JACE (Lane Brothers Book 3) (102 page)

They landed several hours later. Thomas left the plane without even looking at Sasha. His behavior towards her made her feel dirty and desperate, like a cheap prostitute. She knew her come on was partially because she was inebriated and goaded on by Pippa, but it still made her feel ridiculous.

Outside of the aircraft it was bright and hot. The sun beat down almost oppressively.

Pippa gave Sasha a thumbs up as they descended the staircase. She must have heard their screaming orgasms. Everyone onboard the airplane must have. Pippa clearly thought the union between Sasha and Thomas had meant a full reconciliation. She didn’t realize that everything was worse than before.

Sasha tried to hide her embarrassment.

              A private car was waiting for them. Thomas got straight in, followed by Pippa. The guards gestured for Sasha to go next, then took up the rear. She was going to have to get used to being followed by security.

              As Sasha slipped inside, she noticed that Pippa had purposefully left the seat beside Thomas free. Sasha took the seat opposite her instead and furthest from Thomas. Pippa looked bemused by her actions. The whole time, Thomas was completely silent, gazing out the window as though unaware of anyone around him.

              The car pulled away. Pippa opened her folder. “The lawyers are coming tomorrow morning to talk about what we can do about Crystal.”

              Thomas grunted.

              Pippa rolled her eyes. She looked at Sasha. “And Amore are coming for the photo shoot...” She looked at her watch. “... in about three hours.”

              “Photo shoot?” Sasha said.

              “Yes, you knew that didn’t you?” Pippa replied. “If you’re wearing their clothes you’re going to have to be in their photographs.”

              Sasha felt stupid for not having realized that.

              “So,” Pippa continued. “Sasha, hair and makeup will take two hours. Then we’ll be shooting on location. It will be a long evening.”

              The car raced through the beautiful landscape, past clean, white-sandy beaches and huge palm trees. Sasha had never seen anything like it. Her family had been too poor for holidays when she was growing up, and she’d been too focused on her studies to join her University friends whenever they went on trips. She’d only travelled a few times, and even then only to budget hostels. This place was like something from a dream, with rows of uniquely designed houses with gorgeous front lawns. It seemed so decadent to own a house on an island like this just for a holiday. Decadent and lonely.

              When they pulled up the drive to Thomas’s house, Sasha gasped. The house was an enormous glass fronted mansion. There was a lawn stretching up to the front steps with a fountain. It was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen.

              Inside was just as elaborate. Pale wooden floors, a grand sweeping staircase and chandelier. There was something incredibly English about the look of the place. It was like an architectural modern wonder from the outside, but an English country manor on the inside.

              Thomas immediately strode off to the master bedroom and locked himself away.

Pippa looked at Sasha. “So it didn’t go as well as we’d hoped?”

Sasha shook her head. “He’s still mad at me. Actually, I think he’s more mad at me than before. He couldn’t even look at me in the car.”

“Oh darling,” Pippa said, kindly. “He’s upset about Crystal, not you. That’s what’s on his mind. Trust me, he’d be in a far worse mood if you two hadn’t…” She wiggled her eyebrows in a cheeky way.

“So you heard?” Sasha said, feeling a blush creep up her cheeks.

“Oh I heard alright,” Pippa said laughing. “I get why he wants to hold onto you.”

Sasha shook her head. “I don’t think it should happen again.”

Pippa flapped a dismissive hand. “Why not? I thought you were meant to be all sexually liberated these days.”

“Just because Amore thinks I am, doesn’t mean I really am. Fucking someone who’s angry with you… it’s just weird.”

“Weird?” Pippa cried. “Darling, it’s fabulous! Knowing that you’re that irresistible is a massive turn on. Don’t you agree?”

Just like that, Pippa could turn everything around again. She had a knack for down-playing a situation, an ability to dampen the emotional turmoil Sasha was in. Everything was easy-breezy for Pippa, just a series of setbacks to solve. Reconciling Sasha and Thomas was probably just another bullet point on the agenda in that folder of hers.

But Sasha wasn’t so sure what she felt anymore. Her mind was a jumble, just like it always seemed to be when it came to Thomas Lloyd.

“Let me give you the grand tour,” Pippa said, taking her by the arm.

She led her round the house then up to the guest bedroom where she’d be staying until, in Pippa’s words, Thomas “pulled himself together.”

              “Now, freshen up ready for the Amore people,” Pippa said.

              Sasha did as she was told, too overwhelmed and confused by everything that had happened to argue. A mixture of alcohol and orgasm had left her muggy-headed. Once today was over, she made a note to get into some kind of routine in order to re-establish normalcy. She’d always been an early riser, a morning jogger, but ever since Thomas had flipped her life upside down things had been completely out of sync.

