In the Shade of the Blossom Tree

by Joanna Rees

  Now that she’d got him up here, now that there was no turning back, she felt her confidence rise up inside her once more.

  ‘There are people downstairs I still need to speak to,’ he continued. But he made no move to leave.

  ‘They can wait.’

  Savvy could feel her nipples stiffening, aching to be touched by him.

  She let the long green evening gown she was wearing drop to the floor. She stepped out of it and strode towards him in her black suspenders, stockings and strapless bra.

  ‘We can’t do this, Savvy,’ he said. But he couldn’t stop staring at her. She could see the animal lust in his eyes.

  ‘But you want to, don’t you, Luc?’ she said, reaching him now. Boldly hooking her leg around his, she looked straight into his eyes as she unfastened his bow tie.

  ‘But there’s Elodie, your father and . . . we shouldn’t.’

  He lowered his eyes, as if ashamed, but she put her finger under his chin and made him look at her. She adored his face.

  ‘Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll back off for ever. And we’ll just keep pretending that we’re friends.’

  Luc said nothing. This time he didn’t look away.

  ‘I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you,’ she breathed into his ear. ‘And you’ve wanted me, too. I know you have. That’s why I sent you all those pictures.’

  He pulled back and stared at her then, comprehension dawning.

  She saw it then: her gamble had paid off.

  Luc grabbed her, picking her up. Then holding the back of her head, his hand clasping her hair, he kissed her, deeply and passionately.

  Savvy had fantasized about this moment for so long, but now the reality – the actual sensation of his lips on hers – was more thrilling and exciting than she’d dared to imagine.

  He gasped, his tongue finding hers, and he kissed her hungrily again and again . . .

  She was so mesmerized, so enveloped by him, she hardly realized that they were on the move, until Luc laid her down on the bed.

  ‘Oh, Savvy, Savvy,’ he breathed. He kissed her neck, across her shoulder blades and down to her bra.

  She ached for him to pull the material aside, but he didn’t. Instead, his lips brushed down over the quivering skin of her belly until he reached her thong. He took in a long, deep breath. Then he grabbed the thin material in his teeth and pulled it down. He lifted up her legs to take her thong off, positioning the backs of her heels on his shoulders.

  Then he took her shoes off, flicking them across the room. He bit her toe through the thinnest gauze of her silk stocking. Then sucked her toes, looking at her the whole time. Right into her eyes.

  Savvy was lost. She could feel herself trembling. She’d never felt this horny in her life.

  Reaching down, he pulled off her stockings one by one. Then starting with her left foot, he kissed all the way up one leg, his tongue making hard circles along the fleshy inside of her thigh. It felt as if he was hardwired into all her erogenous zones. She lay back, her eyes closed, tuning in, gasping as she stretched towards him. She’d never felt exquisite agony like this. As his mouth moved between her legs, she was sure that one flick of his tongue and she’d come.

  But he just blew a thin stream of air across her, groaning with desire, as he moved across and down her right leg.

  ‘You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,’ he breathed.

  She felt as if the whole lower half of her body was on fire. She sat up, pulling his waistband towards her, untucking his shirt and ripping at the buttons, pulling it open to reveal his toned, tanned stomach and the line of soft hair between his defined pecs.

  She reached up and kissed him, clawing his hair, covering his soft skin with kisses.

  Luc undid his belt, letting his trousers fall to the floor. Savvy massaged her hands up him, sliding his shirt from his shoulders, kissing his chest.

  Soon he was naked, and she gasped. She was kneeling on the bed now. The taste of him – the way he smelt – Savvy felt as if all of her senses had come alive for the first time.

  He slowly, sensuously, stripped her and laid her down. She felt herself trembling uncontrollably as her skin pressed against his.

  Then slowly . . . agonizingly, blissfully slowly . . . he was pressing, melting, fusing with her.

  They both gasped, suspended, lost in that most delicious of moments, as he slid inside her.

  He scooped her into his arms, holding her as close as possible. It was as if every nerve ending was connected to him.

