Diamond (22 page)

‘Is that nice, hmm?’ he asked. ‘Want more?’

‘Yes please,’ she said, very quietly. He made her say it again, louder.

She eased into the play, enjoying the sweet sensation. First it was ticklish and made her giggle, then it began to confer a slow, sensuous buzz, sensitising her and making her crave more, and harder.

Jason was keeping a close watch on her responses, it seemed, for as soon as her breathing deepened, he stopped and laid the flogger across her gradually warming globes.

‘Feeling it?’ he asked.

‘Oh, don’t stop,’ she said, the words coming out without her having to think about them.

‘Don’t worry, you’ll get more,’ he said.

But first, there was more crackling, and then a low hum. The vibrator.

Its curved tip was cold enough to make her gasp and jiggle her hips, at first, but it soon matched the temperature of her juicy folds once it had circled her clit a few times. Jason drew slow circuits, keeping his hand perfectly steady and his motion tantalisingly in check, never quite bringing her to the pitch she needed. She felt herself coil tighter and tighter inside, wanting him to press down, to place the buzzing tip on her swollen centre, but he wouldn’t.

He took it away and began to ply the flogger once more.

She began to feel the edge of it, tiny cuts of heat stinging her. She liked it, she liked his heavier hand, his harder stroke. She pushed her bottom out, needing him to know.

‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘You’re just as perverted as I am, aren’t you, babe? You love this, don’t you?’

‘Oh,’ was all she could say, brimming with over-stimulation.

He whipped her steadily until she tingled and glowed, then the vibrator returned, and this time it was pushed just a quarter of a way inside her – not enough, oh God, not nearly enough – while he picked up the flogger again and continued his work.

She could feel spasms higher up inside, her vaginal walls begging to be stretched while the damned vibrator
buzzed lower down. But the lower shaft was fitted snugly inside her lips and it overwhelmed her, suddenly and very swiftly with a clitoral orgasm, while Jason was flogging her.

‘Oh God, yes,’ he exclaimed. ‘You came while I was whipping you, you little star. I
love
it when that happens.’

‘Glad to be of service,’ she panted, trying to get her wits back together.

Jason took the vibe out of her, bent down and kissed her pussy, then licked and sucked at her clit as if to thank it for its good work.

‘How’s your bum?’ he asked, stroking it. ‘Feels nice and warm now. Does it hurt?’

‘No. Just for a second, when you hit it, then it’s gone.’

‘Did it make you come harder? Being flogged at the same time, I mean.’

Flooded with shame, Jenna did not want to give an honest answer at first.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, then, guiltily, ‘I think so.’

His knowing chuckle made her cheeks flare all the hotter. He knew her secrets, didn’t even need her to tell him. Her body did it for her.

‘Good times ahead,’ he said. ‘Hold tight.’

She couldn’t have done much else, spread-eagled as she was.

He put the vibrator all the way up inside her. It glided in as easily as if she were buttered. Once he had switched on the pulse to a medium setting, he began again to flog her.

This time it was harder. But that was good. She felt she had earned the smart, even when she began to sweat and writhe under the lash.

‘You can take it,’ he said. ‘You need it.’

His calm words steadied her, and she concentrated on the way the pain splashed over her skin then moved deeper into her, setting a million sparks alight all over unexpected and unconnected parts of her body. Her nipples were stiffer, her clit heavier. The sated feeling from the orgasm she had already had evaporated, replaced by more tension, more need. She had never been able to build up again so quickly after one climax, always needing a break in the past. With Jason, everything was different. It was as if he knew her body better than she did.

After whipping her soundly to the point where she twisted in her cuffs and uttered helpless little cries, he put down the flogger and moved the vibrator inside her, using his fingers on her clit at the same time.

She was powerless under his touch and she stormed into another, stronger, orgasm, calling out his name as the sensation took hold of her.

‘That’s me,’ he whispered.

He lay down on the bed beside her and stroked her hair.

‘I could do this all night long, Jen. Seriously. I could do it until you couldn’t take any more.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I know you could. Oh God.’

Her face was wet and she realised that she had shed a few tears.

‘I’ll let you off tonight,’ he said. ‘But I just wanted you to know … if I wanted to … I could.’