              After showering, Sasha put on a fluffy robe and stepped out into the hallway. Her hair was wet and dangled down her back. There was no point styling it if she was getting her hair and makeup done professionally.

              Thomas left his bedroom at the exact time she left hers. He’d washed as well, and changed into something more relaxed. It felt strangely intimate seeing him in his casual clothes. He glowered at her.

              “You’re wet,” he said.

              “Yes,” she replied, not knowing what he was expecting her to say but knowing instinctively that she’d somehow done something to annoy him. Again.

              He looked at her a moment longer. Then she realized the look in his eyes wasn’t anger. It was lust. It was the same penetrating look he gave her when he was focused on making her orgasm.

Sasha realized then that her wet hair was turning him on. And his gaze in return was turning her on.

Thomas coughed, breaking the intensity of the moment, and went down the stairs.

              Sasha stood there blinking, panting, almost winded. How did Thomas possess the ability to make her so wet just by looking at her? It was like a superhuman power.

The makeup artist and hairdresser arrived and set up in Thomas’s plush living room. For some reason, he sat in on the pampering session. Pippa must have told him to. To keep up appearances. He sipped a cup of tea and read a newspaper over his crossed leg, giving off the image of someone calm, cool, collected and completely unfazed by the crazy goings on of the last few days.

Once Sasha’s hair and makeup was done she looked in the mirror. She looked so different, so glossy. Almost as glossy as Thomas himself, almost as though she wouldn’t be completely out of place on his arm.

Once the makeup and hair team had done their thing, they left and were immediately replaced by Tina, the stylist from Amore. Sasha couldn’t help but wonder how Thomas coped with all these people constantly streaming in and out of his life. Didn’t he ever get time to himself?

Tina was a London hipster, the daughter of Japanese migrants, with a degree in Fashion from Central Saint Martin’s. She was short and stocky with Vivienne Westwood orange hair.

The clothes she presented to Sasha were daring and edgy. Not the sort of thing Sasha would normally choose to wear on a day to day basis. They were more rock-chick than serious-journalist. But then again, Sasha had never really quite become the serious journalist she’d wanted to. And now she never would.

“This one first,” Tina said, holding a black leather skirt and sheer top against Sasha’s body. Sasha noticed that Tina neither smiled nor made eye contact.

It dawned on her then that she was expected to dress right here in the living room, in front of the photographer and the security guards, in front of Tina, Thomas and Pippa. She thought about the sex-tape. If they’d watched it - and they probably had - they’d all seen her naked already. Them and the rest of the world. Why bother being coy about her body now?

She removed her dressing gown and let it fall to the floor. Out the corner of her eye, she noticed Thomas looking.

“No bra,” Tina said, holding out the top to her.

“But it’s see-through.”

“So what?” came Tina’s blunt reply. “You have great tits.”

“I tell her that all the time,” Thomas quipped.

Nice ad lib,
Sasha thought wryly.
Pippa will be proud.

Sasha wriggled into the leather skirt and sheer top, then put on the black high heeled boots to complete the outfit.

Thomas whistled when he saw her. She thought perhaps there was a flicker of genuineness there, but it was impossible to tell with that man.

“Fabulous,” Pippa said.

Tina looked her up and down and nodded. “Good,” she said emotionlessly. “Now we’ll take the photographer’s car to the beach.”

Thomas stood, abruptly. “I’d like to come too.”

Sasha saw Pippa’s head swipe sideways. She frowned at Thomas. So this bit wasn’t part of the PR stunt? That meant Thomas was going off script.

Tina looked at him and blinked. Then she nodded so imperceptibly it was easy to miss.

“Fine,” she said bluntly.

As they filed outside, Thomas’s hands brushed against the small of Sasha’s back. He pressed his ear to her cheek. “You look hot in leather,” he said, exhaling heat against her skin.

Sasha bit her lip as she felt her stomach flip-flop. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered back.

Thomas held the car door open for her. “I’m proving a point.”

“And what point is that?”

“That you can be angry with someone and still want to fuck them.”

Sasha frowned. “And how are you going to prove that point?”

“By making you so horny for me by the end of the day that you’ll beg me to taste you.”

“Good luck with that,” Sasha replied.

She got into the car. Thomas followed.

              The photographer, Joe, was young and scruffy, in ripped jeans. Sasha herself was only twenty-three, but this boy looked like he was barely out of school. He drove too quickly, making Sasha squeeze her eyes shut and grip the sides on more than one occasion.

The location for the photo shoot was on one of the beautiful sandy beaches they’d passed after leaving the airport.

