Ashton Hill Siren

*****

Chapter 4.

Ariel had to admit, Chess was right. She did feel more comfortable in the simple but elegant cocktail dress he had provided for her. Rather than just his brothers and their wives, his sister had arrived as well, along with two other close friends. They had met in an upmarket Chinese restaurant and sat at a large round table with a lazy susan in the middle.

The siblings bantered and teased each other, and Ariel relaxed into the evening feeling like she was with her own friends in the casual atmosphere. There were a few questions about her work and how she met Chess, but it thankfully wasn't like an interrogation. The questions just seemed natural within the context of the conversations going on around her, and for a brief moment she thought that maybe Chess was right about them being able to see where this went, as a couple.

After hearing the story of how they met and that Ariel could sing, the other women at the table decided that after the meal they should hit a karaoke bar and have some fun. Ariel prevaricated. It was one thing to sing in front of a bunch of strangers and quite another to sing in front of people she believed would be judging her, and no matter what happened with Chess she didn't want to make a bad impression.

"You don't have to go," Chess said softly. "We can just go home and continue what we started in the car," he grinned as they walked from the restaurant to the sidewalk of the busy city street.

Ariel was about to agree when a stunningly beautiful woman walked toward them with a huge smile that made her words freeze in her throat. She was looking at Chess in a predatory way, ignoring the fact that he had his arm around Ariel's waist.

"Chess! I thought that was you. I meant to call you today to see if we were still on for tomorrow night," she said, embracing Chess with a familiarity that told Ariel that they were more than friends. She watched as Chess removed his arm from Ariel and caught her around the waist, keeping her at arm's length but returning her smile and the kiss on the cheek. Ariel felt strangely jealous. She wasn't a jealous girl. She was the one who did the leaving. She never worried about being left anymore, yet here she was with her green eyes turning greener by the second. She needed to get away, run away; she had lost her freaking mind with this man. Of course he had other women. When he talked about exclusivity he wanted it from her, but never expected she would want it in return. What an idiot she had been to delude herself that he could possibly be any different to every other man she dated or slept with.

"Monique," Ariel caught Chess's sister's attention. "It must be pretty awesome to be in charge of your own company." She started the conversation so she didn't have to be involved in the details of Chess and the supermodel's date tomorrow night. So much for her weekend with him. Did he expect her to sit at his house and wait for him while he was out with another woman, an incredibly beautiful woman? She wasn't so desperate for the endorphins he gave her that she would let him treat her so badly.

"Not very," Monique sighed. "Men are worse than women sometimes with the gossip and insinuation. They all know Chess is a partner in the company, and he is the man with the golden touch, after all. You get used to it though, and my managers all know how hard I work, so there's that. They all expect women executives to be tough and mean ball-breakers, but I refuse. In fact, I am so girly at work it even makes me sick sometimes," she laughed. "My mother always said that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. So, I'm sugary sweet all day and then go and kick the shit out of my personal trainer in the evenings."

"You do not!" Ariel laughed.

"I do so! You should try it sometime," Monique laughed. "I can give you the name of my trainer, and when you come to the city you can try to kick the shit out of him too. Trust me, it's very satisfying."

Ariel looked over her shoulder to where Chess was in low conversation with the supermodel and nodded, "I may just take you up on that. What did you say the club's name was that we are going to? I might see if a friend of mine wants to meet us there, you'd love her; she has that sweet nature but goes to the gym to let out all her frustrations. You remind me of her a little."

"You should totally do that!" Monique enthused. "The more, the merrier!"

"Chess!" Louis, the youngest of his brothers, raised his voice as Ariel walked away from the group to call Mikayla to rescue her from this nightmare. "Don't suppose you introduced your girlfriends to each other?" He chucked and indicated Ariel, who had walked further away to be able to talk to Mikayla with some privacy.

"Shit!' Chess exclaimed. "What did you do?" He accused his brother. "Julia is just a friend."

"Oh, sure, that's why you totally ignored Ariel as soon as she arrived," Phillipe rolled his eyes. "I don't know how you keep their names straight."

"Shit!" he cursed again and walked after Ariel, who held up her hand to stop him, indicating that she was on the phone. She took another few minutes to end the call, then turned to look at him.

