The Winter of Temptation Ch. 06

Author's note: Sorry for the wait. But I made up for that, by giving you a fairly long chapter. Would like to go ahead and point out that it is full of drama. I have a vision, on how I want things to turn out so I hope you bare with me. Excuse any errors, please. Just know that I did my best for you guys. Hope you enjoy. Rate & Comment

Much love, SH!!

"I'm in love with you Samantha." Ian glanced at her through the curtain of hair clouding his face.

"No, Ian! Stop playing games with my damn head, and emotions. You can't do this." Turning Samantha rushed down the stairs almost colliding into Michael.

"Whoa, Sam where you rushing off to?"

Samantha didn't bother to answer as he continued to rush out of the door.

Michael looked at the closed door she rushed out of, before he turned to look up the stairs. To See Ian standing at the top with a faraway look to his eyes. He stared as Ian continued to look at the door as if he wanted to go after Samantha but after a moment of indecision, he turned quickly on his heels and disappeared.

Michael knew that something had to have happened between the two, for both had been acting weird for weeks now. Bounding up the stairs he went to Ian's door, knocked and waited for Ian to answer, but no reply came. So he tentatively eased the door open. "Bro, Miles and the guys finished up, and I told them they got the gig. They are going to play their set when the DJ takes his break from the turntable."

Ian sat on his bed with his head in his head. "Alright." Was his only reply.

"You ok?" Michael moved closer to the bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's complicated, Mike."

"Tell me about it, man. What are friends for?"

Ian sat in silence for a moment. "I told Samantha I was in love with her." He paused, and took a deep breath. "She ran out on me."

Michael taken aback, was at a loss for words. "Uh, how long have you felt like this?"

Ian looked over at Michael. "I've felt like this for a long time, now. Yet I chose to ignore my feelings, up until last night."

Michael felt as if he shouldn't ask, but knew that Ian needed a shoulder to lean on. "What happened last night?"

Ian cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable with the question. "Last night I... had sex with Sammy...."

Michael could not control his reaction, to the news he had just heard. "What? Wait. You're telling me that you banged Sam?"

Ian nodded solemnly, not surprised to see Michael's reaction. "I went over to her place, after I ran into the guy she has been seeing. I got into an argument with him, and became Jealous. In a rage I stormed over to her place, and...." He trailed off.

Michael mimicked his previous gesture. "Bro, how did things get this way in a matter of weeks? You didn't hurt her did you?"

Ian jerked towards Michael. "Of course not! I love her too much, to do something like that. How could you ever think I could do that?" Ian answered running his hands through his hair, he sighed deeply. "I felt in my heart that she felt as I did, but yet she was just too afraid to face what we know we have.

Weeks before I went into a jealous fit and went to her place, I kissed her and came close to giving in to her. I was able to get myself under control and pull away, before anything could go further though. But Michael I knew she wanted it, she begged me to, with her eyes." He continued to rant.

"What brought on the possessiveness and jealousy? I've always thought you to be very protective over her, but this is very different. Is it the guy she's with?"

Ian nods. "Yes. When she brought him into the picture, I couldn't control how angry I felt. I hated thinking of someone else with the woman I loved so much. Someone who I knows love me just as much."

"Dude, as your friend you know I'm going to tell you how I feel." Michael took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. "You've fucked up. Samantha is going to be so confused now."

"You don't have to tell me that Mike. She hates me right now, because of what I've done, and its killing me" He looked down at his clasped hands. "Yet I deserve it. I've fucked so many girls, and flaunted them around her. Hurting girls left and right, not caring about anything but my dick. But the minute she brings that guy around, I lose my shit."

"She may not believe that you're in love with her. After so many girls, she believes you're only using her as you did them." Michael Stated.

Ian realized that Michael was right. He was definitely fucked, facing the harsh consequences of your mistake is something no one wanted to do. But in his case he had no other choice, he had to do just that, to get Samantha to be his.

"If you really love Samantha, you have a long road to travel to earn her forgiveness and love in return."

Ian nodded. "You right, but I have to do it, I need her mike."

Michael patted Ian's shoulder to provide comfort. "Good luck to you, man."

