Sweet Temptation (12 page)

“Really, what?”

“Just go and open the door,” he said.

“It doesn’t bite, does it?” Skylar asked.

“It might
,
” He laughed.

Skylar walked to the door and opened it, walking out onto the deck. Craig was standing on her path smiling. Screaming loudly, she ran to him and jumped in his arms crying.

* * *

Nate was working on a 4WD when Dom ran back from the house. “What’s wrong?” Nate asked him.

Breathing heavily from running, Dom told him, “I heard Skylar scream.”

              He took off towards the front of her house. Nate dropped his tools and ran after him.

Dom stopped all of a sudden. “What is it?” Nate asked. Dom was frowning at something. Nate looked over and all he saw was Skylar crying, with her legs wrapped around some guy’s waist, arms around his neck, kissing him all over his face. The guy was laughing and kissed her back. Frowning, Dom asked, “Who the hell is that guy?” He watched the guy carrying Skylar into her home; it kind of pissed him off.

“I have no bloody idea who he is. Well, it looks like she moved on then,” Nate growled. There was no way he was going over there to talk to her now, after seeing that. He stomped back to his shed; she was definitely playing with him. Of course she had a boyfriend and she was just leading him on. Well, fuck that, he didn’t give a shit.

After finishing the 4WD, Dom said he had stuff to do and left, which was fine with him. Tracey was coming over soon. He dressed in jeans and a shirt, knowing he didn’t have to dress up for her. She arrived at 7:30, wearing just a long coat. Knowing exactly what was under that, made him smile knowing what was coming.

He led her in and over to the couch, they never fucked around when it came to this. Tracey pushed him down on the couch, and stripped her coat off. With a wicked smile she came over to him completely naked, straddled him and went to work on why she was there.

* * *

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re actually here, Craig.” She couldn’t believe it. He had told her that he would be gone for three months, but he had only been gone for two.

They were sitting on the sofa talking, “So what’s been going on?” he asked her.

The first thing she wanted to tell him was about Nate. “Well, when I moved in, I met the neighbours on both sides. Then Chantal took me out and I met the owner of Joey’s down the road; he’s a really nice guy. Then I met Dom. He’s the one that Chantal has a thing for, he’s a great guy, and sweet. Then there’s Nate. He lives next door.” She knew Craig would ask her about him, she couldn’t hide anything from him except for the thing with Lucas.

“So what’s going on with him?” he said, scowling at her. God, she loved him, but she would never go there with him. He was the closest thing to a brother to her.

“Well, we started to hit it off. He took me out to the movies, had a really great time, and then we started to get real cosy. I just couldn’t do it… we had a fight and he left. I was actually going to go over and see him tonight, but you showed up.”

“Don’t let me stop you, sweetheart. If he’s the right one for you, you go and sort out whatever happened. I want you to be happy, baby.”

“I know you do,” she said.

Dom knocked and walked in, giving her a hug. She introduced the boys to each other, “Craig, this is Dom. Dom, this is Craig, my other best friend.” They shook hands and started talking about his truck.

“I was on my way to see Nate and thought to stop in here to see how you were doing and ask when Chantal was finishing up with work.”

“She’s running late. She was going to finish around five, but something came up. She should be here in fifteen minutes.” She looked at her phone. “Do you mind if Craig and I come over with you to Nate’s? I want him to meet Craig.”

“I have absolutely no problem with that, Sky.”

They all walked out to her veranda, closing her door behind them and walked towards Nate’s. Dom didn’t bother knocking. As he walked in, he called, “You got visitors, man.” He stopped dead in his tracks; fuck, this wasn’t going to go down well. Nate was sitting on his couch with Tracey riding him hard. Dom turned around to stop Skylar from coming in, but she pushed past him and stopped.

“What the fuck?” was all Craig could say.

“What are you doing here?” Nate growled, looking at Skylar.

She was pale, and couldn’t move. She couldn’t believe the sight in front of her. Nate was sitting there with some slutty girl in his lap. He didn’t give a shit about her after all. Craig could see that she was hurt; reaching for her hand, he pulled her out, heading back to her place.

“Hi, Dom,” Tracey said, not worrying about covering herself up. She got up off Nate and pulled her coat back on. “I’ll call you later, Nate.” She gave him a kiss and left.

Nate stood, fixed himself and went over to Dom. “What was Skylar doing here, Dom?” he growled.

“She came to see you, you bloody idiot, plus she wanted you to meet Craig, the guy we saw her with earlier.” Dom crossed his arms over his chest.

“Why the fuck would I want to meet her boyfriend, Dom?”

“Craig isn’t her boyfriend, you fucking dickhead. He’s her other best friend, and he’s gay. Well done for fucking things up. Great show by the way, I think she really enjoyed it.” Dom walked out and back to Skylar’s place.

Nate couldn’t believe what Dom had just said; the guy wasn’t a boyfriend at all, just a bloody mate. Fuck. He turned around and punched the wall. Why didn’t he ask her if she was actually with anyone, for fuck sake? God, he can’t believe that Tracey was riding him like there was no tomorrow when she walked in. He had to fix this, but he had no idea what he was going to do.
Maybe I should go over there and explain,
he thought. He went to his bathroom and jumped in the shower, contemplating what he was going to say to her.

