Lucky Seven
Page 22
Tasha nodded, unwilling to be drawn into a debate.
“Even though he cheated? I could never do that, although I have never stayed in touch with any ex-boyfriends.”
“Gerry and I have a very long and close past and even though he hurt me, I’d like to think he’ll always be a friend,” she revealed as she composed a message to Gerry and was happy not to be centre of attention for the time being.
She attached the photos and pressed send. Looking back up at the room and the people around her she was disappointed to find she was still the focus of the attention.
They all stared at her until Marc laughed. “You do know it’s about two in the morning in London? If you’re unsure, check with your agent.”
She laughed with him. “Gerry has never objected to me waking him up in the early hours.”
Once the words were out and they all stared at her with expressions of shock and disbelief she realised how it sounded and when she looked at Jim’s face she knew he was very unhappy, again. Infuriated, even. She took the first opportunity to distance herself from the group and wandered as far as the back lawn. She gazed across the garden through the French windows when she heard Parker.
“Nice dress.”
She turned to look at him and smiled weakly. “Thanks.”
“I had no idea you’d be here. I’m not stalking you.” He smiled. A friendly smile rather than a lecherous one.
“Good, my boyfriend wouldn’t like it.” She thought that might be the world’s biggest understatement, but it was true. “I bet you think I only have one outfit.”
“No, course not. It’s a whole new outfit with what I am imagining to be thigh highs.” He refilled her almost empty wine glass as he reverted back to lecherous.
“Please, don’t. I have a boyfriend and no interest in you, oh, and not forgetting your girlfriend.” Her cheeks were flushing, and not because of the wine but her tone was sharper, terse.
“Sorry, but it is a very nice dress. I wasn’t even sure I still had a girlfriend when we met. Things were tense. Rosa is high maintenance,” he explained with an arched brow and Tasha had no reason to dispute what he was saying so simply allowed him to continue. “That was one of the reasons I went to New York, for a break. To think and it’s still new, but it’s unlikely to last. I really don’t think your boyfriend likes me. He’s the guy off the plane, isn’t he?” Parker asked, turning things back on her now.
She nodded. “And he was not happy about you giving me your number.”
He laughed. “I bet.”
Tasha could feel her discomfort rising as she realised Parker was surveying her whole body. His eyes roved from head to toe and back again.
“Did he know I was in the restaurant before tonight?”
She nodded.
“I’m so sorry I won’t be seeing you dancing on tables tomorrow.”
Tasha shook her head. This conversation was pointless and dangerous. She had no interest in the man standing in front of her. She had no interest in any man who wasn’t Jim and every time she made it clear Parker seemed to take it as some signal to up his game.
“There was no chance of you ever seeing that.”
“Why?”
Shaking her head in disbelief because he couldn’t see why, Tasha tried for a blunt and concise response. “If you had been going out, I would not have been.”
“Shame. I’ve thought about you a lot; your legs and your ass and now I have stockings to add to those images.”
“Maybe you should think about your girlfriend, whether it’s likely to last or not. I don’t think she’d be happy about you thinking about me. I know my boyfriend is far from happy about it and honestly, I’m not awfully thrilled about it either.”
He appeared to shrug indifference to her girlfriend comment. “He knows?” Parker focused more on Jim knowing than anything else.
“Yes, he asked me what you’d said to me.”
“And you told him?”
“He actually told me what the purpose of your visit was. I just confirmed it after getting over the shock of it.”
“No wonder he doesn’t like me.” Parker laughed, unbothered by Jim’s annoyance, unlike Tasha.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much for now,” she replied thinking Jim was unlikely to truly take Howser to task here in front of everyone. “He’s struggling to like me at the moment,” she added and thought it was probably true.
“Because of the painting?”
“Probably more to do with the artist,” she explained and although she didn’t find it funny, she laughed, a little nervously.
“I’d be jealous too if I had you.” He reached out and brushed her hand with his own.
Tasha withdrew sharply, not wanting to give any signals he might misinterpret as encouragement. Her phone vibrated in her bag as they were joined by Rosa, giving her the ideal opportunity to excuse herself to retrieve her phone. Sitting on a small sofa nearby she saw her message was from Jim. Looking around the room he was nowhere to be seen.
