Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Dakota
“ I can’t believe you’re going through with this,” Addie mutters as she sits on my bed, watching me intently.
Addie was the first friend I made when I moved to Whiskey Falls. We gravitated toward each other one night at the Whiskey Dam, sharing our love of a good Scotch and a low tolerance for assholes.
“What else could I do? I panicked and grabbed the arm of the first man I saw. How was I supposed to know it was Chance?” I touch up my lipstick in the mirror, avoiding her gaze in the reflection. “Plus, it’s not a big deal. I’ll let him take me out to a couple of dinners, show me off for a few rodeo events, and then we part ways. No harm, no foul.”
“No harm… I swear I’m going to have to knock some sense into you. There’s no such thing as ‘no harm’ when it comes to Chance. He chews up and spits out women like they’re gum. How many women have we heard crying over him not calling them back or refusing to see them after ‘the best night’ of their lives?” She places her clasped hands under her chin, batting her eyelashes like a damsel in distress.
“Do you know him?” I meet her gaze in the mirror’s reflection.
“No, I’ve never met him.”
“Exactly. You’re going off of what some heartbroken buckle bunny said while drunk in a bar.”
“And you’ve spent all of two hours with him!” Addie swings her legs over the side of the bed, sitting up straighter. “Why are you getting so upset about this? You don’t know him well enough to defend him. Weren’t you just calling him a level two, possibly three, on your asshole-o-meter? What’s with the sudden change?”
I drop my gaze, letting out a sigh. “No change. He’s still firmly at a level two.”
“So, then, what gives?”
Why do I care? Why am I defending him? I have no reason to. He’s a selfish asshole, only out to protect himself.
Only, he’s not, though. If he were, he wouldn’t have stepped up and helped that night in the bar with Laughlin. He would have just shoved me off and said he didn’t know me.
His texts yesterday riled me up. I stewed about it in my office for the rest of the afternoon, pouring my anger into my work. He didn’t even ask me to dinner, he demanded it. I may have been the one to initiate our situation, but he’s pushing it to another level.
“I don’t know.” I drop my shoulders and turn to my friend. “There’s something about him. He pisses me off so much, but…” I trail off, thinking about the way my body reacts to him.
“But you aren’t immune to the sexy as fuck body and the bad boy reputation?” Addie adds with a smirk.
I narrow my eyes at her, refusing to answer.
How can I? I don’t want to admit that she’s right. That he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen, even if his personality overrides any attractiveness he has. I also can’t admit that there is something about his bad boy persona that draws me in. I’ve never gone for a man like him before. I’ve only gone for the white collar, ‘yes ma’am’ types. Even though I was blinded by Laughlin, on the surface, he fit that type.
I’m saved from any further questioning by Addie when my doorbell rings. I can’t admit any of that to her. I can barely admit them to myself.
“I’ll get it!” Addie yells, jumping from my bed and running out the door, giggling like a teenager.
I roll my eyes as I turn back to the mirror. While Addie understands my tough exterior and snarky comebacks, she also sees past it. We may have only known each other for a couple of years, but in that time, we’ve been through enough that bonds us for life. She knows when I need to be tough, and when I need someone to be tough for me.
Right now, I need her to be tough for me.
Taking a deep breath, I look at my reflection, checking my makeup one last time.
It’s just dinner. I need to think of it as a business dinner. I’ve been on a hundred of them. This isn’t any different. Chance and I have a verbal contract. A meeting of the minds. We are just doing this for our mutual benefit to get Laughlin off my back and impress the sponsors. There are no emotions. No pressure.
I scoff at myself. I know it’s a lie, but it’s a lie I need to believe if I’m going to make it out of this deal unscathed.
Grabbing my purse from the dresser in front of me, I look down at the soft fabric in my hand. I’ve never used this one before. It’s small, black, and utterly impractical. It only holds my cell phone, a few cards, and my lipstick, but I love it. I picked it up the last time I was in the city, thinking how nice it would be if I were to go to a fancy dinner with Laughlin, or even a work event.
But that never happened.
He always had an excuse.
‘It wouldn’t look good if I brought a lawyer from our biggest competitor.’
‘We’re just going to talk about cases, and you know you can’t be privy to that.’
‘I’m just going to network for my promotion. No big deal.’
“Fuck!” I throw my purse back onto the dresser, placing my hands on the sides and gripping tightly.
Damn Laughlin! That asshole.
A low, rumbling voice floats through my house, reminding me of what’s awaiting me in the other room. Another arrogant asshole, but for some reason, I know this one is different. How? I don’t know. I only know that I need to stop myself from getting hurt again.
With one more steely breath, I grab my purse and walk through the door with my head held high.
The farther I get down the hallway to the living room, the louder the voices become. Stopping just outside the doorway, I still and listen. They continue on as if they haven’t heard me coming.
“You’re an asshole,” Addie says, her voice raised.
“Your point?” Chance’s voice remains low and calm, as if bored.
