When she lifted herself up and rubbed her damp folds against the head of his cock, he wanted her with a desperation that scared him. He’d thought he’d lost his chance because of Saul and Marta. Summer was his miracle. Summer bringing light, warmth and life to Winter. Oh hell, I love her. But until he’d sorted out the mess he was in, he didn’t want to tell her. He had to prove himself worthy.
“Condom,” he managed to say.
She grabbed it from the bedside table and he sheathed himself. He rolled her over and slid straight into her, their bodies pressed together like silk. He dragged his cock in and out of her as slowly as he could and a sob tore from her lungs.
“I need fast,” she said.
“What about me?”
She narrowed her eyes. “You want fast too. You can have slow after.”
He made another slow, smooth shunt into her and drew another gasp of pleasure from her lips. Less than a second later, they thrashed together, both racing for release, bodies clashing, banging, hoarse guttural cries streaming from their throats. He’d have been afraid he was hurting her if she hadn’t been as wild as him, and when she came, only then did he let himself follow, his orgasm wrung from him by the force of her contractions.
He felt as though he’d given her his soul and he’d be damned if he screwed up and she gave it back.
Chapter Nineteen
Jai and Summer waited in the lobby for the car coming to pick them up. They’d had breakfast in bed and Summer wished they could have stayed there all day.
“Sure you want to come?” Jai asked. “You’re going to be bored.”
“Staring at you pouting in fifty different ways? How could that be possible?”
“That’s true. I am mesmerizing.”
“Even with that rash on your cheek.”
He rubbed his face and glared. “I don’t have a rash on my cheek.”
“Not that cheek. C for carpet, remember?”
He laughed, took hold of her hand and rubbed her palm with his thumb. “And you remember I might have to gaze adoringly at another woman, maybe other women who might well be scantily clad and have perky nipples due to the freezing weather and not me?”
“That’s okay. You’re coming home with me. I’ll beat you up in private.”
A car pulled up and the doorman opened the door as Jai led her outside. A shiny black Mercedes S-Class waited for them. A liveried chauffeur opened one rear door and the hotel doorman opened the other.
“Should you check we’re not being kidnapped by some East European gang?” she whispered.
Jai rolled his eyes and went round to get in on the far side. Summer slid in and clipped on her seat belt. “I wonder where we’re going.”
“Parc des Buttes Chaumant,” the driver said. “Ten kilometers, forty minutes.”
Every time there was a gap in the traffic, he put his foot down hard and Summer’s hand crept into Jai’s. She wondered if she’d ever want to drive again. After the accident, she’d never sat behind the wheel of any vehicle. She stared out the window as they traveled alongside the Seine, drinking in the sights.
“What would you like to do tomorrow?” Jai asked.
She turned to look at him. “Walk by the river hand in hand, sit in a café and watch the world go by, walk around speaking some made-up language pretending we’re from another planet, find a shop that sells those macaroons, and then look for a place to eat them. Oh and maybe play petanque.”
“Rewind that a bit. Pretend to be aliens?”
“Didn’t you ever do that as a kid? If I didn’t understand what was going on, I pretended I was from somewhere else.”
“I don’t think I did that.”
“Ashi djig deet, Jai.”
“What does that mean?”
She sighed. “That’s the whole point. It can mean whatever you want it to. Schtando djig fernt, Jai.”
“Isch tog menit, Summer.”
“Oh that’s so sweet. Thank you.”
Jai chuckled. “I think we’ll stick to petanque. That’s where you throw the balls rather than roll them, right?”
“Nearest the cochonnet wins. I remember my French teacher showing us how to play. Cochonnet means little pig, and I had visions of the origins of the game having something to do with throwing stones at a little pig. It doesn’t.”
“I can hear little pigs all over France squealing in relief.”
* * * * *
The car rolled to a halt inside the park next to two Winnebagos and several cars. Four golf carts stood in a line at the side. As Jai and Summer stepped out, a short, thin guy headed toward them.
“Morning, Jai. You’ve not shaved. Great. I forgot to tell you not to.”
“Pin, this is Summer. Summer, this is Pin McClean, Fixx’s art director. It’s okay if she watches, right?”
Pin glanced at her. “Don’t get in the way.”
Jai was whisked off to one of the Winnebagos and Summer found a place to stand so she could see what was happening.
The answer was—not a lot, apart from loud conversation and dramatic gesticulating. She only understood the odd word. After she’d had a year studying French and Spanish at school, she’d plumped for Spanish as being the more useful language and she’d been right. Not that she’d be telling any French speaker that.
Jai emerged wearing black. A black suit, black shirt and black shoes. He looked his usual gorgeous self. Behind him was a tall, extremely thin model with beautiful silky blonde hair who looked no older than seventeen. A coat hung over her shoulders and underneath she wore a dark-red dress. Her lips were the same shade of red as her dress and she looked bored to tears. She and Jai were ordered into a golf cart and camera crews followed in the others.
“Qu’est-ce que vous faites ici?” snapped someone behind her.
She turned to see a big guy glaring at her. She had no idea what he’d said and held up her hands as she backed away. She might as well go for a walk.
