Bonbons and Betrayal: Book 3 in The Chocolate Cafe Series
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BONBONS AND BETRAYAL
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Bonbons and Betrayal
Book Three in The Chocolate Cafe Series
By
Valley Sams
Copyright 2016 Summer Prescott Books
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**This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, places of business, or situations past or present, is completely unintentional.
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BONBONS AND
BETRAYAL
Book three in The Chocolate Cafe Series
PROLOGUE
How strange, she thought, one can actually feel the heart break.
He stood in front of her, half out of the bedroom door and half in. Later it would occur to her that this was the perfect position for him, that it had been the perfect position for him from the very beginning.
There was nothing in his eyes. No remorse. No guilt. There was nothing behind them that indicated that he felt anything remotely human. They were as dry as hers were wet. How embarrassing.
She wanted to scream at him. To beg him not to go. She wanted to unwind herself from the tangle of sheets she was practically restrained in and throw herself at his feet. She would kiss his perfectly shined brogues if someone told her it would make a difference.
It wouldn’t though. She was ridiculously in love with him but she wasn’t stupid. Somewhere deep inside of her was a shard of pride that, despite her pain and shock, was pushing itself up like a splinter to the surface.
“I suppose you’ll think badly of me from now on.” He smiled a smile as dry as those eyes were. “Try to keep it out of social media though. I mean,” The smile broadened in what was a despicable play at charm.
Wait…maybe she didn’t love him after all. Maybe she hated him even more. Maybe that hatred had been growing alongside of her love for the last six months, winding around it like ivy hungry for a good strangulation.
“We do have to work together.”
Deena’s heart constricted again. Yes, they did have to work together. He had made sure of that. As soon as she had put in a ‘good word’ for him with the faculty director, he had been offered a professorship. Based on her enthusiasm alone, he was given a position that over fifty significantly more qualified people had been fighting over for months.
“How long has it been?” Deena asked, gripping the sheet up around her neck. She could see her reflection in the mirror across the hotel room. She looked old and heavy. She didn’t look like anyone someone would cry over. She looked, to be honest, like the kind of rich, successful woman that younger men take advantage of to get what they wanted.
“How long has it been since what?” He asked, adjusting the cuff links she had bought him.
“Since you were awarded the position, Paul.” Paul sighed and rolled his eyes. He shifted his weight impatiently to the one foot that was out of the bedroom and into the rest of the suite.
The one foot that was leading him out of their relationship and into his new, lucrative, blissfully secure life.
“Really, Deena? You know how long it’s been.”
Deena felt her lips begin to tremble. She had to keep it together. It was bad enough she had been made a fool of; she didn’t want to be reduced to an overweight puddle of emotion.
Trapped in a cocoon of over-washed hotel sheets, she straightened her shoulders.
“I want to hear it from you.” She said. Her voice low to keep it from trembling.
He sighed again.
“Three weeks. It’s been three weeks.”
“Three weeks since I pulled some very important strings to get you your position at the university and then you leave me.”
His eyes seemed to grow even colder, if that was possible.
“I wasn’t aware that there was an appropriate waiting time between getting what I wanted and discarding what I didn’t. “
Deena gasped as if he had hit her. It was useless trying to stop it now. Her pain burst through her last attempts at composure and tears began to stream down her face. Big, ugly tears that hitched out of her chest like seizures.
“Don’t…” She said, scrambling to her knees on the mattress as he turned to leave. “Don’t go, please… please.” Was that her own voice? The one that had done multiple TED talks, the same voice that spoke on numerous podcasts and television programs. She sounded so old and so very tired.
“Oh Deena.” He stopped half way across the sitting room to turn back to her. His smile was broader, all teeth and shallow beauty. This is what the wolf in all those fairy tales looked like, Deena thought. Why didn’t I see this before?
“Don’t be silly, Ms. Shelat. I’ll see you Monday.”
CHAPTER ONE
The chocolate, folding over itself in the bowl, was a deep, velvety brown. It glistened and rolled, pulsing like a living thing, reveling in its own magnificence.
