‘So is there something between you two?’
WPC Flood’s question caught him off guard.
‘Not like that, no. She’s been my sister’s best friend for years, always hanging around the house, so she’s more like another sister to me.’ It was wrong to tell lies to the police but he was too flustered to think straight, so had automatically fallen back on the usual pretence he’d tried to drum into his head every time he took Lena out.
‘Shame. Is your van out front? I don’t remember seeing it?’
‘Ah … I don’t really know where it is. I dumped it the first chance I got and ran here. It’s probably about half a mile back towards town.’
‘No worries. Give me five and I’ll run you back to it.’
‘Thank you.’ He’d only just removed the hideous black wig and granny-net from Lena’s hair when WPC Flood gave him the nod.
It was the first time he’d travelled in the back of a police car, and hopefully the last. He wanted to cheer when his van came into view. He had to rouse Lena to transfer her from one vehicle to the other. As he settled her into the passenger seat and reached for the seatbelt, the pressure on her chest made her eyelids pop open; wild panic danced in her eyes but it vanished the instant she laid eyes on him. The absolute trust she had in him made his heart sing and lurch at the same time.
Oh boy.
He was in even deeper than he thought.
Less than half an hour later, he pulled up onto the driveway and his eyes closed. Forcing them open, he popped the door and walked around to the passenger side. Lena had fallen asleep again, so he carried her into the house and got her settled in Gemma’s bed, removing nothing but her boots and her cloak. Finally, he staggered to his own bedroom, stripped off his jeans and shirt, then collapsed on his bed, not even bothering to get under the covers.
Lena’s blood-curdling scream had him back on his feet, out of the door and halfway across the landing before he could pry his eyes open. She was sitting upright, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth, with her eyes wide open but unseeing. And then she threw up in spectacular fashion, all over herself and Gemma’s duvet.
‘Oh, no. I’m sorry,’ she croaked.
‘It’s OK, don’t sweat it,’ he whispered. ‘But you can’t stay in here, and the dress has got to go.’
Lena nodded, then slipped out of bed. She swayed, fought for balance, then raised her arms straight up in the air. Her gaze begged him to help and to make it quick. Still in practical mode, he didn’t hesitate in reaching for the hem of her dress and rolling it up to make it as small as possible before lifting it off over her head, trying not to notice that Lena was left wearing nothing more than fishnet stockings and lacy black knickers underneath. He tossed the dress into the centre of the bed, and gathered Lena in his arms. The mess could wait until morning.
Lena slumped against him as he carried her back to his room. To his bed. Jake laid her down gently, then raced around the other side and climbed in behind her. He drew her back into his arms, his body spooned around hers. She sighed and all the tension left her body. Jake allowed himself a smile and drifted back to sleep. Falling asleep with a practically naked Lena in his arms wasn’t his smartest move. It led to some of the most bizarre, most erotic dreams he’d ever had.
He might be able to fool his waking mind that there was nothing to tell between them, but his subconscious mind enjoyed playing tricks on him. Like now. If he wasn’t so sure he was dreaming, the feel of Lena’s lips meshing against his could be almost real, but there was no way she’d be writhing on top of him. Jake tried to wake up, to clear the dream, but the sensations only grew stronger.
What the …
Jake dragged his eyes open and found Lena pinning him down, kissing him, and he’d even started to kiss her back. The writhing on top of him was real, too, with just the thin cotton of his shorts as a barrier. Now he was awake, and then some. Too awake, in fact. He opened his mouth to ask Lena what the hell she was doing but his bedroom door opened, the usual creak giving way to a high-pitched squeal.
Gemma stood in the doorway, her eyes bugging out, and she looked ready to kill. ‘I knew there was something going on between you,’ she screamed. ‘I just knew it.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
BUSTED
Lena
Gemma’s yelling made spots appear in front of my eyes, and I already had the headache from Hell. My muscles turned to jelly and I collapsed on top of Jake. His heart pounded like a runaway train against my chest, challenging my heartbeat to a race.
