by Vivian Ward
"Tyler, how has business been? Is everything still running smoothly? I remember you were looking for more investors the last time we spoke on the phone."
He quickly catches on and says, "I've found one investor but I'm still looking for more. I'm always looking for more investors."
The women are oblivious to the fact that investors is code word for girls, but the less they know, the better. Tyler has many more partners than I do, but that's because I prefer to limit the number of women that I entertain at any given time. Too many can cause trouble, as we're seeing tonight.
Ally and Brooke manage to make it through dinner without speaking to each other, but everyone in the room can feel the tension between them. It's only a matter of time before one of them says something to the other and all hell breaks loose. I'm not sure why Tyler brought her here but I'm going to see to it that she never comes back. I regret not telling him that Ally was here in the first place so that maybe this could have been avoided.
When dinner is finally over, Ally immediately busies herself with clearing the table while Tyler and I excuse ourselves to discuss business. I’m apprehensive about leaving them alone but I can’t protect her from my past. It is what it is and I’m not ashamed of it. Besides, if I started to protect her now, I’d probably be busy doing it for the rest of my life. I’m sure she knows the number of women I’ve been with and the sooner she learns to deal with it on her own, the better.
“Let’s go out to the balcony to enjoy the fresh air over a few drinks,” I suggest as we walk through the kitchen. Ally has her back turned to us and makes no effort to see what we’re doing as I grab the tray that Linda keeps with shot glasses and a bottle of liquor.
Once we’re outside and the women are no longer within earshot, I turn to Tyler. “What the hell are you doing? Why would you bring Brooke here?” I ask him.
“Hey,” he holds his hands out in front of him defensively. “I had no idea you had another girl here. It was Brooke’s idea to tag along. She said she wanted to come see you.”
The force of my blood pressure is beating against my eardrum. Tyler doesn’t know what happened the night that Ally saw Brooke on my lap at the club, but I know both of them remember it vividly. Hell, it’s something that I’ll never forget. A man doesn’t forget when two women are pissed off at him at the same time. Ally was so upset that night that I chased after her, and Brooke was so upset that I practically threw her off my lap and went after Ally. “What? How did you talk to her in the first place?”
“At the club,” he says. “Where else would I run into her at? I’ve noticed you haven’t been there much, so I started going in to make sure things were running smoothly. She’d been in a few times looking for you and when I told her I was going to visit you, she insisted on coming.” He steps closer to me and lowers his voice, “Besides, when did you start bringing bartenders home with you? Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”
“Did she say why she wanted to come?” I ask Tyler as I pour us some liquor, ignoring his questions.
“No, but I assumed she wanted to play. I know she is—I mean, was—one of your regulars. I thought we could all get together for a threesome after we talked business and play a little.”
I nod, understanding where he’s coming from. “So what did you want to discuss?”
“I want to buy the club from you and become the sole owner.”
His question shocks me. I wasn’t prepared for it but now that I have Ally, I’ve been rethinking a lot of things. Before I can answer him, we hear shouting from inside which can only mean one thing: the girls are fighting!
Chapter 13
Ally
With the men outside talking business, it leaves me alone with the tramp who’s been sneering at me all night. I’ve pretended not to notice for the sake of being polite at dinner, but I can’t keep this charade up forever.
All through dinner, I endured listening to her flirt with Colton and heard her laugh at every little joke he made. I wanted to leap across the table and attack her, but I know that's not the right thing to do. She feels like an intruder and though I shouldn't be jealous, I am. Right now it's only the two of us in the house and it would be so easy to go in there to give her a piece of my mind, but I know I am the bigger person. I must keep my distance from her so that I don't look as weak and shallow as she is. Besides her enormous tits, I'm not sure what Colton ever saw in her but I can certainly understand why a man like Tyler would be with her.
He seems like a genuinely nice person, but he is very artificial. Everything about him is fake, from his overly loud laugh to the way he views and treats women. To our face he is kind and polite, but I know that behind closed doors and around other men, he shows his true colors. He is a pig and only uses women to get himself off. He doesn't truly care about people.
How he and Colton are business partners amazes me. They are opposites in many ways, but they do share one commonality: they are obsessed with sex. I don't know how dark Tyler is but if he's anything like Colton, Lord have mercy. I know I haven't seen Colton take things as dark as they could go, and that's what scares me the most. He's been holding back so he doesn't scare me. I have no doubt about that. I've seen him physically refrain himself from choking me and I'm sure the spanking he delivered when he caught me masturbating was a light warning even though he left my skin matching the cherry of a cigarette.
I am not naive. I know that he is conditioning me, slowly training me to be more like them; like the slut we ate dinner with.
Wiping down the counters with a sponge, I wonder what his housekeeper is like. Oddly, for a minute, I wonder if my cleaning would be up to her standards. Everything in the house is pristine, especially the kitchen. It appears as though it has never been soiled before tonight despite the age of the house, which I can only guess by the dated themes throughout various rooms.
"Oh, you like doing grunt work?" I hear Brooke say as she enters the kitchen. I want to go off on her, but I refrain and keep telling myself that I'm bigger than her. "No wonder he's keeping you around. I knew you were good for something."
