by Lesley Jones
As soon as I walk into the living and kitchen area and the motion sensor lighting comes on, I spot the empty wine glass, then her shoes at the bottom of the stairs. I head up them two at a time. I can smell her, taste her on my tongue, and for some reason, it makes my eyes water. I head along the landing and through the open door of the master suite and she’s there. I have to cover my mouth with my hand so the girly fucking sobbing noises I’m making don’t wake her up.
I lean in the doorway and watch her sleep. She’s curled in the middle of the bed wearing one of my sweatshirts. Her knees are pulled up to her chest as she lays in the foetal position, her long hair fanned out on the pillow beside her. Her mouth is slightly open and she looks as young as she did that very first time she walked into my wine bar, only now, she’s so much more beautiful.
As much as I could stand here watching her sleep, I need to let her family know she’s safe. I should grow some and call Frank, but I just want to shower and crawl into bed with my Kitten, not stand and listen to a three-hour long, Frank Layton lecture, so I call Bailey instead.
“This better be good news,” is all he says.
“I’ve got her. She’s at our apartment at the Wharf.”
“She okay?”
“She’s sleeping. I’ll get her to call her mum in the morning.”
“You do that… and King?” Here we go…
“Yeah?”
“Me and you, I think we need a chat.” I close my eyes and take a long breath.
“It was December, Bails, we weren’t even together.”
“You face fucked a bird in an airport toilet, then turned up at my ol’ man’s declaring undying love for my sister. Like I said, we need to talk.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I end the call.
I go into the guest suite to shower, and as I towel myself dry my phone rings. I grab it from the side of the sink quickly, not wanting the sound to wake Georgia up. Tamara’s name shows up on the screen so I silence my phone and ignore the call.
I hate the woman. How she got pregnant is still a complete mystery to me. I’m sure I would’ve noticed if the condom had split the last time I fucked her in Ibiza.
If it wasn’t for the fact that the baby’s mine, I would’ve cut all ties but I can’t. She’s going to be released from the unit she’s been in in the next couple of weeks. I’ve had the best head doctors involved in evaluating her, and they all seemed to agree she’s ready, and she can be trusted with the baby. I’m still not convinced. She may be clean, but that’s only because she’s been locked up and had no access to drugs. Now that she is being given some freedom and allowed out on her own, she is being tested every couple of days. Tamara may be an addict, but she’s also smart and devious and probably prepared to go to great lengths to get out of that place.
I sit down on the edge of the bath and rub my hair dry with a towel, suddenly feeling drained. How do two people manage to attract so much drama in their lives? Sean’s death, the fact that Georgia and I had got together, Tamara having my child, this bird at the airport last year now crawling out the woodwork. Just one thing after another, and all of it, apparently, worth at least a whole page spread in the tabloids.
I knew there would always be press attention surrounding Georgia because of who she was married to, but I never thought the press would turn their attention to every little aspect of my life the way they have.
I let out a long sigh and rub my hand over my beard. I’ve not shaved since I’ve been away. Georgia loves me with a beard, but she hates that in-between stage. She always complains that my whiskers are spiteful and make her nose itch. Funny that she never complains when I scrape them up the inside of her thigh and over her clit. My cock twitches at that thought.
I stand and head towards where she’s sleeping, sitting as quietly as I can next to her on the bed. I gently brush her hair from her face and watch as she licks her lips. Her phone lights up on the bedside table. It’s obviously on silent and she’s got untold missed calls and messages. Anger boils inside me as I see it’s Tamara trying to call her now, but then I wonder if it’s an emergency with Harry and that’s why Tam’s now calling Georgia’s phone. I walk out to the landing and answer.
“Tamara, what the fuck’s wrong?”
“Cam?”
“Yes, Cam, who the fuck else were you expecting?”
“I… What are you doing? Why are you with her?” Oh, please, this bird seriously gives my arse a headache.
“Why the fuck wouldn’t I be with her, Tamara? What d’ya want? Is Harry okay?”
