CHAPTER TEN: Chad

“Earth to Chad!”

I blinked, momentarily forgetting where I was until Martin’s fingers started snapping in front of my face. I was standing in the large space that was soon to be the New York City location of Body by Chad. The large windows across the front of the space and the dozens of people rushing past on the sidewalk made it feel like the place had welcomed in the public already, and it took a moment for me to fully come back from where my mind had drifted to.

The truth was, I couldn’t care less about the space right now. I had gone back to the hotel with only Zoe on my mind, horny as fuck, and fallen asleep after a quick ice-cold shower that only made me hornier.

I kept imagining her everywhere, with me in the shower, under me in bed, blonde hair falling over those magnificent breasts as she rode me like a cowgirl on a prized stud bull.

I even contemplated ringing up the hot Asian girl behind the check-in desk just to take the edge off, but rejected the idea almost immediately. It wasn’t like me to avoid pussy, but I didn’t want my imagination tainted if the time came for the real thing… scary thought, that… me with Zoe, like the old days and old nights…

I wondered if the years would only make things better or worse.

Martin had woken me up way too early, and I would have throttled him if it wasn’t for how excited he was to show me the new place. He kept throwing clothes at me, telling me to hurry up and get dressed, practically pushing me out of the suite.

And still, all I could think about was Zoe and our dinner later tonight.

“Jesus Christ, it’s like I’m talking to a zombie,” Martin sighed, snapping his fingers at me again. “Dude? Where the fuck are you? Will you focus please? If you like this space I need to get the attorney to negotiate the lease. This is New York City. Spaces like this don’t stay on the market for long.”

I slapped his hands away, irritated. “Sorry, just a little… preoccupied.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Martin asked. “We’re on the verge of making the biggest move this company has ever made, and you’re preoccupied?”

I didn’t answer, knowing that anything I said was probably just going to be returned by a snarky comment I wasn’t ready to deal with right now. I let my eyes wander over the spacious studio space and forced my brain to focus on the task at hand. It wasn’t as big as some of my studios in California, but it would do, and I could already see the place brimming with workout equipment, loud music, and bouncing tits… lots of beautiful, bouncing tits.

“So, this it is the best we can do, huh?” I said, still sounding like a cranky child who’d been woken too soon from his nap.

“Yeah, this is it,” Martin replied, arms outstretched, shaking his head. “You have no idea how fucking hard it is to find space in this neighborhood. A little appreciation would be nice, buddy.”

I smirked at him. “What do you want, a blowjob?”

Martin sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes. There were times when I got the feeling that Martin wanted to just tell me to go fuck myself, then he’d run the numbers in his head and realize what a huge pay cut that might lead to. He took a deep breath and tried to maintain his cool. I felt a little bad that I was pushing his buttons even though that wasn’t my purpose. Hell, I pushed buttons just by breathing sometimes. Welcome to Planet Chad.

Martin gave me a pleading look and spread out his hands. “Just tell me what you think. Will the place do or not?”

I walked deeper into the space, which was just a blank canvas, four walls, a concrete floor, and a low ceiling. It had been thoroughly gutted after the last tenant moved out.

To help me focus, I started planning out in my mind where everything would go. In one corner, I could see a glass partition going up, the walls lined with mirrors for the Zumba and CrossFit classes that was the fucking craze these days.

I imagined the smoking hot trainer I’d bring in to teach Zumba standing on a stage, of the throng of women in front of her, trying to follow along, most failing miserably, but all shaking their asses and sweating through their spandex.

In my mind, the trainer looked my way and took on Zoe’s, then her clothes disappeared… big boobs bouncing on her chest… little vee of curls between her legs… fuck… I was getting a boner just thinking about…

I closed my eyes and shook my head. I glanced down to make sure the hard-on was all in my mind.

“I thought this would be a good place for the juice bar, and next to it the merchandise section,” Martin was saying, his hands painting the scene in the air. “I’m telling you, the women here are even more crazy about their looks than they are in California, man. We will probably make more in this one location than we do three in Cali.”

