Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife

by Stephanie Franklin

  “Gentleman please,” Sebastian said and smiled a little, eying each pap sparingly before carrying on. “This beautiful woman on my arm is known as Ms Victoria Jennings. Victoria here,” he squeezed me again and turned his face to press a chaste kiss to my cheek. “Is my girlfriend,” My back stiffened at his words. Sebastian raised his hand again when the flashes started going crazy, blinding me for the millionth time. When they all calmed down, he began again. “Victoria is my girlfriend and hopefully one day, will be more. I am officially off the market, Gentleman. Now, I am sure my companion woman is hungry, so if you’ll excuse us.” With that he turned and held me tightly at his side as I stumbled down the way to the restaurant where we’d be having our dinner. My legs barely carried my weight. They felt like complete jelly and about to give way any minute.

  “What the fuck?” I hissed as we walked through the big glass doors. What I assumed was the manager stood expectedly waiting for us, a wide smile on her face until she caught a look of my own face. Her smile died and her eyes became wary. Her shaky hand reached out and took our coats.

  “Mr. Blackwell and guest, your table is through here in our VIP section.”

  “What?” Sebastian asked me innocently as he took my elbow, leading me through the richly dressed snobby people who were watching our little thing with wide, shocked eyes and no doubt sniggering behind their polished fingers. They’d obviously heard Sebastian’s comments and were looking down their noses at me as if I were a piece of shit on the bottom of their shoes.

  They could all blow me for all I cared!

  “What?” I said through clenched teeth. “Are you fucking serious? You just announced to the whole world practically that I am your girlfriend and by the way, you told them my full name.”

  Hell, the woman who lived three doors down from me didn’t even know my full name.

  Okay, so I was Sebastian’s girlfriend, there was no denying that and I wasn’t ashamed or anything but do me a favour. I hadn’t even told Jen about us properly yet and he was announcing it to everyone like it was no big deal.

  It was a big frigging deal for God’s sake.

  Sebastian stopped and cocked his head to the side; his blue eyes had turned from the denim colour they were in the limo on the way over here to really light blue. Oh yeah, his eyes were pissed. Hell, he was pissed. Majorly pissed, oh no!

  “Is there a problem with you being my companion, my other half, my woman, my future wife?” the hissed whisper was delivered close to my ear. The feel of his hot angry breath on my cheek sent shivers through my body.

  My eyes bugged even more if that were at all possible. I pulled away from him and blinked up at his face that was glaring down at me. “Future Wife?” ding ding ding ding, I managed to gasp through a whimper. Who said anything about marriage?

  “Yes.” Sebastian ground out. The hand on my elbow tightened as he continued to pull me through the restaurant, following the little dark haired woman who was shamelessly trying to disguise listening to our little argument. She pushed through another set of doors which led to a quietened off area of the restaurant that had a big enough booth in the corner to fit a football team. So this must be the VIP area she mentioned. The silver wear on the table glistened under the soft candle lights. The walls were decorated in white and blue airy linens with little glittery spotlights that not only glowed but twinkled and gave the place a nice homey feeling rather than that posh unwelcoming feeling that I was expecting to feel like I did with the front of the restaurant.

  “Victoria!” my name was called by a deep voice. I glanced around and groaned inwardly when I saw Sebastian’s family sat in the one of the darkened corners. All their faces were turned towards us, various smiles in place.

  How come I didn’t know about this?

  Oh, Sebastian was so going to get it when we got home. I looked towards him to see his jaw had hardened. Damn, he did not look happy. Well that was two of us. Didn’t he know that his family were going to be here tonight or did he know but was pissed that they had gotten here before us?

  “Victoria.” Christian called again. He got up from the table and made his way over to us. Pushing Sebastian aside, he grabbed me and hauled me into his arms, wrapping them around me in a bear hug. It seemed Sebastian hadn’t been the only one to have been working out.

  I squeaked at not only being able to breathe but shock that he was doing this. “Uh, Christian,” I said trying to push him back. Man was like Velcro. “It’s nice to see you too.”