  He stroked her hair out of her face and looked into her eyes. He smiled, his eyes soft as he kissed her again, more gently this time, his tongue searching out hers. He let out a long, satisfied groan as if kissing her was the most delicious thing he’d ever done.

  ‘I was hoping it was you,’ he whispered. ‘Do you have any idea how much those pictures turned me on?’

  ‘Oh Luc, Luc,’ she breathed, as they started moving together in perfect rhythm, rolling in the tangled sheets, as if they were both searching for the most contact they could make.

  ‘We can’t stop,’ he breathed, kissing her ear, sucking her earlobe. ‘We can’t ever stop.’

  And she realized that he was as lost in her as she was in him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Savvy blushed, covering her eyes.

  ‘Don’t be embarrassed,’ Red said gently. ‘It’s better that you tell it like it was.’

  Savvy swallowed hard. She’d been so caught up remembering that amazing night with Luc, she’d forgotten how this must all be sounding to Red. Was it weird for him, talking about sex, when he was a recovering sex addict? She thought about asking him, but then she changed her mind. Red was so easy to talk to and she felt good unburdening herself. And it was easy. In this wonderful place with just them and the open sky, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to talk like this.

  ‘So . . . passion on a grand scale, by the sound of it,’ he prompted.

  ‘I guess it was. Have you ever had sex that’s so powerful, it makes you feel as if your whole life has changed?’ she asked him.

  Red pulled at a long blade of grass. ‘No, not really. Oh, don’t get me wrong – I’ve had plenty of sex. But I guess that was always my problem; quantity, not quality. And I’ve had great sex sometimes when I’ve been high, but that doesn’t really count.’

  He shrugged bashfully and Savvy couldn’t help wondering what he must have been like in his wild days. In another life, would their paths have crossed? she wondered. Yet he was different now. Serene and at peace. She watched him stretch out his long, lean legs. Then leaning up on one elbow, he chewed on the piece of grass.

  ‘So, come on. What happened with this grand love affair?’

  Savvy remembered now how she’d woken up in Luc’s arms, their limbs wrapped around each other, as if their bodies fitted perfectly. She snuggled her head on to his chest, hearing his heartbeat and his soft breathing. She smiled, loving the way her body felt against his.

  Of course, Savvy knew that Elodie would freak when she found out. But in the thin dawn light, she also knew that she’d never felt this content. This wasn’t a conquest, or a one-night stand. This was the start of something. Something amazing.

  Savvy didn’t want to be a bad person, or to upset her sister, but as of this morning everything was different. The future she’d dreamed of for so long had just arrived. She and Luc were together. And they really were in love. Elodie would just have to understand.

  ‘I’ll tell her,’ Savvy offered, watching Luc as he got dressed.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Elodie, of course,’ Savvy said, confused he’d even had to ask. Surely he’d already sussed that Elodie had a thing for him too?

  ‘No, it’s better if I do,’ he said, with a sigh.

  Savvy stood up on the bed behind him, wrapping her naked body around his. She looked at them in the mirror opposite. A perfect knot, she thought. Was this what they’d look like, th
eir heads side by side like this, in their wedding photos? Yes, Savannah Devereaux had quite a ring to it.

  ‘Oh, Savvy, what am I going to do?’ Luc said, suddenly looking upset. ‘I feel so guilty. I feel like I’ve given Elodie false hope. Like I’ve led her on.’

  ‘Why?’ Savvy asked. ‘Nothing’s happened between you two, has it? Nothing physical, I mean?’ Nothing emotional, she wanted to ask. But she didn’t dare.

  ‘No,’ Luc said. ‘No,’ he repeated, shaking his head. ‘Nothing like that, but we have, you know, become friends.’

  Savvy grinned, oozing with relief. So he really was hers then. Just hers.

  ‘And you can stay friends,’ she said, kissing his neck. ‘She’s my sister. I’m delighted you two get on.’

  Luc would be the only boyfriend Elodie would ever have deemed suitable, she almost told him, but she didn’t. Instead, she pressed her tongue against his salty skin. God, he tasted great.

  Yes, she thought, she could afford to be magnanimous where Elodie was concerned. And it touched her too, that Luc was such a gentleman. The fact that he cared about Elodie’s feelings made him even more special.

