His Every Fantasy

by Holly Nicolai

  After her morning shower, she took a detour to the post office before work and mailed off a note in an envelope addressed to Jett's club and enclosed the four business cards. She used her business letterhead stationery instead of her personal sheets to keep her home address hidden. She felt much better when she watched the letter disappear through the outbound slot on the wall. She drove to work humming a happy little tune. It was back to life as usual and thank God for that!

  When Mandy arrived at work, she went through her usual routine as if it was any other day, that is, until Nicole gave her the delivery of two dozen yellow roses, her favorite flowers that came that morning. She took a moment to smell the heavenly scent of the roses and opened the card with a smile. She assumed they were from Nicole and Emmitt to brighten her day. They all did such things for each other on occasion.

  Opening the card, Mandy froze in place. The card read, "I will expect you at the club....soon, tigress." Her happy smile changed into an annoyed scowl. "Arrogant, conceited pain in the ass! When Hell freezes over, I will!" Mandy growled aloud and dropped the roses in the nearest trash can.

  "Mandy, how could you?" Nicole scolded and glared at her.

  "If you want them, you keep them!" Mandy glared back and stormed off to her office, slamming the door behind her. She remained in her office for the remainder of the day, only coming out for a mug of her favorite mocha then went right back into hibernation again. Paula was on duty with Nicole so there was no reason for her to come out. Instead, she worked on the ledgers, orders for Emmitt, placed special orders for customers, and checked out new best sellers on the online catalog. She worked herself as hard as she did when she ran or trained with Master Yang.

  By the end of the work day, she was not only caught up on everything, she was way ahead. It was a great feeling and she decided to celebrate with some Chinese food and wine after Krav Maga training that night. She was worried about her no holds barred fight for graduation because she'd be facing off against Master Yang's best student whose identity remained unknown. All she knew was that it was a he and he was a former student who had reached Master status and instructor status both, which told her that in a no holds barred match, she was most likely going to get her ass kicked.

  The match was going to be wicked and lethal, hence the armor of pads they'd be wearing for protection but things could still go wrong. Master Yang felt she was ready but she wasn't so sure herself. She was nervous and afraid, to be honest. But that was something to worry about later. Right now she had to get her butt to training. She insisted on being very punctual in her life and with every appointment she needed to attend. She lived and breathed her routine and didn’t like it disrupted for any reason. Any deviation needed to be planned out and scheduled. She could not and would not go back to a life of chaos and disorder, she would go insane!

  Over the course of the next three days, Mandy’s daily routine was normal and safe, except for the mornings which started out as minor irritations and soon became harassment in her eyes. Each morning Jett doubled the flowers he sent the day before and every morning, she threw them right in the trash. With each bouquet, he left a message card alluding to his patiently waiting for her to come to the club. She threw the flowers in the trash and they always found a way back to her condo thanks to Nicole. She couldn’t bring herself to throw away the cards. Instead, she took them home and put them all up on her corkboard on the inside of her closet door. They were flattering even if she hated his presumptuous nature. He needed to leave her safe and orderly life alone.

  She had no room for distractions or complications and something told her Jett would be both and in a major way. A part of her wondered what it would be like to be normal and free to accept his advances, to be the object of his fantasies and his desires, to feel his touch upon her body and maybe even be loved by him.

  On the third day, there sat six dozen yellow roses and another card. This time the message was different and read, "Throw these away, tigress and you will be going on a date with me tonight, after your Krav Maga workout. Understand? See you soon, Jett."

  "Now he’s gone from presumptuous to stalker! Damn him!" Mandy growled loudly.

  "What do you mean?" Nicole and Emmitt both asked at the same time. Emmitt handed Mandy an extra-large mocha. Mandy handed over the card for Nicole and Emmitt to read which caused them both to break out in laughter.

  "Priceless! Way to go Jett." Nicole said excitedly then sighed as her eyes grew dreamy.

