Craving Shannon (12 page)

“How do I look?” Shannon asked shyly.

Chad could not possibly find the words to tell her how beautiful she was.

He put his hand on the back of her head and leaned in, pulling her head forward to meet his. He kissed her lips softly, tasting the cherry lip-gloss.

“Hey, you’re going to mess up my master piece,” the woman teased.

He pulled away and mumbled a rueful ‘sorry’.

“She looks great, doesn’t she?” the woman questioned.

“Unbelievable,” Chad agreed. “Not that she wasn’t already beautiful, but you do great work.”

“Thank you,” the makeup artist replied. “It’s not every day I get a face like that to work with. With someone like Shannon, less is actually more. She is blessed with natural beauty, so all she needs is a few tweaks here and there. I’ve given detailed instructions on how to apply the makeup so that Shannon can create this look at home.”

“How much?” Chad asked, getting right down to business.

“With everything I used on her, including face wash, moisturizer and makeup remover, it all comes to five hundred and seventy dollars.”

Chad rubbed his forehead. This little shopping trip was proving to be a lot pricier than he had imagined, and still Shannon only had a couple of things to wear. He nodded his head slowly. “Okay, ring it up,” he ordered.

“Chad, no, that’s a lot of money,” Shannon argued.

“I can tell that you want it,” he teased. “And to tell you the truth, it would be criminal for you not to live up to your potential.”

“Thank you,” she mouthed, smiling at him.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, “but let’s get out of this place before I start dipping into my pension fund.”

La Cocina was a quaint Mexican restaurant two blocks down from Bloomingdales.

After Chad had checked their coats and all the shopping bags, the host led them to a table for two.

Chad ordered a beer and Shannon opted for water, which was a good thing. Since Chad didn’t have an
‘in’
at La Cocina, Shannon would have been refused alcohol without proper ID.

He peeked over the top of his menu and looked at the girl, sensing something was bothering her by her prolonged silence. She had turned into quite the chatterbox in the past few days. “Is everything alright?” he questioned.

“I’m just trying to figure out how I’ll ever be able to repay you all the money you just spent,” she said in a quiet voice.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied dismissively.

“It
does
matter,” she argued.

Chad sighed deeply and put down his menu. “Shannon, I make a lot of money,” he said matter-of-factly, “but besides that, my family is extremely wealthy. I really had fun this evening. Something about buying pretty things for you really gave me a thrill. It was honestly my pleasure. So if you can never pay me back, know that I enjoyed every second of it.”

“I…it makes me feel kind of bad,” she admitted.

“But it’s my money to spend however I want, so if I choose to spend it on you, that’s my business.”

“Not necessarily,” she contradicted. “I feel as though I’m indebted to you, and I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that. That’s not to say that I’m not grateful…”

“Oh, shit!” Chad blurted out, his face growing warm with realization.  “Oh, Shannon, no…I never meant to make you feel that way.” He reached across the table and took her hand in both of his. “What happens between us…what we do…it’s different. You are free to stop anytime you want.”

Shannon smiled up at him. “That’s not really what I meant,” she admitted. She pursed her lips as though looking for the right words to say. “I guess what I meant is that you’ve given me so much already. I just don’t think I can repay you and I don’t mean just financially, but in every way.  Sometimes you seem too good to be true.”

Chad felt like a jerk suddenly. He was the guy that was taking this sweet girl into his bed every night, using her body as his own plaything and giving her basically nothing in return emotionally. Couldn’t she see that spending money was always the easiest and most selfish solution? How many people gave hours of their time to charities while the rich gave money that they would never miss, and then end up getting all the accolades?  Weren’t the people giving up their precious time the real heroes? Not that what he and Shannon were doing was anything close to heroic, but the metaphor worked for him in this case. “Shannon, I don’t know how else to say it—it’s want I really wanted to do. I feel like I gained something today. I had fun. It made me feel good. That has to be enough for you.”

The waiter came to take their order before Shannon had a chance to counter his remark.

Shannon folded her hands on the table. “So tell me what it’s like to grow up wealthy,” she suggested. “How did your family get all the money.”

“My great grandfather was a real estate mogul,” Chad admitted. “He bought up lots of property at the turn of the last century then sold it off little by little for a large fortune. He owned part of the land in Maryland that now encompasses Camp David.”