Joe directed Sasha to lie against a rock, one leg cocked and lying lazily open. Her expression was to be empty as gazed out towards the sea with her mouth open in a “come to bed” manner. It was a provocative pose, one that Sasha didn’t feel particularly comfortable making.

              As she lay spread-eagled on the rock, she caught Thomas out the corner of her eye. He was looking at her as though he wanted to devour her there and then. She felt a surge of lust. But she also felt something else. Power. Pippa was right. Being irresistible was pretty empowering.

              Tina gave Sasha her next outfit and she stripped right there on the beach. Thomas’s gaze roved all over her body as he watched her dress. Just as he promised, it made flames of desire ripple through her. She didn’t want to let him win. She wanted to be strong. But he was making her so horny she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to get through the rest of the photo shoot without ripping off his clothes and blowing him right here in front of everyone.

              The photo shoot stretched into the evening. It was torture. Her arousal built up more and more inside of her, intensified every time Thomas licked his lips or bit down on his bottom lip.

The last shots were to be taken back at the house, beside the floodlit pool. They piled back into Joe’s car, Sasha and Thomas squashed together in the back, and tore through the moon lit streets.

In the darkness, Sasha felt Thomas place his hand on her bare knee. The last outfit she’d be wearing was a tight leather minidress and Thomas’s eyes had practically fallen out of their sockets when he’d seen her in it. Now he was working his magic with his fingers, sliding them tantalizingly across her flesh, making spasms of need shoot all through her.

Then he took his hand away, leaving her wanting more. She looked at him sitting across from her. There was a smile on his lips.

              Back at the house, Sasha put on her last outfit. Tight leather pants and a sheer oversized t-shirt. She was to get in the pool fully dressed, Thomas was to lean down and plant a sexy kiss on her lips. Sasha thought of his lustful looks when she’d been wet after the shower and realized this last shot was going to turn him on. Fully on.

              She flashed him a look as she lowered herself into the pool.

“Okay,” Joe said in his London accent. “We need you to dunk in the water then emerge out like a mermaid. Thomas, you kiss the mermaid, okay?”

A mermaid? Sasha couldn’t help but find it a bit corny. But she was aching to see the look of arousal on Thomas’s face when she emerged drenched and glistening.

Once the camera was set up, Sasha dunked under the water. She could see Thomas shimmering above her, his reflection obscured by the rippling water.

Then she rose up. Thomas’s eyes blazed with a desire so fierce her whole body shuddered with sexual want. He took her face in his hands and guided her lips to his. The moment they met, it felt like a bomb had exploded. The attraction was electrifying, the need, the arousal. All those looks he’d been giving her, the arousal that he had built in her over the last few hours, it reached a crescendo in that kiss.

Sasha sunk into him, her mouth moving hungrily, desperate for more. Thomas reciprocated, matching her desire with his own. Her heart slammed in her chest and she couldn’t stop herself from moaning.

              “Great, that’s a wrap,” Joe said, but his voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away.

Thomas certainly hadn’t heard it. His mouth was latched to Sasha, tasting her with his tongue, wanting her, needing her, needing more and more of her. Sasha felt that the only thing that existed to him in the whole world at that moment was her and the sensation of her tongue against his. She could feel the warm exhalation from his nostrils on her cheek and felt the vibration of the moan that escaped his throat run through her lips.

              It was only when Tina - lacking any kind of normal social skills - approached and extended her to shake, that Thomas seemed to break from his trance. He moved away, leaving Sasha’s lips parted, swollen and tingling with sensation.

              Thomas shook Tina’s hand then Sasha did, too.

              “Thank you,” she said breathlessly to Tina, hardly able to stand the sudden absence of Thomas. “For the clothes.”

              Tina just looked at her with a bemused expression, then turned on the spot and headed towards Pippa. Pippa led Tina and Joe into the house.

              As soon as they were gone, Sasha looked up at Thomas.

              “You win.”

              “I do?”

              “You made your point. I want to fuck you. Right here. Right now. So take off your clothes and get in.”

              Sasha didn’t care that they were completely exposed. That if the security guards and Pippa peered out the window they would seem them. In fact, that just made her want it more.

              “And what happened to never again?” Thomas teased.

              “Never again went out the window when you spent all day shooting me sex eyes,” Sasha replied.

A smirk tugged at Thomas’s lips. “But it’s not what you want. What you want is for me to get attached. Is for me to forgive you and be your actual real boyfriend.”

“I didn’t do anything to be forgiven for,” Sasha contested. “So maybe it would be more accurate to say I want you to get over yourself and fuck me.”

“Even though I’m still mad at you.”

“That doesn’t make a difference to whether we have great sex or not.”

