by JA Low
Ivy is quiet for a couple of moments. “If he isn’t going to stay faithful then I don’t think you should either.”
“Really?”
“It’s not fair that he can go and screw whoever he wants but you can’t.” Yeah, I guess she’s right. But who the hell am I going to meet up a mountain when Eddie is probably going to stay partying in London or Edinburgh. “Maybe you can keep Axel on the side.” Ivy wiggles her eyebrows at me, I throw a cushion at her head.
“Axel is a famous rock star; I hardly doubt that he needs a piece on the side stuck in the middle of nowhere.” I hate thinking about Axel, so much so that I may have stalked his Instagram account. Nothing much to see there except photos of him with other hot celebrities, or working out in the studio and hanging out with the other Dirty Texas boys. I hate that I looked, I also hated when I accidentally liked a photo when I was supposed to be stealth stalking.
“But you’re going to see him again, at the wedding.”
“Yeah.”
“So are you going to hook up again?”
“Probably not, I gave him a fake phone number.”
“What did you say?” Ivy looks at me shocked.
“He asked me for my number and well I panicked because you know…I am kind of supposed to be engaged and that little hook up was only supposed to be for the weekend.”
“Seriously?” My friend questions me.
“Yes.”
“And what do you think he is going to do when he sees you again after giving him a fake number?”
I still, I hadn’t thought that far in my plan. “Um, probably nothing. He probably already has a date for the wedding. Anyway I am going to be busy so…”
Ivy bursts out laughing, “You are so screwed, Olivia Pearce.”
I think she might be right.
137
Olivia
Everyone is here for Vanessa and Christian’s wedding and I am hiding away in my office. Seeing Axel again is too much, way too much. Axel had a deep scowl on his face when he arrived, his tone was also clipped toward me. How dare he question me about my sister? I know I told him about her when we were in France, but that was because he had given me multiple orgasms and I was tipsy on champagne. Note to self: don’t drink champagne around Axel Taylor and most definitely no more orgasms.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
Ivy stands in the doorway. “Just wanted to check in on you, I heard they are here.” She takes a seat in front of my desk.
“Axel is a little grumpy which I shouldn’t be shocked about, but other than that everything is all good.”
“So why are you hiding out in your office when your guests have just arrived?”
“Sebastien is kind of hot don’t you think?” I try to change the subject.
Ivy rolls her eyes at me. “Yes, I did notice that, but you still haven’t answered my question.”
“You know he’s single,” I continue.
“Oh that’s nice, you know who else is single? Axel.” Well played Ivy, well played.
“Ivy, I can’t, okay? Please, I just can’t.” Panic clutches at my heart.
“Hey, hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were so stressed out about him being here.”
“We can’t be together, nothing can happen. It was a great weekend in Monaco, that’s it. Even if he wanted more, I can’t, I have no choice, I have to marry Eddie. Father needs me to, my legacy needs me to.” A single tear falls down my cheek and lands on some paperwork. Ivy rushes toward me and pulls me into a hug.
“When do you get to be happy, Liv? You have sacrificed so much in your life. Why do you have to sacrifice love as well?”
“I could learn to love Eddie.”
Ivy laughs, “Yeah the same way people learn to love Brussel sprouts.” This makes me laugh. “You’re my best friend, Liv, I want what makes you happy.”
“And you think a kinky, famous, rock star would make me happy?”
Ivy giggles, “That sounds pretty damn good at the moment.” She elbows me in the ribs.
“Also a hot, Spanish, single, chef is in the castle, maybe you should do something to make yourself happy as well?”
Ivy gives me a smile. “That man is seriously delicious, but I’ve heard of his reputation.”
“Well the Sons of Brooklyn and the California Bros. are coming as well. From what I’ve seen they look hot as well.”
Ivy giggles, “I may have stalked their social media profiles when Cammie mentioned it.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Oh my God, stalker alert. Do I have to mention something to Jackson’s staff and let them know to keep an eye on you? If someone’s underwear goes missing you’re the number one suspect.”
“Ha ha, you’re such a comedian. I’m sick of being single, I need to get laid, it has been a very long time. Not all of us can have their fantasies fulfilled in a sex club.”
I flip her off, as she laughs her way out the door.
“Princess?” Derrick knocks on the door of my cottage.
“Hey.” I give him a kiss on the cheek. “What are you doing over here? Am I late for dinner?” I look at the clock to confirm the time, no it’s still early.
“No, no. I just wanted to come over and check out what you were wearing for dinner.” I can see the mischievous look in his eyes.
“Why?”
He rolls his eyes. “Because I know something happened between you and Axel.”
“It’s called sex, Derrick.”
He sighs, “Believe me princess, I know all about that. But what I mean is…I think maybe there was something a little more.”
I put my hand up. “I am going to stop you right there. Nothing is going to happen between Axel and I, so if you are here to try and match make then please turn around and walk back over to the castle. Derrick, I can’t afford to like Axel any more than I already do. There is no future between us, nothing. I am already betrothed to someone else. One weekend of fun was all I was allowed; I can’t keep doing this behind Eddie’s back.”