  ‘Don’t worry about El. She’ll get over it,’ she said.

  ‘You really think everything will work out?’

  ‘I know it will,’ she said. And she meant it. She’d do everything in her power to make it so.

  Savvy waited all that day for Luc to call and all day she couldn’t stop smiling. When the phone rang and it was Elodie, she sat down, prepared to be contrite. She’d planned out what she was going to say. That she and Luc had to be together. They were born to be together. Elodie wouldn’t be able to argue with that. She hoped she’d be happy for them too. That would make it even more perfect.

  But rather than sounding cross or left out, as Savvy had been expecting, Elodie sounded ecstatic.

  This was the best day of her life, she told Savvy breathlessly. Luc had been to see her this morning. Obviously, he’d been exhausted, having flown in from New York and straight to work at the party. But he hadn’t been able to wait to see her.

  ‘What did he say?’ Savvy asked, thrilled that Elodie had responded so positively to her news.

  ‘That . . . well . . . that he’s been doing a lot of thinking. And . . .’

  ‘And . . . ?’ Savvy prompted, biting her smile back, waiting for Elodie’s gushing congratulations.

  ‘And he says he wants to take our relationship further.’

  Savvy gripped the phone. ‘What?’ she managed, but she could barely speak. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Luc asked me out.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘Yes, Sav. He wants us to be together properly. Him and me. Boyfriend and girlfriend.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘And, I’ve got to tell you – oh my God! He is just the most amazing kisser. Like . . . ever,’ Elodie went on. ‘I just can’t believe it, Sav. I’m over the moon. Like on a cloud. I mean, isn’t he just such a total dream? And such a gentleman. He even held my hand when I rang Daddy to tell him the good news.’

  Red stared at Savvy. She could tell that he was trying to work it out. How Luc could have gone straight from the night Savvy had just described to asking Elodie out.

  He whistled, stunned by Savvy’s story. ‘Let me guess,’ he said. ‘Elodie had told Luc about what she thought she’d seen you and your friend – what was his name? Malcolm? doing . . .’

  ‘Marcus, yeah.’

  ‘That was a bit harsh of her, wasn’t it?’

  Savvy sighed, staring at the butterflies skimming over the grass. She picked a lazy blade and watched the drops of warm dew fall from it like tears.

  ‘At the time, sure, I was livid,’ she said. ‘But looking back, I doubt she did it maliciously at all. El just isn’t, wasn’t like that . . .’ she corrected herself. ‘To her it was just a bit of naughty gossip . . . at worst, something she’d mention to make her own halo shine that bit brighter by comparison. And you’ve got to remember, she was completely in the dark about me and Luc.’

  ‘But Luc believed her. That you and this Marcus guy had been . . .’

  Savvy nodded sadly. She could still feel all the bitterness, as real as if it had happened yesterday. ‘The one time I did get to speak to Luc on my own, he told me I was a slut and a liar who’d been playing some messed-up power game with him.’

  ‘How did you respond to that?’

  ‘With the truth, of course. I told him he’d got it all wrong. That I loved him. That he didn’t love Elodie and never would. He was making a mistake. That he was dragging Elodie into it, just to get back at me.’

  ‘How did he react?’

  ‘He told me to go to hell. He told me I was the mistake. And that if I tried to mess things up between him and Elodie, he’d show her the photos of me. The ones I’d sent him. And he’d show Hud as well . . . if that was what it took. He’d let everyone know what a conniving sicko I was.’

  Red’s eyes were bright blue in the morning light. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I backed off, of course. What else could I do? I’d lost him. And that should have been it, I suppose. But it wasn’t. Because I really was in love with him. No matter how vile he’d been to me . . . no matter what he thought of me . . . I still wanted him back. And hearing about him . . . about him and Elodie. And worse . . . seeing them together. It broke my heart. He broke my heart.’

  ‘You didn’t tell anyone? What about your friends?’

