Chapter 5
“Was that Creek who just drove away?” Violet said as she slipped into the shop with another box of product balanced precariously on her hip. This one was heavy, she thought. Her eyes looked out the store window, wishing that she’d been a few minutes earlier. In just a short period of time, she’d gone from feeling nervous and anxious around Creek, to feeling like she was a princess in his eyes. The man was such a sweet guy, always concerned about her feelings, holding her hand and making her feel…alive.
Maybe it hadn’t been Creek, she thought. Maybe it had just been another handsome guy on a dangerous looking motorcycle with broad shoulders and….
“Yeah, it was him.” George rubbed the back of his neck, eyeing his stepdaughter carefully.
Violet looked at the man, wondering about the look in his eyes. It was strange and…she didn’t really like it.
“Honey, he’s on the edge. A man like that, he has needs. You can’t keep stringing him along. Either give him what he needs or cut him loose, Violet.”
Violet placed the box on the shelf, not bothering to open it up. What George was suggesting was both terrifying and exciting. Make love with Creek? Could she do it? The way he kissed her and the way she reacted, she knew that it would be a glorious night. But she’d always thought she’d be married, or at least in a committed relationship before she had sex with a man.
She had been dating the man for only a week and already, she couldn’t wait to see him, loved just holding his hand and being with him. With a sigh, she accepted the truth about her feelings for the tall, mysterious man.
She was in love with Creek. Every part of her admired the man, enjoyed talking with him and just being with him. He was so tall and strong and just his voice sent shivers down her body in all the strangest places. The last time they’d been together, well, things had started to get out of hand. If she hadn’t gotten nervous and if that phone hadn’t rung…well, maybe she’d be in his bed already.
She glanced at George and shuddered. George had been her mother’s idea of wonderful at one point. Now the man just hung around, not really contributing anything and ate all of her food. She’d like to kick him out, but she didn’t have the heart. He was a mooch, yes. But he didn’t have any other place to go.
“Creek is a nice guy,” she told him, not wanting to discuss her personal life with George. He wasn’t very good with relationships. Or selling merchandise. Or being a good human being, she thought with increasing frustration. She had to get him out of the store before the tourist season started. The man scared away customers, growling at them and just being rude. And her other employees were starting to complain too. They said he was bossing them around when she was gone. That was just not allowed, she thought.
George moved closer, placing his pudgy hand over hers and she had to fight the instinct to pull her hand away. She felt dirty just with his touch and it had nothing to do with the grease that rubbed off from his fingers to her own. Ick!
George was trying to tell her something and she looked up at him, trying to listen and not cringe away from him. “Creek is a man. If you don’t start thinking of him that way, you’re going to lose him,” he said and reached for his coat. “I’m going out for a beer,” he said and snuck Violet’s tuna sandwich into his coat pocket. He’d already stuffed a twenty dollar bill into his jeans. A man needed sustenance, he told himself as justification for his theft. “Let me know if you want me to talk to him, honey. I know what a man wants and I can make sure he knows to take it easy with you.”
A moment later, he was gone, walking down the street and whistling. It was the first time that Violet had seen the man with a spring to his step.
Violet tried hard not to cringe as she watched him, even as she took some Lysol out and cleaned the counter as well as the stool he’d been using all morning. Why that man wanted to hang out here all day long, she didn’t understand. Couldn’t he find a job somewhere?
She poured herself a glass of water, then reached down to her small fridge and…darn him! He’d taken her lunch! Even her pretzels were gone! Ugh! She really needed to have a long talk with George. She was sick of him stealing her stuff!
She grabbed the carrot sticks that she’d cut up earlier and grabbed several orders, moving to the back room to help wrap up orders and get them ready for the mail carrier. The whole time, she kept looking out the door to the store and then glancing at her cell phone, hoping to hear or see Creek. She had no reason to think that he would contact her, but she still hoped.
By the end of the day, she walked up the stairs to her small apartment above the store, depression weighing heavily on her shoulders. She hadn’t heard from Creek all day long. Not even a text message! She’d been dating him for a week and a day hadn’t gone by yet when she hadn’t heard from him in some way.
Glancing down at her phone, she willed the screen to show that she had a message from him. Anything!
Of course, she could just shoot him a message. Where was it written that the guy had to initiate communications in a relationship? She was being ridiculously old-fashioned by waiting for Creek to send her a message. She should just…
She wasn’t an old-fashioned woman, she told herself. She was a modern woman who could take the initiative.
Picking up her phone, her fingers hesitated over the keys, not sure what to say. Finally, she decided to be bold and ask him out. He’d taken her out several times, it was her turn. If he didn’t want to have dinner with her, well, it wasn’t like she would be running into him a lot, now would she? He lived in the next small town. They’d only run into each other by accident that one time when she’d gone into The Rotten Apple.
Releasing a deep breath, she pressed the buttons and tapped out a message. “Any chance you might be interested in dinner tomorrow night? My place? Nothing fancy, just an old-fashioned meal.” She thought about adding in, “And me” but she didn’t have the courage to say that. She wasn’t even sure she was ready to take that next step, but offering to cook him dinner at her place seemed like she was sending out that message.
She pressed “send” before she could lose her courage, then stuffed her phone into her purse, not looking at it for fear that he might not respond. Or that he would!
Creek got the message and cursed under his breath. Slamming back the whiskey, he walked behind the bar and poured himself another, ignoring the concerned glances of Tucker and Saeger.
