On Fire (Seduction Series Book 3)

by Emily Vincent

  “Hey, Krystal. You’re looking good.”

  I moved closer to him, the urge to at least give him a hug was there. I pulled him into a quick embrace. “So are you,” I said. I then pulled back. “But what are you doing here?”

  It had been two years since I’d seen him last and that was right around the time he was telling me that he was staying in Germany indefinitely. We had broken up officially months earlier, but it was still a sting to hear him say that. “Aren’t you glad to see me?” he asked, a small smile on his lips.

  “Glad?” I asked. “Not exactly the word I’d use.” His face fell and I knew what he was thinking. “I’m happy to see you, Trevor. It’s been a long time, but I can’t help but be surprised. I didn’t even know you were back in the states.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, well…I got back eight months ago,” he said.

  “How was Germany?” I asked.

  I didn’t know why we had stopped all communication. It was a rough breakup, leaving me wanting to know more about his whereabouts, but he seemed to believe that no communication was best. “Germany was good,” he said. That was a simple enough reply. “I’ve missed you.” When he said the words, I felt my world shift. The move to Las Vegas wasn’t easy and doing it alone, made it that much harder, but hearing him tell me after two years of not talking that he missed me, I was feeling a little more like pissed.

  “Yeah well…I’ve missed you too,” I said. I looked away from him. My heart was racing in my chest. When I looked back at him, I had to get the answers. “But that doesn’t exactly explain your visit,” I said. “You couldn’t pick up the phone and tell me this?” I asked. I was annoyed, no doubt. I just wanted him gone, because I had thought I had moved on from him and to see him again, I quickly realized that I hadn’t moved on as much as I had thought.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. I didn’t want his apologies. It’s true that I wanted answers as to if he loved me so much, then why did he feel the need to run off to a foreign country, but apologies weren’t going to help. “I’m here for business,” he simply said.

  I slowly nodded. “Oh…explains it. I didn’t think you would just fly all this way for a social call. Thanks for dropping by.” I turned away from him and went back to finishing up. I still wanted to redo my makeup and hair before Elisha got there. I noticed he hadn’t left the room yet. “Anything else?” I asked.

  “Can we talk?” he asked. I turned back to the mirror and caught his reflection.

  “Do we need to?” I asked nonchalantly.

  “I would like to,” he said.

  I wiped off the stage makeup and looked down at my table of makeup. I didn’t know if talking to him after all this time was such a good idea. The feelings were bound to be there still, and it would just be something to confuse us both. Plus, I didn’t know if he had a girlfriend or a wife, for that matter, that wouldn’t appreciate us chatting up like old times.

  “I don’t know, Trevor,” I said.

  “Come on, Krys, I’m just asking for a few minutes of your time.”

  I turned around and leaned back against the table. Before I could open my mouth and give him a response, I spotted Elisha at the door. She smiled at me and then noticed Trevor. “Is this a bad time?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Not at all! He was just leaving.”

  He looked disappointed and pleaded with his eyes. “Just ten or fifteen minutes. That’s all I ask,” he said.

  “Fine!” I finally stated. “I’ll call you.”

  He breathed a sigh. “Great! My number has changed. Do you have a pen and paper?” I grabbed my phone and pulled up my contact list. I pulled up his name and handed it to him. He entered his new number and then gave me my phone back. “See you around!” I said.

  He nodded. “Can’t wait to hear from you,” he said. He smiled and then nodded and Elisha and turned around and left my dressing room. He was barely gone when I heard Elisha’s voice.

  “Who is that?” she asked.

  I rolled my eyes and turned back to my makeup and to finish my hair. “I’ll tell you all about it when we get out of here,” I said. I couldn’t stop thinking about him and wondering if I would really use his phone number. At the present time, I wasn’t so sure.

  We made our way to an all-night restaurant that was just two doors down from the club I was performing in. When we got in there, we found a booth and I sunk down into it. “I’m dying to hear all about him,” Elisha said.

