Sweet Temptation

by Angel Steel

  “Not at all,” he answered.

  “You can take my room, I’ll stay with Skylar.”

  “Sure, I’ll see you in the morning.” Showing Joey the room he was staying in, he walked into Skylar’s. Closing the door halfway, he went and cleaned himself up in the bathroom, and jumped into bed beside her. Skylar rolled over, and cuddled up to Craig. He held onto her tight. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “How can he think that of me? I told him that I worked as a sales rep. He doesn’t trust me.”

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, darling.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. I was glad when you showed up,” she sobbed.

  Throwing his other arm around her, he hugged her tighter. “I’m glad I did, too.” He kissed the top of her head. “You’ve had a big night. You need some sleep.”

  Resting her head against his chest, she listened to his heartbeat. She couldn’t believe that Nate had followed her and thought she was a whore. She honestly thought he was a good guy and wouldn’t do anything like that to her, but apparently she had mistaken. She really couldn’t think of what happened between them right now, she needed sleep and a lot of it.

  Chapter 15

  How sore could one person be at one time? She asked herself. Slipping out of bed, she walked over to her bathroom, turned the water on in her bath, and waited until it filled up. Breathing out, she slid into the tub and leaned back.

  “Jesus Christ, Skylar.”

  Skylar shot her eyes open wide at the sound of a voice, and sat up quickly. Grabbing the side of her face she moaned in pain. “God, that hurts.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.” Alex stepped over towards her, and knelt down beside the bath.

  “That’s all right, I’m kind of getting used to it.”

  “No, you shouldn’t be, darling.” Lifting one of her hands up, he inspected it. “What the hell happened, Sky?”

  She blew out a breath and rested her head on the bath pillow. “I had an adult toy party last night at the Montana’s house. I came home, had a shower, and found Nate sitting in the chair in my room. I went over to him, but he stopped me. He asked where I had been. I said I was seeing a friend. He walked into the bathroom and threw the clothes I wore at me.” She started to sob.

  “I told him again that I was a sales rep. I didn’t want to tell him that I worked for a sex shop. For one, he would have told me to stop, which I wouldn’t, because I love this job too much. And two, I didn’t want to be accused of sleeping with someone when I haven’t. So much for trust in this relationship.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “He threw me over his shoulder and then onto the bed; I tried to get away, but he handcuffed my hands to the headboard. I started to panic being tied up and he wouldn’t listen.” She couldn’t say any more, it was bad enough just thinking about it.

  “That’s enough. I’ll get Craig to tell me the rest.”

  She closed her eyes while Alex stroked her hair out of her face.

  “Sweetheart, you ready to get out?”

  “Yeah,” she answered. As she stood up, he wrapped a towel around her and helped her out. Walking towards her bed, she jumped in, and Alex covered her with the blanket.

  “I’ll be back with cream for your wrists.”

  “Okay,” she said, smiling towards him.

  He came back in sometime later. After applying the cream, he wrapped both her wrists in bandages. “How does that feel?”

  Lifting both wrists up, she looked at them, “A lot better than what they were,” she smiled at him.

  “You get some rest and I’ll come in later with some lunch,” Alex told her.

  “Thank you.” Watching Alex leave, she rolled over and stared out the window, going over what transpired in the last twenty-four hours.

  * * *

  Nate walked into his bathroom the next morning feeling like shit. Getting out of his clothes, he wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed the shaving cream. He looked up into the mirror. No wonder he felt like shit, he thought. His eye was bruised dark purple, but not closed. His lip was swollen badly with a large spilt in it, and his nose was really sore, but it wasn’t broken. Rinsing his face, he lathered and started to shave.

  As he stepped into the shower and washed himself, he thought about last night’s events. He couldn’t believe what he had seen last night; all the facts were there. The lingerie, the sex toys, and seeing her going into a house with a guy. The reason she gave him, didn’t add up, why would she have to go to someone’s house wearing that bloody outfit and carrying a box full of toys? Skylar was cheating on him, and he wasn’t having any part of it this time. That was it between them, nothing more or less. Drying off, he pulled on a pair of jeans and made his way towards the kitchen in search of pain killers and breakfast. Stepping in, he turned the kettle on and opened the fridge. Pulling out sausages and eggs, he closed the door and turned around.

  “Well, you look like shit,” Dom growled, walking past him.

  “I don’t want to talk about it, Dom,”

  “I really don’t care if you don’t want to, Nate. You have seriously got the wrong impression about what you think you know about Skylar.”

  “Really, and what would that be?”

  “I know what she does for a living, and I also know she would never cheat on anyone. Skylar loves you, Nate.” Dom sat down at the table, folding his arms over his chest.

  Nate slammed down his coffee cup and faced him. “Why the hell do you care anyway? I’m surprised she hasn’t tried sleeping with you yet.”