“I just thought that with what the papers are saying that—”
“It’s old news,” I cut her off. “The newspapers are reporting on something that happened last year, before Kit… before Georgia and I were back together.” I’m so tired, I just want to fall into bed now, feel Georgia’s skin on mine and go to sleep. “Is the baby okay?” I ask again.
“The baby’s fine, Cam. We miss you.” She’s so full of shit.
“I’ll try and get over to see him tomorrow. Kiss him for me. I need to go.” I end the call before I have to listen to her whiney reply and turn back to the bedroom.
Georgia’s sitting up in the middle of the bed, back against the headboard, her knees pulled up, her arms wrapped around them. The bottom half of her face is resting on her knees and she’s looking over the top of them at me with her big blue eyes.
“Kitten,” I sigh out her name while walking towards her. She raises her head and narrows her eyes.
“Stay the fuck away from me. How’d you know I was here?”
I stop in my tracks. I don’t know why I thought this was going to be easy. This is Georgia I’m dealing with after all. She’s never been known for her reasoning skills when she’s pissed off, or at any other time come to think of it.
“I didn’t know you were here. Everyone’s been worried sick and looking for you.” I’m still wearing nothing but the towel that’s wrapped around my hips and I watch as she looks me up and down. She might be pissed off with me, but she also wants to fuck. I have an instant hard on, but her eyes are back on mine and she hasn’t noticed it yet. “Did you know your phone was on silent? Your family were worried sick. They went to Marley’s place looking for you after Benny said that’s where he dropped you off. The doorman told them you left in a cab…” I feel my jaw tremble. I’m feeling pissed off with her for scaring us all. I’m feeling relieved that she’s okay, and I’m feeling guilty that I’ve caused it all. Fucking feelings, I hate feelings, all of these ones anyway. “No one knew where you were. You did what you do best. You put your phone on silent and ran the fuck away, leaving the rest of us to worry ourselves sick.” I don’t want to shout. I don’t want to be angry with her, and I’m not, not really. I’m angry with myself, with the situation.
“Don’t you fucking dare shout at me. I couldn’t go home. You know, home, that place we bought together; that place we’ve spent the last six months turning from a house to a home. That place we will hopefully be raising our kids in? Yeah, that place. I couldn’t go there, because it was surrounded by fucking journalists, wanting to know about the blow job you got in a toilet in Sydney.” She swipes at her eyes with the back of her hand and I want to go to her so badly, but she’s too angry. So I stand still and let her have her rant. “I forgot my phone was on silent, because while a dozen paps were telling me about your sexy time in an Aussie carzey, I had your psycho cunt of a baby mumma, ringing me up and laughing at me down the phone.” I raise my eyebrows at her use of the word cunt and I know that she’s really pissed off now. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare raise your eyebrows at me for using the c word to describe that woman. She might be the mother of your child, but she’s still a cunt, a fucking crazy, psycho bitch cunt.”
She’s screaming at the top of her lungs to the point where I can hear her voice becoming hoarse. She stands up on the bed, jumps down onto the floor, then pulls the lamp off the bedside table and throws it at me. I step as
ide and watch as she pulls the pillows off the bed and throws them at me. She then starts pulling the sheet and the thing that goes under it, the mattress cover thing, she pulls both of them off and tries to tear the sheet in half, all while I just stand and stare. I say nothing, do nothing, because I know exactly how she feels. It’s how I felt when I punched that tree earlier.
When the sheet won’t tear, she jumps up and down on the spot in sheer frustration and lets out a loud scream. I struggle not to laugh, but she sees me. I’ve only ever seen her move so fast once before and that was when she hit Haley White in my club on the night we fucked. She cracks me in the jaw without me even seeing it coming, and I take a step back, but it’s her who screams out in pain, obviously hurting her hand as it makes contact with my jaw. I think that’s going to stop her, but she’s flipped and seriously lost the plot now as she picks up the lamp she threw at me earlier and swings it, aiming it at my head.