* * *

Skylar couldn’t believe that she had seen some slutty woman sitting on Nate’s lap, completely naked. She went over there to introduce Craig to him and talk about what had happened between them. She had planned to tell him a little more about what had happened to her two years ago, but she wasn’t going to do that now… She couldn’t be anywhere near him right now.

When they arrived back home, she let go of Craig’s hand and went straight to her shower. She felt dirty and used, just like how she felt after what Lucas did to her. Craig came in eventually and she was sitting at the bottom of the shower crying her heart out. He removed his shirt and boots, leaving his jeans on, and got in the shower with her. They didn’t care that she was naked, they had showered together before, but they would never go any further with each other. He sat at the bottom beside her. Unwrapping her arms from around her legs, she climbed up onto his lap and curled into him.

When the water started to go cold, he picked her up and carried her out of the shower, drying her. He carried her straight to bed, tucked her in, and lay down with her. She curled up to his side. She couldn’t stay awake any longer.

When Craig knew she was sound asleep, he removed his arms from her. He got up and covered her with the blanket. He walked out softly, closed the door half way, and made his way to the lounge where Chantal and Dom were.

As he sat down on the sofa, Chantal asked him, “How is she, Craig?”

“She’s pretty upset, Chan, but I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he answered her.

      “I’ll go to her, Craig.” He nodded and she went to Skylar’s room. Craig sat back down and looked at Dom.

“Skylar told me about Nate, what she knew, anyway. She really has a thing for him, Dom.”

“He told me he had plans, not that he was having someone over.”

“What is up with your bro, man? If they had this thing going on between them, why would he go and sleep with someone else after one misunderstanding? To me, that just shows he’s not interested in her that much.”

Dom was about to reply, when someone knocked on the front door. Knowing everyone was here except Nate, he had a feeling that’s who it was. Both Craig and Dom got up and opened the door.

“Haven’t you done enough damage tonight?” Craig told Nate.

“I want to talk to Skylar.”

“It’s not happening.” Craig crossed his arms over his chest.

“I know I fucked up, you don’t have to tell me. I want to apologize to her for what I’ve done. After having our fight yesterday and then seeing her all over you… I thought you two were together. Dom told me that you weren’t, and now I feel really bad about what happened.”

Craig frowned at him, “I’m only going to ask her if she wants to see you, that’s it. If she says no, I can’t do any more.”

“I’ll accept that, Craig.” Nate stayed at the door and watched Craig walk down to Skylar’s room. He had a feeling she would say no. After what he did, he wouldn’t want to see the other person either. If this didn’t work, he’d have to think of another way to talk to her and ensure she listened to him.

Craig walked back and stood in front of him, knowing what was coming. “Skylar said you’re not welcome in her house, and wants you to leave her alone. Don’t talk to her in any way, and she told me to ask you to leave straight away.”

“Thank you for asking her anyway, Craig. I’m sorry I did this.” Craig nodded and Nate left and went back home, knowing there was nothing else for him to say or do right now. He was going to give her some time, and then he would try and talk to her again, hopefully just the two of them.

Chapter
6

Skylar couldn’t believe he had done that. They almost had sex yesterday. She figured he didn’t want her as much as she wanted him since he had to go and sleep with someone else. She had enough of Nate. After what he did, he had guts to come over and want to talk to her about it. She didn’t want to know any more than what she saw, that was enough. Plus she didn’t want to hear what he was going to say; after all, it would have been bullshit.

She woke up slowly. God, she felt sore and her muscles felt like knots. Skylar had to draw up the posters she wanted for the new products and type up the info and flyers for Stacy. She was only taking half the stock to her at the end of the week. She ordered double knowing Stacy would need more, so instead of waiting for the next lot, all she had to do was take it out of her cupboard and take it in to her when she needed it.

Skylar also had to price every single item that she received, so that was a lot of time on the Internet. So far that was her plan for today.

              Making her way towards the bathroom, brushed her teeth and cleaned her face. When she was done, she made her way back into her room and noticed that her breakfast was sitting on a tray on her bed. Smiling, she checked what she had. Her stomach growled at the sight of the food. Craig had made his famous French toast and scrambled eggs, and Chantal made her a cappuccino the way she liked it. She really loved those two. They all went through a lot growing up; when one of them was going through a bad patch, the other two would look after that one until they were right to get back on their own two feet.

She would ask Chantal to bring all the orders and her laptop into her room so she could get started. She knew Chantal would help; Craig would too, but only on the lingerie, not so much on with the sex toys unless they were for guys only. Skylar and Chantal would both try on the lingerie and model it for Craig to see what he thought of the product. This wasn’t the first time. They had done this every time she ordered in a new line of clothing.

They had a lot of fun doing this and that is what she needed right now. She didn’t want to think about Nate and that was the perfect thing to do to take her mind off of him.