An almighty crash outside stopped her in her tracks. Now what?
"One sec, Naomi. Something's happened outside and I need to check it out. Can I call you back?"
Silence was her only reply.
"Naomi?"
More silence.
Xan hung up the phone. She had another disaster to sort out. At least this one couldn't possibly involve Jay fucking Felix.
Twenty-One
"Xan!"
She bolted out of the main building, then skidded to a halt at the sight of him. "What in Hell are you doing here? You should be halfway to Broome by now!"
"This is my fucking island," Jason spat. "I live here. What kind of bullshit story did you spin to the pilot to get him to take me to Broome? Said I'd hurt some girl? I never hurt a single fucking girl in my life!" He glared at her. "Good thing, too. 'Cause if you were a man, I'd deck you right here and now." He was so furious, he fucking meant it, too.
Xan looked like she wanted to take a step back, but she didn't. "Oh yeah? What about Miss Chastity, your little girl friend? The one you almost drowned this afternoon?"
"What the fuck are you on about? I barely touched her!"
Xan straightened with a righteous sniff. "Don't bullshit me. I saw you. It took two of us to get you off her and that's after she knocked you out."
"She didn't knock me out!" Jason protested. "I fucking fainted, that's all!"
Xan snorted. "Yeah, right. You expect me to believe the big, bad rock star banged that poor girl, then had a fit of the vapours and fainted?"
Jason opened his mouth to defend himself, but Xan wasn't through yet.
"I saw the blood trickling down her leg. Your little virgin isn't one any more. From what I saw, it didn't look good. Rape's still illegal, even if you're paying the girl for sex. Or did she hit you so hard that you forgot about that?"
Jason had no words. His mouth gaped open, as vacant as his mind right now. Was this some kind of fucked-up dream? It had to be. Nothing made sense in it. He just wanted to wake up so it would end.
Now he understood Angel's nightmares.
Jason swallowed and lowered his voice. "We were just getting started on foreplay when I fainted, all right? I think she cut herself on a shell or something. We didn't do anything. Not yet. Fuck." He ran his fingers through his hair, and came up with leaves. He threw them on the ground. "Did she tell you this shit? Just what I need. Another fucked-up, crazy bitch. She said you'd checked her police clearance, but I guess you missed the crazy part. Where is she now?"
Xan pressed her lips together. "Like I'd tell you, after what I saw."
Jason was tired of arguing. "Just fucking ask her. Say you've already talked to me and my lawyers will make fucking mincemeat of her if she tries lying."
"I will." Xan's expression turned from angry to suspicious. "How come you're not in the helicopter, anyway? Did you threaten Shou if he didn't let you out before he took off?"
Jason managed a smug smile. "Nope. I jumped out."
The shock on Xan's face was worth every ache he'd have tomorrow. "You did what? Jumped out of a flying helicopter? How did you manage that without killing yourself?" she demanded.
"I knew what I was doing. I aimed for the roof, right over your office. I know every centimetre of it from playing golf up there."
Xan's breath hissed out like an angry snake. "So the crash I heard earlier was you, throwing yourself out of a helicopter? Bloody hell, Jay, you're lucky you didn't break something."
He decided not to mention the helicopter.
Xan closed her eyes, then looked to the skies as if hoping for answers. "All right. I'll go ask her what happened. She hasn't said a word yet, for the record. I only know what I saw, and what I saw was you on top of her and her struggling to get free. Just…" She clenched her hands, like she wished they were around his throat. "Go into my office and wait for me there while I decide whether to call the police to bring their helicopter over here to arrest you. Your rock star reputation won't protect you if you're as full of shit as I think you are." When Jason didn't move, she stamped her foot. "GO! I'm not moving until you're inside."
Jason shrugged and ambled into the foyer. When he glanced back outside, she'd gone.
Good. He had a crazy girl to locate. If the rape story Xan spouted was second-hand, he needed to hear it from the source. He strode down the corridor to IT.
The IT population had doubled – Seb and Cam had two other guys in there, all watching some video. Jason glanced at it and was stunned to see a grainy recording of his own fainting fit. He fell flat on top of the poor girl in the water.