The weather was cold but bright. No clouds in the sky. The park was fairly busy with joggers, people pushing kids in prams and a few tourists taking photos. She discovered a lake and in the center sat a steep-sided island that had to be almost a hundred feet tall. Right at the top was a folly, a temple, and she took a wobbly bridge to get over to the island. As she walked around, she saw the golf carts next to a different bridge and realized Jai was somewhere on the island.
It was a steep climb up the hill but at the top, Jai and the model stood in the temple. She kept out of his eye-line because although she’d teased him about making him laugh, he was working and didn’t need her messing things up. She took a few pictures of Paris and a quick snap of Jai, and when she found a different set of steps leading down she followed them into a grotto with huge, artificial stalactites.
A circuit of the park later, she arrived back to see Jai leaving in another set of clothes, more casual this time, his stubble gone. He waved at her and she waved back. The big guy who’d shouted at her before emerged from one of the vans holding a coffee. He lit a cigarette and sat on the steps. Summer headed over.
“Do you speak English?” she asked.
“Non. Va te faire foutre.”
She got the “no” but not the rest. Reluctant to stray too far in case the crew decided to move elsewhere, she headed to a seat close to where a couple of elderly guys were playing petanque.
She’d watched for almost an hour before one of them called to her.
“Vous voulez jouer avec nous?”
She understood that. “Oui. Merci, monsieur.”
Turned out that she didn’t need to speak the language in order to play with them and they laughed themselves silly at her attempts to throw the ball in a straight line.
“Tant pis,” someone called when she missed the cochonnet by the closest margin yet—about three feet.
It was the big guy who’d shouted at her. The two French guys beckoned him in to play and apparently, it would be him and her against the older men.
“Je m’appelle Gustave.”
“Je m’appelle Summer.”
“L’ete and l’hiver.” He laughed. Summer and winter.
So he did know some English.
Turned out he wasn’t bad at English at all and she began to enjoy herself.
* * * * *
Jai sipped a coffee while he waited for the makeup artist to finish messing around with Brigitte. The French girl was surly and spent most of her time off camera texting on her mobile.
“Okay?” Pin asked him.
“Fine.” He was cold, bored and his feet were killing him. As usual, the shoes were too tight. He usually spent his time off camera reading books, trying to make up for what he didn’t learn at school, but all he could think about was Summer.
“Who’s the woman?”
“Her name’s Summer. I’m bringing her tonight.”
“Who does she work for?” Pin snapped.
Jai laughed. “She’s not in the business. She’s a meteorological researcher.”
Pin gaped at him. “A girlfriend? An honest-to-god, real-life girlfriend?”
“Yep.”
“What’s she wearing?”
“LBD. I’ve no idea where she bought it. I doubt it’s designer. She’s not into it.”
“Course she’s into it. All women are into it. She just can’t afford it.” The art director scratched his head. “We have to put her in something of ours. Oh god, nothing will fit. She’s huge.”
Jai sucked in his cheeks. “She is not fucking huge.”
“What size?”
“English ten.”
“That is fucking huge.”
He could feel his hands clenching into fists and had to rein himself in. “You don’t live in the real world, Pin. Most women aren’t stick insects.”
“Yeah but she’s going to be seen with you, the face of Fixx, she can’t be wearing a competitor’s line.”
“Fine, then have a few dresses delivered to our hotel and she can choose what she wants to wear. We need some swimwear too. And if she wants to wear her LBD, I won’t stand in her way.”
“Nor close to her if she does,” Pin muttered under his breath and pulled out his mobile.
Jai was called back on camera and he posed with Brigitte in his arms, some leafy green shrub behind them.
* * * * *
When the golf carts took them back to the parking area, he saw Summer playing petanque with Gus, one of the security guards, and two elderly men. Gus scuttled back to do his job and Summer kissed the two Frenchmen and ran over to Jai.
“Kissing other men?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Jealous?”
“Not unless you’re into senior citizens.”
“Am I allowed to touch you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She flung herself into his arms. “Have you finished now?”
He kissed her on the lips. “Almost. I just need to change into my clothes. Did you get anything to eat or drink?”
“Gus gave me a coffee and a sandwich after you lot had left. He’s lovely.”
“We talking about the same Gus?” The one with a face like thunder and a temperament to match?
The guy in question walked over and air-kissed Summer on each cheek. “C’etait un plaisir de vous rencontrer.” He glanced at Jai. “Tu as de la chance.”
La chance. Lucky. “Oui.” Jai slipped his hand around Summer’s.
Jai thanked every member of the crew before he left. Maybe most didn’t care but Jai knew they had to spend a lot of time hanging around in the cold for a lot less money than he made. The car was waiting to take them back to the hotel and he climbed in next to Summer.
She snuggled against him. “We going to have time to buy costumes so we can swim in the pool?”
“I asked Pin to put some in the room. He’s had some dresses left too that you might want to consider wearing tonight.”
“Jeans not going to work, then?”
He stroked her hair. “He’s paranoid you’ll turn up wearing something by Dior, Tom Ford or Lanvin.”
“I take it he’d blow a gasket at my River Island little black dress?”
“Babe, you can wear what you like.”