  Dom stood up quickly and stormed over towards Nate. “She’s the best thing that has happened to you in a long time. I have never seen you this happy, ever, but now you lost it,” he told him.

  Nate pushed him away. “Get out of my face.”

  Dom slammed him against the cupboard. “I’m going to tell you this once, and only once. Skylar is not a whore, Nate. She’s a sales rep for an adult shop in town called Heaven’s Touch. Chantal told me she started doing the adult parties the other night, which involves selling toys and lingerie. She only wears the clothing to sell the product. Skylar is doing these parties because she wanted extra cash to pay off the house quicker. That is why she has all those toys and lingerie over at her place. Skylar is not sleeping around on you, and I don’t know why you would ever think that. If you don’t believe me, check out the shop she works for,” Dom breathed in deeply and pushed him away. He stomped out the door and leaned against the railing.

  “Fuck,” was all Nate said. He couldn’t believe it. Could it be true that she really wasn’t sleeping with someone else? She said last night again that she worked as a sales rep, but he had never asked her what she sells. Why didn’t she just tell him? He felt sick to his stomach. I can’t believe I called her a whore. Even worse, he tried forcing her into sex, he heard her say no to him, but he just didn’t listen. Spinning around, he hit the cupboard with so much force his fist went through it, shattering the door. He yanked out his hand, and walked out after Dom.

  “It looked like more than a party to me, Dom. Are you sure that’s what she was doing at that house?” He wanted to know for certain.

  “Yes, that’s all Skylar was doing.” Dom breathed out and looked at him. “She’s pretty banged up after what you did to her, Nate. What the hell possessed you to handcuff her and try and take her? You’re not like that, man. Didn’t you hear her saying no? Jesus…” Dom said, shaking his head.

  Nate slid down the wall outside, leaning his head against his knees. “I didn’t believe what she was saying, Dom. She started to panic and I tried to find the key to the handcuffs, but couldn’t. That’s why her hands are like that.”

  “What is wrong with you, Nate?”

  Nate shook his head at him. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she files charges against you for what you did to her.”

  Nate stood up. “I need to apologize to her for what I did, Dom.”

  “If you go over there, Nate, she’d end
up castrating you or killing you… That is, if Craig didn’t get to you first.”

  “I know, I feel really bad for what I did. And I want to do this.”

  “It’s your funeral.”

  Nodding, he headed towards Skylar’s, thinking about how he was going to pull this off.

  * * *

  Skylar was half asleep when she heard someone knocking at her door. “Craig,” she yelled. No answer. Throwing her blanket off, she walked carefully towards the door. Her body was sore everywhere and she tried not to groan at the pain. She opened the door and saw that Nate was standing there. She quickly pushed the door closed, but he stopped it with his foot.

  “Skylar,” he whispered.

  She backed away from the door and ran into the wall. She felt the bile rising in her throat. Shaking her head slowly, she wrapped her arms around herself; all colour drained from her body and she knew she would throw up any minute. “You need to leave, Nate.”

  Nate looked her up and down and stared at her wrists. Never in a million years had he thought he’d hurt a woman physically. Both her wrists were bandaged; it made him really sick to his stomach to see what he had done to her. There was also a bruise on the side of her face where he slammed her by accident into the door. As he took a step inside towards her, Skylar backed farther away from him, into the lounge.

  “Please leave, Nate,” she sobbed.

  “I just want to apologize for what I said and did to you.”

  “You think it is going to be that easy? That you would say you’re sorry, and I’d forgive you, and everything would go back to normal?”

  “No. I know I really fucked up this time, Skylar.”

  “You’re right, Nate. After what you did… ” she whispered.

  “I’m truly sorry, Skylar. I do mean that.”

  “It means nothing to me, Nate. So stop wasting your breath.” Skylar swung around and walked away from him.

  He wasn’t going to leave until he told her that he knew she didn’t cheat on him and now knows what she really does for work. He followed her into the kitchen. “I need to tell you something,” Nate said behind her.

  Skylar screamed when she heard Nate behind her. Nate threw his hand over her mouth, stopping her, and held her close to him. Jesus Christ, she really was scared of him now. She was shaking so bad that he had to hold her so she wouldn’t fall over. Leaning his head down near her ear, he whispered, “Skylar, I swear I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to tell you something.”

  Skylar nodded, breathing out slowly.

  “I know now that you work for an adult store, and you throw parties. I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me in the first place.” He continued, “I’m so sorry I accused you of cheating. It’s just that… I caught my last girlfriend in our own bed with some other guy, and I thought you were doing the same. Also, I’m so very sorry that I tried to force myself on you like that, it will never, ever happen again. And why didn’t you tell me what had happened between you and Lucas earlier?”

  He removed his hand from her mouth and backed away slowly.