Fuck. That explained the drowning bit. But rape? Really? The video would show he'd barely touched her.
"Rewind that and play it again from the beginning," Jason demanded.
All four men jumped. Seb and Cam's gazes slid away to look anywhere but at him, while the other two seemed frozen in place.
"Jay…Felix?" one of them managed to say.
Jason grunted his assent.
"The manager said there weren't any guests at the island, so we could video wherever we wanted. We had no idea…" the guy gushed.
Jason jerked his head at the video. "Could've fooled me. Looks like you were filming me and my friend with your zoom lens while we were on our private beach. Show me what you got."
Shock turned the guy's face paler than beach sand. "Y-yes, Mr Felix. Right away."
Several seconds later, Jason watched in horrified fascination as the camera panned around the lagoon, taking in rocks, waves and secluded beaches, before unintelligible shouting drew the cameraman's attention to the source. There she was, on her hands and knees in the surf, and Jason saw himself straighten and take a step away from her, before keeling over on top of her, like a skittle in a bowling alley. Fuck. He watched the girl struggling to get out from under him before Xan appeared to join in the battle.
What happened to first aid? To fucking checking the unconscious patient first? Jason turned away from the screen. He understood what Xan thought she'd seen, but she was dead wrong. And if she didn't believe him, he'd make the girl tell the truth. Fuck, he didn't even know her name.
"Where is she?" Jason demanded.
"The hotel manager told me to take her to the staff dining room to have tea, so I did," the cameraman volunteered.
Tea. Trust English Xan to suggest something as silly as tea. Crazy girls didn't sit at a table drinking tea.
Jason pointed at Cam. "Use her ID. Find her."
Cam nodded shakily and his fingers skittered across the keys of the nearest computer. "Helipad," he said breathlessly.
Where the helicopter crashed. Oh fuck. He set off at a run. The last thing Jason wanted was for the girl to die in the crash he'd caused.
Twenty-Two
Flavia blinked at the uncomfortably hot Styrofoam cup in her hands. She was slowly recovering from the shock of…what exactly had happened? Jay had shoved her under the water, but when she and the hotel manager had managed to free her, he was out cold. Had the manager hit him? Flavia didn't think so. Tangled with him the way she was, she'd have felt the impact of a blow. Unless she hit him before he'd landed on her, and that's why he fell…
She shook her head. It didn't matter. This whole mess had turned into a disaster of epic proportions. Yet here she was, nursing a cup of tea that she had no intention of drinking.
Flavia knew what to do when disaster struck. It was time to cut her losses and head back to Perth, so she could catch a plane to Bali. Days of cocktails by the pool with the girls would soon banish this bad dream from her mind. Bugger virginity auctions and men in general. Her first time would be on her terms and the bloke would consider himself bloody lucky to have her.
Flavia rose. She dusted off her dress, though the salt-stiffened fabric resisted her efforts at smoothing it. She should probably change clothes before she left the island. She needed to retrieve her bag, too. Hoping Jay wouldn't be home, she slipped out of the staff canteen and followed th
e path around the lagoon. She found his villa after a couple of wrong turns, but the door stymied her until she remembered her wristband – the one she still wore, despite the struggle on the beach. Not expecting the waterlogged wristband to work, she waved it at the scanner and gasped when the door slid open.
Her bag was right where she'd left it: beside her chair. The document-littered dining table brought her up short. She needed the signed contracts, just in case. Sweeping the mess of papers back into her folder, she shoved the whole thing into her bag and zipped it up. There. She thought about changing clothes, but decided against it. She'd be soaked in sweat after five minutes outside, anyway, and hours of plane travel would only crumple it worse than it was now. She'd change when she reached the hotel in Bali. When her holiday would truly start.
Until then…she had a plane to catch. But first, the helicopter.
Holding her head high, Flavia marched out of the villa, her suitcase dogging her heels.
She found the helipad gate on her first try, thanks to the signs pointing the way. The helicopter was home, too, but empty. She sat on her suitcase to wait.
