Marley (Carnage #3)
Page 26
“I came to your flat because I was worried about you. I had no fucking clue you were living in those conditions. Does my sister know? My mum?” That’s probably wasn’t the best way to go about making her feel better about herself.
Go me.
Her nostrils flared, just before she threw her clothes at me. “Where I live has fuck all to do with your family. Fuck all to do with you or anyone else.”
Okay, perhaps I didn’t care how she felt. As she screamed at me, she picked up the pile of clothes a few more times and repeatedly threw them at me before collapsing on top of them in a coughing fit.
I watched her for a few seconds, trying to decide whether I wanted to get her some water, or smack her arse for behaving like such a bitch. This type of behaviour was what I’d expect from George, but I’d never had thought Ash capable of it.
I turned and got a bottle of water off the night stand and threw it so it landed in her lap.
“Thank you.” She said through her sniffs and her tears.
“You’re welcome.” I told her.
I stood and watched her as she sat on her pile of clothes, crying quietly. My fists clenched and unclenched. I wanted to sit on the floor with her and pull her into my lap. I wanted to kiss her fucking senseless and make everything right in her world, but I shouldn’t want to feel any of those things. What she said about my family was nasty and spiteful, and I shouldn’t want anything to do with her.
She finally looked up at me. “I’m sorry.” She got out before her face crumbled and she pulled that full on ugly face you do when you cry hard.
I was done.
Within a split second, I was on the floor with her, holding her in my lap and stroking her back, kissing the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry, Marley. I really don’t think that. I don’t think any of those things. I love your sister and your mum ...sh-she ...” She let out a few sobs before continuing. “She’s the only one I’ve got.”
I pulled her into me and hold her tight.
“I ain’t got no one, Marley. No people that care, and I’ve got nowhere to go. My life’s a fucking mess.” She started to cough. I lifted her up and carried her back to bed. I sat with my back to the headboard and kept a hold of her in my lap.
“Ash, just so you know, whatever happens between us, you’ll always have me. And don’t say that you’ve got no one coz you have my mum, George, and Jimmie. They all care.”
She looked up at me through teary eyes, blinked a couple of times and opened her mouth to speak.
“If you ask me again why I’m doing this, I’ll fucking strangle you,” I told her.
She smiled, despite the tears clinging to her lashes, then started to cry again.
I held on to her until eventually, we both fell asleep.
We ate reheated Shepherd’s pie later that evening, and on Sunday, we cooked a roast dinner together.
She fell asleep later on the sofa, with her head in my lap. I ran my fingers through her hair as I stared down at her.
Ever since we met, I’ve felt like my heart had beat too fast, too hard, and too erratic. My stomach felt like it had been tied in knots and my head—my head was all over the show. I thought one thing, then did or said another.
I’m not entirely sure how I felt about any of it. Terrified, mostly. The fact that I had no control over what I was feeling scared the crap outta me, and it was that fear that ultimately lead me to fuck everything up and make yet another one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
I turned the telly off by the remote control and carried Ashley to bed. As I laid her down, she pulled me towards her.
“Where are you going?” She asked.
“The other room.”
“Don’t go. Stay, please?” She sat up and put the lamp on at the side of the bed. “I’d really like you to stay, Marls.” My belly flipped at the abbreviation of my name. I wasn’t sure if I’d heard her use it before, and I liked it, almost as much as Rock Star, in fact.
We’d both been a bit quiet since our little fallout yesterday, but she’d barely left my side and had been very touchy feely when she’d been near. I’ve no idea what it meant. I was hoping that she was finally ‘getting’ that I liked her for her. I’d held back, sorta, on all the flirty stuff that came so naturel to me and just tried to keep things on a sorta platonic level.
“Ash, if I stay ... I can’t. I’m not sure that...” For fuck’s sake, Layton, just tell her if you stay, you’ll likely bang her brains out.
“Rock Star, do I have to spell it out to you? I want you to stay. I know what that means, and the answer is still that I want you to stay.”
My mouth went dry, to the point where my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and my lips to my teeth.
She climbs out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. I grabbed her hand as she passed me. “Where you going?”
“I want a quick shower and to clean my teeth. My breath smells like Brussel sprouts.”
“I like Brussel sprouts.” It was possibly the most pathetic thing I’d ever said in my life, like, ever.
“Yeah, on your dinner, maybe, but do you really wanna snog one?”
I didn’t answer her question, mainly because I’d say something that would make me sound like even more of a pussy, or a complete twat, so I let go of her hand and let her carry on into the bathroom. I went and collected my toothbrush and then came back, unsure of what to do next.
Me, unsure? That was a fucking joke, but that was what she did to me.
I took off my clothes and stepped into the shower with her. She had her back to me, face tilted upwards, letting the water bounce off her chin and down her chest. Her hair was piled up in one of those sexy birds nest things. I leaned in and kissed the curve of her neck and slid my arms around her from behind. She stilled for a split second, and then pressed her back into my front.
“You are so fucking gorgeous,” I told her.