“You’re using her.”
“And she’s using me.”
“Once. She used you once.”
“You don’t think she would continue benefiting from this? Publicly throwing it in Chadwick’s face that she’s moved on with someone better?”
“Better is debatable,” Addie grumbles.
“Your opinion is irrelevant. Chadwick will get his little heart broken seeing she’s moved on with someone of higher status. Added bonus, he and I have our own history, which will rub salt in the wound. I’m sure this will also help with her bosses, too. They’ve been trying to get the ranch to hire them for years.”
“Win/win then, isn’t it?” Addie asks sarcastically.
“Look, I’m not happy about this either, but I won’t pretend that the timing doesn’t work for me right now. So I suggest you back off and let Dakota handle it.”
“Okay,” I decide it’s time to end their little heart to heart. Walking into the room, I’m greeted by two sets of angry eyes, now changing their targets from each other to me. “Well, as nice as this little session has been, I think it’s time we get going.”
“You can still back out of this, you know,” Addie says, placing her hand on my arm. Her eyes soften, filled with what I know is concern for me.
“Addie, it’s fine. It’s just dinner. It’s not like we’re rushing out to get married,” I joke.
Chance stiffens at my words, turning away from me.
Interesting. I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s marriage-averse, but his reaction makes me want to dig deeper into why that is.
Addie squeezes my arm, bringing my attention back to her. I can tell she’s worried, and if I were honest, I’m worried about myself. But I’m not lying when I say it’s only dinner. I’m not under any illusion that this is more than that.
“It’s a fake dinner, Addie. A business contract between two parties that will result in a mutually beneficial agreement for a contracted period of time. That’s it.”
“Don’t use lawyer speak on me, Dakota. You know there’s a lot more at stake here than that.”
“I’m fine,” I reassure her as I straighten and turn, seeing Chance is facing us once again. I give him my biggest forced smile. “Are you ready?”
“Yup,” he says, opening the door.
“I trust you’ll lock up for me?” I ask over my shoulder as I slip on my heels.
“Yup,” Addie mimics, not moving from her spot, arms crossed over her chest.
“See you later, then.” I don’t give her a chance to respond as I make my way out the door and down the porch steps.
“Is she always like that?” Chance asks, right behind me.
“Pretty much.”
I reach for the handle of his truck when a large hand slams down against the window. A blast of fiery heat lights through my body as a hard wall of muscles pushes against my backside, trapping me against the door.
“You can’t go around telling people this isn’t real, sweetheart. Otherwise, why are we doing this?” he growls in my ear.
Dammit, there’s that growl again.
His proximity, his heat, and his lowered, raspy voice do things to me that I don’t want to admit. I don’t want to think about the butterflies swirling around in my stomach, or the shiver that runs up my spine from his breath on my neck.
Nope, I’m not thinking about that.
“She’s not anyone; she’s my best friend,” I whisper in a shaky voice. “She won’t tell anyone.”
“She’d better not. I won’t be made a fool of, either, Dakota.”
The accusation in his voice makes me whip around. Placing a hand on his hard chest, I press to try to give me space, but he doesn’t move. All I feel are the hard lines of his chest. His intense heat. The thumping of his heart under my palm.
“Are you saying Wyatt doesn’t know what’s going on?” I raise an eyebrow at him, no longer pushing on his chest, but not lowering my hand, either.
“He knows,” he grinds out.
“So we’re even, then.”
We stare into each other’s eyes for a moment, neither one of us daring to even breathe. His heart under my hand picks up its pace, beating rapidly against his chest, revealing there’s more going on under that cool exterior of his.
The longer he looks at me, the more his expression changes. Underneath the simmering anger is something else, that if it were anyone other than Chance, I would say was longing. Desire?
No, there’s no way. Men like Chance Declan don’t feel that for women like me. He, especially, only feels annoyance. No matter how much I still think about that kiss in the bar parking lot. How it set my body on fire unlike any other kiss I’d ever had. I go to sleep every night thinking about it, whether I want to or not.
With a final huff, he takes a step back, finally letting me take a breath. I suck in the sweet night air, letting it cool my overheated body. Without looking away, he reaches behind me and pulls on the door handle. The cold metal bumps against me briefly before I move out of its way.
I can’t help but search the neighbourhood for anyone that might have seen us. Me pressed against Chance’s truck. Him leaning in, caging me. Blocking me.
To anyone else, it must have looked like we were making out, sharing a heated moment.
It was heated alright, but not because of that.
I climb into his truck with an eye roll, careful not to make a fool out of myself climbing into his lifted truck in my dress. The last thing I need is to be flashing him, and the neighbours, on our ‘date.’ But in reality, it is pointless to worry about people seeing us. That’s the whole damn point of this date. To be seen in public together.
I settle in the seat when the door is slammed, followed by Chance stalking across the front of the truck. Looks like I wasn’t the only one affected by our little encounter.
This is going to be a long couple of weeks.