I'd like to tell her what she's good for, but I continue reminding myself that I don't want to stoop to her level. She's only saying these things because she's small and she knows it, so she's trying to maximize her presence by making catty remarks to me. I continue wiping down the counter and try to divert my attention back to the kitchen. Traipsing closer to me, she plants herself atop of one of the bar stools near the breakfast nook, intently staring at me as I clean.
"You do know who I am, don't you, Ally?"
Eying her from my peripheral, I reply, "Yes, Brooke. I know who you are."
"Good," she sits up straight, pushing out her fake boobs. "Then he's told you about our arrangement?"
Colton has told me nothing in regard to any arrangements. In fact, he's told me very little about anything except that I'll be living here indefinitely and working remotely for the time being and, of course, he left me with those books. She takes my silence as her answer that I know nothing and begins to laugh.
"He didn't tell you about our contract?" she abruptly stops laughing.
Donning a serious expression, I can tell that she's not joking. She's as serious as a heart attack. No, of course, he didn't tell me about any contracts and I'm oblivious as to what she's talking about. Since my arrival, we've only talked when he brings my meals and even then it's very limited conversation but at the same time, I'm hurt that he would keep such a thing from me. I'm even more disturbed that he has a contract with her. It makes me wonder why he's keeping her around and it makes me question what he wants from me. I know that he has a dark side. Anyone who owns a secret sex club has to have some skeletons in their closet, but I've always liked Colton. From the first day that I met him, I could see a nice man, someone who cares, and most of all, someone who's afraid of being hurt. I've always assumed his activity in the club was to prevent him from being in a relationship. I figured that he'd been hurt in the
past and was preventing that by actively engaging in promiscuous activity to keep his heart guarded.
"Since you're unaware of what he does, let me fill you in," she hisses. Narrowing her eyes, she licks her lips and tucks her hair behind her ear as she leans forward. "He has girls on contract to fulfill his fucked up needs, and I am one of them. We've been playing for quite a while, Abby."
I want her to stop. I want her to just shut up and go away but she's not done; she's not even close.
"By the looks of you," she eyes my clothing, "you're as plain as they come." Even though I suddenly feel inferior in my denim jeans and cotton blouse, I stand tall because I won't allow her to belittle me. "I can't imagine what he's doing with you. I bet your idea of a wild night is trying something other than missionary. Am I right?" she laughs. I refuse to answer her because she has no right asking me about my sex life, but I'm getting closer to giving her an answer that she's not going to like.
"No, you're wrong," I reply.
"Really, Ally? Am I wrong?" Pushing her lips out, she pouts and says, "So then you're aware that the entire reason I'm here tonight is so me and the guys can have a little threesome? Did you know that, Miss Vanilla? Did you know that Colton likes double stuffing, double fucking and sharing his little whores?" A wide grin puts her bleached white teeth on display. "Of course, you didn't! That's why I'm here! And in case you didn’t know, he invited me here himself.”
Her words cut through me and all I can see is red. Tired of listening to her and sick of taking her shit, I unleash on her.
"Let me tell you a little about mine and Colton's relationship. It's private! And unlike you, I don't put everything out on display for all to see because I have dignity and self-respect."
"Now you're better than me?" she cackles. "New flash, sweetheart, but there's a reason why I have been and still am a part of his life!"
Anger gets the best of me, making my hands tremble as I refrain from hitting her but it will be my words that pack the most punch. "No, sweetheart, you're obviously not," I mock her. "Because if you were part of his life, then you would know that I live here!"
Crimson sweeps over her face as she realizes that I'm telling the truth. "If you live here and are with him, then how come you didn't know about our contract?!" She screams.
"Because it doesn't mean shit!" I yell back. "I'm in his life now and you need to get the fuck out of our house!"
Colton and Tyler come barreling through the door as the two of us continue our screaming match. She makes a pathetic attempt to physically attack me, but Tyler grabs her by the waist before she can reach me. As they begin to make their exit, I run up the stairs to retreat to my room. "Ally, wait!" Colton chases after me. "Allison!"
At the top of the stairs, I turn to face him. "Why didn't you tell me the truth about her, Colton? Why didn't you tell me about the contract?"
"Ally," he says, creeping toward me. "I was going to, but I didn't think it mattered anymore and—,”.
"That's enough, Colton!" I say, running to my bedroom before I slam the door. "Leave me alone!"
Sulking on my bed, I think about everything she said to me and I can’t help but wonder if maybe she’s on to something. What if he lives two lives? He could easily play both sides even though he doesn’t seem the type. Colton is a grown man who answers to no one, so why would he lie to either one of us? And why would he bring me here if he was still seeing her? It doesn’t make any sense.
Chapter 14
Colton
It's been over a week since Ally has spoken to me. She refuses to answer me when I ask her questions and she ignores me when I sit with her. I've been leaving her door unlocked so she can come out whenever she pleases, and she knows this, but she's firmly stayed put. Her work has been her main focus from what I can tell from watching her on the spyware that I installed.