Derrick scoffs, “You have seen the tabloids, haven’t you? You’ve seen who your fiancé is hanging out with?”
I have and it makes me sick. He is running around London with my sister. As if I would expect anything less from her.
“I know, D,” I whisper.
“Hey, I am not trying to make you upset. I haven’t even met your sister yet and I already know I hate her. What I am saying is he doesn’t give a shit about you or your marriage. So why are you giving up a week of mind blowing orgasms for some douchebag?”
He’s right, but I don’t know. “Why would Axel want anything to do with me? I blew him off, Derrick. He looked angry with me.”
Derrick gives me a big smile. “Axel has never in his life ever been told no by a woman. He always gets what he wants. I mean look at the man, he is spectacular, especially naked.” I raise my eyebrows. “It was my birthday present, he gave me a lap dance. Best moment of my life, but anyway…” He tries to shake the thoughts of Axel naked from his mind. “I haven’t seen him at The Paradise Club since Monaco.”
“So, he’s probably busy.” Not sure what that has to do with me.
“That boy practically lives there; I know this because I’m there most nights.” Derrick sounds a little sad. I’m not sure why because he is a famous stylist to the stars who is mega hot and has amazing friends.
“I’m just saying that he hasn’t been there and when I asked him why he just said he needed a break. That boy never takes a break from sex. I wonder why he needs a break after a weekend of hot sex with a princess.” He gives me a pointed look. “He just all of a sudden stops going to his favorite place?”
“Derrick, maybe he needs a break. Maybe he’s busy or stressed? I don’t know maybe he’s met someone.” That thought makes my stomach sink.
“Or maybe his lethal weapon got a taste of royal pussy and now it doesn’t want anything else.”
I laugh at him. “Derrick, please you’
re living in a fantasy.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Okay, fine, even if this is true, it doesn’t matter, I’m still getting married to someone else.”
“But you don’t have to, Axel is richer than God, he can save your castle.”
“Derrick, I love you, I really do, but please, I know my marriage is not based on love, I know I am marrying a playboy, but I am doing it because it will make my dying father happy.”
Derrick’s face slumps. “Babe, I know. You are just so fucking perfect that I want to squish you.” He pulls me into a bear hug. “Eddie won’t make you happy.”
“Neither will Axel.”
Derrick stills. “Maybe, maybe not, but don’t you think you could give it a chance? Your parents want you to be happy. They want you to find the man of your dreams, don’t they?”
I look up at him. “They think Eddie is the man of my dreams.” Derrick frowns. “Please, D, it is a hard enough decision as it is, I don’t need my friends not supporting me as well.”
“Babe, I will support you I promise. Fine, this will be the last you hear of Axel from my lips.” He pretends to shut them and throw away the key.
“So Sebastien’s hot?” Derrick wiggles his eyebrows at me.
“D, enough.”
“Okay, okay, no more match making. How about I style you though, that I can do.”
“You don’t like what I am wearing?” I look down at my simple black dress.
Derrick’s eyebrows rise in disapproval. “It’s boring, princess. Now, I have left a bag outside full of things that I think will look gorgeous on you. Please let me do this, you know I live for this.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Fine, but please do not dress me like a hooker.”
He bursts out laughing, “I promise it will be fit for a lady.”
138
Axel
Four days, Olivia has been avoiding me for four days! I know the castle is big, but still, we are the only people in it. I bet there are secret passages somewhere like they have in the movies. That has to be the only way she has been getting around this castle without me running into her.
Why the hell am I pining over a woman that clearly is not interested in me? I haven’t been laid in a while and I’m sick of jerking off in my hand. How the hell has Olivia voodooed me when hundreds of girls before her haven't even come close?
Why the hell her? She lives in a fucking castle for God’s sake; in the middle of the English countryside and I live in LA. My life is there; her life is here. How would we ever work?
Why the hell am I even thinking about a relationship? It has to be wedding fever messing with my brain. Watching my twin pledge himself to one woman for the rest of his life must me making me crazy. It’s not like she is going out of her way to jump me while I’ve been here, I mean I’ve hardly even seen her. I know she has been busy with the girls organizing this wedding, but still, we just had Christmas together. Apparently her parents are in the Caribbean on the island of Mustique for Christmas this year, along with her sister, so she is alone this Christmas. Of course Mom fell in love with Olivia, especially when she took her horseback riding to look at the gardens on the estate. Mom is a keen gardener and horse rider so the fact that Olivia took time out to show her around really meant something to me, yet she still ignores me. Olivia hardly even looks in my direction. I rub my face with my hands, I feel like some mooning high schooler with a crush on the pretty cheerleader who doesn’t even know I exist. That is not me! I am the one that women moon over, I’m the one that has women chasing me.
But why is it that the one woman that has fascinated me for the first time in forever doesn’t want me?
Knock, knock, knock.
