Sweet Temptation (4 page)

“Thanks, Nate. I’ll stay here tonight so she’s not alone. Do you both want anything to drink before heading home?” she asked, looking at both of them.

Nate was shaking his head, “No thanks, Chantal. I’m just going to head home, and crash, but if you need me, just yell, okay?” He walked up and gave her a hug and a kiss on the head then walked out the door, Dom following behind him.

Chantal smiled at him. She blew him a kiss and walked inside. Once he got to his place, he threw his wallet and Dom’s keys on the coffee table.

Trying not to think of her in nothing but her underwear, he rinsed his face and walked out of the bathroom. Stripping down to his boxers, he lay down on his bed. He thought he might go over in the morning and see how Skylar was, and find out more about her. He was intrigued and wanted to know everything there was to know about her. He closed his eyes; he needed sleep. He hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in over a week. He drifted off straight away, dreaming about Skylar.

Chapter 3

Skylar groaned, her head was pounding and she didn’t know where she was. Slowly rolling over she opened one eye to look around. There was light coming from somewhere. Checking her surroundings, she noticed she was in her own room. The light was coming from the window. She always closed her blinds when she went to bed. Frowning, she checked her clock which was flashing eleven o’clock.
Holy shit
, the last time she slept in that late was in high school. Chantal must have put her in bed, as she wouldn’t have let anyone else do it. Only she or Craig, but he wasn’t here; Jesus she missed him. He wasn’t due back from his trip until Tuesday. It would be his last trip for a while, but she didn’t want to think of that right now.

Skylar had met Craig in primary school, the day after her mother died. The popular kids were teasing her, calling her names and saying that her mother didn’t love her, and that is why she had died. She knew better, it just upset her to hear them say that. Craig heard what they said and came to her rescue, ever since that day, they had stuck together.

They called themselves the three Musketeers; Skylar, Craig, and Chantal.

Shaking the thought away, she tried to remember anything from last night, only recalling that she and Chantal went to the pub, played pool and drank, that’s it. She was a light drunk. She couldn’t even remember coming home. Sitting up slowly, she noticed she was only wearing her bra and panties. She felt like she’d been hit by a Mac truck.

Sliding to the side of the bed, she stood slowly and steadied herself. She was a little wobbly on her feet. Changing out of her underwear from last night, she pulled on a camisole and boy leg panties. She needed a coffee and some pain killers for her headache, and definitely something to eat. She knew Chantal would be here somewhere. She never drove home after a night out and was glad Chantal stayed, she hated staying by herself. She headed for the kitchen for breakfast and to find Chantal.

* * *

Nate woke the next morning with a raging hard-on.
Great
, he thought. He really had to stop thinking about Skylar in her bed, only in panties and a bra. Just that thought alone was killing him.

He wanted to strip her bare last night when he placed her in bed and see her completely naked. Her firm breasts and tight nipples, and her pussy; he wondered if she was completely bare or if she had one of those designs. Fuck, that wasn’t helping. He got up out of bed, pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt, and walked over to see how Skylar was doing. He also wanted to have a chat with Chantal. It didn’t feel right to ask Skylar why she had been scared last night. Knocking softly on the door, he waited.

“Hey sweetheart, how you feeling?” he asked Chantal once she opened the door. She moved aside for him to go in. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Not that bad this morning, but Skylar will feel like shit and she’s going to be crabby,” she said with a smile as they both walked into the kitchen. “Do you want coffee or breakfast, Nate?” she asked while filling up the kettle.

“Just coffee, I’ll grab something to eat later with Dom. Where is he, by the way? I thought he would have been here with you,” he said teasingly to her. Watching her blush, he laughed. “So why isn’t he here? You two are inseparable.”

“Funny, Nate. I’m not his keeper; you and I both know that.”

“So, when are you two actually going to hook up with each other, instead of just thinking about it?”

“When hell freezes over. There is nothing there, we are just friends, nothing else. Here’s your coffee, be careful it’s hot, you don’t want to burn yourself,” she said with a slight grin.

Chantal had been in love with Dom for years now, but wasn’t going to admit to either one of them. Dom wasn’t going to settle down any time soon. She had always wanted him, but she wanted a future and babies and she knew that wasn’t what he wanted. “What are you up to today?”

“Going to do more on my truck, catch up with Dom. So far that’s all I know, but I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Shoot Nate, ask me anything.”.” Chantal had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.

“Tell me everything you know about Skylar, especially why she gets scared around me and Dom.” He watched for her reaction to the question.

“Ask me anything but that, Nate.”

“Come on, Chantal. I saw it last night at Joey’s how she acted, and when I first met her last week. What’s the deal, and don’t tell me you can’t tell me.” Nate watched her breathe in slowly and knew she was contemplating what to tell him.

“Nate, I can’t. I promised her. She has to tell you herself; plus if I did, she’d kill me.”