"Why couldn't you just leave it as it was, a fling, fun between consenting adults? Why lie to me about wanting more and introducing me to your family? Why talk about exclusivity when you never meant it as a two-way street? We could have had a lot of fun, but you ruined it by making me believe you might be different, when, in fact, you're worse than the other guys I dated," she said sadly.

"Julia is just a friend," he said in a pained voice.

"If you're not sleeping with her now, you were at some point, that much is obvious, and, trust me, friendship is the last thing on that woman's mind. She cut you from the herd and commanded your entire attention. I could have been long gone by the time you noticed, and I doubt you would have if Louis didn't point out that you were an ass," she accused. "So, let me go, Chess. I'll spend the night at Mikayla's and come over tomorrow to pick up my stuff."

"No! You're not leaving again," he said. "I can explain."

"I don't think you can, Chess. You can't just be playing all happy couples with me one minute, then totally ignore me in favour of your supposed friend the next. Especially when the body language says you two are more than just friends. That doesn't work for me. I can't imagine there is a sane woman on earth that would work for. Are you so used to crazy bitches that cling onto you no matter how you treat them that you are oblivious now?" Ariel asked angrily, realising her voice was rising and hating that she was making a scene. "Let me go!" she hissed at him.

"No!" he hissed back, and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the waiting car. "We'll meet you there!" he snapped at his siblings before forcing her into the car ahead of him.

"I've already called Mikayla! She is meeting us at the club!" Ariel said, unhappy at being manhandled into the car.

"Good, maybe she can talk some sense into you!" he bit back. "You are over-reacting to this!"

"Am I?" she asked. "Put yourself in my position. One of my conquests happens to be at the club we are going to, and I go and flirt with him and leave you to fend for yourself."

"Julia isn't a conquest, she's a friend, a good friend!" He argued. "She comes with me to those boring charity events as a friend to stop other women hitting on me."

"Oh, poor you to be so in demand that women can't help but throw themselves at you. Well, I have news, I am not one of them, and I won't chase you or put up with your bullshit!" she raged at him.

"Great, that's how I want it! You're unlike any other girl I've known! You're fucking amazing, and I want you more than I have ever wanted anyone else! Why can't you believe that?" Chess was frustrated now. "You're a Siren, Ariel. You have woven a spell around me, and I can't stop thinking about you, wanting you, needing you." He kissed her then to stop her from arguing any further. Her body rigid with anger eventually softened against him, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he released her. "I love that you were jealous enough to get mad at me for talking to her, though."

"I wasn't jealous, I was mad that you ignored me the moment she arrived!" she began to argue, knowing she sounded ridiculous, but he cut her off.

"Yet here I am with you, and she is probably cursing me, because as soon as I realised you were upset I left. With you!" Chess pointed out. "I don't care if she is cursing or mad. I care that you are upset with me."

"You have a date with her tomorrow night! Do you expect me to just sit around your house and wait for you to finish your date with another woman?" she asked incredulously. "You can't seriously be that delusional!"

"I have a date with you tomorrow night. Julia always goes to that event anyway, and we have gone together in the past as friends. She just assumed that would happen again, and I was just explaining that she assumed wrongly when you started making arrangements to leave me again. Why can't you just talk to me when I do something dumb like that?"

"I shouldn't have to point out when you're a dumbass!" she snapped, taken aback by his admission of being in the wrong.

"Look, I get it. You don't need me; you can just walk away from this and move on. You have made that abundantly clear," Chess sighed and held Ariel to him. "It's me, I can't let go. I don't want to let go. I want this, us, to work. You have to trust me when I say no other woman I know has ever made me feel the way you have with just one night together. I have never chased a woman, gone out of my way to find her and make sure she gave me the chance to prove I was worth the effort. You're right, women throw themselves at me, if one woman turned me down there was always another waiting in the wings, but I don't want any of them. I want you. I've never wanted a woman this way before. This feeling is new to me, and I am going to fuck it up every now and again because I've never been in this situation before."