  Even though it was a lie or maybe a semi lie,

  I mean the last time I had seen them was six months ago at their Mother’s house when the Naomi shit had happened. Now, did I really want to sit across another table with them for the night? No.

  “Sorry.” Christian pulled back and cheekily smiled down at me. God, he really looked like Sebastian. “It’s just you look absolutely delicious and it’s been forever since I’ve seen you.” He shot a glare at Sebastian as he said that then turned back to me. “Come.” He took my elbow and pulled me none too gently over to the table where Lawrence, Laura and Ferguson sat drinking wine from their extra shiny glasses.

  Lawrence, ever the gentleman stood up and leaned across the table, taking my hand in his. “It’s lovely to see you again, Victoria.” The way he said it, it seemed to be genuine too.

  I nodded and was turned to Laura who was too small to reach across the table, so she walked around it in her stupidly towering high heels and smacked a bright red lipstick kiss on my cheek. She squeezed me tight and whispered, “it’s about time he got his finger out.”

  ****

  “What can I get you to drink?” The waiter who had stopped next to my chair, smiled warmly down at me. He was poised and ready to take my order.

  My mouth opened to tell him I’d take an ice cold bud but Sebastian beat me to it. “She’ll have a two thousand chardonnay. In fact, we’ll have a couple of bottles.”

  Christian clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Bro, can you not see the table, we have ordered enough wine as it is.” He was right though. The table was littered with various shaped wine glasses filled with different golden and red liquids.

  “Not the best though. Only the best for my Victoria,” Sebastian commented and winked at me.

  What the hell?

  “Seriously,” I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I would have been happy with a beer.”

  Ferguson choked on the wine that he was currently drinking. He slammed the glass back down on the table and coughed into his fist. Christian leaned over and slapped him on the back or more like damn near put the man’s spine out of alignment. What was it with men doing that to each other?

  “Beer?” he asked after he’d pushed Christian away with a glare. The man looked at me like I was from a strange planet or something.

  I nodded and shifted in my seat. “You can’t beat a good beer.” And wasn’t that the truth?

  Lawrence gaped at me then his brows drew together as he glanced at Sebastian. “Where do you find these women?”

  I was about to take offense to the comment and give him some mouth when Laura quickly got up from her seat and moved Christian along so she could swap places with him. He grumbled something about pushy women getting their own way but moved anyway. Laura leaned into my side and whispered, “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

  “Sure he doesn’t.”

  “No, seriously, he doesn’t. He likes you. In fact,” She smiled warmly at me, her small dinky hands played with the glass of wine she’d bought with her. “We all do. What happened at the house when Garth died was...” she trailed off shaking her head.

  “I don’t wanna talk about that.” I said quietly but sternly.

  Laura blinked wide eyed at me, obviously noting my tone. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She said quickly. “I didn’t mean to upset you or anything it’s just...what Naomi and (Sebastian’s mum) did to you was completely and utterly out of hand not to mention what Sebastian did.” She shot a glare at him before
looking back at me. “I liked you when I first met you and was absolutely gutted when I heard about what happened. After that I harassed Sebastian night and day for your telephone number so I could call you and see if you were okay but he refused to give it. I did try to have a snoop around but he caught me and well told me to wait and well...” she waved her wine glass around. “Here we are.”

  I nodded slowly. “Here we are.”

  “Anyway,” Laura said, her eyes brightening, her cheeks flushed a little or maybe that was how much drink she’d had already, I wasn’t sure. “Christmas,” Then she giggled and just about jumped up and down in her chair. “Even though it won’t be Molly’s first Christmas but her second, she’s old enough to understand or at least understand a little bit. I just love Christmas, don’t you?”

  Oh no, not this subject, anything but. The urge to want to stick knives in my ears or maybe pins in my eyes was overly strong right about now.

  A groan left me and my chin dropped to my chest. “No Christmas.”

  I guess that was the wrong thing to say because Laura’s smile faltered, her rosy glow diminishing by the minute. “What?”

  “I don’t do Christmas. Never have, never will.”

