by Angel Steel
“Hello.”
“Hey, Chantal.”
“Joey. What’s up?” she replied.
“Not much. Wanted to see if you wanted to come down to the bar and have a drink with me.”
She smiled to herself; she had a thing for him. He was absolutely gorgeous, great to be around, and had a great personality. He would be the one to get Dominic off her mind.
“I can do that. I’ll be there soon. Save me a seat near the bar.”
“Will do, sweetie.”
Throwing her phone back in her bag, she opted to leave the ice cream for later. She needed a distraction, and Joey was the perfect thing to keep her thoughts off Dominic. She wasn’t going to worry about him anymore; instead she would find out if Joey was seeing anyone and go from there. She had always flirted with him and he did the same with her, but it never went farther than that. The time had come for her to move on from Dom and onto the next part of her life.
Chapter 2
It had been two weeks after the run in with Nate at the New Year’s Eve party. Why did he take that girl he slept with, were they together now? Skylar didn’t want to think that they were. How could he move on so fast? Obviously, she did not mean that much to him, even though he had told her that he loved her. Shaking her head, she knew she had to think of her appointment scheduled for today, and find out if Chantal was coming. She rubbed her bump, thinking that this was all still so unreal to her—that she was carrying a child, someone that would depend on her.
Nate was insistent upon being there for every appointment, or anything at all to do with his child. She wasn’t going to rely on him for anything to do with their baby, but if he wanted to be there, she could deal with it. She had said no to the last appointment, but he kept pushing that she allow him to be at the next. Maybe she should let him be there. He was the father after all, and deserved to know everything that was going on.
Walking towards the kitchen, she called out, “Alex.”
“In here.”
She continued into the kitchen, following the direction of his voice. She reached out and grabbed an apple off the bench, and sat down at the table.
“Don’t you have an appointment today?” Alex asked.
Looking at the clock on the wall, she replied, “Yeah. It’s in an hour.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“I was thinking of letting Nate come to this one, since he has been so persistent in wanting to be there for all of them,” she groaned.
How was she going to handle being alone in a room with him? Even though she didn’t trust him after what happened at the party, she was still in love with him. Not trusting him didn’t mean that she should stop loving him, did it? No matter, she had to see if he would keep his word that he wanted to experience every part of this pregnancy.
“Are you sure about that, babe?” Alex said.
“No, but he’s the father, if he wants to be there I have to deal with that. The only thing that is going to be hard is being alone in the same room as him.”
Alex sat beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I know it’s hard, sweetie. But it is your choice if you want him there, or not.”
“If he really wants to be there for his child through all these appointments, I really can’t stop him. I’ll give him a ring and see.” Reaching across the table for the phone, Skylar dialed his number.
“Jackson’s Mechanics.”
God, his voice still made her heartbeats quicken. She couldn’t think straight, and that was just from having heard him through the phone.
“Hello?”
“Nate,” she whispered.
“Skylar. What’s wrong?”
She cleared her throat. “Nothing is wrong. Do you still want to be involved with this pregnancy?”
“You know I do, but you keep telling me no.”
She had not wanted to argue with him. “I have an appointment in an hour, if you want to be there.”
“Thank you, Skylar. You won’t regret it. I’ll pick you up in forty-five minutes for it.”
She could not tell him that she wanted him to meet her there, so she would be alone with him in his truck, as well. This is going to kill me, she thought.
Glancing over at Alex, she announced, “He’ll be here in forty-five minutes.”
“It will all work out, Sky. You’re doing the right thing.”
She had a feeling that was not true. For her baby, yeah she was, but not for her. She needed to see if he would continue with all the appointments as promised, before she thought anything more about it.
******
Skylar was grabbing her bag from her room when she heard the doorbell ring. She knew exactly who it was, but couldn’t bring herself to move out of her room, just then.
Sitting on her bed, she had to suppress all her feelings for him. She was not going to let him know that he still affected her in any way. “Sky, Nate is in the lounge room, waiting,” Alex said from the door.
“I don’t think I can do this, Alex.”
He walked over towards her, and pulled her off the bed. “Yes, you can. Don’t think about him being there. You only need to think of you, and that beautiful baby you're carrying.”
Giving him a hug, she said, “Thank you.” Walking out, she followed Alex towards the lounge room. When they entered, he moved aside and there stood Nate, as sexy as she remembered him. Those jeans he wore should be illegal.
“Skylar.” Although she didn’t want to admit it, that voice of his always made her clench, knowing what it was like between them in bed, but that wasn’t happening anymore. Not since he moved on.
He started to move closer to her, and she knew she would break if he came within a breath of space to her. “I don’t want to be late.” Saying that, she moved towards the door and outside to his truck. She jumped in before he had a chance to help her, watched him as he got in beside her, and then drove them towards the hospital. This was going to be the longest day of her life.
