my hand curled around her back as her hands gripped the tops of my shoulders. The only safety net that kept her from plummeting to the concrete ground below as I slammed into her over and over again. 

In all I counted eight used condoms that were scattered around my apartment. I didn’t realize I could perform that much, but with her it was so easy, she was so damn sexy. I was sore and I knew she was; she had to be. The first time I entered inside of her it was like forcing a garden hose into a pin hole—she was tight and closed off and it took me a while to loosen her up. But I had fun breaking her in and it was an amazing night of dirty, crazy, raw sex.

“Chain,” David said sharply as he cleared his throat. I glanced up with my thumb still on the screen.

“Yeah,” I responded.

“We were talking about setting up the meeting with the owner of
Let’s Have It
, the franchise that wishes to lease out the buildings in all fifteen of our locations,” he explained.  I glanced back down at the screen, sliding my thumb across it. I was suddenly obsessed with seeing Violet’s face.

“Okay, whatever you want,” I muttered. I wasn’t concerned at all with what was going on at that moment, all I cared about was looking at the pictures—Violet.

“Shit, Chain, that’s Violet!” David screeched as he leaned over my shoulder. I pulled my cell away from his eyes’ reach. I glanced over at the shareholders and smiled.

“Can you please keep your voice down,” I said to him quietly.

“I can’t believe that you are looking at pictures of Violet!” he responded in an angry whisper.

“They’re the pictures your girlfriend sent, I’m just checking them out, that’s all,” I responded as I hesitantly tucked my cell back into my pocket and leaned closer so only he could hear me.

“Can we please carry on with the meeting, we can talk about this later,” I murmured.

The meeting ended fifteen minutes later and as I was leaving the conference room, David stopped me near the door. He waited to speak till we were the only two left in the room.

“What happened last night between you and Violet?” David asked nosily. How was I going to answer that? I could tell him the truth, that last night I fucked her senseless. But I had no plans of throwing Violet under the bus. If she wanted David or anyone else to know, she would be the one to tell. I knew if David found out, he would probably never speak to me again and although it wasn’t something I wanted to happen, I would be lying if I said I regretted being with Violet, because I didn’t, not for one minute.

“Nothing, she got really drunk and I took her home,” I told him. But the expression on his face showed me he wasn’t buying my story.

“Are you sure?”

“If you don’t believe me, ask her.”

“I may just do that, I’m meeting her and Callie for lunch,” David responded.  He was meeting Violet? My heart began to race as visions of her beautiful face flashed in my head. I really wanted to see her again and I would have told her last night had she not rushed off in such a hurry. One minute I had her up against the wall and the next she was dressed, rushing out to the taxi she had called.

“Do you mind if I tag along?” David looked at me suspiciously.

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Is there something wrong with me having lunch with my best friend?” David shook his head, not believing me for one second.

“I know you, Chain, the only reason why you want to go is because Violet is there. Something happened between you two and I know it, so why don’t you just admit it?”

I hit him playfully in the arm.

“You’re such a paranoid asshole sometimes, you know that? Come on, let’s go.” I knew he wanted to talk more about it, but I turned away and started walking towards the door, not giving him a chance.

David wanted to take his car and I was resistant, only because he was more OCD about keeping his car clean than he was about his house. You were not allowed to enter his car without these stupid fucking blue booties on your shoes and a towel on your seat to ensure whatever was on your clothes did not ruin his leather interior, although he had covers wrapped tightly around the seats! He reached into the car, grabbing the booties and handing them to me. As much as I respected him, he really needed help.

“You do know that they have professional cleaners that can clean your car, instead of going through all of this,” I huffed with frustration as I sat on the toweled seat, sliding on the booties.

“No, they are too sloppy. I like to take care of my car myself, besides, I wouldn’t want them to scratch Maggie, she would be very upset,” he cooed as he slid his hand gently across the dashboard. Why did people feel it was necessary to name their cars after women? And treat them like one?

“Whatever, I’m starving, let’s just go already,” I responded as I closed my door and latched my seatbelt.

As the car drove out of the parking lot, I was feeling anxious, wanting to see Violet more than I should.

***

The restaurant was busy as we made our way inside. I glanced around and my heart began to pulsate in my chest as I saw her tucked away in a booth in the corner. She was dressed in a floral mini dress with red knee boots, her sleek light brown hair cascading down the middle of her back. She was one beautiful woman. As I walked closer to the table, she caught a glance of me and stood up. The expression on her face told me she was not too happy to see me.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered through her teeth as she smiled at David and Callie.

“David told me that he was going for lunch, so I asked if I could tag along. How is your head after last night?” I asked. She looked at me strangely, not quite understanding what I was trying to say. “I told David that you were very drunk and that I made sure you got home safely,” I continued, slowly widening my eyes, hoping she would catch the hint. She did.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine, thank you,” she responded casually. She sat down in the booth and I slid next to her. She grimaced as she shifted in her seat. It was obvious she was sore from our lovemaking the night before, so I could not help but say something.  I casually leaned towards her ear.

“Feeling a little uncomfortable are we?” I asked discreetly. She burst into laughter and it wasn’t any normal laugh, it was a gut-wrenching belly laugh and I couldn’t help but join in.

“What is so funny?” Callie asked. I looked at Violet and she looked back at me nervously.

“We were just talking about how Violet belches after she drinks wine!” I sang.

Violet looked at me, mortified, her face flushed crimson, and I couldn’t help but snicker. “Isn’t that right, Violet, wine causes you to belch,” I continued playfully. She wasn’t amused, not one bit.

“I am a lady, I do not belch,” she responded defensively.

“Oh come on, Violet, we are all friends, no need to be bashful,” I teased as I leaned my shoulder against hers in a friendly touch.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me to her.

“I swear I’m going to kick your ass,” she said playfully. I grinned.

“Please, by all means, hurt me, baby,” I whispered into her ear. Her body shuddered as my tongue licked the edge of her lobe as I sat back up.

The rest of the lunch, Violet sat quietly and barely touched her food. I could tell that something was troubling her and I was almost certain it was the ex-fiancé, Harrison. David had informed me earlier that Harrison worked for Violet’s family’s company and that they saw each other nearly every day. That had to be hard on her, but what I didn’t understand was why she didn’t have the bastard fired. I knew if it was me, I would have.

David and Callie stood up and began their ritual twenty-minute goodbye that normally consisted of an overabundance of ‘I love you,’ then kissing, then hugging, then they started the whole thing over again. I took the opportunity to talk to Violet. I leaned towards her.

“Are you okay?” I asked her first. That was the most important question. She seemed so down I wanted to make sure she was going to be alright.

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking,” she responded politely.

“Good. I was wondering, do you think I could get your phone number? I would like to call you, maybe take you out sometime,” I asked, charming it up with a big grin. Her eyes looked out into the distance and I could tell she was thinking. She blinked hard as she turned back to me.

“Chain, we had a really good time, didn’t we?” she queried, smiling.

“Yes, one of the best times I have ever had,” I responded, still grinning.

“I think it would be better if we left it at that, don’t you?”

What? My heart was severed, annihilated by her words. Well maybe that was an exaggeration, but my pride was pretty smashed into pieces. I was Chain Alexander, most eligible bachelor in Philadelphia, women didn’t refuse me, I refused them!

I was having a hard time digesting her words. Last night she was screaming my name as she came over and over and now she was acting like I was a fucking plague getting ready to infect her. I suddenly felt out of my element and a little used.

“So I was just a fuck to you?” Christ, I sounded like a woman!

She placed a kiss on my forehead before saying, “A very good one at that.” She made me feel so cheap.