Lust or Love

Chapter 14

Charlie’s POV

How dare she? How dare Jessica call Evie a w***e? She is the w***e, especially after what she did. My blood boiling over as I watch her walk away. I turn to Evie and am taken back about the expression she is giving me.

“Well. . . now I want the explanation on Jessica”. She says as she picks her glass of wine up and gulps.

I let out a sigh but remain silent. I am still too furious to give the explanation in our little bistro.

“We will talk about it later. Eat! We have somewhere else to go” I say, in hopes that she will drop the subject.

We eat the remainder of our lunch in silence, giving each other subtle looks of annoyance and curiosity.

I ask for the bill, without looking I hand the waitress my card and remove a few notes from my wallet and hand them over. I always tip big here, as it is one of my favourite places to come. It is family run and the owner is a pleasant man that brings this place to life with his loud and contagious laugh.

I miss the thought of family, the joy and love that it brings. I never had any siblings and my father left when I was a kid. So it was just my mum and I. Until I met Jessica.

Her family own a chain of hotels across the world, so she was essentially a spoilt princess. She got her own way on everything, including capturing my heart. I used to think that I would have my own family, Jessica as my wife, two or three children running around and a few pets to complete us. But that was a fantasy. Reality was not kind.

Shaking away the thoughts circling my head, I turned to see Evie standing as she asked “where do we have to be now?” There was a darkness in her eyes that I didn’t understand.

“You’ll see.” As I took her hand and led her out the restaurant.

I took her shopping, after all, she said she had not planned to be here and I assumed she only had a small suitcase of clothes, plus she has a new walk in wardrobe she needed to fill. Of course she tried to fight me on the idea.

“We aren’t a couple, why are you insisting on this? I’m just someone to keep your s****l frustration at bay, like many others have done before!” She huffed as she folded her arms refusing to pick ooh any clothing.

I won’t lie, that comment stung me. “You are right. We aren’t a couple, to be honest, I don’t know what we are. But I am helping you. You need a friend, at least. So, stop arguing with me, pick out some bloody clothes to fill your new home and let’s get back.”

I shook my head, did I really just call her a friend, because that wasn’t a stupid word to use was it?

I turned my attention to my phone, which was endlessly vibrating in my pocket. Seeing the caller ID as Alex.

“What is it?” I asked him. I looked up and Evie was still stood in the same spot unmoved, with a face like a slapped ass. I rolled my eyes at her and continued to listen to Alex as I walked away from Evie’s tantrum. I heard her huff and puff before mumbling something and then angrily flicking through items on hangers.

After the call, I made my way back to Evie. She had created a huge pile of clothes to try on, such a big pile, I was sure she had done it on purpose.

“Wow, do you want all that?” I asked, pointing to the clothes. She simply added more items with a “hmm” and a sarcastic smile.

We were both off with each other since Jessica rudely interrupted us. I wasn’t going to let her get to me anymore.

Evie had walked into the changing room to try on a dress. Of course, I followed her. I will show her what her tantrum was doing to me, right here and now.

I pushed the door and entered her little room. She was undressed, and still had no underwear on.

“Uh, Charlie what are you doing!?” She whispered loudly, covering her body with the dress. I said nothing, just looked at her like I was ready to devour her. My eyes lowering to her precious flower. She shifted her stance and started to blush.

I closed the distance between us, as I did, she put her hand on my chest in an attempt to push me away but they soon relaxed. I grabbed her hands and raised them above her head and kissed her hard. Sweet moans left her as she responded to me.

I lowered myself down to her womanhood, licking and nipping at her. I looked up and she had covered her mouth with her hands, muffling the moans of pleasure escaping her lips. She was ready to let go. . . So I stopped.

I stood up, and whispered in her ear “that’s what happens when you throw tantrums” and left the changing room.

I sat down on the chair outside, next to the pile of clothes. After a several minutes, Evie emerged. She had changed back into my shirt, ignoring me as she picked up the pile next to me, taking it to the counter.

“That comes to £5239.95, would you like to pay cash or card?” says the woman behind the counter as I walk over.

I put the cash down before Evie had time to process what was just said. Then catching on, she shook her head at me and looked away. Anger in her eyes, probably because I ended her pleasure before she was done. But I didn’t care. She was being silly.

The car journey back to my place was a silent one. I rolled my eyes at myself, for allowing Jessica to have ruined the mood and for reacting harshly to Evie’s tantrum. As we pull up, I place my hand on Evie’s thigh and gently run my thumb back and forth in an ‘are you ok? / I’m sorry’ motion. I have really pissed her off, as she just gets out of the car with her bags of clothes and shoes, without saying a word and heads into the building. ‘Nice one Charlie!’ I say out loud followed by a sigh.

“So, are you ready to talk now?” I asked wearily.

Evie was sat on the sofa, engrossed in her phone. She looked up at me with her gorgeous eyes that were catching the light above making them look greener than before, then looked back at the screen. She took my breath away and I instantly went hard. I shook my head and headed towards the sofa, thinking about how I have to explain everything that happened with Jessica. Well, that sent me straight down!

“Jessica is who we saw today. Our relationship was - is complicated.” I sigh, Evie has put her phone down and turned towards me, listening intently.

“We’ve known each other for years. We hung out in the same social crowd at uni. Anyway, things got more intense between us and we ended up in a relationship.” I shrugged, looking into Evie’s eyes for any kind of hint that I could stop. But there was none.

“I fell in love with her. I saw my future evolving around her. There was no future with out her, or so I thought. I proposed to her and we had planned our wedding as you do, then the day of the wedding; about an hour before I was due to leave for the church, I headed to my best man’s room and found them together in bed.”

Looking up Evie was wide-eyed and her jaw on the floor.

“As you can probably tell, I was raging and heart broken. I had never put myself out there with anyone like that before so she really did a number on me.” I sighed, remembering back to that day. “That was two years ago now. I made myself a promise back then, that I would never allow myself to feel that hurt again, that no woman was worth that pain. I threw myself into my work more and I never allowed anyone to get close to me again. I keep everyone at a distance and keep intimacy limited to a number of days.” I say as I run my fingers through my hair and stand up.

“I hadn’t seen Jessica for a while, but I bumped into her a few weeks back - the day you said you saw us together. She wanted to apologise and clear the air. Then I, stupidly gave in to her and we had s*x. Then I had not spoken to her again until today.” I rant as I look down to Evie.

She was staring at her hands, on her lap. A couple of minutes go by with neither of us saying anything. I had taken a seat on the other side of the sofa.

I felt bad, I felt weak and I felt guilty for hurting Evie.

“So, what are we doing? What is this between us?” She simply asks. “All this is just a waste. If no one will ever get close to you again, why are you spending so much money on me? Helping me? Forcing me to stay here, even though I have a perfectly good room waiting for me?” Her tone and voice raising as she was getting angrier with me.

“Evie, I don’t - I” I start to reply but she cuts me off.

“It doesn’t even matter. I am not ready to jump into a relationship with anyone either.” She says, lowering her tone “Let face it, we have some damn good s*x, but that is all it is. We don’t need to add in all those feelings and commitments. We can just keep this as a s*x only arrangement.”

Did I hear that right? Did she say let’s keep this as just s*x? No feelings and commitments?

Surely not!