“Stop!” I shout at her, grabbing the lamp and pulling it out of her grip. “Calm the fuck down, Georgia.” She flies at me again. For fuck’s sake, what does she think she’s going to achieve? I’m almost six-feet-five and weigh around fifteen-and-a-half stone. She slaps my face hard, then digs her nails into the other cheek. Kicking and screaming at me all the while. I slap her around the face, not because I want to hurt her, but because I don’t know what else to do to calm her down. She steps back away from me, her arms hanging limply at her sides. She’s breathing heavily and crying. She looks thoroughly defeated as she looks at me, shaking her head and sobbing.
“Why? Why, Cam?” I shake my head and open my mouth to speak, but she continues, “Is this punishment, for what I did before, because I went back to Sean? Because I wouldn’t leave Sean?” She can hardly breathe. She’s sobbing so hard and it fucking breaks my heart that I’ve done this. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Let me know I wasn’t enough? She said I wouldn’t be. She told me and I thought I knew you better than her, but I don’t. You only left ten days ago, just ten days apart and you do this. Why the house? Why the IVF? Why go through all of that then go into a toilet, a fucking toilet, Cam, and get a blow job off some stranger?”
Fuck. She thinks this happened yesterday, no wonder she’s trying to fucking kill me.
I shake my head. “It happened last year, Kitten. It didn’t happen yesterday. It was when I was coming back from Sydney last time, not this time.”
She frowns and looks totally confused. “What?”
“When we left Sydney before Christmas. We spent the night in the hotel together. I was horny as fuck, then your psycho family showed up, everything went to shit and you fucked off in a taxi and left me.” She looks frail as she stands in front of me. My sweatshirt hanging from her skinny frame. I’d told her to eat properly while I was away, but I can see she hasn’t. Her face is tearstained. Her hair is sticking out at all angles and she looks just beautiful. She takes a few deep breaths and looks up at the ceiling.
“I got to the airport,” I continue explaining as I rake my hand through my hair and lick the corner of my lip. It’s bleeding again. “It was wrong. I shouldn’t have done it and I should’ve told you sooner, but I didn’t. I was horny and pissed off. She offered. I fucked her mouth till I came and then I walked away. I didn’t kiss her. I didn’t touch. I didn’t even ask her name.”
“Lynsey Hayward,” she says, her voice husky from all the crying and screaming. Once again, my cock twitches beneath the towel which has miraculously remained around my hips.
“Whatever.” I shrug and shake my head. Who gives a fuck what her name is? “And now, six months later, it’s all come back to bite me on the arse and cause all this trouble, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” I take a step towards her, but she takes a step back and that pisses me off.
“Come here.” I know she won’t. She doesn’t do fuck all I tell her. She shakes her head.
“Kitten, I love the fuck out of you. I’ve not seen you for ten days. Now stop being so angry and come the fuck here.” She shakes her head again, but at least she’s looking at me now.
With her hands on her hips, she gives that defiant Kitten look, the one I love and hate all at the same time. A wave of emotions rush through me. I want to hold her, love her and stroke her gently, but at the same time I want to put her over my knee and smack her arse till it’s raw, then fuck her into next week.
“You want me, you come here.” I’m in front of her in two strides. I pull my hoodie up and over her head and pull her naked body into mine and breathe her in.
“I’ve missed you so much. I was so fucking scared, Kitten. I had no idea about any of this until I got off the plane, and when no one could get you on the phone, or knew where you were… fuck. I’ve never felt panic like it.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot I put my phone on silent. I had a shower and was going to phone Mum or Jim or someone to let them know where I was, but I must’ve fallen asleep. Please don’t be angry with me,” she says into my chest. I close my eyes.
“Angry? I’m not angry, Kitten. I wanna fuck the living daylights out of ya, not beat ya. I wanna kiss and lick every square inch of ya. I wanna worship ya inside and out so you understand how sorry I am and exactly what you mean to me.”
She kisses the corner of my mouth where it’s cut. “I split your lip.”