  "He is damn determined to spend time with you. I’ll give him that. Girl, you might as well give in. From what I hear, when he sets his eyes on something, he is as driven as you are Mandy, if not more so. And right now, he wants and desires you girlfriend. He is driven to have you and won't stop until he does. I say go for it girl, have a one night stand with Mr. Sinfully Delicious and get him out of your system once and for all." Emmitt said.

  "Hmm. Maybe I should." Mandy said and honestly considered it for a moment before she shook the thought right out of her head. What the hell am I thinking? "No. It is never going to happen and I am not going on a date with him either! And just how the hell does he know my routine? His stalker tendencies are driving me crazy!"

  The more she thought about Jett spying on her and his stalker tendencies, her anger grew until she saw red. His actions reminded her too much of what she left behind. In case he was watching her right now, she had a strong message for him. "I’ll be right back." Mandy said, grabbed her car keys and the six dozen wrapped roses from Nicole's arms and stomped out to her car where she loaded her things into it. She got the address and directions to Jett's club thanks to OnStar and drove there.

  Mandy pounded on the entrance door half expecting Jett to answer it. But when no one answered, she set the six dozen roses against it and thumb tacked a note to the wood door that said, "LEAVE ME ALONE! THE ANSWER IS NOT ONLY HELL NO, BUT HELL NO UNTIL HELL FREEZES OVER!" She then looked directly up at the security camera just in case her note wasn’t clear enough and yelled, "Stay the hell away from me, Jett Damian or I’ll kick your fine ass all the way down to the center of Hell!" She turned away, marched back to her car out of sight of the camera and drove off like a bat out of hell. She no longer gave a good-god-damn who had seen her or what they thought of her either!

  Back at the bookstore, Nicole watched Mandy storm in as though possessed by the Devil himself. She knew she should warn her that she had company waiting in her office, but all that came out was, "Uh….Mandy?" Mandy turned eyes full of pure hellfire on her and growled, "I’ll deal with you––later," and kept on going toward her office. Mandy was only in the office for a few seconds when the yelling began and a few seconds more to see Jett’s new and hot driver running for the nearest exit and looking terrified.

  Nicole glanced over at Emmitt in shock to see him struggling to keep his laughter under control until the poor man fled the building. The minute he was gone, she saw Emmitt double over as his laughter burst out. Arms wrapped around his middle. Nicole was just grateful it was a slow day and they had no customers at that moment.

  Ten minutes later, Mandy came out of her office taking slow measured steps to Emmitt's counter where she barked at him, requesting three extra-large mochas and slapped her money on the counter. Emmitt laughed even harder until he managed to get a good look at her face then scrambled to get what she wanted as his laughter died a quick death. Mandy nodded and took the tray of cups with her and headed back to her office. She yelled over her shoulder at Nicole to get her ass in there, pronto!

  Nicole knew deep inside, Mandy somehow found out she had been the one to give out the information on Mandy’s routine to Jett. Mandy clearly needed help in the love department. She was sure Mandy could not even find a pig in a barn without help. She hated seeing Mandy alone all the time, she just needed to have a little bit of fun and Jett seemed to genuinely care. She also didn’t know the whole story of Mandy’s past, only what she had been told, but now she had a bad feeling it was much worse than Ma
ndy let on. She assumed Mandy needed an ear to listen while she talked about it.

  With sudden regret, Nicole dragged her feet on the way to Mandy’s office. When she passed Emmitt's counter, he asked her what she did to piss off the boss this time. Nicole did not answer, instead face flushed a deep red and she tried to avoid his intense gaze.

  Emmitt was smart and it only took him a couple seconds to realize what Nicole and Jett had talked about that night at the club. "Jesus Girl, you didn’t?" Emmitt was shocked that Nicole would so blatantly disregard Mandy's wishes. He had his answer when her face turned an even deeper red. He gasped out loud. You idiot, you have pure hell to pay now.

