Sold to the Sultan (the Breslyn Auction Club Book 2)

by Penny Winestone

  “Did you say go faster?” He teases as he glances back, before Alyssa has a chance to respond Vince hits the throttle and the motorcycle picks up speed.

  “I didn’t say anything!” Alyssa whines as she holds on tight, unsure if she really wants to watch the road fly by this fast.

  The engine is loud and Vince turns on some music, but Alyssa can hardly hear it through the wind and the engine. As Alyssa stays close to Vince she smiles. I could get used to this. Going everywhere on a motorcycle, stuck close to Vince, or taking a limo, riding luxuriously through the streets. No wonder Jewel enjoys it. It would definitely be fun.

  On the street right before the restaurant there is a round-about, and Vince takes them around several times as he revs up the engine and increases the speed. “Vince!” Alyssa calls out, unsure that she can hold him any tighter. She can feel her heart starting to pound in her chest and she closes her eyes and puts her face into his back. He chuckles as he slows the motorcycle down and pulls into the parking lot.

  Once they get to the restaurant, Alyssa can tell it’s a nice place. There’s a valet, lots of plants and romantic lighting. Vincent leads the way in. The inside is elegant, with brightly lit with flowers and candles adorning each table. There are wine collections all over, and waiters and waitresses are wearing sophisticated uniforms. The tables all have white tablecloths and most of the seating is for couples. This is definitely a good sign. Alyssa thinks to herself with a smirk as they get to their seat.

  Vince insists that she get whatever she wants, anything at all. And, after they order what they want, Vince looks at Alyssa with the intent to start a conversation but Alyssa can tell that he’s having a hard time with it. He’s been acting differently lately… But maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it just means he’s dealing with emotions he hasn’t felt before – like love. Alyssa smirks at the thought.

  “I’ll start for you; why didn’t you contact me after you left that weekend?” Alyssa stops herself there. She wants to continue, she wants to ask him how he could do that to her, and how it was so easy for him to just continue on without her, but she doesn’t. “I just need to know.” She swallows the rest of her words and impatiently waits for his response.

  “Alyssa.” Vincent responds as he takes a breath in, “It wasn’t that easy. And it’s not easy being with me… I’m not just a musician who is constantly on tours, building publicity and recording albums to build up this band; I’m also a Grimm member.” Vince pauses for a moment as the waiter brings their wine and glasses. “But…” he continues, “I’ve seen what Ash and Jewel have and I want what they have...I do. Having a relationship… being with someone you truly love. It’d be amazing.”

  As Vince speaks Alyssa’s heart starts to race. He really does want it. I told myself he didn’t… I knew he couldn’t resist me. He actually wants a relationship. Alyssa stops her barrage of thoughts as she tries to focus on him.

  “I want a normal relationship, but I’ve seen what being with Ash has put Jewel through, and I definitely would hate to do that to you. Being a part of the Grimms, I can’t ignore my responsibilities. But Alyssa, it’s finally happening- they are really doing it. They’re going legit. And it isn’t just some of us, it’s the whole organization, we’re all going legit. We want to be on the right side of the law, now.”

  The waiter comes over and places a basket of bread on their table and excuses himself. Alyssa helps herself to a piece of bread and as she takes a bite of it she’s shocked at how amazing it tastes. It’s warm and fluffy, covered with a crispy, buttery crust and she motions for Vince to try some. So he does, and he gives it a nod of approval as he finishes off his bun.

  “That’s exciting Vince. It’s kind of important to not be complete outlaws…” she responds. This is exactly what I wanted. I can’t believe he actually brought me out on a date to talk about wanting to be with me. I knew I was irresistible, but hell, I doubted it would go down like this. Can I finally have what Jewel got, what I should have gotten the first time? I don’t even need this wine, or this dinner… I just want to take him back to my place... Alyssa lets her thoughts wander until Vince starts talking again.

  When he’s done chewing he begins again, “I mean, being in a band isn’t going to last forever. I’ve heard some things going around about plans to open a recording studio. Apparently we’re going to try run our own label soon.” Vince pauses a minute as he takes a sip of his drink. Alyssa takes this time to snag up another piece of bread. She takes her time to savor it.