“Oh crap!” Shannon blurted out. “Really? Did the government buy the land from him?”

“I’m not really sure of ‘hows’ or ‘whens’,” he replied. “All I know is that he made a lot of money off that property and now the federal government owns it.”

“That’s really impressive,” she gushed.

Chad shrugged. “It’s just money, Shannon,” he replied. “Other than that, no one in my family has ever cured cancer or saved a rainforest.”

“What does your father do?” she asked.

“My father, Charles Clarkson the second, is a political lawyer,” he answered. “He spends a good deal of time in the capital. He wanted me to go into law also, but it’s not really my thing.”

“Where you named after him?” she queried.

“Charles Clarkson the third,” he said, nodding. “My dad is one of the best people I’ve ever met, but he can be a little on the pretentious side at times. He was the one that introduced me to Donna, mainly because her uncle is a famous senator. Now if he could just talk me into marrying her…” he trailed off, noticing the way Shannon began to shift uncomfortably. She bit on her lip and stared pointedly at the tablemat. “You okay?” he asked.

She looked up and smiled, but the smile didn’t quite touch her eyes. “So are you going to?” she questioned.

“Going to what?” he asked.

“Marry Donna,” she replied.

“Oh,” he answered then widened his eyes. “I really doubt it. Like I’ve said, I don’t believe in romantic love, but I at least want to like the person I eventually marry, and sometimes I’m not so sure that I like Donna at all. She can be such a bitch at times.”

“Why haven’t you broken up with her yet if that’s the case?”

“I think the real answer would be ‘laziness’. I just can’t be bothered having the big dramatic scene that would follow.” The waiter brought their food at that moment, much to Chad’s relief. He was getting strange vibes from Shannon and the conversation was obviously making them both uncomfortable.

A little over an hour and a half later, Chad and Shannon were walking through the door to McDermott’s pub, carrying a large amount of bags.

Shannon waved over to Alex and made a bee-line for him, smiling broadly.

“Wow, girl, you look drop-dead gorgeous,” he gushed. “Would you please marry me?”

Shannon laughed and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I’ll consider it,” she teased.

“No you won’t,” Chad piped in. He laughed at the easy way Shannon and Alex continued flirting but something inside felt a little
‘off’,
something he couldn’t put his finger on.

Kenny placed a beer in front of Chad and gestured with his head toward the direction Shannon had just walked. “That girl should be on the front of a magazine,” he said. “She’d make a bloody fortune.”

For some reason, Chad felt a surge of pride at the comment, which was weird considering it had absolutely nothing to do with him how pretty she was.

Shannon seemed to be gone for ages, so much so that Chad managed to down two beers and a shot in her absence. He thought nothing of it, after all she’d been in McDermott’s on a few occasions and often made small talk with the regulars, that was until Alex nudged him with his elbow and jerked his head to the side, gesturing for Chad to turn around and look behind.  Shannon was leaning against the pool table. No less than three young men surrounded her, leering into her face.

Chad felt something stir inside. “Do you know those guys?” he asked Kenny.

“No,” Kenny replied. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen them in here.”

Chad jumped up from his bar stool and walked over to the pool table. “Shannon,” he called firmly. She whipped her head around and looked at him. “Get over here!” he ordered. He flinched at his own imperiousness, but decided to tack that onto the growing list of
things-that-must-be-ignored
.  Shannon pushed through the young men and walked over to him. He put his hand on the small of her back and led her toward the barstool. “What were you doing?” he questioned indignantly.

“I was just talking to those three people. They’re students at NYU. They were telling me about the different course studies,” she replied. “Why?”

He really had no response to that question. “Because I think they had a lot more than just school on their minds,” he answered, feeling his temper rise. “There was definitely something they wanted to study, but it wasn’t a course.”  It did occur to him briefly that he was being a fucking hypocrite, but at that moment, he didn’t really care. More than that, he couldn’t understand why the situation made him so angry.

He sat down and stared at the wall behind the bar, trying to steady his thoughts, trying to rein in his foul mood.

Suddenly, there was only one thing he could think of, only one course of action to take. He turned right around and checked out who was in the bar then bent his head toward Shannon. “Go into the ladies room,” he ordered.