"Thanks mike, I appreciate your advice."

"No problem. I would hate to see your ass as a guess on the Dr. Phil show."

Chuckling Ian threw himself back onto the bed to ponder on ways to repair their broken relationship.

"Well I'm going to head downstairs to get back in this game. So if you feel up to it come down also."

Ian nodded as Michael walked out of the door. After lying there for while Ian finally got the energy to get to his feet and head downstairs to the living room. Miles and the other guys we're packing up the equipment as a few others continued to play cards. He noticed that Annabel and Caroline was missing from the room, now.

"The other girls left?" he asked as he sat in the seat that he vacated earlier.

"Yeah they left with Samantha. "Andy said, giving him a knowing look. "Annabel said that she will be staying with her over night to make sure she's alright."

Ian nodded. "So we got everything straight for the party tomorrow?"

"Yep, we got all the beer, snacks and stuff in the kitchen."

"Everything else we are going to set up in the morning." Andy said

"Who is over the money?" Ian questioned.

"Andy and I decided that we we're going to both take turns with collecting money." Michael replied.

"Alright that sounds good. Now I need you guys to help me brainstorm over ways to win Samantha's forgiveness and heart."

"Samantha honey its ok to cry." Annabel voiced softly. "Let it out."

Caroline and Annabel rubbed Samantha's hair and shoulders in comfort as all three sat on Samantha's sofa.

"Annabel it is so hard to be around him now." She cried. "It hurts me to walk away from him like that but what was I to do? I panicked."

"It's perfectly understandable, honey. It's hard to face something like this head on, but you are strong so you can."

"I agree Sam. We know that you are strong and will be able to handle this situation in time. You have us, in your corner at all times. But I saw how Ian looked at you when we walked in that room tonight, Sam." She crossed her legs and rested her head in her hand. "Babe, that man has definitely been bitten by something, because it was written over his entire face as he stared at you."

Annabel got up from the couch and went into the kitchen to grab bottles of water for them, before walking back into the living room to sit on top of the polish wooden coffee table, facing Samantha. Grabbing her purse she dug around inside until she found her bottle of ibuprofen and held out 2 for Samantha. "Take this babe, it will keep the impending headache at bay."

"Thank you bell."

"Your welcome." She clasped her hands "I have to agree with Carol, Samantha. I was there when Ian got to the house, I saw for myself how he looked, when he was headed to call you. The guys picked on him and joked, but Ian only grinned and shrugged it off.

"Now I'm not saying that Ian is suddenly my favorite person in the world, but I can definitely see a small change in him, and you darling I believe is the reason."

Samantha found herself shaking her head. "This has to be a joke that he is playing on me. How am I supposed to believe that all of a sudden this man that I've known almost my entire life, a man that I know is a manwhore, has all of a sudden fallen in love with me? And wants to change for me because of this said love, and give up his whoreish ways?" She paused, and waited to see if either one had something to say. "No, I just can't believe that."

Caroline shrugged her shoulders. "I can see where your coming from babe. But I also see where he's coming from. I have a feeling that man is not going to stop fighting for you. He is going to continue to pursue you and..." She clapped her hands and clasped them in front of her. "The question is will you let him."

Samantha covered her face and leaned back into the couch. Her heart beat erratically, longing to just love Ian, but the fear was too overwhelming to ignore. She refused to become an insecure broken woman by the actions of someone that she loved with all of her heart. She didn't want to give that power to Ian knowing that he would hurt her. She had enough issues without that being thrown into the mix.

Removing her hands she looked at her two best Friends. "As of right now I can barely stand to be in the same room with him. So I seriously doubt that I will consider going out with him."

Both Annabel and Caroline shook their head, as an awkward silence fell over the three.

"I wish you were able to come alone on the trip Bell." Caroline stated in attempt to break the sudden tension buzzing in the room. "All we would have to do is ignore Michael and Ian and we would be able to consider the trip for just us."

Annabel nodded in agreement. "I wish I could too. But my Bear is so adamant about me meeting his parents, so it's too late to back out now." She said sporting a frown.

Caroline feigned annoyance. "You two, and your men." She shook her head. "Get a grip, your letting them dominate you."