  “That’s what I’ve really always wanted to do. Open a recording studio and run my own label…” Vince pauses, thinking about something, but Alyssa isn’t sure what before he resumes. “Life got in the way, but it’s going to be awesome now.” He says, seemingly reassuring himself more than Alyssa, he hesitates, “I just. I don’t want you to have to go through what Jewel goes through…” he adds, bringing them back to their previous point in the conversation.

  “Hey.” Alyssa says as she finishes off her bread, “I know what Jewel goes through, too, and I know that she thinks that it is beyond worth it. I wouldn’t care if the Grimms weren’t going legit. I wouldn’t care if you had to remain in the band and the gang forever.” Alyssa begins to choke up on the next part, she hasn’t quite been ready to admit these feelings for herself, now she’s reassuring Vince that she does want to be with him. She takes a sip of the wine and takes a deep breath. I have to tell him, “I do want to be with you Vince.”

  The waiter returns to bring them their entrées but Alyssa doesn’t look up, her eyes are fixated on Vince and the smile that spread across his face as she spoke. Of course he’s taken the opportunity to look away in an attempt to hide his emotions. He grabs his dish and puts it down in front of him, grabbing his fork and he only takes a second to glance up at Alyssa. She smiles back to him and takes her food. I’m happy that he wants to be with me… but I just. I kept being reminded of those other girls he slept with. He didn’t call me, he just slept with every girl he could… I have to know why. Alyssa shakes the thought away, she doesn’t want to bring it up while they’re having their wonderful evening.

  Over their dinner, they have light hearted conversation, and Alyssa even gets a few laughs out of Vince. God, this is truly perfect. Alyssa thinks as she watches the waiter bring in their molten chocolate cake for dessert. Vince wants to be with me, and I want to be with him. Nothing can stop us now. Soon, we’ll be as solid as Ash and Jewel, I know it.

  They are only a few bites into dessert before the thoughts begin to haunt Alyssa again. She can’t help but to think about Vince sleeping with the other girls, and at first she tries to ignore it and enjoy the taste of their molten cake but it just continues to nag her. Before long, she gives in and starts up the conversation. “Vince. I have to ask…” Alyssa stops to take a breath, “what about the other women? Why did you go and sleep with all of them after the band left…?”

  Vince doesn’t respond at first, he finishes chewing his cake. He looks at the table then back up at her. “What the hell does it matter?” he asks defensively.

  “Er. Well, you just. You didn’t call me and then you slept around- a lot. What am I supposed to think? That you didn’t want me… that’s what I thought… but if not, then what?” She asks as she tries not to stumble over her own words.

  Vince shakes his head, and quickly sets his fork down on his plate. “I don’t have to deal with his.” He responds as he stands up and reaches into his wallet, he throws down the money for the food. “Find your own way home,” he says sharply as he walks away, leaving Alyssa speechless at the table. Alyssa wants to sink down in her chair and cover her face, people are looking at her and as they do she wants to curse at them, yell at them, tell them to find something else to look at. Have they never seen two people dispute at a restaurant before?! Ugh. She thinks as she marches out.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  From outside the restaurant, in the light of the lamps, Alyssa calls Jewel. “Hey girl, I
’m going to need you to come pick me up. My car is at work, if you want to get over there and bring it… that’d be great… I don’t know why in the hell I let him-.” Alyssa cuts herself off, and doesn’t say anything further.

  “What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you when you get here… I’m at the Prime Time Lounge.”

  “All right. I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks.” Alyssa replies, as she runs her fingers through her hair. This wasn’t how I imagined my night would go…Not in the slightest… It was going so well too. Fuck him.

  “Of course.”

  Jewel is the first to hang up and Alyssa is left sitting outside the restaurant on the waiting bench. She doesn’t move her phone and it remains pressed up against her ear with no sound. She sighs as she looks down at the pavement. Leaves tumble by from the wind and finally she hangs up her end of the phone and puts it back in her purse. She finds that she’s torn between being upset and angry, or she’s so angry that she’s upset, she hasn’t quite figured out which it is.

