Around us the music begins to slow down.
Isaak says, ‘Nobody loves no one.’
‘I’ve tasted you and you are a meal I wish to devour,’ he growls in my ear on my journey back to the ground. My feet touch the ground and my knees feel shaky. This is not a dance. This is a seduction, a kind I have never experienced. Primitive, raw, irresistible.
Dazed with hypnotic lust and mesmerized by his eyes, I gaze wordlessly up into his harsh face. A seduction is a promise of pleasure and release. I’m waiting. I guess I’m waiting for him to deliver. His head swoops down and his mouth captures mine. He kisses like a bandit. A time thieving bandit. Time slips away from me. The kiss goes on and on. I never want it to end. How long I stand within the circle of his arms while his mouth plunders mine I don’t know.
Heat and fire flood my belly.
My entire body is a river of sensations. Nothing in my life has ever felt so good. With his hand on the small of my back he presses me even closer into his body as if he wants to meld me into him. As if he wants to completely crush and dominate me.
It is as if there is something inside both of us that is fighting to get to the other. My hips thrust into his thick hardness and I lust for him. The craving for him is like a fever. When he raises his head, I am such a mess I can do no more than blink stupidly.
Fall Out Boy’s Centuries comes on around us and Patrick Stump is screaming, ‘Remember me ... for centuries.’
He lets go of me, his eyes narrowed. As ever, a sense of danger, something taboo, lingers around him. ‘Meet me tomorrow,’ he says. There is a thread of urgency in his voice.
The burn of his kiss lingers, and his scent is clinging to my skin like a touch. Nobody has ever kissed me like that. ‘I can’t. I’m going back to London tomorrow night.’
‘Come for dinner on Monday.’
‘Dinner,’ I repeat stupidly.
‘At Pigeon’s Pie.’
Pigeon’s Pie is one of his pubs. I hesitate.
‘You can bring Ria with you,’ he urges persuasively.
I shake my head and start backing away from him. ‘No,’ I whisper. I don’t want to be another girl he’s fucked and kicked to the curb. It would kill me.
‘I’ll be waiting for you,’ he says.
I turn around and run into the crowd of people.
Up on his high station the DJ yells, ‘Show some fucking mercy. Put your hands up,’ and starts playing my most favorite song in the whole wide world. Are you with me?
BJ
I watch her run away in those crazy boots, boots that make me want to suck her cute little princess toes. I bet they smell like flowers. ‘You can run little Sapphire Eyes, but you can’t hide.’
This is the most exposed, terrified, and exhilarated I’ve ever been. It feels as if all the blood has drained from my head and gone into my cock. Across the crowd I spot my manager and walk over to him.
‘Hey BJ,’ he greets politely.
I nod curtly. He’s good at his job, but I keep the demarcation clear at all times. We’re not friends. He works for me. I’m his boss. This way nobody oversteps the mark.
‘There’s a girl with a red beret, white suede boots, and a white dress who is here for Ria’s party. Find her and watch her like a hawk. Anyone that tries to chat her up, throw them out.’
His eyes bulge. He has never received an instruction like that from me before.
‘Got that?’ I ask, a little more aggressively than I had intended.
‘Yeah, yeah, I got that,’ he replies quickly, his hands coming up defensively.
‘Good. Did you see the woman I came in with?’
‘Yeah,’ he admits warily.
‘Call her a taxi when she’s ready to go home.’
‘Okay,’ he says, with a smile of relief.
‘Any problems with red beret call me on my mobile regardless of the time.’
‘Got it.’
‘Good. Have a good night.’
‘Goodnight and thank you, BJ.’
I turn around. ‘Oh, one other thing, make sure you escort red beret to her taxi.’
THIRTEEN
Layla
By the time I wake up light is filtering in all around the edges of the curtains. I peer at my bedside clock and see with surprise that it is almost eleven. I must have been more tired than I realized. Strange my mother didn’t come to wake me up. I’d told her I wanted to help prepare Sunday lunch. I stretch luxuriously in the dim coolness of my childhood bed. And then the memory comes rushing back and my hand reaches for my mouth.
He kissed me!
A smile creeps onto my lips. I sit up and grab the teddy bear sitting on the shelf over my bed. I slide back under the warmth of the duvet, hugging my bear tightly. His name is Graystone and he is nearly 20 years old, but he has been well cared for and looks exceptional for his age. He smells of lavender. Once a month my mother opens his neck and stuffs him with sachets of dried lavender flowers. When I was very young, I used to have conversations with my bear and I honestly believed he would reply.
‘Don’t tell anyone, Graystone,’ I whisper into his sweet-smelling head. ‘But it was mind-blowingly hot, like nothing I have ever experienced. It almost made me dizzy.’
Graystone stays silent.
I sigh softly. ‘I know. I know. He made it abundantly clear that it’s just sex he’s after, but so what?’
Last night I was a bit tipsy and had persuaded myself that I didn’t want to be just another notch on his bedpost, but in the cold light of day, why not? This is the new, adventurous me. Besides there’s always been this thing between us. Why not give in and just let it burn itself out. I’m not in any danger. It’s just a physical thing. I know I won’t fall in love with him or anything crazy like that. I mean I don’t really even like the man.
I replay the dance, the kiss, the extraordinary way he had licked me as if he was claiming his territory. I touch my belly button and feel an immediate reaction between my legs. Wetness! It was never like this with Lupo or anyone before him.
I put Graystone back on the shelf and roll out of bed, determined not think of BJ until tomorrow when I’ll decide whether or not to turn up at Pigeon’s Pie. I open my bedroom door and hear the sounds of my brothers’ voices downstairs. Still in my pajamas and without going to the bathroom first or making myself look presentable, I run down the stairs and into the living room. My mother is sitting in her armchair and my three brothers are sitting on the long sofa talking to her.
They all turn towards me.
‘Sleeping Beauty is awake,’ Shane says.
‘Hello, sleepyhead,’ Jake greets. I go over to the sofa and standing at the armrest, let myself fall like a felled tree into my brothers’ laps. Just like I have been doing since I was a child.
‘Timber,’ Dominic calls and they catch me, laughing.
‘Layla, you’re not a little girl anymore. You’re far too old to be doing such unladylike things,’ my mother disapproves.
‘No, she’s not,’ Shane rushes to my defense.
‘Stop spoiling her,’ my mother scolds him, but her voice lacks any real conviction. Secretly, she is proud of how close her family is. ‘She’s old enough to be a mother herself,’ she adds grumpily.
‘Perish the thought. She’s still just a baby herself,’ Jake says lazily, gently sweeping hair out of my face.
‘She’s never going to be too old for this even when she is 90,’ adds Dominic, who is sitting in the middle. With a growl he begins to tickle my belly. Suddenly all of them have gotten into the act and there are hands everywhere, in my armpits, my ribs, my belly. With a yelp I try to wriggle and evade their roaming hands, but their grip is steel-like and there are too many hands coming from all sides. Helpless, I laugh until I am gasping for air and my stomach hurts.