‘Dancer?’
Ah! Malice disguised as moral outrage. She just about stopped herself from crossing herself.
‘She was,’ Jake interrupts smoothly. ‘She doesn’t dance anymore.’
His mother turns to him. There is a puzzled, curious expression on her face. ‘Oh!’
‘Now she works for me.’
‘Really?’ she says softly, taking her glass of sherry from her son.
I have the urge to down the entire contents of my glass, but I don’t. Instead I hold the glass in my hand and endure fifteen minutes of interrogation disguised as polite chat.
Finally, his mother stands. ‘Please excuse me. I think lunch might be ready.’ She disappears into the kitchen and I feel the tenseness in my shoulders go.
‘I think she likes you,’ Jake whispers.
‘I think she doesn’t,’ I whisper back.
‘I think she’ll come around,’ he consoles, and kisses me on the nose.
For some weird reason, his words touch me. I look into his eyes and he looks back and we are both so lost in each other’s gaze that we don’t hear his mother come back into the room.
She clears her throat and both of us turn to look at her. Her face is white and she seems shocked by something.
Even Jake notices. ‘What’s the matter, Mum?’ he asks, standing up and going to her. He puts his arm around her narrow shoulders, making her appear smaller and quite fragile.
She shakes her head and smiles weakly. ‘Someone walking over my grave.’
I stand, too, but I am conscious that she doesn’t want me near her. The truth is that she can barely bring herself to look at me.
‘Come on, lunch is ready,’ she says briskly.
‘Would you like some help?’ I ask, knowing what the answer will be.
‘Absolutely not. Everything is done.’
So Jake and I take our seats at a dark wood dining table. The room faces her beautiful back garden full of flowers and fruit trees. His mother then disappears from the room and returns with a trolley.
‘Be careful, the plates are hot,’ she warns, setting our plates of a lamb chop, peas, carrots and potatoes in front of us. She places a basket of bread rolls and a gravy boat in the middle of the table and sits herself.
‘May it do you good,’ she says.
‘May we all be together at the same time next year,’ Jake says.
An expression of alarm crosses her face.
‘Bon appétit,’ I say.
Jake picks up his knife and fork.
His mother turns toward me. There is something in her eyes. For a second I think it is envy, the normal envy a mother feels for her son’s chosen mate, and then I realize it is not envy. It is fear. She finds me terrifying. I am still staring at her in shock when her eyes slide away. She busies herself with tearing at a piece of bread, which she then lays down on the plate.
I turn to look at Jake. He has missed it all. He is cutting into a piece of meat. He catches my eyes as he carries it to his lips.
‘What?’ he asks
‘Nothing.’
I look down at my plate. She wants to rub me out. Like a pencil mark that has been made in error. She cannot know who or what I really am, but some instinct is driving her. Telling her I am not to be trusted. Not to be taken into her family.
The meal is a disaster. Both his mother and I hardly eat. As soon as Jake puts his knife and fork down, his mother turns to him. ‘I need more ice. Will you get a bag from the freezer, Jake?’
‘Sure.’ Jake gets up and makes for the kitchen.
‘Can you get it from the big freezer in the shed?’ she says.
‘Would you also like me to walk back very slowly?’ he asks with a grin.
‘That would be nice,’ his mother replies, but there is no mischief in her voice. Only worry and trepidation.
As soon as the door closes she says, ‘I’ve always preferred sketches to paintings. Paintings are closed, finished things that hide layers of lies. Sketches are the bones of what will be. They are more honest. They haven’t learned to lie. What do you prefer?’
‘If we are truly talking about sketches and paintings, then I prefer paintings. I know the finished product is a series of accidents, but I appreciate that the grand design of life allows accidents to become beautiful.’
She frowns. ‘I want to have grandchildren. I want them to think of me as the old woman who wears shawls and silly hats and reads tea leaves. Are you the woman to give me that?’
I swallow. ‘Look, Jake and I have just met. It’s too early. It’s not on the cards.’
‘What do you want from my son, then?’
I shift uncomfortably. ‘Did you ask this of all women he brought home?’