“You think?”

“Hell yeah,” Martin said, hands still cutting the air. “And over there, we can close that off for the sauna and Jacuzzi.”

I gave him a thoughtful frown and nodded along. “Right.”

“The stairs lead to a small space about the half the size of this one,” Martin continued. “You can close it off for the offices and a private sector for the really high rollers, you know what I mean?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And there’s a basement where we could set up a meth lab and make some real cash. Maybe work with the Russian mob, do a little sex trafficking on the side.”

“Sounds good.”

Martin pushed me from behind, hard, and I staggered before whirling on him. “What the fuck?”

“What the fuck?” Martin yelled back, hands in the air now like an angry ape. “Are you fucking kidding me? What’s wrong with you, man? It’s like I’m talking to myself here.”

“I’m listening,” I said defensively.

“Since when do you fucking listen?” Martin asked. “You’re the one who usually does the talking. Why aren’t you talking? Sounds good? A meth lab sounds good?”

“What meth lab?”

“Exactly,” Martin threw up his hands in exasperation. “What’s going on, Chad? I thought you’d be excited about this? It’s why we’re here.”

I blew out a long breath and shoved my hands into my pocket. “Nothing’s going on, okay. I’m just tired.”

“Chad Walters does not get tired,” Martin shot back. He eased his tone and put a hand on my shoulder. “Listen, if you’re getting cold feet, we could just drop this whole thing. Head back to California and forget about New York. But just so you know, you’re not going to build an empire unless we do this. New York is the first step to the world.”

“I know.” I sighed and shook my head. “It’s fine, really. I think it’s the jet lag. My brain’s just not firing on all cylinders today. Having a hard time focusing on anything.”

Anything other than Zoe Maxwell. Everywhere I looked, I saw her face and gorgeous body. On the treadmill, in the sauna, lying on the weight bench, arching her back, tightening her legs, grunting as she pushed me up and down, up and down...

All the time smiling at me like there was no one else in the place besides me and her. A part of me wanted to ring her up and have her come see the new space, but I knew that was a stupid idea. I had to deal with Martin first. I had to fucking focus.

I looked at my watch, then buried my hands back into my pockets. I was acting like a high school jock waiting for the time to pick up his girl for the prom. I clenched my teeth, hating the way I was feeling about all this. That’s what Zoe did to me, dammit. She made me lose control.

I hadn’t seen her for years, too long to even remember, and the minute she stepped back into my life, I was thrown off my game.

Sure, I’ve thought about her.

A lot.

But it was always just a memory of something that could have been great, but had ended. I didn’t expect to see ever her again, let alone feel like this. I was Chad fucking Walters. I didn’t pine away over a fucking girl…

“Is it that girl?” Martin asked. “That writer chick. Joey something?”

“Zoe,” I corrected. “Zoe Maxwell.”

“Yeah, the one who writes the dirty books,” Martin said, eyebrows flexing. “You guys dated in college?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“So, what happened?”

I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’ve had more women in your life than you could count,” Martin said with a knowing smile. “What’s so special about this one? Was she your first or something? Was she the one who popped Chad Walters’ cherry.”

“That’s none of your business.” I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Let’s try to keep this semi-professional, shall we?”

“Wow, those are words I never thought I’d never hear coming out of your mouth,” Martin said in a huff. “I’m going upstairs to check out the office space while you stand here and mope.”

“I’m not moping,” I called after him.

“Well, you’re not acting like Chad Walters,” Martin said. “That’s pretty much the same thing.”

I watched him take the stairs two by two and turned back to look at the afternoon crowd passing by out front. A few of the women glanced in and did double-takes, smiling at me, but I didn’t smile back. Martin was right: this was so unlike me, and I fucking hated it. I turned back to the studio and made my way deeper inside, standing in the area where Martin had suggested setting up the Jacuzzi.

I pictured the whole thing. The steam filling up the room, the walls lined with pegs, the bubbling sound of the water. My mind started conjuring Zoe again, sitting in the Jacuzzi, head back, eyes closed.

