by M J Rutter
“Hello?”
“Hello,” Alec said, his voice sounded crackly.
“Hey, where are you?”
“I’m about twenty minutes away from the city, missing you already.”
“I am missing you too.”
“What are you doing?”
“I am lounging at your private pool.” I smiled. “I have wine and my book and I am planning on staying here.”
“Make sure you put on sun lotion, I don’t want you burning again.”
“I will,” I promised.
“If you are staying in my room tonight, I’ll face time you on the computer after the meeting.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “If that’s alright with you.”
“Of course it is, just don’t go having any parties.”
“Damn, you foiled my plans.” I chuckled. “I love you.”
“Yes, me too.” I didn’t expect him to tell me, he wasn’t alone and if they already bugged him over calling me his girlfriend, then they would really grill him if he told me he loved me. “I’ll text you before I face time you, to give you time to set it up, alright?”
“Alright, bye.”
“Goodbye, Grace.” He ended the call and just before I put my phone down, I received a text.
‘I love you too x’
I knew how to Skype, but I had no clue as to how I would face time someone and planned to Google it before he called. At lunch time, I slipped on a sun dress and flip flops before heading down to the restaurant. Bumping into Gerald as I arrived.
“Hello again.” He smiled.
“Hi,” I replied.
“So, what will you do now? Look for another guy to sink your claws into while he’s out of town.”
How dare he? “Are you single, Gerald?” I asked.
“I might be,” he frowned.
“Ever wonder why?”
“Listen…”
“No, you listen, I am not going to explain myself to you or anybody else, but remember jealousy is an ugly trait, about as ugly as you are actually. Think about it.” I turned to walk away.
“He’s had more girls than I can count, you’ll just be another notch in his bedpost, sweetheart.” He called after me. I turned back to face him.
“Gerald Landry, just who the hell do you think you are?” Elisa snapped from behind us. She looked like she had come straight from one of our photo shoots. Her ankle length dress of white with thin gold straps and sandals to match, together with a big sun hat and sunglasses, she could have been on the cover of Vogue.
“This is nothing to do with you, Elisa.” He groaned.
“When you are bad mouthing my friend to his new girlfriend, it has everything to do with me. Just remember who pays your wages.”
“Huh, I’ll remind you of this when she’s bled him dry and his company folds up.”
“And I’ll remind you, when Alec gets back, of this conversation in front of him, if you don’t shut that filthy mouth of yours and bugger off.” She retorted angrily. “You know he’ll sack you for even talking to her.” Gerald flashed his eyes to me and turned on his heels, hurrying away like a kicked puppy.
“You told him.” I smiled.
“I sure did.” She beamed and hugged me. “A little birdy tells me that you are alone for the next couple of days.”
“That birdy would be right, but I am fine, honestly.”
“Of course you are, I am here now. So, what say we ditch this place and hit the city?”
“I am still in my bikini,” I frowned.
“And you look exquisite.” She beamed.
“Why don’t we have a salad here and then I can get changed before we head off.”
“If you insist.” She shrugged her tiny shoulders.
After a light salad, she came with me up to my room so that I could take a quick shower and change. I thought about Gerald and what he had said to me, I didn’t like him, but did I want Alec to find out and fire him. Not that he didn’t deserve it, because he was an absolute tosser, but I did not want to be responsible for him losing his job.
As I came out of the bedroom, dressed in dark blue Capri trousers and a light blue shirt, I found Elisa standing on my balcony.
“You won’t get a view like this back in London, eh?” she asked.
“No, you won’t,” I agreed. “So, where are we going?”
“Well, there are a few stores at an outlet just on the outskirts of the city I wouldn’t mind going to, if that’s alright with you?”
“Sounds perfect,” I smiled. “You won’t say anything to Alec about Gerald, will you?”
“He deserves it,” she frowned.
“Alec will go ballistic,” I sighed nervously.
“If you rather I don’t then he won’t hear it from me, just remember though, Grace, he is a sneaky, conniving git and I would not put it past him to make something up to get you into trouble.”
“Well, its lucky you are here to keep an eye on me then, isn’t it?” I smiled.
“Listen, Warren is with Alec, so we both get to play while the cats are away.”
She said her driver was waiting for us and I almost fell over when we got outside of the hotel. She had a stretched, white limousine. She smiled as I gazed over the car, I’d seen enough of them back in London, especially when there were movie premiers and shows, but I had never been in one, not even when I graduated University and went out with a few girls who were on the same courses as me. This obviously amused her and she had to surpass her laugh as her driver opened the door for me to climb in.
The white leather seats inside felt soft and the floor was edged with lights as we sat in the back and waited for the car to start. Music played softly as we rode along the streets of LA heading out of the city towards the outlet village.
We talked about her life and although she had lived in LA for a number of years, she missed her home back in Somerset in England. I told her about my job and we spent the journey chatting about everything. It was nice to have someone there to confide in, although she seemed to know everything I was going through.
