Jay moved inside her, each thrust as tortuously slow as the first until she couldn't take it any more.
"Faster, please," she begged.
But he didn't relent. Slowly, steadily, her orgasm built around him as his hands and his mouth drove the rest of her to distraction. Too much. It was too much and too incredible and oh God this time she was going to explode. The rest of the world could go to hell because it was just her and Jay, making her whole body sing for joy.
She screamed his name to the heavens.
Twenty-Three
"Oh my GOD…James, James!"
At first, he thought it was his name she was screaming, until he realised it was some other bloke's. Fuck. He finished quickly, wanting to get the fuck away from her. He threw the condom on the pilot's seat, reached for his shorts and noticed the envelope on the seat beside them.
"Now you got what you came for, you'll be leaving, right?" he asked bitterly.
Her eyes were still closed, probably so she could imagine he was some other fucker. A fucker called James.
"Mmm-hmm."
Jason's heart froze within his chest. So much for being this girl's fantasy. He cracked open the door, letting the evening breeze clear his head. "Here." He tossed the envelope on her bare belly, slick with sweat from their frenzied…fucking. Because it wasn't anything else. Just physical. No emotional connection at all because she spent the whole time wishing he was someone else. "You earned it, Miss Chastity."
He couldn't stand being near her any more. Clambering out of the helicopter, he let the rain wash him clean. The stinging drops were nothing compared to the needling pain inside. What was the point in being some girl's first and best if she'd never remember it was him? Slinging his shorts over his shoulder, he set off through the jungle to his lonely villa.
Twenty-Four
Xan kept checking to make sure Jay wasn’t following her before she backtracked and took the path that led to the staff dining room. She wanted to talk to Flavia alone, so she could hear the girl's story without any interference from Jay. She might not like the man, but she had to admit she'd never thought of him as a sexual predator. A sex maniac and a shameless opportunist, yes, but not someone to fear. Now, though…
But the staff dining room was empty except for a forlorn white cup of untouched tea. Where had the girl gone?
Xan stuck her head in the kitchen and asked the chef, but he just shrugged and said he hadn't seen her. He was too busy preparing dinner for the remaining staff to take any notice of what was going on outside his kitchen. With a pointed look at the simmering pots on the stove, he turned his back on Xan.
Bloody hell, this was a mess. Xan returned to her office, breaking into a run when the rain started. So much for finishing work early for the weekend. It was times like this she wondered if Jay Felix was the devil himself, sent to torment her into killing him. He didn't do a damn thing she said. He wasn't in the office waiting for her, like he was supposed to be. Did that mean he was busily searching the island for Flavia so he could finish what he started?
She reached for her phone and cradled the receiver between her cheek and her shoulder as she dialled. Who first? IT to locate Flavia's wristband, or the Broome police to tell them their suspect had escaped and was now at large on the island?
Flavia first, she decided. Once the girl was safe, then she could worry about getting assistance to apprehend the arsehole.
She dialled the IT extension and waited. And waited. The phone didn't ring or beep or make any sound at all. Flavia hung up and tried again. Nothing, not even a dial tone. She slammed the receiver down. Fine. She'd email them instead. Her computer booted up quickly, as if sensing her urgency. Her email program wasn't as helpful, though – it spent forever checking for new messages. Finally, it flashed up exactly one new message – an error, telling her she didn't have a network connection.
Phones down. Internet down. Mobiles had been down since the last storm and the repair guy wasn't due for another week. It was like fate was deliberately isolating them on the island with a crazy man. All…ten of them, including Jay. She shivered. Wasn't there an Agatha Christie book about ten people trapped on an island with a psychopath? Didn't they all die?
If she made it through this weekend, she swore to hunt the book down. And knock Jay out with it.
In the meantime, she'd have to visit the IT guys in person and hope the wristband GPS system still worked. Crossing the dimly lit foyer, she almost shrieked when a shadow staggered into her path. It took her a few seconds to recognise the soaked, shaking figure as Shou.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"He made me break my baby. I crashed her!" Shou hid his face in his hands and let out what sounded like a sob.
