Chapter Eight
Zeppelin
“Why?”
“Why what?” Chanel asks as she lies in my arms.
Our bodies fit so well together, and it should always be like this. The two of us forever.
Even though it’s been almost a month since she last stayed in my bed, it’s like we were just together yesterday. There’s an ease when we’re around each other.
“Why did we break up?”
Sighing, she shifts to her side to face me. “Come on.”
“I mean it,” I say. “I don’t remember. We didn’t have a fight. No arguments beyond the small things everyone fights about. You just left one day.”
“You know why, Zep.”
Do I? “Obviously not.”
I want to reach out and tuck a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, but I don’t. I just stare into her green eyes as I wait for an explanation I never got. Or asked for. Until now.
“I love you,” Chanel says. “I’ll probably always love you, but this isn’t the life I imagined for myself.”
She just said it. I’m good enough to fuck, but I’m not the one she sees forever with. “How long are we going to do this?”
“Do what?”
For a smart girl, she sure is playing the dumb blonde card. “Fucking me while planning a wedding with him.”
“Well, until the wedding.”
“Then this is over?”
“No,” she says and giggles like she’s just told the funniest joke. “Then I’ll be fucking you after I’m a married woman.”
After she’s a married woman. She’s going to keep me as her side piece forever. For as long as I’ll let her because she thinks I can’t turn her away.
“Why do you keep coming back?”
“Because I can’t get enough of you,” she says, looking into my eyes.
I lift an eyebrow. “Dorian doesn’t give you what I do?”
“He’s fine, but you’re… You know what I like without me having to tell you. It’s just different.”
Better. At least I have that going for me. I fuck better than he does.
“What did you tell him?”
“Excuse me?”
“The fiancé. What did you tell Dorian to be able to be in my bed right now?”
Chanel giggles and flicks my nipple ring. “I’m on a business trip. He has no idea.”
The front door being kicked off its hinges downstairs makes me chuckle. “I suspect he might have an idea that I’m the business you’re doing.”
I climb off the bed and pull my pants on just as Dorian appears in the bedroom doorway. Getting my ass kicked while buck naked isn’t really on the list of things I’d like to do. Ever. There’s too great of a chance of having something grabbed I don’t want grabbed.
He drags me outside, and his fist lands a hit to my eye. I fall to the front yard, and I consider my options. I could fight back. But what would that accomplish?
Nothing.
I could beat Dorian within an inch of his life. We both know that no matter how pissed he is, he can’t stop me from putting him in the hospital if I really try. But doing so won’t give me what I want.
“Dorian, stop!” Chanel screams as she stands in the doorway wrapped in my sheet.
Yeah, not a great option to calm him down, babe.
“Shut the fuck up!” Dorian shouts.
His anger channels back toward me, and he hits me again, this time in the ribs. From the outside, it probably looks like I’m not fighting back. And that viewpoint would be correct. I deserve this ass kicking.
“You think you can fuck my girl and get away with it?” he asks, his boot hitting my side and rolling me down to the sidewalk.
He kicks me again, and I move onto the boulevard.
Honestly, I’m putting on a bit of a show.
I’m not Shawn Michaels from the WWE, but I’m doing more than normal.
Making him think he’s winning and has accomplished something.
Letting him feel good about proving his suspicions right and being able to get his anger out of his system.
“How long has this been going on?” Dorian shouts.
I glance at Chanel. Does she want it to all come out this morning?
Does she want to tell him the truth? If I thought it would make any real difference, I’d tell him we’ve been screwing their entire relationship.
And the seven years before that when we were on and off.
That she confessed it’ll continue after they’re married.
“It just happened,” Chanel cries. “Dorian, please, I’m sorry!”
“You’re wearing my ring!” he shouts, but I have to fight back my smirk as we both lock eyes on her empty finger. “Where the fuck is the ring I gave you?”
“Took it off before riding me like her life depended on it,” I say with a cough.
Another swift kick, but this time, it actually hurts. Maybe I wasn’t the only one here putting on a show.
“You can leave with me right now, or you can stay with this scumbag,” Dorian shouts. “Your choice.”
“Scumbag?” I ask and finally climb to my feet. “Fuck you, Daft. If you could give your girl what she needs, she wouldn’t have found my bed.”