Of all the lousy goddamn timing for Gemma to make her grand, dramatic entrance, it had to be right at that moment, just as Jake was starting to kiss me back. Two more minutes and she might have walked in on me having sex with her brother, getting rid of my virginity once and for all. OK, so he’d actually jumped out of his skin when he’d woken up but his body had been more than up for it.
‘There’s nothing going on.’ Jake lifted me off him as though I were nothing more than a sheet of paper, then rolled over to dump me on my belly on the empty side of the bed. No longer trapped underneath me, he leaped out of the bed as if it were on fire. Maybe it was—my cheeks were certainly flaming enough.
‘Then how do you explain this?’ Gemma shrieked, and I could just picture her sweeping arm gestures. ‘You. Her. She’s in her knickers, for fuck’s sake, and not a lot else, from what I can see.’
Omigod.
I sent out my hand and fumbled around for the quilt but it was out of reach down by my feet. Jake must have noticed what I was trying to do, as the quilt suddenly flopped down on top of me, creating a breeze strong enough to lift my hair off my face.
‘It’s not what it looks like,’ he said.
‘Then what the hell is it?’ Gemma spat.
With Gemma standing on one side of the bed, and Jake on the other, there was no way I could look at them both at the same time. I didn’t have the stamina to ping-pong between them, so I stayed on my belly and buried my head into the pillow instead, only to get assaulted by Jake’s scent.
‘It does look bad,’ Jake conceded. ‘But you’re only seeing what you want to see.’
‘Is that so?’ Gemma said, in full-on snark mode. ‘Because what I saw, with my own two eyes, was her mounted on top of you, and both of you practically naked.’
‘Nothing happened.’
‘Only because I turned up just in time.’
‘Rubbish.’
‘Oh, come off it, Jake, you were snogging each other’s face off.’
‘Wrong again. She was kissing me.’
‘You seriously expect me to believe it’s all perfectly innocent? I might not be as brainy as Piper but I’m no idiot.’
‘Believe what you like, Gem, but I’m not stupid either.’
Gemma and Jake continued arguing over my prone body, flat out in the middle of the bed.
‘Then why the hell is she in your bed?’
‘Well I tried putting her to bed in your room, where you were supposed to be, but you should have heard her screaming. And she puked all over it too. You might just want to get onto that instead of screaming at me.’
‘What is she even doing here?’
Her? She?
‘Hey,’ I said, lifting my head from the soft pillow. ‘I am here, you know.’
Jake spoke at the same time though. ‘Because her so-called best friend convinced her to sign up to some cock-and-bull mission, then left her to fend for herself at a party, where some dickhead tried to take advantage.’
That was one way to shut me up. It put Gemma on the back foot too at least, so she stopped screeching. The damage was done, though. My blood drained from my face and beads of cold, clammy, sweat gathered on my forehead, absorbed instantly into Jake’s pillow. I rolled onto my back and pushed myself up onto my elbows.
The room was still spinning.
Take deep breaths.
‘Lena, are you OK?’ Gemma asked. ‘You look gree—’
�
��I think I’m gonna be sick again.’
‘Shit,’ Gemma said, ‘I’ll get a bowl.’
‘No need.’ Jake scooped me up and carried me to the bathroom. He placed me carefully next to the toilet but, instead of leaving me, he stayed and held my hair off my face as I hurled my guts up. ‘Hangover,’ Jake explained to Gemma as she hovered in the doorway.
‘Here, get this on her,’ she said, handing over a dressing gown. ‘And what d’you mean hangover?’
‘She got blind drunk.’
‘When? At the party?’
‘No, over breakfast,’ Jake said, hitting Gemma with snark of his own. ‘Of course at the party. When else could it have been?’
‘Yeah, all right. Keep your hair on.’
‘The police will be coming by at some point to speak to us.’
‘Police?’ Gemma’s voice couldn’t get much higher. ‘Us?’
‘Yeah, me and Lena. I only just made it in time, Gem. The muscled-headed moron wasn’t taking no for an answer.’
Cue another bout of hurling from me.
‘Oh, God. So is that what happened to your hands? Your face?’ Gemma asked.
Say what?