  Her dainty little brows pulled together, her hands stilling on the wine glass. “If you don’t do Christmas then how come you’re spending it with us?”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  What do you want?

  “Where’s the steak?” I blurted out as I looked down at the menu at my hands. There was no meat. Why wasn’t there any meat? My eyes scanned the velvet encased thing back and fourth. There was no meat. There was Caviar, Lobster, Sea Bass and even Escargot...yuck— but no meat. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting to find a double cheeseburger or nothing but come on, at least a T-Bone or something.

  Conversation around the table went quiet.

  When the conversation didn’t start up again, I glanced up and saw that everyone was looking at me, frowning. Christian actually looked like he wanted to burst out laughing right then and there. Sebastian’s lips twitched but no-one said anything.

  “Well?” I asked when no-one continued to speak.

  Sebastian cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Well, Victoria.” He cleared his throat again. “This is a seafood restaurant that’s why there’s no meat.”

  “Oh.” My mouth formed an O. How come I didn’t know that? I bit my bottom lip when I felt the heat wanting to burst from my cheeks. I was Victoria Jennings, I didn’t do embarrassed. Taking a few calm breaths, I looked up at them all again to find them staring at me expectedly.

  “What?” I snapped. Now I just felt like a sideshow or something.

  That seemed to trigger something. Christian did start laughing then. He laughed so hard, he bent over with it. Then if by domino effect, each one fell over with fits of it. Sebastian’s wide shoulders shook with his laughter, Lawrence and Laura folded in on themselves and Ferguson nearly fell off his chair with his mirth.

  I huffed and pushed up from the table. “Alright, laugh all you want.” Then I turned and stomped my way over to the bathrooms or what I assumed were the bathrooms. Okay, I was acting like a child, a pouting child but damn it, no-one told me we were coming to a seafood restaurant. I’d never been to one before. Every other place to eat I’d been had all served meat, even some meats I’d never even heard of before. I mean what did one actually order when coming to a place like this? I don’t think I’d ever tasted shrimp before. Oh wait, probably in a curry from the supermarket but then come to think about it, they probably would have been frozen and cheap. Yeah, they would have.

  I found the bathrooms and immediately felt out of my depth. The whole place gleamed and was expensive. What was it with Sebastian and him needing everything to be expensive and clean? Didn’t people hear of lime scale around taps and rust around sink holes?

  The plug hole I looked down at was gold for Pete’s sake. Gold!

  Shaking my head, I locked myself into a stall and set my bag down on the little ledge that was in the toilet with me. What toilet had a shelf or ledge type thing in it anyway? I was used to peeing in a space the size of an ant.

  I sat down on the toilet after fighting with my incredibly tight dress and waved my hands out to the side of me. My fingers didn’t even touch the stall walls. How cool was that? Normally, I elbowed the walls trying to wipe myself or pull my trousers up.

  By the time I was finished, I realised I’d been sitting there for near on ten minutes. I wasn’t even doing anything other than staring. I was utterly fascinated...by a toilet, I so needed to get out more.

  Another five minutes went by as I sniffed each of the fancy soaps that were in golden bottles by the sink. I’d never seen things like that before. The scents of lemon, cinnamon, vanilla and pomegranate drifted up my nose, making it tingle a little. I dried my hands on soft red cotton towels and double checked my make up before pulling the door open. I stepped outside and rubbed my hands down the front of my dress. My eyes spotted the tab—

  “Victoria.”

  I jumped when I heard my name sounded from beside me. I jerked when I saw who’d spoken. An immediate scowl penetrated my face, my body becoming tight and tingly and not in a good way either.

  “Jacob.” God, I never thought I’d see him again.

  “You look absolutely ravishing.” He gushed; his eyes flowed up and down my body, settling on my boobs. When I snapped my fingers, his eyes found mine again. He smiled and approached me, his hand going straight to my elbow. He pulled me off to the side, taking me away from the direct line of sight I had of the table. “It’s good to see you.”

  A snort left me. “Well, I’d love to say the same about you but,” I drew out the word so it sounded like buuuu-uuuutttt “I can’t.”