“What’s going on?” Saeger finally asked, when Creek sat down with the whole bottle. And wasn’t sharing.
“It’s the woman,” Tucker said, shaking his head. “Viola or something.”
“Violet,” Creek corrected, slamming the glass back down. “And she’s too expensive.”
Both men looked at each other. They knew their friend’s net worth and it was in the billions. None of them worried about money. Ever!
“What in the world are you talking about? You flew that one woman out to Tahoe last summer when she said it was too cold in Alaska.”
Creek took another swig of whiskey. “And I left her there.”
Tucker shrugged. “My point is still valid.”
Knox walked in at that moment, saw the three of them and shook his head. “Violet?” he asked.
Saeger nodded as he walked behind the bar and grabbed another bottle of whiskey. “Women,” he grumbled. “Keep it light and fun and there aren’t any problems.” He opened the bottle and took a slug, handing the bottle off to Knox who had already sat down to drink in solidarity. That was the thing about these friends. They were always more than willing to support one another, even if it meant getting drunk together.
Tucker glanced at Creek’s phone when it buzzed again. Reading the message, he was even more confused. “Creek, she’s just asking if you want a home cooked meal. If you don’t want it, can I take her up on it?”
Sarah walked behind him and smacked him on the head. “That’s his girl you’re talking about.”
“Everyone’s girl,” Creek mumbled and slammed back another slug of whiskey.
Knox did a double take with those words and the three men stared hard at Creek. Unfortunately, none of them had any idea what he was talking about but Saeger was still fast enough to stop Sarah’s hand from hitting the back of Creek’s head. “Something’s wrong, Sarah,” he mumbled. “Help me get him upstairs.”
“I’m fine,” Creek told all of them and stood up. He wasn’t going to drive home since he’d been drinking but he wasn’t going to continue, knowing that it wasn’t having the needed affect. He wanted to obliterate her image from his mind, but he was still able to picture her soft lips and those beautiful eyes that tilted up like a cat’s with the crazy blue color that he couldn’t stop thinking about. And her body! Damn he wanted to hold her body against his, to feel her tighten around him as he brought her to climax.
He’d been dreaming every night about doing just that to her and now he knew he couldn’t have her. Not like that.
The upstairs area had several small rooms with beds for just this purpose, and he slammed the door on the first room he came to, relieved that it was still early enough in the evening that the bar wasn’t full enough for the entire town to know about his drunken mess.
He laid down on the soft bed, irritated that he was still thinking about the possibility of being with Violet. She was so soft, so wonderful. His mind went over every conversation they’d had in the past week, searching for some clue that he’d missed, something that should have warned him that Violet was a call girl.
But all of their conversations had been ordinary and still, he’d found each of them stimulating. He loved talking to her about her business, the way her eyes lit up when one of her crafts people came up with a new idea or when she talked about searching the Internet for display ideas. Violet made sure that her store was bright and colorful, drawing the eye of any tourist that passed by.
Hell, he’d looked into the volume of merchandise her store went through, she was more than comfortable! She should buy her building so that she didn’t have rent but…
Damn it! He couldn’t get her out of his mind!
They’d only been seeing each other for the past week, but every moment in her company had been…different.
Five thousand dollars?!
Why couldn’t he do it? That thought sunk into his brain slowly and the idea made his body react. Fast! Ah, the idea of holding her in his arms finally!
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that George was right. He’d spent more than five thousand dollars on women in the past. Easily! The women he’d brought to his bed had been lively and entertaining and, when he felt in the mood, he didn’t mind one of them thinking she’d manipulated him into buying her nice things.
What was the difference? What made cash the bad type of transaction when he’d bought jewelry and clothes for exponentially more than five thousand? Cash was simply a means to pay the piper. His lovers had expected certain things from him. He’d known the price, even if it wasn’t spelled out quite as blandly as George had done earlier today.
“Five thousand,” he said into the darkened room. “What’s five thousand?” Hell, he’d dropped five thousand on a hand of poker in Vegas last month. Okay, so he’d walked away with fifty thousand that night, but that wasn’t the point.
He’d do it, he thought to the darkness. His body instantly reacted just to the thought of finally having Violet in his arms. In his bed. Damn, but he wanted her now. Too bad he’d had too much to drink because he’d like to hop on his bike and be over there right this moment.
As he closed his eyes, he thought about all the things he would do to her. All the ways he would make love to her. He could think of five thousand ways, and he fell asleep as his mind pictured at least ten ways instantly.
Violet dropped her book onto her lap and glanced at her cell phone. Still no answer. Darn him! She’d put her neck out there and he’d ignored her! He could have at least said no! He didn’t even have the decency to reject her!
She turned off the lone light in her apartment and stomped into her bedroom, determined to put him out of her mind. She ignored the fact that she’d raced out and bought all of the ingredients for a full meat and potatoes meal, had already put together most of the apple pie she would put in the oven so that it smelled delicious when he arrived.
Maybe she’d just eat the whole thing herself!
She got ready for bed, pulling on her voluminous, flannel nightgown and snuggled into the warm sheets. Spring might be starting to show itself in the various ways here in Alaska, but it was still cold! She thought about trying to find some place that had sexy underwear, but then rejected the idea. He didn’t want her home cooked meal, so she definitely wasn’t going to waste time and money driving into Eagle Point to find pretty underwear to entice the man!
He probably didn’t even want her! Which was why he hadn’t responded to her text message. Stupid man! He didn’t know how delicious her apple pie was. He had no idea what he was missing!