  Nicole knew all too well how severe Mandy's temper could flare and she really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. But if she did not get in there, she knew Mandy would come out even more pissed and would drag her into the office, nearly ripping her ear off.

  "You dared to gave Jett Damian personal information about me when I specifically asked you not to. I explained to you that my very life depended on it, did I not, Nicole Givens!"

  "Yes, you did, Mandy." Nicole stood in front of Mandy's large antique desk and stared at an invisible spot on the wooden floor between her feet. Inside, she was fuming. Mandy had to right to treat her like a child!

  "Nicole, It wasn’t a figure of speech and now you have put my life in serious danger. This business I purchased for the three of us and neither of you put a red cent into at the startup and still profit from because I care about you and your futures, will go away and close down. If I have to go underground again, I will liquidate all of the assets and it will be as if I never existed in your lives or in this city. Do you now even have the slightest idea of the ramifications of what you have done Nicole?" Mandy’s voice was soft and resigned, almost as if she had already given up.

  "What do you mean by underground?" Nicole asked softly as she sat in the chair across from Mandy, trying to understand what her friend was not willing to say.

  "Underground means I have to go back into hiding from my ex again. You will never understand just how dangerous a sociopath really is and I pray you never have to. My ex David killed two other women before he said he loved me and then tried to kill me by shooting me in the back of the head. I barely survived with my life, the doctors said it was a miracle I lived." She turned around and lifted the back of her hair and removed her hair extension piece to show Nicole the large bald indentation at the base of her skull. When she heard Nicole gasp on a sob, she replaced the extension, lowered her hair and turned around. "David loved to brag about killing those girls and about how he got away with it. I refuse to be number three and I will hide for the rest of my life if need be in order to keep myself alive and safe. He thought he had killed me until I showed up at the trial and testified against him. He promised me then that 'us' would never be over, not until I died. Those who helped me put my obituary in the paper and stated I had a stroke and later died of my injuries inflicted by him before they hid me away here and changed my name."

  Nicole now felt like a tiny ant in a big world. Mandy had only asked her for one promise and she had willingly broken it two nights before, while clubbing and inebriated. The saying, the path to Hell is paved with good intentions arose in her head and in her mother's voice, making her feel ten times worse.

  At the time, she thought Mandy was being a stubborn ass where Jett was concerned and so she told him everything she knew about Mandy's routine while he plied her with as many drinks as she could handle and even promised her a night with a Dom in his club. If she had to be honest with herself, she was insanely jealous that a gorgeous and rich man like Jett Damian wanted plain jane Mandy O'Neal as intensely as he did. While the only men who wanted her were users, players or assholes.

  Nicole tried to hit on Jett, offering him anything he wanted, but he made it quite clear that the only woman he wanted was Mandy. She broke down and cried while she told Mandy the truth. And when she finished, she felt even worse, like a true piece of shit, because she knew Emmitt and herself would still be living one step away from the streets if not for Mandy.

  Mandy did everything for them all out of the kindness of her heart––stating, she knew how horrific life could be and wanted to give them both a better life than she had been given. Hunter at least had already purchased half of the building from Mandy and Emmitt was in the process of paying her back for everything she'd initially purchased for the coffee shop. She had not really thought about it, until now. She also now realized that for the past five years, she had been taking Mandy and her share of the profit that she got from the business for granted.

  Mandy had always been content with her helping out in the bookstore and never asked her to pay back her share of the initial start up that she promised in the beginning she would nor did she ever ask her to pay her part of the cost of purchasing the condo. In all this time, she had never thought to even offer either. It was a true revelation about herself. The truth really did hurt like hell and she did not like this side of herself she now saw so clearly. Had she been Mandy, she would have hated herself immensely. Everything Mandy did for her and all she had asked in return was for them to respect her privacy.

  "Mandy––I…." Nicole's voice trailed off, at a loss for words.