  What the hell makes him think he can just do that?! I wasn’t asking anything terrible. I just wanted to fucking know about the damn girls. Why he felt he needed to sleep with them so fucking strongly and forget about me. Alyssa takes a deep breath in. Calm down, you’re not trying to kill anyone tonight.

  “Hey ma’am,” a valet asks, “are you waiting for your car? Do you have a ticket?”

  “Why the f-“ Alyssa stops herself. “No. I’m not.” It’s not his fault. He doesn’t know. He was just asking. Doing his job really… He didn’t do anything wrong.

  Slowly, the valet backs away and returns to his podium to help other customers. “Sorry.” She mumbles to herself as if he could hear her. Alyssa leans forward resting her forearms on her knees. She slinks her arms between them and just shakes her head. Damn it. Why did it come to this? We were so fucking close, Vince.

  Before too long, Alyssa becomes impatient and she starts pacing around the entrance to the restaurant which makes the valet appear concerned. She figures he’s about ready to call security, or police, so she walks off towards the road and begins to walk around over there. It’s a dark night, and a crescent moon so there isn’t much light. Alyssa can’t see much when she steps too far away from the streetlights so she stays close enough to them so that she can see. “We had just made progress Vince. You told me you wanted me. I told you I wanted you. How could you go and ruin it like that? Why did you shut down and storm off? It was just a simple question.” Alyssa asks aloud, unconcerned about anyone nearby. “If you do that every damn time something goes wrong, you’ll never have a real relationship. No wonder you’ve never had one.”

  Alyssa kicks a rock on the ground and it tumbles into the road. A car zooming by catches it and the rock rolls forward and off the road into the grass. Alyssa shakes her head. Even that fucking rock came back to me, but you fucking leave. She huffs as she continues to pace. She’s sure that everyone driving by thinks she’s crazy as she’s walking about the side of the road making hand gestures out of anger while talking to herself.

  After a while of walking in circles Alyssa gets sick of it and she starts to walk in the direction of home. Damn Jewel what’s taking so long? Meeting her damn Prince Charming. Where the fuck is she? Shit, I need to calm down. Alyssa thinks as she takes another deep breath and stops storming off towards her home. She turns around and lets herself walk back to where she was standing before. It’ll be alright. Things will work out.. They have to.

  From the street lights, Alyssa catches a glimpse of her car driving by and begins to make her way back to the front of the restaurant. She’s mumbling and cursing the whole way there. When she gets to the car, Jewel is waiting for her and Alyssa goes to the passenger side and gets in. The car is still running.

  “Don’t you want to drive?”

  “Fuck no.”

  “Uh... okay. We don’t want vehicular manslaughter on your rap sheet anyway.” Jewel comments as she begins to drive off. “What happened? Though I’m not quite sure I should ask.” Jewel says hesitantly

  “Vince. Vince fucking happened.”

  “Okay…”

  Alyssa takes a moment to breathe. At the end she lets out a sigh and begins to talk again. “Sorry. It’s just… he pissed me off… Things were going great. He showed up at my work this morning and wanted to apologize about not talking with me earlier. We had some great sex, and he told me to meet him at the studio tonight. So after work I went there.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “He brought me here to tell me that he wanted to be with me. But he didn’t want me to suffer like you suffer. He said that the Grimms were going legit and he’d always wanted to have his own studio and do his own label… Well, I told him that I wanted to be with him, too. We were having a great time… but I couldn’t get over the fact that he…” Alyssa pauses drawing a deep breath in.

  Alyssa notices that the car in front of them is starting to slow down. “Why don’t you pass his ass? Just run him right off the fucking road. He doesn’t deserve to drive.”

  “As much as I’d love to share your road rage, he’s turning… Alyssa, his blinker is even on. Take a deep breath… and take your time. I don’t want you redirecting your anger and trying to slit my throat.” Jewel laughs but Alyssa doesn’t.

  “Well, he was sleeping around. A lot. Right after the band left, and I just couldn’t get over it. I wanted to know why he did that, why he did that instead of calling me… I don’t know. But, I just wanted to know why… you know?”