“It matters to you.”

Sasha thought of Pippa’s breezy attitude, of her ability to turn a crisis into a mere inconvenience. What was there to get so dramatic about really? On this beautiful island with the sun setting and reflecting off the water, nothing seemed important. Sex could be sex. It didn’t have to be love.

“Who said it matters to me?”

She ran her hands through her wet hair, knowing it would make her even more attractive to him. Thomas sucked air between his teeth, almost as though he was wincing. He wanted her so much and she could tell. He was just trying to wind her up. To make her beg for it. To make her mad but still want to fuck him. To prove his point.

              And it was working.

              “Don’t you remember telling me to take what I deserve?” Sasha said. “Well what I want is your cock in my mouth.”

              Thomas’s jaw clenched. She was getting to him and she loved it.

              She pushed back from the edge of the pool and stood in the centre so that he could get a better view of her whole body. She peeled the wet top off. In the last photo shoot she had worn another sheer design. She’d had no bra beneath so her breasts were immediately on display for him.

              Thomas bit his bottom lip at the sight of her wet, glistening flesh. She dunked her head again to make the water droplets run in rivulets between her breasts.

              “Get in and fuck me,” she said.

              Thomas raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you want? Just sex. Just fucking.”

              Sasha stared him straight in the eye. “Just sex,” she repeated. “Just fucking.”

              Thomas lowered himself to a crouching position. “Take off the rest of your clothes.”

              With a surge of arousal, Sasha did as he commanded. Her body was throbbing with anticipation as she peeled the wet clothing off.

              “Come here,” he said when she was completely naked.

              She swam to the side to the pool. The water was cold on her searingly hot skin. She pushed her breasts against the cold tiles and looked up at Thomas. There was a fire of lust burning in his eyes. He took her face in his hands, just as he had done for the shoot, and pressed his hot mouth against hers. Just like before, the kiss was electrifying. But unlike before, it didn’t need to stop. They could follow the commands of their bodies right to the point of pure gratification.

              Thomas worked his hands around Sasha’s body, making her quiver. He massaged her wet breasts, stroked her hips and waist. She gasped. Heat spread from between her legs. She was wet and ready.

Thomas pushed her back, leaving her mouth wanting more. He locked his intense stare on her then dipped his hand into the water and pressed his fingers against her clit. Sasha’s mouth dropped open at the blazing desire in his eyes as he watched her reaction to the movement of his fingers.

              Sasha gasped and pressed her tongue against her top teeth. She inhaled deeply then let the breath out with a sigh.

              Thomas’s fingers circled her clit. Then in one fluid movement, he slid his fingers inside her. She was wet, hot and ready. Sasha squeezed and gasped. His thumb massaged her clit whilst his fingers roved around inside her. She moaned with pleasure.

              Sasha could see Thomas’s bulging erection straining in his pants.

              “Let me taste you,” she said.

              Thomas’s eyes widened with arousal. He took his hand out of the water and sat back. Sasha carefully removed his penis from his pants with her hands. The whole time, he never stopped watching her.

              As Sasha’s mouth enveloped his erection, she realized this was the first time she’d given Thomas head. All the times before he’d been intent on making her come first, multiple times, even, that his own orgasm was almost a happy coincidence, a by-product of him giving her the exact sex she wanted. She had no idea what
he
wanted and this was the first time she’d had the opportunity to find out. The joy of having him completely at her mercy was almost as amazing to her as the joy she felt she was at his. The power was addictive. She wanted more.

              She moved her tongue along his shaft, feeling it pulsate beneath her as the blood rushed to her touch. Thomas groaned and wound his fingers in her hair. Responding to the cues of his body, she took more of him into her. His moans became louder. Every noise he made made Sasha’s body quiver with arousal.

She began to move her head faster, to suck harder, to do everything she could possibly think of to make Thomas emit more of those amazing noises. His grunts, his moans, his gasps, each one made her spasm with pleasure. Every time he whispered, “Jesus Christ,” or “Dear God,” in his English accent it made her even wetter.

“I’m so close,” Thomas whispered.

Sasha moved away and took his penis in both her hands. “I want to see you come,” she said, applying pressure and rubbing her thumbs across the tip.

The moment the words left her mouth, he did. Hot semen burst from his cock and onto her hand. It ran down the length of her arm.

“Fuck,” Thomas cried, throwing his head back. “That was… fuck that was good.” He puffed air from his cheeks then took in the sight of her. He raised his eyebrows. “Your turn.”

Just then, a voice made them both jump. It was Pippa, standing at the door, a smirk on her lips. She was holding the telephone.

“It’s Crystal,” she said. “She wants to talk.”