He had children? He'd never mentioned kids before. Where was their mother? Flavia gave herself a mental shake as she realised what he meant. Everyone knew the pilot was practically married to his helicopter. Which meant… "You crashed the helicopter? Where? Are you all right?" She yanked him under one of the downlights so she could check him for injuries.
Shou jerked out of her grip. "I'm fine. But your…boss…attacked me during take-off, then opened the door and fell out. I managed to get my baby under control and steered her away from the buildings, but we were too low. I clipped a tree. I tried to correct, but the rotors hit something metal and it sheared off one of the blades. Then I wasn't flying any more, more like falling, and wrestling her down before we crashed. He made me crash my baby and he said he'd burn her!"
Make that two crazy men. And now, there was no way off the island. "Where did you crash? Do I need to send out a firefighting crew?" Xan stared out into the worsening storm, wondering if it would be more effective than any crew she could muster. She had horrible visions of the two IT guys with one limp hose between them as an inferno burned out of control through the jungle.
Shou straightened. "Of course not. I'm the best helicopter pilot in the Southern Hemisphere. My broken baby's on the helipad, waiting for repairs so she can fly again."
Xan's heart sank. "So with that on the helipad, there's no way we can get another helicopter in or out. We're basically stuck here with the crazy man who attacked you and a girl, and we have no idea who'll be next."
"Maybe we could barricade ourselves in the cyclone shelter? Call for reinforcements, lock all the doors and bunker down until help arrives?" Shou suggested.
He was a pilot, Xan reminded herself. A good one who'd just been through a traumatic experience. It wasn't his fault communications were down. Or was it? "Where did you say you were when you lost a rotor? The jungle between the main building and the helipad, right?" Where the satellite dish compound stood, hedged by a metal fence.
"Yes."
The helicopter or one of the broken-off bits must have hit the satellite dish, while the fence built to defend the dish wreaked havoc on the helicopter. All because of the bloody rock star who couldn't keep his bits in his pants. So much for crazy men being the biggest danger. Jay was enough to turn her homicidal.
But Shou made eleven, so this wasn't a murder mystery any more.
Xan's breath hissed out. "Okay, it looks like you're stuck in this mess along with the rest of us. I need to find the girl, and Jay, but after that, I'll find somewhere for you to stay until we can raise someone on the mainland. There's a radio at the pearl farm, right?"
Shou nodded.
Xan strode to IT, not bothering to knock. Her footsteps on the tiles announced her arrival long before she swept through the door. "I need you to find the girl. She should still have her wristband – "
"Already on it, Ms Lane. Last scan before the internet went down, she was at the helipad, but that was over an hour ago."
An hour? Really? Time flew when you were dealing with disasters. Who knew?
"What systems have we lost, aside from the internet?" She had to know. Once she knew all the bad news, maybe she'd get some that was good.
Cam didn't meet her eyes. "Internet. Phones. G
PS tracking. In-house movies and all the TV channels."
No adult movies for the IT guys and Jay. What a tragedy. "Does anything work?"
"We still have power, and the local network's up. That's mostly door locks and scanners at the bar and restaurant," Seb chimed in, a grin plastered on his face.
Not enough to find Flavia. "I'll head out to the helipad, then. I may as well assess the damage while I'm there."
Simon cleared his throat. "Actually, Tim's already out there. He said he wanted to keep an eye on Mr Felix."
"Jay was HERE?" Xan closed her mouth before she shouted anything else. A deep breath. Two. A third. Now, calmly, she continued, "Mr Felix was here. Do you know where he went?"
"The helipad, where the girl was. That's where he said he was going." Simon smiled. "I’m sure Tim has everything under control."
Xan had a horrible image of the cameraman and the rock star, facing off on the helipad in the pouring rain. Her tally of crazy men rose from two to three. She glanced around the room. No, to six. Was there a single sane man on the island?