‘He has never brought a woman home before.’
My mouth drops open.
‘You haven’t answered my question.’
‘I don’t want anything from your son. We’re just in a relationship.’
‘Liar,’ she says very softly.
‘What did you just call me?’
‘You heard. You are a dangerously manipulative woman, Miss Hart. And I am here to tell you that I will never allow you to break this family, or my son for that matter.’
EIGHTEEN
As we fly into Las Vegas airport, I look out of my cabin window, and the sparkling city appears almost magically from the miles of desert surrounding it. The heat outside the airport hits me like a wall. We walk quickly toward a gleaming purple SUV, which is waiting outside for us. It is wonderfully cool inside.
‘Purple?’ I ask with a laugh.
‘It’s the Hard Rock touch,’ Jake says.
We are in Las Vegas for the weekend, because I have never been, and when I told Jake that, he said, ‘Well, you haven’t lived until you’ve been on the Strip.’
The journey to the Strip is only about fifteen minutes. I gaze at the infamous street with wide eyes. It is an over the top, glamorous fantasy playground, almost like a giant Hollywood movie set with its miniatures of the Sphinx, pyramids, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. I even take a photo of the M & M store to show my mother.
I wonder what she will make of it. She once told me a shocking thing about the gorgeous black torch performer Lena Horne, who was allowed to stay at The Flamingo as long as she was not seen at the casino, restaurants or public areas. When she checked out, her bed sheets and towels were burned.
Over the massive, gold guitar door handles are the words: When this house is rocking, don’t bother knocking. Come on in. And it really is rocking in there for Jake. There is no check-in for Jake and me. He is greeted by name by a smiling host and we are quickly and efficiently whisked past the awesome, fifty-five feet digital screen stretched behind the reception desk, straight to the elevator bank and up to the Provocateur penthouse suite.
The Provocateur suite is like no other hotel room I’ve been to.
We are greeted by walls covered in black vinyl embossed to look like crocodile skin in the foyer. In that deliberately darkened hallway there is a birdcage, large enough and strong enough to hold a grown man and a whipping cross! With handcuffs!
On our left, silhouettes of naked women start swaying provocatively in the shower as motion sensors pick up our movements. There can be no doubt that the design is fetish orientated and I turn to look at Jake.
Beyond the foyer are claret walls and sophisticated shiny black furniture and more dominatrix accessories. We are shown the heated plunge pool in the balcony and taken to the bedroom with three beds pushed together, presumably perfect for orgies. The other master bedroom has an enormous four-poster bed and a mirrored, trellised ceiling. The man shows us how to work the 3D projector system behind the bed to make it throw patterns and themes onto the walls.
At the flick of a button the shades come down, the lights dim and two women wantonly writhing are projected onto the bed. It is so over the top and creepy-crazy I start giggling. My laughter doesn’t deter our host. We are taken to a sec
ret vault full of toys, equipment and costumes for sex play.
When he is gone I go to stand by the ceiling-to-floor windows. The view is fabulous. Down below, the swimming pool is heaving with beautiful bodies on purple floats. I turn around to look at Jake.
‘Like it?’ he asks.
‘Are you trying to tell me something Fifty Shades-ish?’
He laughs. ‘No fucking way. I don’t need to beat a woman to get my kicks. I just thought you’d enjoy this more than the Venetian. It’s all Liberace style opulence, chocolate-covered strawberries and beluga caviar served by butlers with white gloves over there.’
‘And you don’t have to pay for any of this?’
He grins, at once boyish and delicious. ‘Nope.’
‘How come they treat you so good?’
He shrugs. ‘My claim to fame is that I once lost a whole million at their baccarat table and they’re hoping I’ll repeat that lack of judgment,’ he says dryly.
My eyes widen. ‘One million? Dollars?’
‘Yup. I used to be what they call a whale.’
‘What’s a whale?’