“Chantal,” he groaned, he could see tears in her eyes. “I’m not stupid. I know something has scared her, and you know Dom and especially me; you know I wouldn’t do anything to harm anyone. Please Chan, tell me something,” he asked, rubbing his hand over his face.

He knew it wasn’t going to be great news. He could see it on her face. He gave her a couple of minutes to get herself together.

After what felt like forever, she started.

“Nate, I’m only telling you what I know, okay. I trust you not to even let her know that I have gone behind her back and told you. I know Skylar hasn’t even told me the whole story on what happened, that I know of, so please promise me now that you won’t let on about this, okay?”

“You know me, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Nate!”

“Okay, okay. I promise. Now will you tell me what you know?”

Breathing slowly, she started, “Last year when she worked for some design company she met a group of guys. She started to hang out with two of them, Lucas and James, more and more. All three of them decided to get a place together closer to work. About six months after that she started to date Lucas. I’d never seen her so happy in her life, but there was something off about him that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“Every time I’d go over and see her, she was never there. Only James, and he seemed to be an all right bloke. When she didn’t return any of my phone calls or visits, I really started to get worried, so I rang Craig, and he hadn’t heard from her either. He had gone to her house several times, too, but never saw her.”

She took a sip of her drink and went on, “About a month later, I camped outside of her house to catch her. That night I had seen her run out of her house crying. She jumped into her car and drove off, so I followed her. I followed her over an hour before she finally arrived at some random motel in the area. I watched her get out and head into the motel office to get a room. I gave it about a half hour then I finally decided to head to the room I had seen her go into. It took her forever to answer it. But once she saw that it was me at the door, she let me in.” Signing to herself she was hesitant on continuing knowing the next part was going to be hard. She looked at Nate with a sad look on her face but she continued. “I have never seen her in the state she was in; she had lost a lot of weight, she had bruises all over her arms, a black eye, split lip, and blood on her shirt.”

Nate jumped out of his chair. “What the fuck?”

She held up her hand, “Let me finish.”

He sat back down, breathing hard. “Fine.” he said in a growl like tone.

“So I asked her what the hell happened. Now Nate, what I’m about to tell you, you can’t get any more ballistic on me or I will stop; I’m just telling you all she told me.”

Nate nodded; he couldn’t say anything at that point.

“I asked how she got all her injuries. She said she was in a fight at a bar she went to with a couple of her friends. We knew each other very well so I didn’t believe she was in a fight. where she went out with a couple of their mates. I didn’t believe her and we know each other too well. She told me that Lucas started to get really possessive of her; she couldn’t go out anywhere by herself, he had to go with her every time. He came home drunk one night and accused her of sleeping with one of his friends, which she didn’t – she’s not like that. So he beat the shit out of her. He gave her those injuries. I asked what else he did, but she didn’t tell me any more than that, that’s all I know.”

Not looking at Nate, she got up walked over to the sink and just stared out the kitchen window. Holding back the tears, she couldn’t believe she just broken her promise she had made with Sky and told Nate all she knew about Sky’s past. After taking a deep breath she continued. “I asked her several times after that for her to tell me the rest, but she hasn’t. That is why she is scared, Nate. Lucas really did a number on her. She gets claustrophobic if people are crowding her and she starts to panic. She was really in love with that guy, though I don’t know why.” She looked over at him sitting at the table. He was breathing really hard and she knew he wanted to kill something, his fists balled up on the table. God, he was sexy like that, but she couldn’t think of him like that, he was like a big brother to her.

“Look at you and Dom, you’re giants. No wonder she is scared shitless.” She tried to make him laugh.

“I wouldn’t hurt her, Chantal.”

“I know, Nate, but both you and Dom are not pussy cats.” She smiled.

He got up and went up to her near the sink and wrapped his arms around her. “Thanks for telling me. I promise I won’t let it out in front of her. I just can’t believe some fucker would do that to her. You know I would never do anything like that to her, don’t you?” He looked worried.

“I know you would never hurt a woman, Nate.” She tilted her head to the side and listened as she heard the shower turn on, and then smiled. Skylar was up and she knew she would be down soon wanting coffee and something to eat. “Skylar’s awake. She’ll be down soon.”

     “I’ll go home and grab some food and have breakfast with you both. Be back soon.” Nate told Chantal.

“Do you have mushrooms? I’ll cook the works, that always helps after a night on the piss.”

Nate nodded and ran out to grab the items from his place. He was only gone for five minutes. When he came back, Skylar was still in the shower. He took them to Chantal, then went to go sit on the couch, and waited. He watched as Chantal got out the toaster and frying pan and turned on the stereo, dancing around while grabbing the ingredients out of the cupboards and fridge. That’s when Skylar walked in and straight to Chantal. With a smile, she turned her around and started to dance in the kitchen.

His mouth fell open at the sight of her; she was wearing a short camisole that came to her navel and boy short panties. All the blood in his system ran straight to his crotch. Watching her dance around the kitchen in barely any clothing was killing him.