The weather had other ideas. The clouds overhead decided to dump their load on her head, unable to wait any longer. Swearing, Flavia made a dash for the nearest shelter: the inside of the helicopter. The door clicked open, allowing her entry, before she slammed it shut behind her. There. The rain couldn't get her now.
But boredom could. Flavia hauled her bag onto the seat beside her and pulled out the paperwork. On top was the no-kissing, no-kinky-stuff contract she and Violet had dreamed up together to put him off, but it hadn't worked. Worthless now. Seizing the pages in both hands, she ripped the contract in two. There. She flung the paper on the floor. The deal was off. She was free to join her friends and have fun for once.
Flavia pulled out her phone. She should probably call Violet to tell her the good news. Depressing the power button, she waited for the screen to chime into life. The error message across it wasn't what she wanted, though – it said there was no network connection and only emergency calls could be made. She held it up, moving it around the cramped cabin, trying to get a signal, but no matter how many times she made her phone search for a network, it found none. When she got to Broome, then. When she could book the next available flight out of here and onward to Bali.
Movement caught her eye and she peered out into the rain to see what it was. A blurry figure approached the helicopter. He cracked open the door.
"Finally!" Flavia exclaimed. "I thought you'd leave me waiting here forever. I have a flight to catch. How soon until we leave?"
"That eager to get out of here?"
It wasn't the pilot.
"You spun a story about rape to the staff here so I'd be arrested, and by the time the police think to question the witness, you're long gone with my money." Jay reached into her folder of papers and pulled out the envelope. He seemed sad. "It was all about the money, wasn't it? I mean, the contract means nothing to you." He eyed the ripped pages.
Flavia stared at the envelope. "I didn't mean to take that. It must have been between the rest of the papers on the table when I gathered them up. I…can't take that. I didn't…didn't…deliver the goods, as promised. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I wasn't even going to go through with the auction. I was going to call it off and then it ended and you…" She swallowed. "I'm sorry. This didn't turn out anything like I expected."
"Yeah, me neither. Are you even a virgin?"
"Yes!"
Jay snorted. "So you're going back on the auction block now? When we had a deal?"
"NO!" It came out louder than Flavia expected. "I never intended to do it. I tried to cancel the auction before it ended. It was a mistake." She laughed weakly. "And while I was sitting at my desk, panicking that I'd ended the thing instead of cancelling it, the auction winner sent me an email with a picture of him as a magazine centrefold attached." Her cheeks grew unnaturally hot. "I thought it was a joke at first, but the more research I did, the more I realised that it was actually you. I couldn't say no to you."
Jay's scowl broke into a grin. "You internet stalked me after I emailed you? Really?" He swung into the co-pilot's seat and shut the door. "So at what point did you decide to frame me for rape? Or was it blackmail you planned?" He leaned over the back of the seat, closer and more than a little scary.
Flavia shrank back, shaking her head violently. "Nothing like that. I haven't said anything to anyone. You pushed me under the water and the next thing I knew, the hotel manager was pulling me out and you were unconscious."
"Unconscious. Yeah. About that." Jay retreated and scratched his chin. "I must've tripped and fell. Must have hit my head somehow. Yeah." He nodded vigorously. "Sorry I fell on you. That…sort of fucked things up, didn't it? Wasn't part of the plan. I pictured this going very differently."
"That makes two of us." The longer he looked into her eyes, the less she could think about anything else. Or anyone else. "Don't you wish we could just start today over again?"
Jay laughed. "Fuck no. I jumped out of a helicopter today. My first time. It was awesome."
Flavia couldn't help laughing. What kind of crazy man jumped out of helicopters for fun? A gorgeous, rich rock star who lived in paradise. Not the sort of man she normally had anything to do with. Her laughter died. "I just wanted things to be different. More like a dream than a nightmare."
"So how was it in your dreams, then?" Jay winked. "Just us here, no one else. I'll keep your secrets, I promise. What happens at Romance Island stays at Romance Island, or at least I think that's what it says on the brochure someone left on my desk to approve. Tell me your dreams, baby." Honey eyes captured her in their spell.