  Savvy thought about Paige and how she’d longed to confide in her. But by then, Paige had bought into Luc’s golden boy image. And she was too involved in her job at La Paris to notice that anything was wrong with Savvy. And Hud? Well, Hud was over the moon that Elodie had found her handsome prince. A prince who’d one day become family. Someone he could control for now, but who might one day take over the reins.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re the first person I’ve told.’

  Red shook his head. He sat cross-legged in front of her, eager to know more. ‘So you were hurt. I get that. But what about all the anger? The sense of injustice? How did you cope?’

  Savvy hugged her knees. ‘I reinvented myself as the fun party girl,’ she said with a bitter smile. ‘I drowned all my feelings with drink. I drugged the anger with pills and powders. Until . . .’

  ‘Until what?’

  Savvy fought back the tears welling in her eyes. ‘Until Elodie told me that they were getting married,’ Savvy said. ‘And everything I’d tried to bury . . . all that anger . . . all that pain came bubbling up.’

  Her tears were flowing freely now. Looking down, she saw that Red had taken her hand.

  ‘That’s when I told her about me and Luc . . . because I wanted her to know the truth. And I wanted him to pay . . .’ Savvy scrunched her eyes tight, willing it never to have happened. ‘And that’s when she fell.’

  ‘That was a brave thing to do. To tell her.’

  ‘No,’ Savvy said, sniffing loudly. ‘It was stupid. I should have kept my mouth shut. If I’d kept my mouth shut, she’d still be alive.’

  She’d told Red everything now, apart from the fact that she and Elodie had actually fought. It was the closest she’d got to telling anyone the truth about what had really happened that night. She’d admitted more than she’d done to her father, or Paige, or the cops.

  ‘And how do you feel about Luc now?’ Red asked.

  Savvy thought for a moment. ‘As if everything I tried to block out is all still there. And just as raw as ever. It feels as if he’s robbed me. Of everything. My self-respect . . . my sister . . . for a long time, even myself.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ Red said. ‘Trust me, Savannah Hudson is still very much here.’

  ‘So what do you think I should do now?’ she asked.

  ‘Only you can make that decision.’

  ‘That’s what a counsellor would say . . .’

  He blushed, caught out. ‘I am a counsellor.’

  ‘What about a friend?’


  A seagull soared overhead, mewing. Red stared up at it for a moment. Were they friends? Savvy wondered. Or was this all part of her therapy? It suddenly felt terribly important it was the first.

  ‘You talk about love,’ he eventually said, still not looking at her. ‘But is that what love is? Wanting someone? The way you wanted Luc?’ He did look at her now. ‘Some people might say that was just obsession.’

  Anger swelled inside Savvy. The old indignation. The same fire that had burned whenever she’d seen Luc and Elodie together.

  ‘No,’ she said, ‘what I felt was love.’

  Because if it hadn’t been love, if it hadn’t been real, then Elodie . . . Elodie would have died for nothing. Luc might never have actually said the words to her, told her that he loved her. But Savvy knew that he had.

  ‘So my advice to you as a friend,’ Red said, ‘would be to let it go. Put it all behind you. And move on.’

  ‘And if I can’t?’

  ‘Then one day you’re going to look back at your life and realize that you never really lived at all.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Under the glare of the bright neon signs, the night market in Temple Street in Hong Kong was buzzing. Lois wandered through the crowd, taking in the noise of the traders and the jostling hubbub of locals and tourists. The market stalls were endless, crammed with an astonishing array of goods as far as the eye could see: tacky Mao memorabilia, statues, costume jewellery and DVDs, knock-off designer T-shirts and perfumes.

  It was so strange to feel foreign and yet look local. She was amazed by the way in which the fortune tellers and palm readers called out to her in Cantonese. It made her feel weirdly displaced, yet thrilled too. Because in a crazy way, this did feel like part of her heritage. As if she were coming home.

  The pace was so frenetic and everything seemed to be hurtling forward to the future so rapidly that there was no choice but to get on board and enjoy the ride.

  And yet there were moments of sheer peace, too. She’d walked through the park this morning and seen a group of old men and women doing t’ai chi in the early sunlight. She’d been mesmerized by the silent harmony of the scene, stopping to catch a feather that floated past in the haze.