Ariel wanted to believe him. It was crazy; she knew it was totally ridiculous that anyone could feel the way he said he did after just one night. He didn't even know her, not really; but she knew his type all too well and getting swept up into a world where she didn't belong would only lead to heartache she swore she would never repeat. That heartache was already starting, if tonight was anything to go by. She said nothing in response to his declarations as her thoughts swirled in her head.

"Call Mikayla and see if she needs Collin to pick her up," Chess said, and she realised the car was stationary and had been for a while.

"She was out with friends anyway, so she was pretty close when I called her," Ariel said, moving away from Chess and straightening her dress. "She's probably here already." She moved to get out of the car and was surprised when her car door opened. She hadn't even noticed Collin getting out.

"Ariel!" she found herself immediately engulfed by Mikayla. "Come tell me everything!" she dragged her toward the club without even acknowledging Chess, who caught up to them easily with long, confident strides.

Aware that Chess was close behind them, Mikayla pulled Ariel toward the restrooms so she could find out exactly why Ariel had needed saving tonight. Then she listened carefully as Ariel told all of the events of the day with little prompting and very few questions. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her friend as if she were crazy and began to summarise, just so Ariel could hear how ridiculous her meltdown sounded.

"So, the gorgeous man out there waiting for you, drove two hours to have lunch with you because he couldn't wait to see you again, then killed time until you were ready to go, and schmoozed both your mother and brother while he was at it," she paused as Ariel nodded. "Then you had amazing monkey sex with him in the back of the car all the way to the city. He invited you to stay at his home and bought you a new dress in case you hadn't packed for the evening out, then he introduced you to his family as his girlfriend. Have I got it so far?" She asked.

"Yes, but when you say it like that..." Ariel frowned. "He never actually used the word girlfriend in front of them."

"Still, it was implied, and Louis used it when he teased his brother, not that it matters. I think the pros far, far outweigh the cons here. You can't throw away everything he did because some bitch of an ex stalked him to the restaurant to rattle you. You just played right into that cow's hands!" Mikayla said. "You're looking for any little thing to pick at because the guy is too good to be true. But what if he is just that good? What if he's telling the truth and it was a love at first sight kind of thing, or love at first fuck. That shit happens, you know. Why not to you? God knows you have had enough shitty guys in your life. Why not a good guy?"

"Because I'm not that lucky, Mickey," Ariel said, not wanting to admit that it was her that had overreacted because she had been jealous.

"Of course you are! How else do you explain having me for a best friend," she laughed. "Give the guy a break; she stalked him, he didn't invite her along."

"Fine!" Ariel sighed, rolling her eyes. "When did you get so smart? I thought I was the fixer in this friendship?"

"Some of your smarts had to rub off sometime," she grinned. "Besides, you have been picking me up from my manic moods for the last few years, now it's my turn. That's how relationships, in general, work. We fuck up sometimes, but the good outweighs the bad, in most cases, and you have to admit, Chess did pretty well today, and she was the one who fucked up, not him or you. Now let's go make him buy us cocktails with naughty names," she grinned widely.

Exiting the bathroom, Ariel wasn't surprised to find Chess leaning against the wall not far away. He looked up and approached the pair, looking wary, and as if he was ready to catch her if she tried to run.

"You owe me big time," Mikayla laughed at his expression. "Kiss her and makeup, then go and buy me a big cocktail with a crazy name!" She stepped aside as Chess moved to Ariel and searched her eyes for a moment before kissing her chastely.

"Would you like a cocktail too?" he asked softly.

"Yes, please," she gave him a small smile, showing she was over her craziness.

"The others are up in the VIP section; we can get the cocktails there." He guided both women to where his brothers and friends now sat. Ariel introduced Mikayla to the group of people they had dinner with, grateful that Julia hadn't joined them.

"Here is the song list, Ariel," Phillippe said. "I've been looking forward to hearing you sing." He handed her a large book listing the songs available.

"Honestly, at the moment I am more interested in the cocktail menu than the karaoke menu," she laughed, holding her hands up and refusing to take the book from him. She felt better, more herself with Mikayla there. The one person who never judged her or made her feel as if she was broken or wasn't good enough, Mikayla gave her the confidence she had lacked in the restaurant with just Chess's friends and family, especially when confronted with the bombshell that was Julia.