  His dark eyes narrowed and his jaw twitched from side to side. “I knew there was something other than the obvious that I liked about you.” There went that smile again. How comes before I didn’t notice how oily it looked? I mean, he was gorgeous no doubt about it but there was something dark and sinister about him that you could only see once you got close and now, we really were close.

  “Again,” I huffed, beginning to get irritated. He had to have balls of steel to approach me anyway after what he did and said six months ago with the recording. I jerked my elbow from his grip and stepped away from him, a snarl curling at my top lip. “I’d say the same about you but I won’t.”

  That shut him up for at least thirty seconds before he tried a different angle. “I heard about you and Sebastian. I must say, I was surprised.”

  My brow rose and I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t miss Jacob’s eyes focusing in on my boobs moving with each breath I took. God, men!

  “What did you hear about me and Sebastian?” Hell, why was I even asking. Why didn’t I just walk away and leave him be?

  His head lolled back and fourth, a ‘couldn’t care’ look came over his face but his eyes said something completely different. Jealousy and a little anger I think. He slipped his hands into his trouser pockets, his keys rattling as he jiggled his fingers. “I heard that he belittled himself by begging you to come back to him and after he,” he paused and seemed to consider his words. “Made you certain offers and you accepted, I mean, it’s just your way that is, isn’t it?”

  I bristled at his words. My back teeth ground together. I was officially worried that they would turn to dust with the grinding. “what do you want?” there was no way I was going to stand here in the middle of the restaurant with people walking by eying us weirdly and argue with him about the ins and outs of mine and Sebastian’s relationship. Plus it was none of his goddamned business anyways.

  Jacob moved closer to me again, his head moved down to my ear, his breath against my ear made me shiver but not in a good way. His hand snaked around my waist and pulled me against his body so I had to raise my hands and place them on his chest to stop from toppling into him. My body jerked when I felt the hardness of hi
s cock pressed against the swell of my stomach. God, I wanted to puke. I pressed against his chest to move back away from him. Being this close was making me feel sick. I could feel the wine I’d drunk churning in my empty stomach. “Get off me you fuck.” I gritted out.

  “You know what I want, Victoria. Sweet, Victoria.” Jacob whispered against my ear. His tongue even came out and licked against the seam of my ear making me gag. The hips I was trying to get away from flicked against me, brushing that cock over my stomach again.

  “Fuck you.” I whispered fiercely, pushing against his chest again. Damn, he was strong. The hand around my waist, tightened against the side of my rib cage, his fingers digging into my flesh. Because my dress was so tight, as in skin tight, there was room for him to grip my skin and no doubt leave marks in his wake.

  “That’s precisely what I want you to do, Victoria. In fact, I’d take you right here, right now if you wanted. I’m sure I’ve got a fifty in my wallet. It’s still crisp from the bank. Actually I think I have a couple. That should do it, shouldn’t it? How much is a pump and run nowadays?”

  What the?

  Anger, hurt, humiliation and total shock rushed through my body as if I’d just been injected with adrenaline. It kicked around my system like a storm racing through the skies. My breath quickened and my stomach tightened. My blood bubbled and my eyes burned. Sweat beaded across my brow, at the back of my neck and along the bottom of my back. My muscles quivered along with my bottom lip. Damn him.

  I did what I would have done to an attacker. As quick as I could, I raised my knee and felt it connect with a healthy set of balls. The material of my dress moaned in protest of the stretch but who gave a fuck? I needed to get away from him. Jacob squeaked out an unmanly sound and fell backwards, his knees bowing and his hands cupping his man parts. Jacob’s knees hitting the carpeted flooring created two soft thuds that with the fuzz filling my ears, I still heard over the top of. I stumbled away from him on my heels, my legs felt as weak as a newborn kitten. I whipped one hand over my ear, feeling his saliva still coating my skin. Ugh! I scrubbed until I couldn’t feel it anymore and wiped my hand down the front of my dress. The other hand went to my mouth to stop the sick that wanted to come up, from coming out.