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Carol, do me a favor, and shut up."

Caroline flipped her sandy brown, shoulder length hair over her shoulder. "Ha! Nope. I told you guys before, about the rules of the game." She pointed her index finger at Samantha and then Annabel. "But, of course you two chose to ignore my warning. I fly solo for a reason." She smiled. "Men are such hassles, so I choose to just fuck 'em and leave 'em before they can think about manipulating my feelings."

Annabel laughed. "Yes we ALL know your methods. I've heard you talk about your ass so much I could probably describe it in detail." She grimaced. "And that's disturbing."

Caroline dramatically placed her dainty hand over her heart. "Wow." She acted as if she was holding back tears, going as far as wiping a fake tear from her eye. "You're a true friend, when you know my ass in detail."

Samantha burst out laughing at Caroline's dramatic antics, glad her mind was finally off of Ian for the moment. She wiped her real tears of laughter from her eyes, and held a hand up as if to say stop. "Im dead..." she tried once more to contain her merriment. "Carol I don't know what to do with your silly behind. But I know I wouldn't trade you for anything."

She removed the flats she wore and stretched, in an attempt to get comfortable. "I need to go change and get something into my system." She stood to her feet.

"I'll order some pasta." Carolina said

Samantha clapped her hands together as if she was pleading. "Thank you! That sounds so delish." She quickly hugged both of her true friends and rushed by. "I'm also thinking I want to catch up on Supernatural, I'm behind."

Annabel squealed in delight, and Caroline grinned as she held the phone to her ear already placing their order. "I definitely don't mind watching Dean's sexy ass, in action." Annabel stated as she swooned.

Samantha chuckled and through her hands up,Clowns, she smiled.

Kristie growled in annoyance, as she heard the loud mouths in the next room. They acted as if she wasn't in the apartment also.Disrespectful bitches.

She flipped through the TV trying to find something to occupy her, all the while raging with jealously on the inside towards Samantha. For the total 2 years that the two had lived together she had envied the girl, because of her ability to fit in anywhere and exceed in anything without trying. But the main reason she envied her was because of the fact that she had the love and affection she wanted from Ian. From the beginning she had saw the love Ian had buried deep for Samantha, saw how he looked and acted towards her, but that didn't deter her from wanting to take him anyways.

But the thing that brought it to the forefront on just how much she was jealous was because of last night, and how he actually went to her after all of this time. "Fucking jerk, I gave him everything he asked for and then some. So why would he choose her over me?" She questioned herself, in frustration. Throwing the remote she flipped to her back and stared at the ceiling. Listening as the 'bitches' made plans to order food and camp out in HER living room. She felt her body shake from anger consuming her. Never had she liked either one of Samantha's friends, thinking that they were just as dumb as Samantha when it came to how they carried themselves. Many times she had wanted to say something, but always bit her tongue before it could escape.

"I will let them bitches have it pretty soon, just you wait." She told herself.

Truly going off the deep end, in her mind.

Ian woke up to the annoying blare of his alarm clock, set to go off at 6 Am. Slamming his palm down, the blaring noise ceased as he sat up and sleepily rubbed his eyes. Scratching his head, he walked to the bathroom to get ready for the busy day ahead.

Walking down the stairs, Ian craned his head from side to side, seeing that some of his brothers were already milling around the house setting things up. He walked to the room where he knew they would set up the DJ and the dance floor.

Looking around the den he could see that someone had cleared out the couch, and other things, that normally littered the room. An in their place was a large Christmas tree, decorated in there blue and orange school color ornaments littered the tree. Ian noticed that in the corner one of the guys where working on putting up the strobe lights, and as he looked down he saw that there was a fog machine, as well as an indoor snow machine.

Thanks to Andy's friend at the hardware store they were able to use a variety of different equipment to make the party lively.

"Hey buddy." Andy said coming up behind him.

Ian glanced at him and nodded his head. "What's up?"

"Where getting shit set up in the next room. I got Michael blowing up the balloons that's going to go up in the corridor"

Ian listened as he and Andy headed towards the kitchen. "I'll get started on the tinsel and bows for the staircase. Then we can make sure that anything that has to be taken to the basement down there so we can lock it up."