We had the showers designed with a built-in sound system and ‘Mystify’ by INXS was playing.
Leaving one hand on her belly, I slid the other up and cupped one of her tits. It fit my hand perfectly. Squeezing her nipple, I dragged my teeth up her neck and over her ear.
“Baby, we need to get washed and get out of here before I embarrass myself and come before you even touch me,” I whispered.
She shuddered, fucking shuddered, and goose bumps spread across her skin. I bent my knees slightly and grinded my hips into hers.
She bended over to get the shower gel and I nearly came all over arse.
“Fuck me, Ash, seriously. Don’t be bending over near me like that, babe, else this’ll be over before it even gets started.”
She turned to face me and rolled her eyes. The water from the shower head beat down between us. I slipped my arms around her hips, gripped onto her arse cheeks and pulled her towards me.
“I want to climb inside that head of yours and carve into your brain how fucking perfect you are so that you’ll finally believe what I’m saying to you.” I hate that she doubts that I’m telling the truth.
“It’s just...” She tilted her head to the side before shrugging her shoulders, then looked down at my chest. Her tits were squashed up against my bare chest, but I’d not even been aware of that fact because I was too busy worrying about what she was thinking.
“Look at me, Ash.” I ordered. I expected a big ‘fuck you,’ but instead, she brought her eyes up to meet mine.
“Trust me when I say this, baby. You are perfect.” She slowly nodded her head.
“If I trust you, Marley, please promise that you won’t let me down?” she whispered. Her voice was still a little bit croaky, but I could hear the plea, the desperation in her words regardless, and then I did something I should never have done.
“You can trust me, Ash. I’ll never let you down.”
We kissed under the flow of the water before slowly washing each other’s bodies. After turning off the shower and cleaning our teeth, we crawled into bed.
When my mouth got back down to the top of her thighs, I lifted her knees and pushed her legs as wide apart as I could. She was spread bare for me. I ran my fingertips over the small patch of fair hair that sat above her perfect, perfect pussy.
Her hips bucked off the bed and she let out a moan as I spread her open with my thumbs and licked where she was wet.
“Marley, please.” I loved the begging tone to her voice—fucking loved it.
“You like that, baby?” I looked up at her and asked. She had one hand in my hair, her nails raking at my scalp, and the other was bent back behind her, gripping the pillow. Her cheeks, neck, and chest were flushed pink and I swear, I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
“Yes. Yes, I’ve never ... no one’s ever—”
“No one’s ever what, baby? Kissed you here?” I kissed her clit. “Licked you there?” I swiped my tongue through her cunt, then pushed it inside her as she ground her hips into my face.
Her taste, her moans, the way she smelled, everything about her was so fucking perfect.
“You like that?” I asked after I blew over her wet skin.
“Yes,” she stated, still grinding her hips up towards my mouth.
“You want me to make you come? You wanna come all over my face?”
She nodded her head as her hands clawed at the sheets on either side of her hips.
“Use your words, baby. I need to hear you tell me what you want.” Her eyes widened as she worked out that she was gonna have to beg, or at least ask me nicely for an orgasm.
“Please Marley, please. I wanna come. I want you to make me come.”
Did I mention that I fucking loved the way she pleaded with me?
Loved. It.
I could’ve come myself just from listening to her beg. I kissed her belly before sliding my hands underneath her arse cheeks and tilting her hips towards my face.
“I’m gonna use my mouth, baby. I’m gonna use my mouth and my fingers, and I’m gonna blow your fucking mind.” I flicked my tongue over her clit, sliding two fingers inside her, and curled them forward. She was so tight.
Tight, wet, and so fucking perfect.
I pumped my fingers in and out of her, curling them and stroking her from the inside, slowly. My opposite hand was resting against the silky soft skin of the inside of her thigh. I wanted to keep tasting her, but I also wanted to watch her come. After a few more flicks, I replaced my tongue with my thumb and kept working her clit as I sat up on my knees so I could watch her face.
Both her arms were over her head, holding onto the pillow. Her shoulders were pulled back, her tits moving as she rode my hand. I slid my hand up her body and squeezed one of her nipples as I looked at both her eyes and her mouth that were open.
“Perfect. You are fucking perfect.” I said, because it’s the truth.
“Ahh,” was the first sign I get of her impending orgasm, and then everything happened at once.
Her internal muscles tightened around my fingers and her legs trembled as she let out a loud moan. I gave my cock a couple of strokes and shot off all over her belly. All the while, Ash continued to convulse all around me. Her legs, her stomach, internal muscles and her clit, all squeezed, twitched, and shook, and the whole time, she never once broke eye contact with me.
Sexiest thing ever.
When her insides stopped pulsating, I slid my fingers out of her and licked them clean as she watched. Then I reached for the towel I left on the floor after our shower together.
I wiped off the mess I made on her belly, then laid on top of her, kissing her mouth gently. She opened her legs, welcoming me in between them. I slid my tongue across the seam of her lips until eventually, she opens her mouth and allowed my assault. I couldn’t get deep enough as I tangled my tongue with hers. I swiped it over her teeth, her mouth, her lips. It didn’t take long for me to grow hard again.