"I'll get the drinks," Chess said, and waved over a waitress, ordering two Dancing Wenches cocktails, along with a beer for himself before offering to replenish everyone else's drinks. "Now you can look at the song menu," he teased Ariel and pulled her down onto a couch beside him, keeping his arm around her waist and lifting the song menu to her.

"Maybe after a drink; its different singing in front of people I know are judging me," she said quietly and put the song menu on the table in front of her.

"Okay," he said, but looked confused. "It's just that you sing so well, and you're normally so confident. I just assumed you'd want to."

"It's been a weird day, to say the least, so excuse me if I'm not what you expect me to be," she grumbled, making him frown even further. "You've got to admit, this day had been...." She tried to explain, but he kissed her, silencing her.

"Stop overthinking everything, it's okay. It's enough that you're here," Chess soothed and kissed her again. "No one is judging you. They're trying to work out why I have become a basket case," he chuckled. "Just relax and enjoy the night, and most importantly don't leave without me. You don't have to sing if you don't want to."

They sat quietly for a while, listening to other people's conversations, and Ariel was having trouble being here in this place with someone who had been to Ashton Hill and planned to return with her. No one in Ashton Hill knew the confident fun-time girl she was in the city, and this man was making her two worlds collide strangely. She had worked hard to keep them separate for so long, and she wasn't sure how to act around these people.

"You know what I think?" Mikayla asked, flopping onto the couch beside them. "I think you should give us both Kinky Sex," she giggled when he raised one eyebrow at her, and she held out the cocktail menu pointing to a drink of the same name.

"Ooh, and then this one!" Ariel laughed, pointing to a cocktail called the Screaming Orgasm, unable to help herself from joining in Mikayla's teasing of Chess.

"Didn't I already give you one of those earlier today?" Chess chuckled, not in the least perturbed by the conversation.

"One is never enough for a girl like Ari," Mikayla grinned. "Ariel, on the other hand, never would have asked for it in the first place!" she nudged her friend. "Go and sing, you know you want to. Sing 'Marvin Gaye' and show them what you've got."

"You sing like Marvin Gaye?" Chess asked.

"Not like Marvin Gaye, you nutjob, the song called 'Marvin Gaye,'" she continued to laugh, obviously enjoying her cocktail on top of whatever she had drunk earlier.

"Okay, I will get the drinks, you can try to talk her into singing, but I don't think she wants to," Chess chuckled, finding that he liked Mikayla a lot and acknowledging how good she was for Ariel's self-confidence in this situation. He stood to stretch his legs and talk to a waitress, secure in the knowledge Mikayla was with Ariel, even though he didn't move far from her and stayed close so he could see her every movement.

"You're different with her," his friend Jake commented as he came to stand with Chess.

"She's different to any other girl I know," Chess commented in return, and watched his brother, Louis, move to sit near Ariel. He went to move, but Jake held him back. "Let's see how different she is," he smirked.

"I had to chase this one and convince her to come on a date with me. She'll get pissed off if Louis insinuates anything else," Chase warned, sure that he didn't want any more hiccups on their first evening together.

"Just wait, that Mikayla is feisty," he grinned. "I want to see her put Louis in his place."

"As you said, it's different with her, I'm more protective," he said, moving back to reclaim his date. "She doesn't have to sing if she doesn't want to," Chess told Louis, picking Ariel up from the couch and sitting again with her in his lap due to the people on either side of her.

"I was just saying it's unusual for you to date outside the business world. She must have a great voice to have caught your attention," Louis said curiously.

"I offered to get her a drink before I knew she was singing that night. She obviously didn't like the wine available at the party," he explained that her singing was secondary to his initial attraction to her. "It was a bonus that she was an amazing singer as well."

"Amazing, huh?" Monique grinned. "Now you have to sing, because he doesn't use that word ever!"

"I've heard him use that word a lot today," Ariel laughed, but stopped short of telling them that it was the sex between them that drew the glowing praise. "I will sing though, if only to stop all the nagging. Come with me to put my name on the list, Mickey," she said, standing from Chess's lap.