Andy agreed. "Shouldn't be much to take down there, we got mostly everything."

Ian laughed. "I noticed." He opened the fridge and pulled out a protein shake, taking a swallow. "What time do you think the girls will show?" he asked looking out the bay window at the falling snow.

Andy leaned against the counter. "I'm not sure what time they are coming. I called bell this morning to check on them, and she let me know that they were going out for breakfast, so she would call back."

Ian thanked him, and walked over to the stairs and located the decorations for the stair rails. He had to get a grip on his thoughts.

Samantha looked across the table at her crazy friends, who dragged her out of bed at the crack of dawn, for breakfast. One thing was for certain she hated mornings, with a passion, and they knew it. With her hair thrown into a sloppy bun on top of her head, and her face completely void of makeup, it showed.

"Honey, you look like you're ready to kill us." Annabel said laughing.

"It's too early to be up." Samantha said taking a big swig of her coffee. "I had planned to get up around noon."

"By then you would have slept the entire day away." Annabel said in shock.

Samantha rolled her eyes,early bird. "Wanted to get my beauty sleep in, have a date." She mumbled.

They looked at her, shocked by her admission. "Date?"

Samantha mutely nodded.

"With who?"

She gave them a look,

"Your going out with Calvin." Caroline stated.

"Yeah, and I'm bringing him to the party."

Caroline shook her head and groaned. "Girl that is a set up for disaster."

Annabel eyed Caroline. "Why is that?" she shrugged. "She's not with Ian."

Caroline shook her head again. "No. what you don't know is, that they fucked. Thursday night."

Annabel eyes bulged, and Samantha smacked her teeth and gave Caroline the evil eye. "You have the biggest fucking mouth at times."

Caroline shrugged apologetically.

"You lost your V-card to Ian!?" she placed a hand over her forehead. "How come no one told me?"

Samantha groaned. "Because I don't feel as if my sex life is the best topic of conversation."

"So now you see why all hell might break lose." Caroline said to Annabel, as if Samantha hadn't said anything.

They turned to her. "What time is he coming to get you?"

Samantha lazily forked her food. "I'm going to call him and see if the plans are still on. Though I was thinking 7 and we will be at the party probably around 9."

"I've got to be there when Ian see's you show up on Calvin's arm." Caroline gushed.

"I'm going to be, I told Andy I would come by early and finish helping with decorations." Annabel added.

"Guys, nothing is going to happen." Samantha said, as if she was not only trying to reassure them, but herself also.

"Yeah well we're going to see tonight."

Ian looked around the place once more. Making sure that everything was pretty much set up, and in order. Glancing at the clock he noticed that it was a little past 4 in the afternoon. Most of his brothers where already lounging around in the living room around the game system, eating pizza and drinking. He noticed they had also pulled out a beer pong table.

Walking over to the couch he sat on the arm, and asked for a beer. Popping the cap, he took a swallow before taking the game remote offered to him from Liam.

Right as his phone began to ring in his pocket, taking it out he looked at the screen and instantly became pissed. Ignoring the call he focused on the game until 5 minutes later it rung again. He had a feeling as to who it could be so he ignored it. But the third time around he lost it, and excused himself from the game. Getting up from the seat he went into the kitchen and angrily answered. "I didn't answer the first time, or the second time so you should have gotten the fucking point."

"How come you didn't invite me to your little party?"

Ian felt his face flush a vivid red, as his anger mounted. "Kristie don't pull that shit with me! There's no way in hell I'm going to invite you to anything, after what you pulled!" he spoke calmly. "I'm only going to tell you this once, Kristie don't call me anymore. Don't think for a second I will forgot the things you said and did, so I'm warning you not to do anything in the hopes of harming, my Sammy. Because if you do so help me." He hung up the phone abruptly.

Ian took in deep breaths of air as he leaned against the kitchen counter, in an attempt to control his consuming anger. His instincts were telling him that Kristie had something up her sleeves, yet he didn't know what. One thing was for sure though, he would let everyone know to keep a look out for Kristie tonight. He couldn't risk her causing a scene and trying to hurt Samantha in anyway.