Once upon a time, Dorian Daft and I were friends. Until he started dating the love of my life. There’s very little that will end a friendship faster than fucking your buddy’s woman.
Bam! Fist meet jaw.
The crack sounds worse than it feels, but I know I’ll bruise and swell later. At least I have a good reason to go and drink.
Another fist hits me, and I fall backwards. Sure, I could take a swing, but I’ve already hit him where it hurts. Not only did he find his girl naked in my bed, I told him he can’t satisfy her. I don’t need to punch him to add salt to the wound.
“Stop it!” Chanel runs out and grabs his arm. “Dorian, stop!”
He struggles out of her grasp, and in the process, the sheet slips down to expose her left tit. The one I’d been sucking on just twenty minutes before. Hell, she has a hickey right above her nipple from our passionate night.
Dorian grabs the sheet and rips it open, exposing her completely. My love bites and marks are all over her skin, and he tosses the sheet to the ground. Completely naked, she struggles to cover herself. She reaches for the sheet, but he moves it out of her reach.
Now I’m pissed. Kicking my leg out, I knock him to the ground and grab the sheet, standing to help cover her. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Me?” Dorian shouts, leaping up and rushing toward me.
No, not me. Chanel. He wants to take her out.
Grabbing him, I slam him down with one quick motion. No one is going to humiliate her and then attack her.
Then again, what am I even fighting for? Nothing will make Chanel see she’s picked the wrong man. She won’t come running into my arms and tell me she wants to be with me forever like I want to be with her. No, she’ll leave with him. Dorian will have what we both want: her.
“Don’t ever fucking try to tackle her,” I growl and crouch down. “Now, I let you beat me because it’s fair. I fucked your girl, and you caught us. But hurt her in any way, and it will be the last thing you ever fucking do. Got it?”
“You think you’re so tough,” Dorian grumbles and scrambles to his feet.
“I think I proved I’m not weak,” I say. “We were friends before you decided to get with my girl, so I know you know just how much I mean that threat. If she calls and tells me you attacked her, you better hope you don’t run out of gas when I’m chasing your ass.”
Growling, he nods. “Fuck you.”
“Your girl already did that, so I’m good.”
“Shut up,” Chanel hisses. “Dorian, I’m going to get my things, and we’ll leave.”
“Do that. I’ll wait here for you, and then I’m following you home.”
She scurries up the stairs, and I sit on the front porch. I touch the blood from the cut on my cheekbone just as Misty and Bernie walk outside and stare at me.
I’m sure I’m quite the sight. Shirtless in just my jeans, dirty, blood on my face, red marks on various areas of my skin, and who knows if I’ve started swelling yet.
“Are you okay, Zep?” Bernie shouts.
“I’m good, kiddo.”
“That’s debatable,” Dorian mutters under his breath.
I look up at him and smirk. “I got all the girls watching me. What do you got?”
“The girl you love.”
He has me there. He sure does have that. “I suppose you do.”
“I get that she was yours first, but she said yes when I asked her to marry me, Zep.”
His tone change makes me feel guilty for the first time. “I love her, Dor. Never fucking stopped.”
“I know you do, but she’s not yours. Not anymore.”
“She’ll always be mine.”
“I need you to let her go. She won’t leave you behind until you make her. Please, man, let me have her. All of her.”
I understand his plea. Hell, I want the same fucking thing. The difference is that she wants to give him a future with her. She just wants to climb into my bed every few weeks to find satisfaction.
“I’m ready,” Chanel says.
Taking her bag, Dorian puts it in her trunk, and she gives me a sad look. Or maybe it’s pity.
“Don’t,” I say.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“It’s not your concern, is it?” Standing, I walk to the door, inspecting the damage. “Drive safe.”
“Let’s go, Chanel,” Dorian calls.
I glance back and hate how she walks up to him, cups his face, and gives him a passionate kiss. More passionate than she gave me the entire night we spent wrapped up in each other.
“Bet she blows him,” I mutter, trying to shut the door as best I can.
The hardware store doesn’t open for another hour, so it’ll have to do until then. It’ll give me enough time to think about what Dorian said. I have to be the one to turn her away if we’re ever going to end this.
But do I want to?
And can I really do it?