After kissing her senseless for a while, I gave her nipples the attention they deserved, which seemed to drive her fucking nuts. Her nails dug into my arse cheeks and I had to laugh out loud at her enthusiasm as she pulled me against her.
When neither of us could take it anymore, I slid inside her. This time it was quiet and gentle. This time I lasted. This time I laced my fingers through hers and stared into her eyes. This time was beyond perfect—beyond anything I had ever experienced in my life.
I knew before I even said the words that it was wrong of me, that I was lying. I promised I wouldn’t let her down, but I knew that one day I would.
She’d been let down before, I could see it in her eyes. I heard it in her insecurities, her self-doubt, and I never wanted to be the reason behind any of that, so later that night, when we’d showered together, fucked once more, and she’d fallen asleep in my arms, in my bed, in my heart, and my dirty, tarnished soul. I watched her. I watched the rise and fall of her chest, memorising her long eyelashes as they fanned out across her cheeks that were still flushed pink with the sex and the showers we’d shared. Then I gently kissed her perfect mouth, slid out of my bed, packed a case with my clothes and left her a short note. I called a car service to collect and take me to the airport.
It was five in the morning, but from the phone in the security office of my building, I called Andrea, mine and Maca’s PA. I told her I needed a flight to anywhere, ASAP, and she called back within fifteen minutes. Three hours later, I was touching down in Paris.
I stayed drunk in my hotel room for two days. I was still too close, too tempted to go back and claim her, to make her mine, until I would do what I did best and fucked things up, until I broke her.
I called Andrea again and booked a flight to the States.
I checked in with Len and told him I just needed some time to myself. We had nothing on anyway. With only a month till his wedding, we had nothing scheduled until later in the year when we’d start the new album.
I needed to be back in England in three weeks for my final suit fitting, which gave me plenty of time to be seen and photographed with a different woman on my arm every night. I went to every place in LA we usually avoided. Every club, bar, and restaurant I knew the press hung about outside, I was there. I made sure I gave them plenty of opportunity to get their shots of me leaving, and I made sure I was with a different woman each time.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt Ash, I didn’t, not at all, but I knew if I went where I was sure our feelings were taking us, I’d eventually let her down. I’m Marley Layton, fucking things up is what I did.
With just a couple of days left in LA, I spoke with Maca on the phone and he told me that he and George had found a place in Hampstead, and had been able to move straight in. Ashley had taken over G’s flat, which she had left fully furnished for her.
“I take it things didn’t work out between you, what with the way you just took off?” Maca asked me down the phone.
“Why, what’s she said?” I asked, waiting for Georgia to jump in and give me a bollocking. I was actually surprised I hadn’t heard from her or Jimmie by then.
“Nothing much. Gia has only seen her a couple of times. G’s tried going back to work, but the press are up her arse so she’s promoted Ash to area manager. The flat and a car come with the job.”
Well, that made me feel a little better and a lot worse.
In the note that I’d left for Ash, I’d told her to stay at my place for as long as she liked. Despite the shitty thing that I’d done, I was hoping that she might still be there when I went back for the wedding.
“I think she told G that she’d got back with her ex and that’s why things hadn’t worked out between you two. I assumed that’s why you took off. I know you said you liked her.”
“Her ex? What fucking ex?” I paced the floor of my hotel room as I shouted down the phone. What ex? There was no ex? She never told me
about any fucking ex? Probably because I didn’t hang around long enough for her to tell me much about anything.
Images of Ashley, small, vulnerable, curled up all warm beside me, hot and sweaty from sex, water dripping from her in the shower, flash like snap shots through my brain. The thought of someone else seeing her like that, sharing moments like I had with her, touching, tasting and smelling her make head feel like it was about to explode.
Whoever the fucker was, he had to go.
Even kidnap and murder seemed like reasonable possibilities in that moment.
“Oi. Hold your fucking horses. I don’t know what ex, she’s your bird.”
“She’s not my bird.” I bit back.
“Well, not if she’s back with her ex, she ain’t, no.” We were both quiet for a few seconds. “Sorry mate. I thought you knew. I thought that’s why you left.”
I let out a long sigh. My head was now pounding and my brain was in overdrive. I needed to get back to England and put things right.
I’d fucked up. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s what I did, but this time I’d fucked up massively, and possibly lost the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“Mac, I need to go. I’ll be home tomorrow and give ya a bell then. Give my love to George.” I never gave him a chance to say goodbye before I cut him off.
I called Len and asked him to get me on the next flight back to London, and to have a car waiting for me when I landed.
By ten the next morning, I was pulling up outside Posh Frocks. I pulled my cap down low and ran into the shop.
“Morning, Lorna. Ashley about?” I kept it casual and talked to the girl like I’d known her forever. We’d chatted a few times when I’d been waiting for Ash and I’d signed some stuff for her.
“No, she’s out on the road today. She might come back here later, but not until around four. I can call one of the stores she’s visiting today and let her know you’re looking for her?” She said with a smile.