Of course it wasn’t nearly as magical as the way Sabrina’s wrist, thin but powerful, deftly manipulated the mixing spoon. She was deeply focused, her long, loose hair swaying in front of her face with every turn of the bowl. In the subdued light of his kitchen, Paul marveled at how it was almost the exact same shade as her magnificent bowl of melted chocolate.
He leaned over the granite island and breathed deeply. It was an intoxicating combination – the milky sweetness of the chocolate and the scent of Sabrina’s skin. He wanted to bottle it like a fine wine.
“So what’s next?” Paul asked, “Now you put the chili in?” He reached over to the small bowl of crushed chilies on the counter. Sabrina, barely breaking her mixing rhythm, slapped his hand away.
“Not yet!” She chided, peering out at him from her curtain of chocolate waves. “You ne
ed to get the right texture first…”
She was unbelievably beautiful to Paul. Of course, he’d had his share of gold digging models and pseudo actresses over the years, but this one…she made his old t-shirt look like a designer evening gown. Sabrina was different. She was without shame or self-consciousness - Sabrina was a woman completely comfortable in her own skin.
He leaned over the counter again and pushed her hair out of her face. She looked up from her work for just long enough for him to plant a kiss on her full lips.
He managed to distract her for a few seconds, but it wasn’t long before she pushed him off of her playfully.
“Seriously?” She smiled, “These need to be done by tomorrow. Your award ceremony starts at 5 and it’s going to take at least twelve hours for them to set properly.”
Paul rolled his eyes in mock frustration.
“But you’re here, you’re in the city, with me…isn’t there other ways we could be spending our time? Why don’t you…?” He moved to her side, his sleek body – honed by hours of expensive personal training - as graceful as a predatory animal.
He wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his face in her neck and breathing in deeply. He couldn’t tell what was her scent and what was the smell of chocolate any more. Over the last month the two had become inexorably linked in his mind. When he’d wandered into her chocolate shop four weeks ago, he’d had no idea he’d become so instantly attracted to someone so completely different than his past girlfriends. He had nothing to gain from her. She wasn’t a stepping-stone to something better. She had no money, no connections, no significant education…she was as much of a delicious treat to him as the incredible confections she was so skilled at making.
“Look out there.” He said, attempting to draw her attention to the panoramic view of the city that his penthouse apartment afforded. She looked up momentarily, unimpressed by the sparkling vista. “We could get dressed, we could go out, and I could show you off. You never let me do that. “
“I don’t need to be shown off.” She giggled as Paul began to kiss her neck. “I need to get this done by tomorrow. I need you to be proud and enjoy your accomplishments.”
“Let me pay someone else to make them.” He mumbled into her hair “Let’s just be together tonight.”
Sabrina stopped stirring and turned her head to look at him. Her brows were furrowed, but something about the look in her eyes made it evident she could never be truly angry with him. She was in the palm of his hand and Paul was comfortable with that. In fact, when it came to women that was how he preferred them.
“No way. No one is going to do this better than me. It’s the least I can do anyway…”
“For what?” Paul was bemused. Her intensity only made him want to hold her closer.
“For the last month…” Sabrina began to blush and she looked down, suddenly awkward. “I’ve had a great time… being with you, going out… You’re…”
Paul smoothed her hair back, tilting her small, elegant little face up to his.
“I’m what?”
“You’re… I really like you, you’re amazing… Let me do this for you… Your award tomorrow night is a big deal. All your colleagues will be there, everyone worth impressing. I might not be the most glamorous girl you’ve ever dated, but I can make up for that with chocolate.”
“You have nothing to make up for,” he said, “Nothing at all.”
Unable to resist any longer, Paul kissed her again. Slowly, he ran his hand down her arm and finger by finger, loosened her grip on the spoon she had been so busy with. She didn’t resist, but that was no surprise to Paul. Few women did.
A loud knock on his door abruptly ended the kiss. It echoed throughout the loft-style space like an explosion.
‘Who could that be?” Paul grumbled, annoyed. He kissed Sabrina again quickly, her lips too warm and compliant to resist.
“Don’t move.”
He practically leaped across the glossy concrete floor, pulling up his low-slung gym shorts as he did so. He wasn’t expecting anyone, certainly not at 8 o’clock on a Thursday night.