  I laughed. “First of all, there’s not a whole lot to tell. Secondly, I’m starving.” I opened up a menu and waited for the waitress to come to get our orders.

  I could sense that Elisha was stewing over my words, because she wasn’t looking in her menu. Instead she was watching me. When I looked up, she smiled.

  “What’s what look for?” I asked.

  She giggled. “Because it didn’t look like there wasn’t much to tell. You guys were dripping with sexual chemistry.”

  I laughed. Elisha was the hopeless romantic, but just because she found love, didn’t mean everyone was meant to go down that path. Besides, I wasn’t some hermit that stayed at home. I even had a boyfriend, more or less. “I don’t think Ben would appreciate you saying that,” I said with a laugh.

  She laughed loudly. “Ben? Seriously? How long have you guys been seeing each other? Three months, right? You haven’t even had sex.” She paused. “Or have you?” She leaned in closer. “Oh my God…did you and Ben finally go all the way?” She looked giddy.

  “Elisha, calm down girl,” I said with a laugh. “We did not go all the way. I told you that I am waiting because I don’t want things to get complicated so fast.”

  “But it’s been three months,” she said as if that was something unheard of.

  “I have my reasons,” I quickly snapped. “One of those reasons being the guy that you saw tonight.”

  She frowned. Before she could inquire what I meant by that, the waitress came and we placed our orders. When she was gone, Elisha didn’t hold back. “Are you secretly having an affair with this guy and you don’t want Ben to get hurt? Are you having sex with this man, so you don’t need Ben?”

  She was weaving her own version of her stories in her mind. I could just sit and watch her go at it. When she was done, she took a breath. “Are you finished now?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Okay. You’ve won. I will tell you about that guy,” I said.

  “Trevor and I met at the grocery store not long after I moved to New York City. He was simply the perfect man for me, and some could say that I fell head over heels in love that day. But, we came from two different worlds. It was no one’s fault, just what it was. His parents were not a huge fan of mine. We were together about six months when he came forward and said that he had to go to Germany for his work. Unfortunately, that was at the same time that I got the invite to Class Enterprises.” The waitress came with our drinks and I took a breath. When she left, I looked at Elisha. She was definitely intrigued by every word. “He said he wanted me to go with him, but I thought I owed it to myself to see what could come of Vegas. So, we agreed that I would come to the audition, see what it was about, and if I got chosen, then we would work something out.” I took a deep breath and Elisha interrupted.

  “So, how’d you work it out, since you were chosen?” she asked.

  “I told him I wanted to stay and he went to Germany. We tried the long-distance thing for about a year. When he came to me and told me he was extending his trip to be indefinite, I knew I couldn’t keep doing it. So, we parted ways. It has been a crazy and emotional two years. Sometimes I’ll think about him and find myself sad all over again. He’s a good guy and I did love him. Sometimes I think that I still love him. When Ben came along, I wasn’t really looking for someone, but you know…you can get lonely and it just sort of happened. Ben is a good guy, as well.”

  She sat there for a long while and I wondered if she was even listening to me and then she responded. “That’s crazy. How have I neve
r heard of Trevor?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Well, for starters…it’s been really hard to talk about him. I wanted to try to get him out of my mind and I never dreamed he would come waltzing back into my life two years later.”

  “What’s he doing here?” she asked.

  “I guess he has business here. Who knows? He wants to get together and talk, but I can’t allow myself to get hurt again. I won’t. What if getting together with him, only reminds me of what we once were?” I asked.

  She nodded slowly. “I guess that would be a predicament,” she said. “Remember that I once had two guys vying for me. I trust that you’ll get through it, though. You’re a strong woman. You’ll know what to do.”

  “Yeah…I suppose I will,” I mumbled. I took a drink of my beer, and my mind went back to the day we said goodbye to one another. It was an emotional time for both of us, but maybe getting together with him wouldn’t be the end of the world. It might be the thing that helped me to get closure. At least, I could hope it would be.