Flavia hesitated. This was a man who jumped out of helicopters for fun, she told herself. Who had more sex after one concert than she'd had in her entire life. He probably had the Kama Sutra memorised. "More romance, I guess."
"Oh, you wanted hearts and chocolates, flowers and dinner?" Jay shrugged. "I can do some of that, at least. Come back to my place and I'll get the chef to sort out dinner and chocolate. I could probably pick some flowers, as long as you don't mind a few frogs, and the resort has this incredible orgy pack that comes in a heart-shaped box. Condoms in every flavour, with lickable lubes to match, and some toys even I haven't worked out where to put."
Blushing furiously, Flavia didn't know what to say. Finally, she found her voice. "Not…kinky stuff and food. I mean…" Oh God, he was going to make her say it.
"Dancing? Serenading you on your balcony? Love letters? Bad poetry? Watching soppy chick flicks until I hurl?"
He had her laughing again. "No. I meant…foreplay."
Understanding dawned in those eyes, turning them into twin golden suns. "You mean all the stuff you said you didn't want me to do in the contract you made me sign?" His eyes strayed to the ripped pages. "The one that doesn't apply any more?" Wicked suns transfixed her in their beam.
"No, it doesn't," she admitted reluctantly.
"So I can kiss you now?"
"I suppose –"
She didn't get to finish and she didn't want to, either. Hot lips melted hers apart, leaving her gasping for breath. His tongue beckoned hers and the dance began, as Jay led masterfully and she followed. Her lips bloomed as her heart kept time to a lively beat that made the rest of her body long to join in. Jay tasted of salt and promises and…
Flavia broke away. "I can't," she panted.
Jay grinned. "In my professional opinion, I think you can. I think you can do anything you want to. What do you want, baby?"
Oh God, he knew she wanted him. She could read it in his eyes. It couldn't hurt to tell him what he already knew. It wouldn't change anything. "I wish I could have you, just once, before I have to leave."
Jay spread his arms. "We're here now. You can have me right here, if you want."
"Here? In a helicopter?"
"I've always wondered what it'd be like to have sex in a helicop
ter. This'll be my first time."
Flavia managed a faint smile. "Mine, too."
Jay reached out and caressed her face. "Two things first, baby. We try things my way. Anything you don't like, you say so, but when you do like what I do to you…let me know, all right?"
She nodded.
Jay climbed over the seat and took her in his arms. His mouth, his hands, his whole damn body were everywhere, burning her dreams into faint memories as he set her insides on fire in the most delicious ways. She stretched out across the seats, helpless in his hands as she savoured every moment.
"So what do you think, baby?"
Flavia's blissful fog cleared enough for her to focus on his laughing eyes. "I think all the stories were true." She sucked in a deep breath. "You're the most legendary lover who ever lived."
Jay burst out laughing. "Baby, that was just the beginning. A taste…or what you called it, foreplay. Would you like some more?"
Before she could think, her head nodded. "I want more…of you. I want to feel you inside me."
"Baby, I've been inside you. You taste delicious." One finger slid between her legs and out again before he popped it into his mouth.
"I want…I don't want to be a virgin any more. And I want my first time to be with you." She attempted a smile through her nervousness. "Our first time…together in a helicopter."
"How can I say no to an offer like that?" His shorts joined her clothes on the floor before he sheathed his rigid length in red latex. "Strawberry flavoured. Are you sure you're ready for this, baby?"
Flavia flung her legs over the seat backs, so they spread wide in invitation. "Yes." She meant it, too. "Make me into a woman, Jay." Just being able to say his name while staring at the body she'd only seen in pictures sent a thrill deep inside her.
He shifted so he knelt between her legs, the tip of his cock teasing her. "Easy does it, baby." He parted her like some biblical sea in one long, slow thrust. "Are you all right?"
Flavia shifted her hips, tilting them up to meet him. "Yes. I thought I'd hurt more, but…oh God, that feels so good."
The Rock Star's Virginity (Romance Island Resort #3) Page 9