‘Are you going to untie me?’ she said. The vibrator was still buzzing inside her, but she was too numbed to really notice.

‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘First I want to fuck you, and I want
you just the way you are right now.’ He kissed her face. ‘I’ll let you get your breath back first though.’

‘So kind.’

‘That’s me. All heart.’

Some smooches and a lot of stroking later, Jenna had a pillow slid under her stomach, the better for Jason to enter her from behind.

He took her forcefully, but not painfully, jolting her closer and closer to the headboard until the cuffs were slack and she was able to grip the bars. His hands felt so good on her hips, gripping bruisingly hard while he thrust in, in, in, until he swore, and gasped, and subsided with a little sigh on top of her back.

‘I want to stay inside you,’ he said.

She could feel him beginning to soften, her stretched walls reverting to their normal diameter around the spent invader.

‘Stay,’ she said. ‘I like it.’

‘I wish I could keep a bit of myself inside you all the time,’ he said. ‘You could walk around with your pussy full. I’d love that. If only it could be done. Maybe one day.’

She snuffled out a laugh into the coverlet.

‘You’re weird.’

‘Artistic temperament, yeah?’

‘I’m sure that must be it.’

He drew out reluctantly and unbuckled her cuffs. She pulled off the blindfold and lay on her back, looking up at his misty face.

‘You’re quite something, you know,’ she said.

‘Not so bad yourself,’ he replied.

‘Thanks.’

‘So—’ He coughed, slightly nervously. ‘I can’t believe
I’m setting myself up for this, but … Who’s the best you ever had?’

‘Jason! You’re fishing for compliments.’

‘No, I’m not. I know what I’m hoping you’ll say, but if it turns out to be someone else, I want to know why, so I can work on my own technique. If I’m not the best you’ve ever had, I’ll make fucking sure I am next time.’

She took a deep breath. ‘Bloody hell. You’re something else.’

‘So?’

‘It’s you, of course. By about this much.’ She spread her arms wide in the air.

He was clearly extremely pleased with himself, and kissed her, but she was touched by a hint of insecurity when he made her repeat it.

‘You’re not just saying that? To be nice? Cos I’m here and the other bloke isn’t?’

‘No, no and no. Anyway, it’s not a competition. I know you’ve slept with lots of women and I’ve no intention of asking for a comparison.’

‘I’ve never shagged anyone like you.’

‘What do you mean, like me?’

‘Class. Peng
and
posh.’

Jenna laughed.

‘What the hell is peng?’

‘Fit, yeah?’

‘Oh. Thanks for the compliment, then.’

‘No probs.’

He lay back for a while and Jenna watched him from the corner of her eye as he stared up at the ceiling. She thought about getting a shower, thought about getting some food, but it all seemed too much effort.

‘I could be falling for you,’ he said, eventually.

‘So could I,’ she admitted.

‘But what’s the use?’ He turned, leaning on one elbow, his huge dark eyes sombre. ‘Where are we going, Jen? There’s no future. Definitely not for me, anyway.’

‘There is a future. There can be and there will be.’

‘How? All I’m doing here is putting off what’s inevitable. Sooner or later I’ll end up in prison and you’ll go back to America.’

‘Jason, don’t. You’re innocent. You were set up.’

‘All the evidence is against me, Jen, you know it. It’s not that I’m scared of going to prison – I’m not. It’s just … I don’t know. I was starting to think my life was worth something.’

‘Your life
is
worth something.’

‘It’s the first time I’ve ever thought so. It’s like, I don’t know if I dare. If I start thinking like that, then I’m going to fall harder, aren’t I, when the time comes? Might as well go back to being what I was, just some chav with nothing going for him.’

‘Jason, stop it. You aren’t that. You were never that. Nobody is.’

‘You’d have crossed the street to avoid me, if you’d seen me out of here.’

‘No I wouldn’t. I’m no different from you. I come from where you come from. I couldn’t have made it out without Deano, I know that. I accept it. I built my career on his talent. It’s not something I feel that great about, to be honest, but it’s the way it is. You have
so
much more than that. You’re a brilliant artist. You’re clever, but you just never bothered with school. You’re good-looking, you’re engaging, you’ve got a great sense of humour.
You’ve got everything it takes, except self-esteem.’

‘And a price on my head. Don’t forget that.’