By the time we reached the outlet village, I knew quite a lot about her and her life back in the UK before she followed her heart and headed across the pond. I have to admit, there was a certain appeal to leaving everything behind and starting a new life, but I loved my parents dearly and as their only daughter, I was positive I would break their hearts in two if I just up and left.
The outlet was huge, I had never seen a shopping complex so big and so spread out before. All of the top brand names were everywhere I looked and I wished I hadn’t have worn my strappy sandals now, my feet were going to kill me by the end of the spree.
I followed Elisa in and out of stores, buying things that only caught my eye, I would have spent all of my spending money and maxed out my credit card if I let temptation get the better of me. Just when our arms couldn’t carry anymore, the limo would arrive so we could off load our bags and start again. She was certainly hard-core when it came to shopping and I could barely keep up with her. I ended up with more new hot and tempting underwear and a couple of satin chemise’s in red and black so that I didn’t have to keep wearing unflattering the nightshirts I had packed when I slept with Alec.
We decided to have dinner on the way back to the city and stopped at a small restaurant she seemed to know well. My feet hurt so much, I ended up buying some flip flops from Sketchers, they had an extra thick soul that cushioned my poor, tired and aching feet.
“Elisa,” the stunningly beautiful, blonde receptionist at the restaurant counter smiled as we entered. “Haven’t seen you for ages, how are you?”
“I am good, Lexi, how are you?”
“I am deputy manager now, so pretty good, I guess.” She answered and looked at me.
“Sorry, Grace this is Lexi, we used to work here together when I first came over.”
“Hey now, I don’t think we actually worked.” She winked her eye. “Nice to meet you Grace.”
“Thank
s.”
“So, how is Warren?”
“He is good, just started a new web design company, Alec thinks it will take off.” Elisa explained.
“Oh, Alec, yes, how is he these days?” she frowned.
“Happy and in love,” Elisa smiled and looked at me.
“I find that hard to believe, he is not capable of loving anyone but himself.” She grumbled. I frowned at Elisa, I didn’t want this girl to spit in my food if she found out I was dating Alec. “So, how do you two know each other.”
“England,” I blurted. “We have known each other since school.” I lied. “My feet are killing me, are we getting a table?”
“Of course,” Lexi smiled. “Follow me,” she added and lifted a couple of menus.
“Why wouldn’t you let me tell her about you two?” Elisa asked.
“I like my food minus the spit,” I replied.
“She is not like that,” she smiled.
“Well, I wasn’t prepared to take that risk.” I shrugged as Lexi stopped at a table.
“Is this okay?” she asked.
“It’s perfect,” Elisa smiled. Lexi left us in the hands of a very cute looking waiter by the name of George.
I glanced at my watch, it was already six, I would miss my face time call with Alec. “How long will it take us to get back?” I asked.
“From here, thirty minutes, maybe, why?”
“Alec was going to facetime me, whatever that is, anyway, I think it’s like Skype.”
“Text him and tell him you are out with me and you will call him later when you get back.”
“Are you sure he will be alright with that?”
“He’s with Warren and us getting together was Warren’s idea, sort of.”
“Oh, so you didn’t actually want to spend time with me then,” I remarked.
“Well… Of course I did, I had planned to come and see you all along, but Warren likes to think he is clever enough to come up with these ideas himself, who am I to rain on his parade?”
We ordered wine with our pasta meals and while we waited for out order I sent Alec a text and he replied quickly asking me to let him know when I was back in his room. After drinking almost, a whole bottle of wine, Elisa and I left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel.
“Thank you for an amazing day,” I told her as her driver unloaded my shopping bags.
“Thank you, I knew we’d have fun.” She hugged me against her skinny body, smelling amazing as she did so. “So, tomorrow I have a pampering day set up, so shower early and make sure you wear a bikini or at least bring one with you.
“What sort of pampering day?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” she smiled and climbed back into her limo.
Feeling a little tipsy and extremely tired, I lifted my shopping and headed inside and up to the penthouse. While in the lift my phone began to ring,
“Hello?”
“Are you back yet?” Alec asked.
“I am in the lift now.”
“Okay, I phone back in five.”
“Okay.” I smiled. He’d only been gone a day and I missed him so much, the thought I was going to see him when I talked to him placed excitement in my belly.
As soon as I was in his room I dropped my bags and kicked off my new shoes. My feet were still a bit sore, so I was relieved to be able to remove them and relax. I lifted his laptop from the table and carried it to the sofa. Placing it on the coffee table, I pressed the button to switch it on and waited for the screen to light up. It asked for a password so I pressed Alec’s name on my phone to call him,
“Hello, sexy,” he answered chirpily.
“Hello yourself,” I grinned. “So, I have switched the laptop on and now it wants a password.”
“Well, it’s easy enough.”
“Okay, I’ll spell it out for you, uh, G-R-A-C-E-A-P-R-I-L-1-1-T-H.”
“Oh,” I grinned.
“It’s the day we first met,” he explained needlessly, how could I forget my faux pas of knocking his breakfast across the restaurant floor? “Are you in?” he asked. I was smiling too hard to realize that the picture had changed to two little girls with blonde pigtails and big brown eyes. “You should be looking at Scarlett and Paige.”