Briefly panicking, Tasha wondered if he’d gone home without her because of her Gerry revelations or because she’d been talking to Parker.
Lizzie joined her. “Thanks for not telling Daddy about me using my phone in history.”
“No problem, Lizzie.” Suddenly, Tasha laughed. “You told himself yourself, didn’t you?”
They both giggled now.
“Yes, and Daddy was very cross.”
“So I believe.”
They laughed some more before Tasha’s phone vibrated again prompting Lizzie to get to her feet. “I’ll get us a drink.”
She opened the messages gingerly.
At least she knew what was on his mind now. She composed her message carefully as Lizzie returned.
She realised she had introduced her James while he was still at the angry texting stage. James was only for sexting. He was now likely to remain seriously pissed. Lizzie returned, handed Tasha another glass of wine and sat down next to her with her own phone.
The potential for sexting was on. In fact, it may have been her misplaced James that had prompted it which also suggested his earlier annoyance, frustration with her was on the wane.
Tasha and Lizzie had now been joined by Juan and Philip. “Tasha, whatever you are doing to my dad keep doing it, he looks happy.”
“Told you.” Lizzie grinned triumphantly as Tasha sipped her wine and checked her phone to see no response.
“I think it’s obvious what she does to him.” Juan laughed.
Tasha joined in as Philip and Lizzie looked on with slightly nauseated expressions.
Suddenly her phone vibrated in her hand. “Excuse me.”
Jim slipped his phone away and smiled because as much as he’d been irritated by Tasha’s revelations and the shock appearance of Howser he really did like her, maybe too much. Parker appeared, breaking his thoughts but it allowed them to share a long hard stare the younger man eventually broke.
“I had no idea you were together,” Parker said. His words stopped short of an apology.
“But then you didn’t ask if she was with anyone, did you?” Jim wondered if the other man even cared whether Tasha was available or not.
With a shrug Parker seemed to confirm he didn’t care one way or the other.
“Look,” Jim began, thinking he was past skirting around the issue. “You hit on my girlfriend. I get the attraction, but honestly? I would really like to put you on your ass for it, but she wouldn’t like that. So, I will make this simple and to the point; if you ever and I do mean ever, touch her, look at her or God forbid tell her how you jacked off to her I will not hesitate to risk arrest in my attempts to remind you that she is mine and far too fucking good for the likes of you to share oxygen with.”
Turning, Jim began to leave but clearly Parker wasn’t quite done.
“So, if she’s too good for me, what about you?”
Jim had already turned and was now laughing at the other man. “I know she is far too good for me and this is the strangest thing, she doesn’t see it, never mind believe it.” Turning back once more and heading back to Tasha, Jim shouted over his shoulder, “Remember what I said.”
Waiting for Jim, Tasha could feel she was becoming a quivering wreck inside. All she could think about and wanted was for him to come back and take her home and do whatever he wanted to her.
“This looks like trouble,” boomed Jim’s voice from behind them as he squeezed between Tasha and Lizzie.
“Have you spoken to your brother today?” Jim asked Juan.
“No. Why?” Juan sounded nervous.
“He came round earlier, doing something to the pool. It seemed to take him a lot longer than it takes you. I hope you’re not cutting corners.”
Juan frowned. “No, of course not, but Ricky is usually quicker than me,” he said confused.
“How long was he there, Tasha?” Jim smirked.
“I couldn’t say, I was reading and dozing, and texting, so time just blurred,” Tasha felt increasingly uncomfortable as she looked across at Jim who was enjoying himself now.
“Did you wear your bikini?” asked Lizzie.
Tasha nodded.
“Ah, I see,” nodded Juan. “I’ll let Ricky know he needs to speed up his work rate.”
Jim smiled. “Thank you. I knew you’d see where I was coming from.”
Tasha decided this was a double triumph for Jim. He’d embarrassed Tasha and arranged for Ricky to be put in his place for looking at her.
“Did Tasha blow you away in her bikini?” grinned Lizzie.