Getting Ally to talk to me is going to take something drastic, so I've hired a team of movers to bring everything from her apartment to make her feel more at home. There's no sense in handing her slum Lord my pocket change since she's living here anyway, and maybe she'll see this as a token of my dedication to her. Although, I'm not sure why she'd believe the lie that Brooke fed her about me inviting her over for dinner with Tyler but I'll do whatever it takes to win her back over. I've already lost her once and I refuse to let it happen again. There's a reason why there is such a thing as second chance love but not third chance love.
The movers pull up right on time at four o'clock sharp.
Knocking on Ally's door, I allow myself in. "I hired some movers," I say to her. "They're bringing the things from your apartment for you. Would you like to tell them where to put things?" She still refuses to answer, so I leave her alone to sulk because the impatient movers are eager to finish early so they can go home.
As I sit among her things, I think about how delicate Ally is compared to the women of my past. She's nothing like them, and I've allowed my selfishness to let me lose sight of that. They were all about material things; what I could give them, what they could have, what they could take from me. Those things don't impress Ally. She was happier in her crummy little apartment that was the size of a shoebox than she's been since her arrival, and I need to change that. I thought bringing her personal belongings here would matter but now that nighttime is upon us and she still hasn't come out of her room, I know just how wrong I've been all along.
Bounding up the stairs two at a time, I knock on her bedroom door and let myself in. She's sitting in the center of the bed with her laptop in hand, typing away.
"Ally, I'm going to need you to get dressed," I inform her. "We're leaving in twenty minutes." She briefly looks up from the monitor before returning back to her incessant typing. "I mean it, Ally. Get dressed. Come hell or high water, I'll drag you out of this bedroom if I have to."
"Why don't you just wait until I'm out cold, and then you can kidnap me again?" she smirks.
"Don't say that," I say, ashamed of my former behavior. "Tonight's a big night."
"What is it?" she sighs, annoyed with me. I don't blame her, she has every right to be.
"I'm taking you out. We're going to have a nice dinner and then a night on the town," I smile and offer her my hand.
Skeptical, she constricts her eyes as she casts doubt on my words. "Why are we going out?"
"Because you deserve it and because we deserve it. I've been doing a lot of thinking and I think that we need to start over."
Folding her arms, she cautiously eyes me. "You mean kidnapping girls and locking them away isn't the best foot to start out on?"
"No, definitely not but come on, get dressed and meet me downstairs in twenty minutes. Okay?"
Giving her the space she needs to get ready, I head to my bedroom to put on a clean shirt and splash on a little cologne. Waiting for her in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs, I can't stop the smile tugging at the corners of my lips. Even in a simple summer dress, she looks stunning. Momentarily, my mind thinks of all the fun that could be had lifting that short little skirt, but I quickly remind myself that the purpose of this is to start over and become more intimate, and not sexual.
"Ally," I mumble. "You look amazing."
"Thank you," she says. "Where are we going? Am I dressed nice enough?"
"You could wear garbage bags and nobody would notice."
"Stop it, Colton," she cranes her neck, looking up at me with those beautiful chocolate stars.
"I mean it!" I assure her. "You could wear those thick, black garbage bags that people use for yard waste and you'd still be the most gorgeous girl in the world."
Her cheeks flush, and that's when I know I've done my job. She knows my words are sincere.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going at nine o'clock at night?" she asks, looking up at me through her long, dark lashes. She really is my pretty little doll.
"Princess, we're going to do what we should've done months ago." I lock her arm in mine. "We're going on a date."
&n
bsp; "A date?" she asks as we walk down the porch stairs.
"Yes, an official first date and we're going to have a lot of fun."
Opening the car door for her, I watch the moonlight bounce off her radiant skin as she climbs inside the car. Walking around the vehicle, I think of all the potential the night holds for us. A fresh start; a new chance. Firing up the engine, we set out on a short trip up the highway where we stop for reservations at The Butterfly. As soon as she realizes where we are, her face instantly drops but I'm determined to make this a positive experience. This won't be like it was last time when I gave her an ultimatum to meet me here after sending her the matching dress and shoes. She won't be diving into the shark tank, walking in solo. Tonight we are together and I will lead her hand-in-hand.
"Come on," I offer her my hand. "I pulled a lot of strings to get this reservation."
Hesitantly, she places her palm in mine and we are led to our table. With the early summer weather, tonight is perfect weather for outdoor dining so I requested a rooftop table. Sitting under the indigo canopy, a myriad of twinkling stars shimmered above us. From a distance, a silver half-moon bestowed a very dim light which illuminated all of Ally's perfect features. The warm summer breeze softly blew past the tiny saplings that were freshly planted in the mulch that occupied the center of the rooftop. For a few brief moments, a cluster of clouds eclipsed the half-moon, blocking its already dim light, creating shadows that danced on Ally's beautiful face.
"Do you bring all of your dates here?" she asks as she begins to look over the menu.
"That's not a fair question," I reply. "Most people eat when they go on dates. Ask me a different question."
"Will you answer it honestly?"
"I promise. Anything you want to know, just ask."
Pursing her lips, she leans in as she squints at me as I sip my water. "Why did you invite her over?"