‘At the lower end a high roller is someone who bets between a thousand to five thousand dollars a hand. A serious high roller would play upwards of five grand to about twenty, twenty-five thousand. A big high roller would spend between twenty-five and fifty thousand.’ He stops and smiles. ‘And then you have the whales. Whales start at seventy-five thousand dollars a hand.’
‘And you were one of them?’
‘I was. But now I only come two, maybe three times a year.’
‘God!’ It’s hard for me to even think of anyone blowing that kind of money on the roll of a die.
‘But I still get the eight o’clock reservation, the cabana, tickets for the best concerts in town, and… I get to be imaginative with my requests. So far the management has always said yes to everything I’ve asked for.’
‘Wow! What kind of things are available?’
‘Lunch on a yacht, a helicopter ride somewhere, a game of golf with Tiger Woods…’
‘What have you asked for this time?’
He smiles slow and full of meaning. ‘Lingerie. I have asked for the most expensive, most beautiful lingerie they can find.’
I can’t help it, I flush hard. I can feel my cheeks flaming. ‘You didn’t.’
‘I did. Go and have a look.’
For a few seconds I don’t move. We just stare at each other. Then I turn around and go to the bedroom. At the door I stop and look around. He is watching me, his eyes unfathomable.
By the bedside I see the white box with a black design on it. I open it and it is full of whispers of baby blue lace: a half-cup bra, a thong, suspenders with white bows, and nude stockings. There is a card with a message to open the cupboard. I open the cupboard and gasp. A real cheongsam. Not the cheap thing that looks more like a Hong Kong waitress’s uniform and with a dirty slit that runs all the way up to the crotch like I wore at the club, but the softest, most beautiful, pure white Chinese silk brocade. I run my fingers over the pretty little blue flowers. My grandmother would love this. I turn around and Jake is standing in the doorway.
‘It is so very, very beautiful,’ I whisper. I am so touched my voice shakes.
‘Good. You can wear them all tonight.’
‘Thank you.’
His eyes darken. ‘Thank me later.’
‘You look beautiful,’ he tells me that night.
‘So do you,’ I say.
And he does. He looks good enough to eat. He is wearing a perfectly fitted black suit that totally showcases his great physique, an oyster gray silk shirt that is almost translucent, and polished black shoes. I have never seen him so subdued in his color scheme.
We go for an early dinner at Shanghai Lily. The food is exquisite. The last time I ate lobster that good I was in Singapore with my grandparents. There is even gold leaf on the food to gladden the hearts of the Asian high rollers since gold is considered a good luck charm.
We end up at the Shadow for drinks. I gaze in amazement at the giant backlit screens with the enlarged shadow of a woman dancing behind each one. It looks different from anything I have seen.
I drink a green cocktail and watch the bartenders, who are actually performers who throw bottles up into the air and catch those their colleagues have thrown. The atmosphere is young, fun and totally hip, and I turn my head, smiling, and catch Jake looking at me. The smile dies on my lips. His eyes are smoldering.
‘What is it?’ I ask.
His hand slides into the slit in my dress and up my thighs, parting them. ‘I’ve always wanted to finger fuck you under a table in a public place.’ One finger rubs suggestively against the string of my thong. He drops his voice to a whisper. ‘Maybe because you won’t be able to scream when you come, because everyone is watching.’
The green cocktail sings longingly in my veins as wetness seeps between my legs. My clit swells, begging for his touch. I put my drink down, suddenly daring and uninhibited. ‘Knock yourself out,’ I choke.
With a sensual growl he inserts one long finger into me.
I gasp.
His teeth flash in the dimness. ‘Look at you. Always so wet and hot,’ he says moving his finger in and out of me. ‘Open your legs wider,’ he invites, sliding the thumb of his other hand into my mouth. I catch it between my teeth and suck it. His thumb strokes in circles around my clit while his fingers curl inside me.
‘We could get thrown out for this,’ he whispers.
I release his thumb, my eyes glancing around furtively. It’s dark and no one is looking. ‘They wouldn’t throw a whale out,’ I choke.
‘No, I guess not.’
‘It will be a stern warning, though,’ I mutter, wriggling and rubbing myself against his hand, loving the feel of his fingers inside me, his thumb working my clit.