No. Shit like this made her doubt her own sanity. Maybe she should have stayed at the backpackers with the frogs and the fly-in/fly-out boys, after all.
Instead, she headed out into the rain, heartily cursing Romance Island Resort and its rock star owner.
Twenty-Five
Flavia's body buzzed, still riding the high brought on by Jay Felix. The stories fell far short of the euphoric reality. A million champagne bubbles burst in her blood.
His words permeated her blissful fog: "You earned it." Something cool touched her belly, then fluttered up to her breasts when a warm breeze gusted in. Flavia pushed it aside, not wanting anything to distract her from savouring the feel of Jay's caresses.
Warm droplets pattered onto her foot, waking her up. Had Jay decided to wash her clean afterwards?
But Jay was nowhere in sight. The helicopter door gaped into the darkening evening light, letting in rain and wind and the biggest mosquitoes she'd ever seen. Flavia grabbed her clothes and dressed in record time.
Now she noticed the thing she'd pushed aside was an envelope. The one with her money in it, making her the Million Dollar Girl in truth.
You earned it.
And, just like that, her euphoria vanished, leaving a yawning canyon of horror. She might have more than a million dollars to her name, but never had she felt so cheap. Tears sprang to her eyes, rubbing salt into the wounds of her terrible mistake.
No, not just hers. Jay did this to her. Turned her into a cheap hooker with his hands and his money and his honey eyes. She wanted to get as far away from him as possible. The other side of the world, maybe.
So where was the damn pilot, the one who could fly her away from here?
Flavia slid out of the helicopter, her feet splashing ankle-deep into the flood engulfing the helipad. She sloshed to the gate before she realised she wasn't alone. A shadowy figure stood on the path. The pilot, surely. It had to be. No one else would be crazy enough to be out in this downpour. "Are we taking off soon?" she shouted to be heard over the rain.
"That thing's not going anywhere soon. One of the blades is missing." He pointed.
Flavia squinted back at the helicopter. Her heart stuttered to a stop when she realised he was right. "Then how do I get off this accursed island? I have a flight to catch. I need to go!"
He shrugged. "I think you're stuck here for the night, right along with the rest of us. Walk up to Reception with me and we'll see if the hotel manager can find you a room for the night."
A room? That meant she'd need her bag. Flavia begged him to wait, then climbed back into the helicopter to fetch her things. Once she had her bag in hand, she hurried after him, dragging the suitcase through the puddles behind her.
They reached the veranda around the main building and he stepped from darkness to yellow glowing light. It wasn't the pilot at all.
"Tim!" Flavia exclaimed. "What were you doing, standing out there by the helipad in the rain?"
He shook the water from his hair, his mouth twisting into an unhappy smile. "I followed Mr Felix out there, seeing as we figured he might get violent again. I thought I might have to be your knight in shining armour. I wasn't expecting a show."
Flavia flushed, mortified. "You mean you watched us have sex?"
Tim shrugged. "Wasn't much to see, love. What with you two steaming up the windows and all. There was the tell-tale way you had the helicopter rocking, of course. And I heard you loud and clear. You sure can scream." He shook his head. "This afternoon, you might have had me fooled, but tonight I knew what I was hearing. That was no scream for help. It was a scream for more."
Flavia wanted the earth to swallow her up. "You saw us this afternoon on the beach, too?"
"Baby, everyone on the island saw you two on the beach. And if they didn't, they're probably watching the video now."
"Video?" she squeaked. Oh no. Not a sex tape. She was no better than James, getting caught in the act.
"Simmo and me, we thought we'd witnessed a rape, so we gave the video to the hotel manager as evidence." He glanced at her. "When you said you were meeting your boyfriend up here, I thought you were just being shy. Turns out he's a bit more than your boyfriend, isn't he? How much did he pay for you at auction, Miss Chastity?"
Flavia's voice died in her throat. Not only did he have a video of her naked with Jay, but he knew about the auction. She had to get out of here. Now. Flavia reached for the door just as someone shouldered through it from the other side, almost knocking her flat.