When he squinted through the peephole, his heart clenched in his chest.
It was Deena.
Ragged, grey skinned and wild eyed, she stood in the unflattering light of his hallway. Had he not specifically told her not to contact him outside of work? Hadn't he made that perfectly clear?
The last thing he needed was this haggard old beast getting in the way of what was turning into the ideal, low maintenance relationship for him. He turned to Sabrina, who was now busily folding the crimson chili shreds into her mixture.
“It’s the neighbor, probably complaining about recycling or something…” He said. Not his best lie, but it would do for now. Sabrina didn’t look up from her work, barely nodding, let alone showing any suspicion. “I’ll just be a minute.”
Paul unlocked the door and opened it only enough to slip out into the hall. Deena’s eyes widened, the pain of seeing him again more than evident.
“What are you doing here?“ Paul hissed. He took her by her elbow and moved her away from the door, pinning her in the corner. “I told you to stay away from me. What part of that confused you?”
With her black hair frizzy from the rain and her face completely without make up, Deena looked more like Paul’s grandmother than an ex-lover. He wondered how he had managed to date her as long as he did. Of course, many men would do much worse if a tenured professorship at the city’s leading university was on the line.
“I needed to see you. I can’t do this Paul. I can’t… I’m broken. I can’t think straight. I haven’t slept in a month; my work is suffering… it’s killing me not being with you…”
Had her hands always been so veiny? Tendons bulged against her brown, age spot spattered skin as she slid them up his chest. Barely able to hide his revulsion, he took her wrists.
“I am done. Listen to me Deena…” The tears had started now, predictably. They began to roll from her blood shot eyes, down the paper-thin skin of her cheeks. “I made it clear that what we had is done. I have moved on and I suggest you do the same.”
She struggled in his grip, trying to lift her arms up to embrace him.
“I can’t,” she said. “I can’t move on. You… you were everything to me; more than my career, more than my children, more than… Oh god, more than my life.”
How was this the woman who only six months ago had been doing the late night political talk shows? How was this the woman who had been essentially the face of the country’s leading computer science program? It was sickening to him, this lack of control.
“Deena. You need to leave.”
“I can’t…” Deena sobbed, her voice becoming louder. “I won’t.” She was practically yelling now, her sobs out of control and noisy enough to echo in the hall. The last thing he needed was Sabrina to hear. Without thinking he let go of one of her wrists and put his hand over her mouth, forcing her up against the wall.
“Listen to me.” He hissed into her ear, squeezing her wrist too hard as his annoyance turned suddenly to rage. “There is nothing here for you. Do you understand? NOTHING you could do would get me back. I don’t need you anymore and to be perfectly honest, you disgust me.”
He felt Deena’s body, much frailer than it had been a month ago when he had said goodbye, go slack against him. Her tears were wet against his hand where it was still clamped over her mouth. He continued to hiss, like the viper he was, into her ear.
“You are going to turn around and you are going to quietly get into the elevator. Then you are going to go back to your sad, lonely little life and you are going to act like nothing ever happened between us. I’m just another professor and you… you’re just another dried up, lonely, miserable old woman.”
With one ear on his apartment door should Sabrina decide to check on him, Paul maneuvered Deena’s almost limp body to the elevator. He pressed the button, the woman practically under his arm, like baggage.
The door slid open noiselessly. Without a thought, Paul took his hand from Deena’s mouth and threw her into the empty elevator. She stumbled forward, slamming into the far wall. Still sobbing, she sunk to the ground.
Deena looked back over her shoulder, her face contorted with shame and loss.
“I love you.“ she said, her voice as ragged as her mind had become. “I love you Paul. I can’t be without you. This can’t happen. I can’t let this happen.”
Standing over her in the lobby, his designer biceps bulged as he crossed his arms. He smiled a cold and awful little smile.
“Guess what…” he said, pressing the button again to signal the elevator to close. “It did.”
CHAPTER TWO
Sabrina looked as excited as a child on Christmas morning. Once they had checked in with the bouncer at the gallery door, she practically skipped into the bluish darkness, her head swiveling as she searched the crowd.