‘Damn, I love how filthy and greedy you are. How you’d let me do anything with you.’
He plunges his fingers deeper in and my muscles start clenching around them. ‘I can’t wait to get back to our room and see my big cock disappear between your sweet lips until I am balls deep in your mouth. And then I’d like to slide that saliva soaked cock, every fucking inch of it, into your poor little pussy. I am going to stretch her and fuck her until cum shoots out of her. And then I’m gonna suck her as she drips.’
‘Oh Fuck! I’m coming,’ I warn in a strangled gasp.
‘Turn and look at me.’
I turn and look at him, my eyes wide, my face struggling to remain normal. Then the climax rips through me and I clench my teeth and shudder against his hand in an effort not to scream.
Afterwards, he puts his fingers into my mouth and makes me suck them.
NINETEEN
It is eleven o’clock on Saturday night, the lights are flashy, the rock ephemera is hip, and the gamblers are rocking, when we make our way through the casino toward the high limit gaming area called the Peacock Lounge, where once Jimi Hendrix’s peacock vest was hung.
The high limit gaming area is a circular elevated platform off the main floor. It has its own cage and bar. It has obviously been arranged beforehand, so a roulette table has been wheeled in especially for Jake.
I look at Jake. ‘Albert Einstein once said, “No one can win at roulette unless he steals money from the table while no one is looking.”’
‘If you look at roulette through the language of physics, then it is the universe in miniature, a whirling, glittering mix of forces all playing out their elegant tiny dances.’
‘Very poetic.’
The croupier is an Asian girl. She smiles and nods. A man in a suit brings a tray of really cool psychedelic-colored chips and leaves them on the table in front of Jake.
Jake looks at them and smiles his thanks. He pushes five chips toward me. The chips have purple orange, yellow and green in them. Each one says five grand on it.
‘I can’t gamble this much money. I’ll be devastated if I lose,’ I say pushi
ng the money back toward him.
He laughs and pushes it back to me. ‘Keep it for now. Give it back to me later if you don’t use it.’
He places a chip on Red and a chip on Even. The croupier starts rolling the wheel. The ivory ball spins on the outer ring. It leaves the outer track. No more bets.
‘Thirty-three black,’ she calls.
She places a marker on the 33 Black square and sweeps away his money. I swallow. Wow! That was ten thousand dollars gone in just seconds. When I look at him, his face is impassive.
This time he puts two chips on Red and two on Odd. The ball stops on 23 Red. I take a deep breath. He has won twenty thousand. People have begun to gather behind us to watch.
Jake repeats the same sequence and wins again.
A large suited man walks toward our table and stands unobtrusively at the side of it. His eyes are alert and watchful. Now more people come to watch. This time Jake puts five chips on Black and five on Even. A man puts his two chips next to Jake’s.
The wheel turns—8 Black.
He has won a hundred thousand. I place my hand on his. I know how casinos work. The smart player never stays. The longer you stay, the more unlikely you will walk away with anything. ‘Shouldn’t you stop now? You’ve won so much.’
He looks at me, a strange expression on his face. ‘Remember what I told you, Lil? I’m lucky. I’m always lucky.’
He puts the entire winnings, a hundred thousand dollars, on 34 Red. The crowd behind us gasps. It’s straight up betting. Pays thirty-five to one but the chances of winning are so small.
I touch his sleeve, my eyes confused. I can’t understand what he is up to. Why abandon his earlier winning and more careful strategy? ‘Why?’
‘Lucky at games and unlucky in love. If I win then I am unlucky in love and if I lose it means I am lucky in love. What do you say, Lily? Is a hundred thousand dollars worth it?’
The woman spins the wheel. I stare at the wheel in bewilderment. Then I put my chips behind his.
‘No more bets,’ the woman says.
I look at his face and he is staring at me, totally unperturbed. He has no interest in the outcome of his bet. There is a disappointed hush. Hazily, I hear the words, ‘Fourteen Red.’ All the chips are swept away.
You Don't Know Me: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance Page 35