“Oh Lizzie, like you wouldn’t believe.” He grinned broadly at Tasha’s ever reddening face.
“Philip you should have seen everyone’s face in the boutique when Tasha came out of the cubicle, she looked amazing.” Lizzie was back to her loose lipped best.
Tasha had avoided telling Jim people had stared at her ass, tits and legs in her bikini.
“Did they now?” he said, requiring no further comment.
“And Tasha would only take one bikini, Juan. I couldn’t believe it and then she tried to pay for it herself, Philip, so I had to call Daddy.”
“I doubt you had to call Dad,” said Philip as Jim frowned at him.
“We should go shopping, Tasha. Get you one in every colour and charge them.” Jim teased, she hoped.
Philip looked at Tasha and smiled. “Maybe she only needed one, Lizzie. Not everybody wants everything and not everybody wants it right now. Shall I come over and do your hair and make-up tomorrow?”
Tasha looked confused.
“Not in a let’s make each other over because I am a gay man so obviously I really want to be a girl, but in an I am a hairdresser who is pretty good with make-up way,” he explained to Tasha’s amusement.
She nodded her agreement before turning her attention to Juan’s chosen career. “Are you full time with the pool business?”
“No. I’m back in school and studying law.”
“Wow, a wannabe blood thirsty attorney.” She looked at Jim who was smiling at her use of his own words about attorneys.
“Are you home tonight, Philip?” Jim asked.
“No. I’ll stay here tonight. Mom has asked me to, but I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Jim stood up, took Tasha’s hand for her to stand too and signalled that they were going home.
Chapter 18
They hadn’t even got out of the driveway when Jim started to dig a little deeper on Tasha’s past.
“You and Gerry lived together?”
“Yes.”
“So?” Jim persisted with his questioning, in spite of her obvious desire not to answer.
“So what?” Tasha could feel her anxiety levels rising. Not for what she had to say but for what he might think or feel afterwards.
“Tasha, for Christ’s sake, will you just tell me what the story is there?” He sounded annoyed again, annoyed and confused as to why she was being so elusive about this when she had only ever been honest with him. But why? Did Tasha still harbour feelings for Gerry?
Her loud sigh echoed around them. “There’s no story to tell. We lived together for two years and you know how it ended.”
“Yes, and so do all of the other guests at dinner. I just want to know everything Tasha. Details.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to tell everyone about Gerry, but I don’t want to discuss this now, Jim. Let’s talk about it tomorrow, if we must.” She almost pleaded with him to stop.
“Okay, but we must, Tasha. I’ve known you less than a week and I like you, a lot, but I want to know everything about you. I need to and I didn’t think it was
appropriate to do our Q and A session over dinner tonight.”
“No,” she agreed. “They all seem like nice people, your family and friends.” Her eagerness to change the subject was clear to them both.
“Hmmm,” was Jim’s only response and Tasha was in no doubt his inability to concur was down to one person at dinner, Howser.
She opened her eyes, stretched and let out a little yawn as his grip tightened around her.
“Hello.” Jim pushed himself against her.
“Hello yourself.” Tasha pushed herself into him, making them both laugh.
“What do you want to do today?” His voice was muffled by the position of his face buried in her hair and neck where he littered dozens of tiny kisses.
“You.” Tasha’s reply coincided with her rolling her behind against his hips encouraging him to get on board with her plan.
Jim laughed against her ear, making her skin tighten as it came up in tiny goosebumps. “You really cannot get enough, can you?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you. But I thought you liked that about me.” She smiled triumphantly as his hand found her breast.
“It’s one of the many things I like about you, Tasha. I have now added your unconventional dance moves.” He laughed again.
“You have some pretty good moves yourself.” Her words were accompanied by her turning fully so as to face him.
“Baby, as much as I’d like to get lost in you again I have too many things I want to know so let’s have breakfast, get showered and dressed and then I would like to take you out and we can talk.”
“Okay.” She readily agreed knowing there was no choice in the matter but threw in a pout for good measure, earning a single sharp spank to her behind.
“Do you want to drive?” Jim asked as they left the house.
“I told you everything’s the wrong way round.”
“You’ll have to get used to it sooner or later, honey.”