“There’d be no risk of anyone else wearing something from River Island.”
He laughed. “That’s true.”
“So what exactly is it tonight?”
“It’s an event held every year in aid of a different charity. Most if not all of the big design houses will be there, as well as a few newcomers. Plus their top models. There’s an awards ceremony, a people’s-choice thing, and they also tend to honor someone who’s done a lot for the industry. It was Giorgio Armani last year.”
“Oh my god. I know nothing about fashion. What if someone asks me a question? Can I pretend to be an alien?”
“As long as you don’t tell anyone you were whisked up into a spaceship when you were a kid.”
She tsked. “But that’s my best story.”
I love you. Oh god, I really do.
* * * * *
When they walked into their room, dresses hung everywhere and shoes were lined up against the wall.
“Jesus Christ,” Summer blurted.
Jai sighed and tossed his jacket onto a chair. Swimming trunks and a blue bikini lay on the bed with more dresses. There wasn’t much to the bikini. He checked his watch. “We have an hour and a half before the car arrives to take us to wherever we’re going. There won’t be time for a swim.”
“Does it take you that long to get ready?”
“I was thinking of you.”
“Five minutes…maybe fifteen tops. I want to swim.” She stripped off where she stood and Jai’s cock showed his approval.
When she reached for the bikini, he caught her wrist. “Don’t put it on yet.”
She looked at him and smiled. “Hurry then.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem. Help me lay these dresses on the floor.”
There was a loud knock at the door and Jai winced. “Who is it?” he called.
“Fabrice. I’m here to help.”
Shit. Jai groaned. Summer slipped into the bathroom.
His cock knew when it was beaten. “Hold on, Fabrice.”
In the few seconds it took him to walk to the door, his dick had deflated.
“We’re going for a swim,” Jai said.
Fabrice pushed past him carrying a large bag. “Are you crazy? There’s no time to swim. Good, everything’s arrived.”
Jai tried again. “We don’t need your help.”
The thirty-year-old Canadian makeup assistant, ex-lover of Pin, clapped his hand to his heart. “Bad enough that I’m not allowed to go, but you don’t want my help to make this girl the belle of the ball? Where is she? Where have you hidden her?”
They both heard the shower start.
Fabrice sighed and dropped onto the only empty chair.
Jai fumbled through the items they’d bought at Heathrow and pulled out underwear. He knocked on the bathroom door. “I’m just going to drop something inside, Summer.” He tossed the underwear in and closed the door again.
“As if I’m interested.” Fabrice winked at him. “You, on the other hand. Yum. I saw some of the shots Levant took. The ones they’re not allowed to use. Very hot.” He flapped his hand in front of his face.
“It was cold enough to freeze my nuts off. It’s a wonder you could see anything.”
Fabrice chuckled. “You okay, Jai? You seemed different today.”
“I’m fine. Better than fine. What sort of different?”
“Distracted. You in some sort of trouble?”
“Apart from being trawled up into international drug smuggling and a sordid sex ring?”
Fabrice laughed. The door of the bathroom opened and he stood up, shock all over his face. “Did time slip? You only just went in there.”
“It’s a shower. What else is there to do?” Summer walked forward in a robe and held out her hand. “I saw y
ou today but you were always busy. Pleased to meet you.”
“No we’re not,” Jai said. “He’s interrupted our plans.”
Fabrice air-kissed her on both cheeks. “Jai, you shower while I do Summer’s hair and makeup. Or if you like, I could help you shower and Summer can do her own.”
Summer laughed. “There is a lot of him to wash.”
Fabrice groaned. “Only a few body parts I’d like to get my hands on.” He stepped forward and Jai closed the bathroom door in his face.
“I was talking about your feet,” he shouted through the door and turned to Summer with a grin.
“Hair, dress, shoes and then makeup,” Fabrice said. “And in only an hour and half? Impossible.”
Summer gulped. “Do I need that much work? I usually get ready to go out in about ten minutes.”
Fabrice screwed up his face into a mask of horror. “I’m an artiste.”
“Sorry.”
She felt as though she’d been scooped from the ground by a whirlwind and plonked down in a different world.
“Take the robe off,” Fabrice said.
She shrugged it from her shoulders. She had the new underwear on. Red and slinky.
He laughed. “That was very easy. Nice figure. Most of these dresses should fit you. Whoa—are they piercings? Spin around.”
She turned in a circle.
“Tattoo? Be still my beating heart.”
He took a hair dryer from his bag and twenty minutes later, her hair was styled into something approaching Toni’s version but better.
“I’ll leave the makeup until you’ve decided on a dress.”
Jai emerged from the bathroom in his shorts, toweling his hair dry.
Summer and Fabrice groaned in unison.
“What?” Jai asked and scratched under his arm.
Fabrice sighed. “How can the world’s sexiest man not realize the effect he has on mere mortals?”
Jai burped and Summer giggled.
“Even gods get wind,” Fabrice said. “Right. Dresses.”
Summer didn’t even want to try on some of them but Fabrice insisted. “They look different when you have a body inside them.”
She’d gone through half before Jai sat up from where he’d slumped on a chair. “That one.”
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