What was she was talking about? It hadn’t even occurred to me that Jake might have been hurt. He seemed so … invincible.
‘It’s nothing.’
‘So she was nearly …’ Gemma’s words dried up, the implication left unsaid.
‘Yeah.’
‘But you …’
‘Exactly. So don’t you dare go blaming this on me. I was there for her. Again.’
‘Shithead!’
‘Language!’
‘So why was she coming onto you just now, then?’
‘I didn’t get chance to ask: some drama queen appeared. But I figure it has to be related to that damn mission. She wouldn’t be throwing herself at me—the first nice guy she set eyes on—if she wasn’t so hell-bent on getting laid.’
‘So you’re saying it was just some kind of knee-jerk reaction?’
‘Why else?’ Jake said. ‘But I’m not about to let anyone use me as a pawn in some crazy cherry-popping mission.’
Oh, no.
I wanted to tell Jake that he had it all wrong, that Operation: Popping the Cherry was the last thing on my mind, but it would have been a lie—or a half-lie, at any rate—and he would have seen right through it. In a way, it was me making a last-ditch effort to rid myself of my virginity, but there was more to it than that. Much more.
‘Hello. Sick girl in the room.’ I waved my hand in the air, even though I couldn’t risk lifting my head. ‘Stop talking about me like I’m not here.’
‘Sorry,’ they mumbled as one.
‘You should be.’ My words cut off the rest of their conversation, only to be replaced by a tense silence, except for my retching sounds.
‘Do you want me to take over?’ Gemma asked a couple of minutes later. She phrased it as a question but it came out as more of an order for Jake to back off.
‘Fine by me. I’ve got to get to work, anyway,’ Jake said, getting to his feet to switch places with Gemma. ‘Don’t even think about leaving her on her own today. You owe her big time. If you’ve got plans, cancel them.’
‘Yeah thanks for the guilt trip, Jake. You can go now.’ Gemma reached to take hold of my hair.
‘Fine.’ The looming figure in the doorway disappeared.
As soon as Jake had left, Gemma let go of my hair again so it fell across my cheeks and dangled inside the bowl. I flicked a glance at her from behind the curtain of hair and saw her staring into space, her jaw tense, not even trying to go through the motions of comforting me. She might as well have been a million miles away. Jake pottered around in his bedroom, opening and closing drawers. He crossed the landing to use the shower in the en suite of the master bedroom, since I was still hogging the bathroom. Gemma still hadn’t said a single word to me when the shower cut off again.
‘I’ll just be a sec, OK?’ she said, startling me by speaking. She gave me two quick pats on my shoulder and then stood, ready to leave. I shrugged. It wasn’t as if I could do much else, and she hadn’t been the slightest bit helpful, anyway. ‘And I’ll only be across the landing, so yell if you need me.’
So much for not leaving me on my own.
I was surprised she even waited for my reply before buggering off. Frantic whispering started up, just outside earshot, but then they moved onto the landing. The vicelike grip on my head intensified as I tried to eavesdrop—a proper vom-worthy headache to the highest degree—but I had to know what they were saying.
‘So there really isn’t anything going on between you two?’ Gemma asked, still not convinced.
‘No.’
‘But do you want there to be?’
My ears pricked up and I held my breath.
‘No,’ Jake repeated. ‘I’m not interested. Not now. Not ever,’ he said, killing off the last of my hopes.
‘I’ve got ears, you know,’ I yelled.
And feelings—unfortunately.
Talk about a major headfuck! Jake’s words and his actions didn’t match up, so it was no wonder I’d messed up so spectacularly. Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered the way he’d held onto me, the tender kiss he’d planted on my forehead. I gulped for air as pain lanced my chest, my heart shattering into a thousand tiny fragments. The acid built in my stomach and threatened to blow again, so I scooped my hair back off my face, gathering it into a ponytail, then wrapping it around my hand.
All of my dreams had come true when I’d woken up in Jake’s bed, safe and warm in his arms. Last night, he’d heard me calling for him somehow, as though our souls were connected, and he’d swooped in to save me just when I’d become resigned to my fate. My feelings for him had only grown stronger over time. I trusted him more than any other person, and I wanted to give myself to him physically, as well as emotionally.