‘What, there’s a reward out for you?’

‘Nah. I dunno. Might be. But it’s not the best start to my amazing artistic career, is it? A five year stretch for possession with intent.’

Jenna sighed. ‘There
has
to be a way to clear your name.’

‘Leave it, Jen. Don’t get mixed up.’

‘Where’s this house you were arrested in? Who owns it?’

‘The council.’

‘Yes, but you weren’t the tenant, were you? Who was?’

‘Mate of Mia’s. I told you.’

‘You didn’t tell me it was a mate of Mia’s. You said “some bloke”.’

‘Oh God, her mate’s boyfriend or something.’

‘What mate? What’s her name?’

‘Don’t, Jen.’

‘Tell me.’

‘No.’

‘I can—’

‘No, I said, no.’ Jason leapt out of bed and stomped upstairs to the bathroom.

Jenna sighed and went to the kitchen to put the kettle on. She had to find the answer to Jason’s difficulties, otherwise he was absolutely right. There was no future for them.

The youth club was packed out: people sitting on the radiators, and piling into the tiny kitchen space, to get their coveted place at the meeting.

At the front, behind a table, sat Jenna, Kayley, the Head of Youth Services at Bledburn Borough Council, and Lawrence Harville.

The date for the talent contest had been set for three weeks’ time, and every young person on the estate wanted a stake in it.

‘Can we do skateboarding?’

‘What, in here?’ asked Kayley, to laughter.

‘No, I mean, maybe set up some jumps in the car park.’

‘No, it has to be something you can do inside, in front of the audience here.’

Disappointment rumbled and then died down as the next question was sought.

‘We’ve got twenty people in our street dance crew, can you fit us all in?’

‘I don’t see why not, if you don’t need the whole floor for your routine.’

The meeting was lively, and generally good-humoured, until one woman, sitting near the front, said, ‘Why couldn’t you have come a year earlier? My lad’s the best painter in the county; something like this could’ve saved our Jase.’ Electrified, Jenna leant forward. This must be Jason’s mother.

‘I’m sorry you feel we’ve left it too late,’ she said, carefully, looking hard into the woman’s bloodshot eyes. ‘I hope we can make the difference we couldn’t make for your son for somebody else. I hope you’ll support us in that and I hope things work out for your son.’

Instantly, she realised that she sounded as if she knew Jason was still alive, when his mother had referred to him in the past tense. She swallowed and looked away, hoping nobody had picked up on this.

‘I mean,’ she mumbled, feeling that she was too late to fix her mistake but she ought to try, ‘if that’s possible.’

‘I doubt it,’ said Lawrence, speaking over the woman’s attempt to reply. ‘Jason Watson is known to the police and wanted for serious drug offences. No amount of artistic talent can get him off those.’

Jenna felt suddenly and intensely enraged with Lawrence and had to work like fury to keep her face and voice neutral.

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ she said.

‘It’s not right,’ muttered his mother, amid boos and catcalls. ‘He hated drugs, did our Jase. Hadn’t even smoked a joint for years.’

But nobody was listening and the meeting moved on to logistical matters around filming and sound systems.

At the end, Jenna broke away from Lawrence, who was eager to monopolise her, to catch up with Jason’s mother.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘Do you mind? I mean, I was really sorry to hear about your son. Was it him who did the mural, on the wall over there?’

She nodded.

Now that Jenna was close, she could see the lines and broken veins on the woman’s face, that made her look older than she was. Her badly bleached hair didn’t help, either. If only her eyes were less red, though, they could almost be his.

‘Drugs are killing this estate,’ said Jenna. ‘And the kids who grow up here. I’m thinking of sponsoring a project to help vulnerable youngsters in danger of addiction. Would you mind if I came to see you, to talk about your son?’

‘I told you. He ain’t no drug addict. He never took a thing, since he was a teenager. Took a shitload, back then, mind. Oh, he was a terror.’

‘Could I, though?’ Jenna persisted gently. ‘I’d like to know more about him. Perhaps I could help.’

‘Well, I don’t see how. But all right then. Flat 5, Cloke Court, by the shops.’

‘Later today? In about half an hour?’

‘The house is in a state. I ain’t been too well lately.’

‘I don’t mind. It’s fine.’