“They are adorable,” I gushed. “So, I could actually look at anything I want to right now.” I smiled.
“Go ahead, I have nothing to hide.”
“Oh, I am sure there are a few skeletons you’d rather keep locked away.”
“A couple, but you won’t find anything about them on there.”
“That reminds me, I met Lexi tonight, from O’Brien’s Bar and Grill.”
“Oh, yeah, so what did she have to say for herself?” he asked thinly.
“Nothing much.” I lied remembering her pointless remark. “So, is this facetime thing like Skype?”
“You know how to use Skype?”
“I do, I am not a complete technophobe,” I smiled.
“Well, if you can Skype, I’ll call you that way, what’s your username?”
I frowned, “Promise you won’t laugh.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“Kev, well, he always called me an Ice Maiden, so that’s my username, IceMaiden-30-06.”
“Why on earth would he call you an ice maiden?”
“Because I was a virgin when I met him and made him wait almost four months before I slept with him.” I explained. “Or maybe it was because I am as cold as ice.”
“I don’t believe that for a second, you don’t have a cold bone in your body.”
“Trust me, I can have when I want to.” I boasted.
“I better behave myself then,” he chuckled. “Okay, so the call should come through as soon as you log in.”
I tapped on the keyboard and signed in to Skype, “I’m in.” I told him.
“Okay, call is coming,” His laptop began to beep, Pac-Man-Alec was calling me.
I answered the call and he appeared in front of me, wearing a bath robe. “Hello,” I smirked, “Pac-Man-Alec.”
“Hello, Ice Maiden,” he grinned. God, I wanted to reach into the screen and touch his chest. “You look like you caught some more sun and as always, insanely sexy,”
“So do you,” I smiled. “I miss you so much.”
“I’ll be back Saturday morning.”
“Feels like a million years away. Now I got you, I don’t want to lose you,” I admitted.
“Grace Matthews,” he smiled, “you really are missing me.”
“Well, I have had a lot of wine too.”
“That explains why those incredible green eyes are sparkling like fireworks.” He grinned.
I smiled at his compliment, blushing slightly, even though the room was only lit by a small lamp, I could feel my face redden, “Have you just had a shower?”
“Yes and can I just say, it was not as much fun as the shower we had the night before last or our bath for that matter.”
“I know what you mean,” I gazed at his legs. “Are you naked under that robe?”
“I might be,” he nodded.
I licked my lips, now I knew I’d drank too much wine when, “Prove it,” fell out of my mouth.
He fidgeted, “What?”
“I said prove it, show me that you are completely naked under your robe.”
“And what will you do in return?” he asked.
“I’ll show you how good that turquoise underwear set looks,” I promised. He frowned slightly, “Alec, it’s not as if I haven’t seen you naked before,” I goaded.
“No, but uh, I don’t think I can.”
“Why, doesn’t Little Alec want to come out and play?” I asked coyly unbuttoning my shirt slowly. He moved again, leaning closer to get a better look.
“I think Little Alec is waking up,” he said as I popped open the last button and pulled the shirt off my shoulders, revealing the turquois bra trimmed in lace. “Oh my God,” he smiled. “Grace, that is beautiful.”
“Open y
our robe and I’ll take off my trousers,” I smiled.
“Take off your trousers and then I’ll remove my robe,” he countered.
Sighing dramatically, I stood from the sofa and turned away from the lap top, making sure he got the full view of my thong, I unzipped my trousers and pushed them down slowly, I could hear him breathing heavily and groaning, I turned around and he was sat there, naked with a huge erection. I sat on the sofa and gleamed,
“Wow,” I said and bit on my bottom lip.
“What am I supposed to do with this now?” he asked pointing at his groin.
“I don’t know, you could um, you know, play, if you want to.” What the hell was I doing? He looked at his throbbing penis and then back at me.
“Will you play as well?” he asked. I could already feel that I was pretty turned on.
“Um, actually, no.” I smiled. I had a line, and it was too soon in our relationship for me to cross it. “You go ahead though.”
He pulled a pillow over his lap, “You are such a tease, Grace.” He chuckled. “I’ll get you back for that, mark my words.”
“Isn’t the underwear enough?”
“Sure, but you get to look sexy and hot where as I look like a loved crazed teenager with a hard on.”
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“I know you will.” He grinned. “I need to go to bed, I have to be up at seven.”
“Okay,” I smiled weakly, “goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Grace. I love you.”
“I love you too.” I smiled, kissed my fingers and pressed them to the screen.
I climbed into his bed feeling a little mean for leaving him so turned on, but I was turned on too and the thought that we would be back together in just over day, the excitement almost caused me to shake.
Ten
I should have known that Elisa would keep me out for most of the day. Her idea of a pampering session wasn’t exactly the same idea as mine, with massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, they were the norm I suppose, but the waxing, I can only say one thing, Ouch! I was meant to leave there feeling better, aside from the fancy nail polish on my fingers toes, I felt nothing else good came from that session, I would go as far as saying, a beauty regime such as that should be renamed as a Boot Camp session.