Jake was the one—but he didn’t feel the same.
Gemma returned to the bathroom in time to watch my next bout of hurling. ‘You do know the sympathy thing doesn’t usually work when it’s self-inflicted, right?’
‘Thanks. I do now.’
Her quietness wasn’t fooling me for a second. I knew for sure it was just the calm before the storm. No way was she going to let this morning go. This was no prank gone wrong, or me ignoring her calls: she’d caught me trying to cop off with her brother and that was a crime worthy of a major freakout. Apparently. Jake popped his head into the bathroom when I’d finished being sick again.
‘I’m off,’ he said. ‘Just call me when the police get here and I’ll come straight back.’
I didn’t have it in me to respond.
His footsteps thumped down the stairs, triggering flashes of pain in my temples. The front door rattled open, before being slammed shut again, and the sound of a diesel engine fired up moments later, petering out as he drove away. After all his promises, Jake had upped and gone. And he’d left me with his seriously ticked-off sister.
‘I know you’ve had a shitty night,’ she said, her voice bordering a whisper and eerily calm. ‘I get that, I really do, and I’m sorry.’ But? There just had to be a ‘but’ coming. ‘But I don’t buy Jake’s theory. Not at all.’ Uh-oh. ‘I’m not going to ask you why you were trying to have sex with my brother. I don’t need to know—hell, I don’t even want to know—but you need to know you can’t have both of us.’
I spluttered. ‘Pardon?’
‘It’s me or him. Your choice.’
‘Why?’
‘I need to know I can confide in you as my best friend, but I can’t do that if there’s even a chance of it getting back to Jake.’
I rested my burning forehead against the cool white porcelain. ‘That’s bullshit, Gemma, and you know it.’
‘Well, I didn’t want to have to say anything, but you’ve forced my hand.’
‘Just spit it out, Gem.’
‘I’ve had my suspicions about you and Jake for months, b
ut then you hooked up with Zac, and Jake started going out with Danielle.’
‘Danielle?’ My stomach lurched again, prompting another heave. It had totally slipped my mind that Jake had a girlfriend.
‘Yeah, she was at my party. I’d have introduced you if you’d stuck around.’
‘Do we really have to do this now, Gemma? When I’m chucking my guts up?’
‘Very well.’ She let out an exaggerated sigh, then got up and left.
Several minutes passed but then she reappeared on the landing with an armful of bedding—Jake’s bedding—having stripped his bed. Getting rid of the evidence, most likely. She disappeared again, presumably to do the same to hers, which she confirmed when she stuffed the next bundle onto the floor ready to take downstairs.
‘Can you drive me home, please?’ I asked.
Gemma’s cold front faltered. ‘But Jake said I had to stay with you.’
‘I don’t really give a damn about what Jake said,’ I snapped. ‘I want to go home. Right now. So are you going to take me or do I have to call a taxi?’
‘No, I’ll take you.’
‘Great. Let’s go.’ My legs were reluctant to bear my weight but they didn’t buckle beneath me. I survived the stairs and made it all the way to Gemma’s car.
We rode in silence but I could see Gemma gnawing on her bottom lip, shooting glances at me. Each time she looked my way, I stared ahead. She turned into my road and pulled up behind my car on the driveway. I had the passenger door open before she’d cut the engine.
‘Lena, I’m—’
‘Thanks for the lift.’ I didn’t want to hear whatever it was she had to say. It was time to get inside and lick my wounds. Alone. I climbed out of her car and shut the door behind me, then walked into my house as proudly as I could in a dressing gown, without looking back once.
Once I’d finally stopped being sick again, I ran a bath with lots of bubbles and had a go at scrubbing away the layer of filth that ran several layers deep. My phone went off a few times but I ignored it, getting out of the bath only when the water had gone cold. I’d been in too many beds over the last twenty-four hours, so I settled for a blanket and cushion on the sofa instead and spent the rest of the morning dozing on and off, with the television on low in the background.
Popping the Cherry Page 24