  “Yeah. I understand. I’m sorry Alyssa.”

  “So I asked him, and he got all defensive and he shut down. He just paid the bill and stormed off, he told me to find my own way home…”

  “Wow. Well, I can’t defend him. He could have just told you…”

  “Exactly.” Alyssa reaffirms as Jewel pulls into Alyssa’s place. “Sorry, I’m just pissed.”

  “Yeah, that became kind of obvious to me.” Jewel comments.

  “Are you going to stay the night again?” Alyssa asks.

  “I’m going to spend the night with Ash tonight. I’m looking forward to it too.” Jewel says as she shuts off the car and looks at Alyssa. “He’s got another show the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow we can just spend the day together. We can do whatever we want.” She says with a sly smile on her face. “Recuperating from our extracurricular activities.” Jewel teases, and Alyssa laughs.

  “Aww, well, he’s a lucky guy. But I’m glad you could stay last night it was great to have you around again. I miss this. Us.” Alyssa nods her head, “Thanks for picking me up.”

  “Of course,” Jewel states as she gets out of the car. Alyssa does the same thing, and Jewel walks over to give her a hug. “But Alyssa, don’t worry too much about Vince… you know, maybe it’s just not meant to be.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The next day, Alyssa isn’t very motivated to get to work. She gets out of bed later, does her morning routine slower and doesn’t even bother putting thought into her outfit for the day. Then, she drags herself to the car so she can drive to work. She doesn’t rush through traffic, curse at idiot drivers or sing along to her music like she usually does. Instead, she sits behind each car, blankly staring at the license plates. She hardly notices that the car in front of her has been doing seven miles per hour under the speed limit the entire time, which is usually a complete abomination to Alyssa on any other occasion.

  Alyssa almost completely passes her shop, and just realizes it as she’s about to pass the entrance to the parking lot. She slams on her break and the car screeches to a stop. The car behind her screeches and swerves towards the curb. She mumbles something under her breath and turns into her boutique. She doesn’t get out of the car right away, instead it takes her several minutes to turn the car off, and then she just sits there.

  She blames Vincent for this mood. It was the same mood that came over her when he left and never called. Maybe Jewel is right, maybe
it isn’t meant to be. Maybe I got myself all caught up over him for no damn reason. Maybe I was only attracted to him, and wanted more than sex from him for no damn reason. Alyssa huffs as she gets out of her car. She’s reluctant but convinces herself to go to the shop and unlock the door.

  When she gets in, her morning routine is completed haphazard. She doesn’t glance over her store as she walks to the counter. She throws her bag down on the ground and reaches for the power button on the computer and monitor. She misses the monitor and curses under her breath as she hits it forcefully. “Don’t wanna fucking turn on for me.” She mumbles as walks into the back room, right after the monitor light blinks on.

  “Nothing wants to fucking turn on for me. Not the monitor. Not Vincent.” she mumbles as she looks at her boxes. She doesn’t really try look to see if everything is in stock, she walks back there for the sake of walking back there. She looks over everything, but just so that she can say she looked at it. She doesn’t actually take stock, then when she’s done she walks to the floor and just moseys about, looking through each of her sections. She passes multiple garments that are out of place, but only picks up one and moves it. Fucking people. Useless. She complains to herself as she walks back to the counter. Useless, just like fucking Vincent.

  She forgets to turn her music on and she doesn’t have nearly the right amount of time to go through her social media like usual. Her lag this morning has given her only a few minutes left before she has to open up her store. She stares at her social media page for a minute before pulling her attention away from it.

  Before she opens the shop she tries to talk herself into a peppier mood, if only to appease her customers, and to not drive anyone away. The work day goes by slowly, trudging along like an overweight alligator. Throughout the day, she finds herself pondering how she could have fallen for a guy that would just let things fall apart so easily. She wonders how the two of them aren’t together, considering how it seemed they were starting to get on the same page. ‘Maybe you’re not meant to be.’ Plays on a loop in her mind throughout the day, consistently bringing her back down when she finally brings herself slightly out of her funk.