She looked over at him, bewildered.

“Do it!” he demanded.

Shannon got up from her stool and walked toward the bathrooms. A second later, Chad followed her inside. He closed the door, turned the lock and glared at her.

“What do you want?” she questioned.

“Take off the dress,” he ordered.

“What?” she asked in a dazed voice.

“You heard me,” he replied impatiently.

Shannon shimmied out of her dress and draped it neatly over the lowered toilet seat. She stood in her bra, panties and riding boots with a defiant look on her face.

Chad grabbed the front of her bra with both hands and pulled in opposite directions, tearing it down the middle. He ran both his hands over her breast roughly, kneading them, pinching her nipples until she cried out. “Is this what you wanted those men to do to you?” he questioned.

“No,” she cried. “No it isn’t.”

He picked her up by the hips and set her on the sink, pulling her legs forward until her head was leaning against the mirror. He slipped his hand into her panties and flicked her mound. “Is this what you wanted?” he asked.

“No,” she replied in a labored voice, “Only from you.” The way she arched her back made it obvious that she was enjoying his interrogation.

“You were leading those men on, Shannon,” he murmured.

“No I wasn’t,” she moaned, trying to shake her head.

“Oh, yes, you were,” he argued, rubbing her faster. “They wanted to fuck you. I could tell.”

“Nahhhhh,” she moaned.

He was fully aware that he was completely out of line, that he was behaving like a total dickhead, but looking down into Shannon face, he also knew that she was loving every minute of it.

He pulled his hand out of her panties then ripped them the same way he ripped her bra. He lowered his head and licked between her folds, tasting her juices. He leaned down further, lifting her legs over his shoulders and then buried his face in her slickness. He licked, sucked and lapped at her repeatedly, over and over, holding onto her hips to keep her steady as she tried to rock them wildly.

He wondered if it was possible that the whole bar couldn’t hear her screams of pleasure.

When she finally climaxed, he let her legs fall then gripped them under his arms. Without missing a beat, he rammed into her quickly, burying himself up to his balls, and began fucking her hard like he had something to prove. “Do you like that?” he asked through gritted teeth, sweat forming on his brow.

“Yes,” she cried out.

“Is that how you want me to fuck you?” he grunted. “Do you want it hard and fast?”

“Yes,” she moaned. “Yes.”

“You’re so tight and sweet,” he growled. “You’re so perfect.”

Regretting his decision not to remove his clothes, or at the very least, his tie, he pounded into her repeatedly, working off some inner demons, some unfamiliar ire. After many long moments, he felt his climax peaking. “Ah, Shannon,” he grunted. “I’m going to cum.” He arched his back and pushed into her one last time, emptying himself inside her fully. He pulled away from her and pulled up his pants then watched her slip her dress back over her naked body.

“I liked that bra,” she said in a small voice, picking the shredded garment off the floor.

“Don’t worry, I bought you a half dozen while you were getting your makeup done,” he said with a sly grin.

“You did?” she questioned.

He nodded. “And speaking of your makeup, I’m afraid I may have smudged it a little bit,” he added, looking at her pretty mouth.

Shannon shrugged. “It’s okay,” she said quietly, looking at herself in the mirror. “Do you at least feel any better?” she queried.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“You seemed annoyed at me for talking to those three guys.”

“Why would I care about that?” But even as he contradicted her, he knew it was true. It was the reason he had to fuck her at that moment, wasn’t it? It was some sort of unconscious male ritual to mark his territory.  Something about that realization gnawed at him, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

When he returned to the main section of the pub and saw the men in question playing pool, something inside him stirred again. He felt a strong dislike toward them for no good reason. Shannon sat down on the stool next to him. Nonchalantly, he draped his arm over the back of her chair, much to Alex’s amusement. “What?” he questioned irritably.

Alex continued to throw him a loaded smirk and shook his head. “Oh, nothing,” he said then rolled his eyes.

Chad wasn’t in a mood to try to decipher Alex’s cryptic, one-sided conversation. As it was, Shannon was sitting beside him in a mini dress wearing nothing underneath. He couldn’t decide whether that excited him or bothered him tremendously.