  “If you ever need someone to talk to. I’m your girl,” Elisha said.

  I smiled. “Thanks!”

  The waitress brought us our food and I slowly started to eat it as I thought about what moves to make next. I barely noticed when my food was gone and Elisha was talking about her social work classes she was taking. I was nodding and trying to listen, but my mind kept wandering. By the end of the night, I was prepared to not call him. It was all for the best and soon he would be gone anyway; I was sure of that.

  Chapter 2

  A week went by and I was confident in my decision to not call him. He hadn’t bothered calling or texting me, so I was relieved to know that he wasn’t going to bother me, just to try to get me to have a conversation with him. Plus, I thought that he was probably back in New York by now. How wrong I was, because that night, a week later, I saw him at the club again.

  I was finishing up a performance and he was all the way in the back row. He was watching me with eagle eyes and it was making me a little uncomfortable, so when I got off stage, I headed his way. But I didn’t get back there, without being approached by other men. “Hey little lady, you were hot tonight,” one guy said. “Want to be hot in the front seat of my pickup.” He held up a hundred-dollar bill. “There’s more where this comes from.”

  I looked at him and then reached out and grabbed his hundred-dollar bill. “Go find someone else, doll,” I said. I put the bill in my cleavage and he watched my every move. “But thanks for the tip.” I winked at him and then moved past him and a couple other guys that were laughing hysterically at the way I ditched him.

  I got back to Trevor and he held a smug grin. “Hey, Krys,” he said.

  I crossed my arms in front of me. “What are you doing, Trevor? Stalking me?” I asked.

  He tilted his head. “I am not stalking you. But you didn’t call me and I thought maybe you lost my number.”

  “You mean the number that you saved in my phone?” I asked. “Still have it, but not going to use it.”

  He sighed. “Please, Krystal…just afford me some time. It doesn’t have to be long. We don’t even have to waste time going to a diner or anything. We can talk right here. Or I can buy you a drink and we can chat. I just really need this time with you. Please.”

  I wasn’t used to him begging me. I didn’t know how to handle it. “What’s the point? Won’t change anything.”

  He shrugged. “Not here to change anything. Just here to talk. Please.”

  His eyes narrowed in on me and as much as I wanted to fight the willpower to talk with him, I couldn’t. “I have another show tonight,” I said.

  “I can wait,” he responded casually.

  I arched an eyebrow at him and then finally relented. “I will give you the time that it takes to have one drink. And then I say we just cut our losses and part ways. Deal?”

  He nodded. His eyes still held sadness in them and I couldn’t shake it, but I knew that what I was doing was really the only right thing to do. “Thank you, Krys.”

  I nodded. “I’ll meet you back at this table at one. Is that alright?” I asked.

  That would be perfect. I turned away from him and went back to work. I had to get changed into another outfit and get back on the stage in fifteen minutes. I didn’t know what to expect when I got back out there for the next show, but sitting at the table was Trevor. He was there to watch another show. I didn’t feel uncomfortable performing in front of him, but I did wonder why it was so important to have this talk. It seemed like everything that needed to be said, was said. Yet, he seemed adamant that he had something that he wanted to tell me.

  The show that I had to perform was a solo, so all eyes were on me, but while I attempted to work the front of the stage of men that wanted to reach out and grope me, I found myself more in the line of entertaining the back of the audience. Not with much more than my eyes, but Trevor hadn’t looked away from me. It was something that I was enjoying and I cursed myself for having that feeling.

  I ended the show and wave and blew kisses to the audience and then went in the back and got dressed to have a drink with Trevor. If someone had told me two years ago that I was going to see Trevor and we would share a drink together, I would have said they were drunk, but here we were and it was happening.