Chapter 3
Dom had tried ringing her countless times, but she never answered. There was no point listening to what he had to say, he made everything pretty clear to her New Year’s night. She deleted all of the text messages and voicemails he left. She didn’t want to hear his excuses over what he had said. He hurt her enough just by saying she wasn’t his type, although she had no bloody clue to what he meant by that.
He had also waited outside of Skylar’s several times, wanting to talk to her. Every time she would arrive, within ten to fifteen minutes he would be outside sitting on his bike, calling her. It was like he had a tracking device on her car or something.
She drove towards Skylar’s house in a car she had borrowed from her, father, as hers was in the shop getting the usual service done. She loved her dad’s black Mercedes, and although he had offered to buy her one, she had declined. She didn’t want that from him.
Her thoughts drifted to the reason she was going to Skylar’s; she needed her help with her shop. It had taken the last five years to get it to where it was. It was a very slow process, but she wanted to do everything herself. After buying the shop, which took the whole amount she had saved up, everything after was tedious. Also, though she owned the shop outright, there were still the payments for rates, water, and power, since they needed to stay on. In regards to the building itself, once she had a certain amount for a job that needed completed, she would organize it. Having half the walls ripped down had cost a fair bit, but it was so worth it since it opened up her shop more. The bathroom had been horrible and she opted to have it completely remodeled. Now, all she had left was the shop sign, painting the inside, and installing the shelving and new change rooms.
Her shop was so close to being open, but she wanted Skylar’s opinion on some things. She had never told Sky what her dream was for the shop. She loved helping Skylar out with her work, and she had had odd jobs here and there, but she was looking for another one to tide her over until her store was ready.
> Driving down Skylar’s street, she glanced around to see if Dominic was around and didn’t see his bike. Breathing a sigh of relief, Chantal pulled into Skylar’s driveway. Reaching for her messenger bag with all the paperwork in it she intended to show Sky, she jumped out and walked up to the house. Before she had a chance to knock, the door flew open and Skylar wrapped her arms around her.
“Finally, you’re here. I have been bored out of my brain, Chan,” Skylar groaned.
Laughing, she wrapped her arm around her, too. “I told you I’d be here soon.”
“I know, and I’ve been waiting patiently. I’m ready to kill Alex, he won’t let me do anything, and Nate is the same. If I even go outside, Nate’s there, so I come back inside. Alex knows I won’t attempt to go anywhere if Nate is there. Alex and Nate are working together against me, I swear,” Skylar told her.
“Sweetie, they’re just looking out for you,” Chantal answered.
“I can look after myself. I don’t need their help, unless I ask them, and I would only ask Alex. I can’t be in the same room as Nate. It wreaks havoc on my heart,” Skylar whispered.
Chantal understood what she was saying since Dominic did the same to her, but it was different between Skylar and Nate. They were having a child together, just not in a relationship. Chantal and Dominic didn’t have any of that. The only thing they had between them was a friendship, and there wasn’t even that anymore since she chose to close off from him altogether because of her true feelings for him.
She needed to clear her head from all these thoughts of him, and concentrate on why she was here. “Can we grab a drink and sit down; I need to talk to you about some things.”
“I have been doing that for the last day or two, Chan,” Skylar mumbled.
“I know you have, you told me every five minutes in text messages. I promise once we're done, I’ll take you out of the house, ok?”
Skylar jumped up and down, screaming. Chantal shook her head as Sky walked into the kitchen and pulled out two bottles of water. She handed her one, and then sat beside her. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
“I want your opinion on something.”
“Okay.”
Pulling out her paperwork, she passed it over to Skylar.
“What’s this?” Skylar asked.
“Read it.”
She watched as she read over every single piece of paper that she had given her. This was the most nervous she had ever been in her life, waiting to see what her best friend thought of the idea. Although she had already bought the shop, it was the matter of what was going inside, and that is where she needed Sky’s help. She had several ideas on how she wanted it done, but having another opinion helped a great deal. “So, what do you think?” she whispered.
“This is amazing, Chan. I’ve seen that exact shop that’s in here, it’s very cute. Whose shop is it, and all these ideas?”
“Mine. I bought it several years ago. Since I love to shop so much that I wanted to open my own, and I need your help.”
“Really? That’s great, Chantal. But what do you need me for?” Skylar frowned.
“Well, since you work at Stacy’s, I was wondering if you would help me in my shop. I know you haven’t been doing much at the moment besides send her items that she wanted, but I want you to actually be there with me, help me stock up with products and design it.”
She looked down at the paperwork again and back up. “So, what do you want? Partner or worker?”
“I would love for you to be a partner in it. I know you don’t have the money to put towards it now. Which is fine, since the shop is paid for in full. I just need help designing it, and you’re the best for the job.”
“I would love to go into business with you. I have money saved to throw towards it.”