Relief flooded through Flavia at the sight of the hotel manager. "I need to get home. Off the island, I mean, and back to the airport," Flavia blurted out. "I have a flight to catch in the morning."
"I bet you do," Tim said, under his breath.
Flavia desperately prayed that the manager didn't hear him, or didn't care to ask him to elaborate.
"I hope you have travel insurance, then. None of us are leaving the island until Tuesday at the earliest. I'll see if we have a room I can give you for the weekend. I think there's a bed made up in the room in the staff accommodation, next to these guys." Ms Lane nodded at Tim.
"No!" Not next to the men who knew she'd sold her virginity and had the whole thing on film. "I'll pay for a hotel room. I can afford it."
Tim sniggered.
Ms Lane pursed her lips. "The resort's closed. All the hotel rooms, too. We sent all the linen back to the mainland for cleaning before we reopen next week. There's a spare bed in the staff accommodation, or there's Jay's villa. That's it. Seeing as you won't want to stay with Jay any more, that leaves –"
"Staying with Jay is fine," Flavia interrupted.
The manager stared. "But didn't he…"
"Oh, she likes Mr Felix just fine," Tim chimed in. "You should have seen them getting along in the helicopter. Real friendly, both of them. She's not going to want to go back to work as a travel agent in York after this weekend. Right, Flavia?"
Her heart plummeted. Oh God. Not only did he know about the auction, but while they were talking on the plane, she'd told him far too much. She had to get away from him. "Yes. I'll stay with Jay. I'll be fine."
The manager didn't want to let her go, but after Flavia repeated her reassurances several times, she was finally free. Free to trot away to Jay's villa, with her reputation in tatters. What would her family do when they found out what she'd done?
Twenty-Six
Someone tapped on the glass front door, jerking Jason out of the story he was reading. He marked his place with a crumpled envelope and stashed the book behind the couch cushions. He levered himself up, wincing as bits of him hurt. Jumping out of the helicopter probably hadn't been the best idea. Maybe he should wait a while before trying it again.
More tapping, barely audible over the slap of his bare feet on the tiles. Perhaps the tapper didn't want to be heard. It sure wasn't Xan, then. She'd have been shouting through the door by now.
"Y
es?" he drawled as he waved open the automatic door. He allowed himself a smug grin at the sight of Miss Chastity's widening eyes. So she'd decided to accept his dinner invitation, after all.
"The helicopter's broken so I can't leave and I need somewhere to stay. Ms Lane said the hotel's closed, so I have to stay here as your guest until I can get off the island." She said it all in a rush, like she was scared of being interrupted.
"Bullshit. Xan does her best to keep girls away from me. She didn't send you." Jason folded his arms across his chest, watching the inevitable way her gaze dropped from his face to his muscles. "You can do better than that, baby."
She reddened. "There was a cameraman. He said he got pictures of us on the beach!"
Jason shrugged. There was always some reporter or photographer or a dozen nosy nobodies with cameras on their phones. "Ask me nicely, baby. What was it you wanted? To be my guest until you get off again?"
"I…"
She was so nervous it took her a minute to understand the innuendo. Gah! Virgins.
She swallowed. "Can I please stay with you?"
"Sure, baby." Jason moved aside to let her past. He jerked his head toward the passage. "Bedroom's that way."
"I'll just go stash my stuff. I'll be right back," she said, not meeting his eyes.
Interesting. In the helicopter, she'd been as uninhibited as he could want, but now, after they'd done the deed, she was back to the shy girl who'd first climbed his steps with Xan only a few hours earlier. She had her money now. Maybe that was it. But she'd also had a taste of the things he could do to her delicious body. And no girl could resist that.
No more reading romance novels while she was here, or anything else that clashed with his rock god image. That wouldn't be hard with a pretty girl to seduce. Just like in the books. He had to sweep her off her feet completely, to make sure her first would be her only.
Just as long as she hadn't been pretending her enjoyment today. Pretending like Phuong…
The Rock Star's Virginity (Romance Island Resort #3) Page 10