I shake my head. “No, Benny split my lip. You just opened it up again.”
“How the fuck did Benny split your lip?” I look down at her. It’s pointless telling her not to swear so I don’t even bother.
“He smacked me in the mouth.”
“Why?”
I shrug and let out a long breath. “Coz apparently I’m a selfish prick.”
She smiles. “Good for Benny.”
“Oh, cheers.”
“You’re welcome.”
We stare at each other silently for a while, until I can’t wait any more. “I need to be inside you.”
She nods her head. “I need you to be inside me.”
I walk her backwards towards the bed, and as the backs of her knees hit the mattress, I lower her down, then swing her legs around. I drop the towel from my hips and climb onto the bed and position myself over her.
“I had such big plans for tonight, Kitten, but now I’m just gonna fuck ya. No ifs, no buts, no foreplay, just fuck.” I look down at her. “Don’t ever doubt me again.” She closes her eyes for a few seconds.
“I should’ve waited till I had all the facts. I’m sorry. You’d think I would’ve learnt by now.” She lets out a deep sigh.
“Shush, let’s fuck. We’ll talk after.” She smiles at me and my heart bounces about all over the fucking show inside my chest.
“Yeah, let’s fuck,” she says. I’m hard and desperate as I slide inside her. She feels wet and warm. She feels like Kitten. She feels like home.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Georgia
I lay wrapped in Cam’s big strong arms in the middle of our big bed at the Wharf apartment. My head rests on his shoulder as I reach up and touch the four ugly claw marks on his left cheek. The marks I left. Marks caused by me and my temper. By me reacting before I’d gotten all the facts.
When I showered earlier, I was thinking I was going to sit down and talk to him about these allegations calmly, because in my head, I’m someone who can do that. In reality, however, this wave of anger just washes over me and it’s like I have no control. I just want to break something… Or someone. I study the red marks down to where they disappear into his beard. The beard he grew for me.
“I like your beard.” He looks down and gives me a small smile, and despite the epic fuck session we’ve just spent the last couple of hours having, he still looks a little pissed off.
“I grew it for you.” Now I feel even worse. “I know how much you hate it when it’s stubbly, so I thought if I didn’t shave the whole time I was away, it should be past that stage by the time I got home.” I’m about to say thanks for thinking of me when he continues, “Good job I grew
it really. Lessened the blow of your right hook and saved my cheek from being clawed through down to the bone by your nails.” I tilt my head back slightly so I can look at him.
“If you didn’t stick your dick in random women’s mouths, none of this would’ve happened.”
He shakes his head at me. “If you hadn’t have jumped into a taxi and performed your usual running away trick instead of staying and listening to what I had to say in Sydney, then I would’ve been sticking my dick in your mouth and not some random woman’s.”
I close my eyes. I don’t want to argue. I’m exhausted. The last thing I want to do is argue with the man I love. The man I’ve missed so much.
“Why’d you go running to him?”
“What?” I don’t know what he’s talking about. I didn’t run to anyone.
“You got Benny to drop you off at his old place. Why’d you go there?” I reach up and touch his face.
“It was the only place I could think of where I could be alone. I didn’t stay though.” I brush my thumb over his split and swollen lip. “As soon as I stepped inside and shut the door behind me, I knew it was wrong. I… It felt disrespectful to both of you. I shouldn’t have gone there. I’m sorry.” He strokes the back of my arm with his fingertips.
“It hurt. When I heard that’s where you’d gone, it hurt.”
I’m an emotional mess tonight and my voice trembles as I try to explain. “I didn’t go there to be closer to him. I don’t have to go there for that. I went there because it was the only place where I thought I might stand a chance of being left alone. Like I said, the press were waiting at our house and I thought they would be waiting here, too.” I shrug slightly. “I always carry the security swipes and keys for the loft on me, so I just thought I would go there, calm down and give myself time to think, but as soon as I stepped inside the front door, I knew it was wrong.” I feel his chest move as he seems to take in a deep breath.