“I don’t want your money, Sky. Save it for the baby. We both know how much it costs to raise a baby. Don’t worry we’ll figure out the money side of it later, since I know what you’re like.”
“I can’t believe we are actually going to do this, together,” Skylar said excitedly.
“You’re the only one that I would do this with, Sky.”
“Love you, girl. I won’t be as bored anymore.”
“Love you, too. There’s a lot left to do with designing, and I have several ideas on what I wanted, but would like your opinion on it since you’re the one with interior design background.”
“Ok. So what kind of shop is it going to be?”
“What is the one thing I love to shop for?”
Looking again at the papers in her hand, a light bulb went off in her head, and she shot off the couch. “You're opening your own lingerie shop?” Chantal just nodded. “Oh my God. This is going to be so much fun. We both love lingerie, and shopping for it!” Skylar laughed.
Pulling on her arm, Chantal hissed, “Sit down before you have that baby earlier than you are supposed to, or Alex comes in here.” “Ok, ok. So, what’s the plan?”
“I need you to go over the design ideas I have and tell me what’s good and what’s not.” She dug in her bag and pulled out her portfolio, and then gave it to her.
“I have a name already picked out for it, which was the easy part, it’s just everything else.”
“What’s it going to be called?” she asked while looking over the design ideas.
“Um, it’s a little different, but I think it fits well.”
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. Tell me already, Chan.”
“Heaven’s Devil. I didn’t want to use Naughty or Nice, that's too prissy for me. What do you think?”
Skylar reached over and wrapped her hand around hers. “It’ll suit the shop perfectly, Chan. I wouldn’t want to change anything about the name, it’s sexy as hell.” They both laughed at that answer.
“So, the first thing we need to do is the design and layout of the shop. I have no clue in that department. All I would do is place it where I think it would look good, not where it should be.”
“Chan, this is your shop. If you want things somewhere in particular, we will put them there,” Skylar answered.
“I just want to see how you would lay it out first, and then go from there.”
Skylar reached for her drawing pad and got to work on several designs.
Standing up, she told Skylar, “I have some fabric swatches in the boot for the curtains and stuff like that. I’ll just grab them.”
“Have you got paint cards as well?” Skylar said, without looking up from her designs.
“I think I do,” she replied before walking out the front door. Moving towards her car and opening the boot, she moved things from one side to the other looking for what she needed. Once she had them, she closed the boot and started to walk back towards Skylar’s house.
“Chantal!”
She stiffened where she was, not wanting to deal with him right then, nor any day for that matter. Slowly spinning around, she faced him.
“Why have you been avoiding my calls and texts?” Dom asked.
Is he serious? She knew the distance she had put between them these last two weeks was too good to be true. She pushed past him, but that only resulted in him grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him.
“Answer my question, Chantal?”
“You know why I haven’t, Dom.” She struggled to free herself, which only made him tighten his grip on her.
He moved his body closer to her so they were touching from the hips up, and she sucked in a breath at being so close to him. It had been too long since she had been this close to his body. She could feel all those delicious muscles under her hands as they lay on his chest. The smell of him was divine—so divine that she could eat him all up.
“I’ve missed being around you,” he whispered down to her.
She couldn’t help the shiver that ran over her body from his words. She watched as he leaned forward and moved his mouth closer, and she closed her eyes, waiting for his lips to join to hers. After a moment or two, she f
elt his mouth along her neck, sending goose bumps over her body. She leaned her head to the side, to give him better access.
He started nibbling up her neck towards her ear, which he knew was one of her weaknesses. She started to push him away, when he latched on.
Growling, he wrapped his arms around her waist and moved her back against her car, sliding one of his hands down to cover her ass. He moved her against him and she could feel the hardness in his jeans.
Moaning at the contact, she couldn’t do anything but go limp at his touch, and that was only from his mouth on her neck. She needed to get ahold of herself. She was not going to let him do this, not this time, not anymore.
Pushing at his chest, she panted, “Dom, Stop.”
“God, your smell. It drives me crazy,” Dom groaned.
Damn it. She could never control herself around him. Leaning her fully against her car, he moved his leg between hers, rubbing right against her swollen clit. “Oh,” she whispered.
She couldn’t help but move along his leg. The friction of his jeans and her pants together was unbelievable. Dom slid his hand up over her ribs towards her breast, and massaged. Her nipples pebbled at his touch, and wetness pooled between her thighs. “Dom,” she moaned.
Dom moved his hand down towards the opening of her pants, sliding the zipper down, and inched his hand in. “Are you wearing lace?” he moaned.
Nodding, as that was the only thing she could do right then, she felt his hand move further inside her pants. He pushed aside her thong and rubbed lightly over her clit. She could not believe that she was letting him do this out in public, but she didn’t care. If this was the only way she could get Dom to touch her, she’d take it.