  "You can go back to work now." Mandy sighed heavily as tears escaped her eyes. Everything she had worked so damn hard for over the last five years, was all gone because she had stupidly trusted the wrong person. She couldn't stand to look at Nicole a moment longer right then. She had no one to blame but herself for her choices in her life. When Nicole just continued to sit there, Mandy spoke up again, "Nicole, please just leave me alone now. I have to think and plan what I need to do next."

  Nicole could do no more than nod her head. She didn't bother asking for forgiveness, there was no forgiveness for how she destroyed Mandy's life. She stood and left the office with tears fallings from an agonized heart full of self-hatred. When she reached the doorway, Mandy’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

  "Hold on a moment, please. These envelopes came for you and Emmitt. I pray the club is everything you both hope it will be." Mandy spoke softly again and held out the two envelopes to Nicole.

  Nicole turned and walked back to the desk, took the envelopes, said a soft thank you, walked out of the office again and closed the door softly behind her.

  Mandy sat alone in silence, all of the fight went out of her at Nicole's betrayal. She suddenly needed to get out of there. She needed to go home and make plans. She really thought after all the sacrifices she had made back home, including dying to her old life, family and friends, that she really would be safe now and have a chance to heal and move on with her life. She just couldn’t understand it. After everything she had done for Nicole to give her a better life, all she asked for was privacy. A simple thing really to ask from a best friend, or so she thought. She wouldn't make the mistake again if she had to flee, she wouldn't let anyone get close to her, not again. She would miss Hunter, he was her closest friend and protector. The thought of hurting him by disappearing, shredded her heart.

  In a fit of jealousy and maybe even hatred, Nicole Givens had carelessly put her in harm’s way. All it would take now, is for Jett Damian, a virtual stranger to open his mouth to the wrong person and her past would once again become her present, in a final way.

  Today, she knew there was no peace to be had in the silence. The silence had now become her nightmare. She could not handle it, she had to get out of there and now! The walls had begun to close in on her. Mandy grabbed her things, rushed out of the office and right out of the building without a single word to anyone. She breezed right past Hunter and side-stepped his arms when he tried to stop her. She hopped in her car and gunned it and flew home. Once there, she threw on her runner’s gear after she left a phone message for Master Yang that she could not come in that night to train because an emergency had come up.

  She paused for only a moment to read the newest not
e from Jett that accompanied the welcome letter to the her, newest VIP member of "The Devil’s Playground Club." The attached note said, "Come and let your hair down tigress. I won’t take no for an answer––J." She threw the damn thing in her top dresser drawer and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Urgh! Jett Damian, you are a demon straight from the depths of Hell and you will not ruin my life!

  Little did she know, he heard every single word from the condo above hers. He had purchased the vacant condo as a temporary residence the day before. He smiled with the knowledge that he was wearing her down. He waited until he heard her leave, evidenced by the heavy slam of her front door.

  "See you tonight at your Krav Maga workout, tigress." He said with a smirk into the emptiness around him. He waited ten minutes, giving Mandy a head start and then left his condo to meet Xavier in the parking garage. In the limo, he instructed Xavier to drive along the route Mandy religiously ran every day. He suspected that after his note had been delivered and after she chased Xavier out of the store, she would run off her anger and frustration with him.

  Mandy ran out of her condo and down thirteen flights of steps to the street and then took off at a full run down her normal route to the city limits. She needed to work out her shock, anger, fear, frustration and heartbreak. She had only gone three miles when she felt a familiar gaze on her back and bum. You have got to be kidding me! Mandy growled silently and pushed her legs to go even faster and swore she heard a deep, husky and familiar laugh behind her. That laugh threatened to undo her hard won sanity. Already pissed off and full of every emotion in the book, she glanced back over her shoulder, ready to spin around and kick David’s ass until he was dead, but saw no one.

  Having diverted her attention away from the path, she did not see the low lying branch which was half- broken due to the storm the night before. Mandy turned her face forward just in time to smash it into the branch with such force that her body flipped over the branch and landed on her head and back upon the cement walkway in great pain.