Get in here, rock star, she said with a wanting smile.

Then I realized it wasn’t Zoe in my mind…

It was someone else.

The woman who helped me get over Zoe.

The woman who taught me to never lose control again.

She was a tall brunette with breasts the size of melons barely hidden under the water, a seductive smile on her face. She was staring at me, waiting for me to climb in. I had just closed the place and locked the door. I heard a noise in the jacuzzi room. I opened the door and there she was. Naked. Smiling. Crooking her finger at me.

Jacky. Her name was Jacky.

I started to ask her what the hell she was doing, soaking in the tub without her clothes on. The health department would have shut me down if they had found her there. Then again, maybe they would have just let her play… Before I could say anything, she reached into the water and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

Let’s make this a little interesting, she said, her pink tongue rimming her lips, her eyes dreamy in the steamy room.

It was a year after Zoe had dumped me, left me behind with a shattered heart. I had slept with maybe a dozen women before I met Jacky, all of them mirror images of Zoe, none of them satisfying me in the least bit. It was never good enough, never exciting enough, and I always felt worse after it than before it.

Jacky had changed that, though. Not entirely, but enough to keep me going. She had been one of my first clients, and one of the richest. Her husband was some tech millionaire who cared more about software than his wife, which I couldn’t understand. Jacky was a bomb, a fucking trophy wife of the highest magnitude. She had strutted into my studio smelling like money and pussy, demanding special treatment.

I gave her just that.

And a little more.

Then a lot more.

Having money came with control, and she had a lot of it to spare. What she was looking for was the exact opposite of control. She wanted someone who made her feel dominated, which her pussy of a husband couldn’t do. Jacky was an S&M submissive. And she offered to teach me how to be the dominant male in her life, which I was quick to agree to. Control. She taught me about control. It was what I needed after Zoe had broken my heart.

The sex was good, then it was fucking great. The first time she pulled out the handcuffs, I was a little taken back, but hey, what could I say? I was never going to say no to large breasts and a shaved pussy made of gold. Especially when she wanted me to do things to her I had never done to anyone before.

Jacky changed my life, and made me forget about Zoe. The screams of pleasure, those huge breasts bouncing in my face. It was exhilarating. The cuffs gave way to clamps, and the clamps to whips and leather and blindfolds and ball gags and so much more. I felt like a fucking titan, with Jacky as my personal sex toy.

She let me do anything and everything, and then some.

Imagine having that kind of power.

It was as addictive as crack.

That was until her husband found out, and she suddenly disappeared from my life. I was depressed again, hurt, angry, and I felt like I was losing control all over again. Martin made it all go away by forcing me to focus on work and building the business, but I was left with a sudden emptiness that quickly brought Zoe back into the forefront of my mind. From then on, the cuffs and clamps were the only way I could get off. The only way I really had control. Without them, I was as impotent as a fucking eunuch.

* * *

“Are you going to just stand there forever staring into the corner of the room?” I turned and looked at Martin as he made his way down the stairs to stand beside me. “Tell me you’re not still thinking about Zoe Maxwell.”

“I was thinking that you were right,” I said, forcing a smile, summoning Chad Walters back from the darkness. I held out my hands and waved them through the air as if I were performing a magic trick. “This would make a great area for a jacuzzi.”

Martin cut me a sideways glance. “So…”

“So, let’s sign the lease and get this motherfucker open,” I said.

“Body by Chad New York City, baby!” Martin said, slapping me on the back. “Soon, my friend, you’ll be the biggest name in town.”

“I’m already the biggest name in town.” I shot him a cocky smile, then looked at my watch again and headed for the door. I needed to call Zoe, but didn’t mention that to him.

“Hey, where are you going?” he asked. “We need to celebrate.”

“Raincheck it,” I said, reaching for the door. I had my phone in my hand. I waved it at him. “There is a certain blonde TV host who is waiting to have her body worked over by Chad. I’ll call you later.”

Before he could say a word, I ducked out and headed up the sidewalk with the phone at my ear.