  I grabbed my purse and left the dressing room to go out and get the night over with. When I got to the table, he quickly stood up. I smiled and motioned for him to sit back down. He didn’t need to be so formal. I motioned for a waitress to come over and we gave her our order and then she left. He turned to me.

  He looked like a teenager that was scared to death to confess that he stole something. He definitely had fear in his eyes. I didn’t say anything, as I waited for him to go on. “For the past two years, I have considered what I wanted to say to you,” he started. “Now that I’m here, I’m all tongue-tied.” He laughed nervously.

  I smiled. “Well, just start out with what’s on your mind,” I said.

  “So much,” he softly said. “But okay…here it goes. First off, Krystal, I want to apologize to you.”

  When he said the words, I quickly shook my head. “You’re not going to apologize because there’s nothing you should be sorry for.”

  His eyes widened. “But there is,” he said.

  The waitress dropped off our drinks and I thanked her and then turned back to him. “What?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry that I didn’t fight harder for you…harder for us,” he said.

  I heaved a sigh and looked down at my wine in my glass. Seemed peculiar to start off there. “We tried a year to do the long-distance thing,” I replied. “You and I both agreed that it just wasn’t working anymore.”

  He nodded. “It wasn’t because it sucked being stuck in this limbo of never knowing what the other one was up to and always wondering how the other person was doing. But I shouldn’t have been so stubborn,” he said. “I could have made it work between us.”

  I snickered. “Don’t put all the blame on you,” I stated. “I’m the one that decided to end things. If you remember correctly, I’m the one that officially called it off.”

  “Only because you knew that if I went back to Germany, then it would be hard to continue this. Your career was flourishing. My career was increasing responsibilities. You did what you knew was the right choice. I should have been more willing to negotiate. I should have delegated someone else to go to Germany.”

  My mouth opened. “It’s over and done with, Trevor. I don’t blame you. Sure it was tough getting by knowing that things were ending when I still loved you, but I wasn’t here saying that this was all your fault. We both could have made some sacrifices if we were willing to. We weren’t so that just made it easier to see that we weren’t meant to be.”

  He was quiet as he drank his beer. I wondered what he was thinking, but then he slowly pointed it out. “Do you think that we weren’t meant to be?” he asked.

  I pondered over that
, before responding. “I think that should we have handled it differently, both of us; then things might be different. Did I love you? Yes. I did. Do I still think about you? Yes…I do. But we can’t go back. It would be silly to think of the past, when we both should move on with the future,” I stated.

  He finally nodded his head in agreement, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We might just for the first time be in agreement over that. “Okay…you are right. I’ll give you that.” He hesitated, before asking. “But, may I ask you a question?” he asked.

  I nodded slowly. “Do you ever go back to that day and wish you did it differently?”

  “I’ve had moments where I thought…what if this happened, or what if that happened, but then I sigh with reluctance and remind myself that we are where we are and that going by what ifs wasn’t going to change that.”

  He nodded. “May I ask you another question?” he asked.

  I snickered. “You may ask me a thousand questions.” I took a sip of my wine, feeling a little more relaxed, than when I sat down.

  “Are you seeing anyone?” he asked.

  “Well, I have been seeing someone for the past three months,” I said. He looked like he had been hit in the gut, so I continued. “It’s not all that serious though, but I guess you could say we’re exclusive.” I realized then that I wanted to know the same. “How about you? Did you fall in love with a German girl?” I wanted to tease him, because it was awkward just sitting there, throwing questions back and forth.

  He laughed, so I was happy to see that he saw the humor in it. “No German girls,” he said. “And in fact, I am single.” He took it one step further. “I haven’t really found anyone after you.” My eyes went up to his and I could feel the heat in his stare. It caught me off guard because I had expected that the heat would be gone. I wondered what he really wanted from me and thought I should get a few more answers.

  Before I knew it, we had gone from only drinking one drink together, to having another. I stopped halfway through, just because I would be driving home soon, but it was nice talking to him. It was even easier than I anticipated it would be.