Craving Shannon by E. D. Brady

Author:E. D. Brady [Brady, E. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2014-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

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.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.