Thank God, saved by the bell. I shouldn’t be alone right now; my mind is sending me crazy. I open the door and it’s my brother, he has the most pained expression on his face. “Hey, what’s the matter with you?” I ask as he falls down on the second bed in my room. He looks as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“Just don’t like being away from Ness, that’s all.”
I laugh, “Such a pussy.”
Christian glares at me. “Whatever, your time will come and I can’t wait to call you a pussy.”
Little does he know I am kind of half way there to being a pussy. I straighten myself up, hiding my true feelings. “That is going to be a long time in hell before that happens.”
Christian raises his brow to me. “Really?” he questions, like he knows something I don’t. He is so easy to read, I have been doing it all my life and I know the signs.
“If you know something spit it out.”
This makes him smile. “What I have heard is you are getting pretty close with one Lady Olivia Pearce. Are you getting ready to become Lord of the Manor?”
Shit, maybe he does know something, obviously the girls have been talking. “She is just a bit of fun, nothing more,” I deflect. But he’s not buying it.
“You sure?”
I sit down on the bed opposite him. Maybe I need to talk to someone about what happened between Olivia and I. Christian knows me best, he’s all loved up and maybe he does know something about women. “If you tell anyone I will fucking kill you, none of this gossiping shit that we do, okay?” He nods in agreement, giving me a little smirk. “Fine, yes I like Olivia, a little more than I should. It’s complicated. I’m not sure what the girls have told you about it.”
“Nothing much, Ness just said that you and Olivia had hooked up in Monaco, that was about it.”
I scrub my face feeling very uncomfortable talking about this. “Yeah, it’s true.” I pause for a moment before I continue, “They asked me to teach her things.”
Now it’s Christian’s turn to look uncomfortable. “What do you mean, teach?”
“Sex stuff that she wasn't very experienced in because she is stuck up on a mountain here in the middle of nowhere. Derrick thought I would be a good candidate for her.”
Christian nods. “They’d be right, you have made it clear time and time again that you just want sex nothing more.”
“Yeah…”
“But?”
“After you and Ness went home together, which I might add sucked because when it’s your own bachelor party you should be partying.” Christian just gives me a look. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Anyway, Nate took us to The Paradise Club, the two parties kind of joined together. That’s where Derrick approached me. He didn’t need to though I kind of already had my sights on her.”
“And?”
“She is my type in every way,” I tell him, hoping he can read between the lines because this conversation is becoming awkward.
“But I thought she was inexperienced,” he states.
“Kind of, I think she is just more cautious around men, except me, I don’t know what happened but it was kind of intense.”
“So have you kept in touch or was it just a holiday fling?”
He is going to laugh when he finds out.
“You’ve been texting her?” he pushes again.
“Fuck, I wish, she won’t talk to me. After that weekend in Monaco, she disappeared, gave me a fake number.”
This makes Christian laugh, like hold your belly and roll around the floor laugh. “She must have known she would see you again, I mean hello, the wedding.”
I just shrug my shoulders. I really don’t get it; women don’t normally confuse me.
“Guess there’s a first time for everything, brother. A chick that just isn’t into you.”
“Asshole, I know you are enjoying this.” I glare at him.
“Okay, I’m not going to lie, I am laughing on the inside, but I can see you don’t know what to do about her. Have you tried to talk to her since you arrived?”
“Yes, but she keeps ignoring me, telling me she is busy.”
“Well technically that’s true, she is running this estate by herself, and she is helping Cammie and Kim with the wedding details.” These are all things that I already know and tell myself.
“So, maybe just wait until after the wedding, its only one more day, maybe then the stress of hosting it at her home will be gone, we still have New Year’s here don’t forget.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” I mumble.
“I’m sorry, what did you say? I didn’t quite hear it.”
“I said maybe you’re right, asshole,” I chuckle, he is such a dick sometimes.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you said, I just wanted you to repeat it because I think pigs have flown over or something.”
“Asshole,” I grumble and I flip him off.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But can I ask you something? Do you like her? I mean really like her or are you just pissed because someone turned you down?”
I’m silent for a moment. I don’t think that is the reason, I mean yes there is a small bit of me that is pissed and I want to prove that I still have it, but that is not why I am pissed. “I like her, she is the first girl in forever that I like. Now don’t go calling me a pussy alright because it’s not like that so don’t get ahead of yourself. We clicked, especially sexually.” My brother looks shocked at my confession.
“I know shocking, the innocent girl clicking with the manwhore rock star. I showed her some of the things I am into and well…”
“Do I really need to hear this?” he asks.
“No, probably not. But anyway she shocked me, and in a good way. In a way that I kind of want to keep doing.”
“Aww, you’ve got a crush.”
“Yeah, I guess I do, but she wants nothing to do with me. Is this like karma for all the years that I have done this to girls?”
“Probably.”
“Well it sucks.”
“Maybe it was just a holiday fling, I mean really, how would you work together? Would you become Lord of the Manor? Would you want to live here away from everything you built in LA?”
“Chris, I just want more sex, we are not talking about anything more.” Christian frowns at me.