  Skylar turned around and faced him. “That’s no excuse, Nate. The reason I didn’t tell you what I actually do for a living is because I knew how you would react. You’d ask me to stop the parties or you’d invite yourself to them, which wouldn’t work. Plus I’m not like your last girlfriend. I told you I have never cheated on anyone I’ve been with, and I never will. You really hurt me, Nate.” Breathing out, she continued, “The reason I didn’t tell you what happened is that I didn’t want you to treat me any different than you do now. I didn’t want your pity. You need to leave now, Nate. I’m sorry, but I can’t just forgive you at a simple apology. I’ll drop off the stuff you left here in a couple of days.”

  “Please, Skylar. Don’t do this. It will never happen again. You’re all I think about.”

  “It’s not good enough. I’m sorry.” She felt a tear run down her cheek. She had to hold it together, at least until he left.

  Nodding slowly, he turned around and moved out the front door. She really believed him when he said he was sorry, but he had to understand what he did was wrong and that she wasn’t going to put up with it. She didn’t know how she was going to deal with not being around him, not feeling his arms around her, seeing his smile, or hearing his voice. She sank to the floor, crying.

  She really wanted to believe that he would never, ever do anything like that again, but it was too hard. She had been told that last time it happened and then it only got worse. But Nate was completely different from Lucas. She would use these couple of days before she dropped off Nate’s stuff to figure everything out…whether she would accept his apology or never see him again. Picking herself up, she reached for a drink and sat down on the couch to take her mind off things. Curling up on the couch with a blanket, she flicked through the channels and found something to watch.

  * * *

  Nate walked slowly back to his place. How was he going to deal with not seeing her? That was really going to kill him. After learning what she really was doing, and realizing it wasn’t what he thought, he wanted to apologize for everything he did wrong. He wasn’t expecting her to return all the things he had left over there; fucking hell, he didn’t want her to do that. He knew he did the wrong thing. Why the hell did he do it? He would never have done anything like that… but he did.

  Nate had a feeling there was no way she was going to forgive him, and in truth he couldn’t blame her. Who would after what he did and said? As he sat down on his step, rubbing his hand over his face, Dom appeared.

  “Well, I’m guessing Craig didn’t get to you.”

  “Nope,” Nate answered. “I apologized for what I did, and now she’s returning all my things. I don’t want that, Dom,” he said, huffing out a breath.

  “What did you expect, Nate? I’m surprised she even spoke to you. You need to leave her alone. If you keep pushing, you will never see her again. Just let her do what she has to. Keep yourself occupied so you don’t do something stupid, like go and see her,”

  There was no way that was going to work. All he thought about was her at every moment. Nate heard a door closing; as he looked up he saw Skylar walking towards her car with several bags. He watched her place them in the boot and went back inside. What was she doing? She came back out moments later with boxes, slid them in the back, walked around and jumped in. Starting the car, she reversed out and drove down the street. Where was she going, especially with all the stuff she had?

  “Do you know where she’s going?” Dom asked.

  “I have no idea,” he said. Jesus. He hoped she wasn’t going to move out because of him. He wanted her close, to keep an eye on her. Standing up, he told Dom, “I’m going to start on the Land Cruiser in the workshop,” If he didn’t do something to keep himself busy, he’d end up jumping in his car and going after her and he really didn’t want to push it. Sliding the roller door open, he hoisted up the Land Cruiser, pulled his toolbox closer to him and slid under the car to get to work.

  * * *

  Skylar packed all her lingerie and toys she had for the parties. Placing them in bags and boxes, she moved them near the front door. Looking around her room, she made sure she had all that she wanted in those boxes. Skylar rearranged the stuff she kept in her purple case and pushed it back into her closet. Grabbing her bag and keys, she lifted the bags and took them to her car. She placed them inside and then and went back inside and got the boxes.

  When everything was in, she climbed in, started the car, and drove down the street. She had seen Nate sitting on his front steps, but didn’t take any notice of him. She couldn’t stay at home, when Nate was so close by. Skylar had decided to go and see Chantal. She needed to hear what she thought of this whole situation and take what she had left from the parties to her place.

  Pulling into her drive, Skylar turned off the engine. She sat there, breathing in slowly, before opening the door to exit. Chantal met her beside the car. “Darling,
I’m so sorry for what happened,” she said, wrapping arms around her in a big hug.

  “Who told you?” she sobbed.

  “Craig,” Chantal whispered.

  As she nodded, they walked into her house and sat together on the couch. “Why did he do all of this?” she asked.

  “He followed me to the Montana’s house and saw Jeff and watched as we went into their house, plus he opened some of the boxes in my room, and for some reason, he thought I was a whore. Nate handcuffed me to the bed, I told him I didn’t want it,” Skylar told her, crying. “I started to panic and asked him to find the key, as he was doing that I ripped my hands free from the handcuffs, then made a run for the door. Craig arrived, after that.” Skylar curled up on the couch beside her.

  “I also told him what happened between Lucas and I that night,” she whispered.