Summer Girl, Winter Boy

by Elsborg, Barbara

  Jai’s voice rang out. “Fuck me, please, sir. Give me your cock, sir.”

  Kate emerged and as Marta was distracted, Summer snatched the phone from her hand, took the couple of steps into the nearest stall and dropped it in the pan.

  “You bitch!” Marta yelled.

  “Oops.”

  “You’ll be sorry you did that!”

  “It probably still works. Fish it out. Oh, I don’t think the person before remembered to flush.”

  Marta turned as red as her dress and Summer walked out of the bathroom, Kate on her heels.

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Kate said. “Who was she?”

  “The wife of Jai’s agent.”

  Kate shuddered. “Grrr…agents. Charlie’s old one was a real piece of work. He hated me, didn’t think I was suitable for his precious and he did everything he could to get rid of me. Sneaky bastard.”

  “But you’re still around.”

  She smiled. “I was sneakier.” She tucked her arm in Summer’s. “I like you.”

  They arrived back at the table to find Charlie and Jai laughing, their shoulders shaking.

  “What have you done?” Kate asked.

  “Boys’ jokes.” Charlie pulled Kate down and kissed her.

  As Summer settled next to Jai, a mic screeched, a man began speaking and the room quieted. What the guy said in French was repeated in English by the glamorous woman at his side. Summer wasn’t really paying attention. The place where Marta had been sitting was empty and she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Jai needed to talk to his brother as soon as possible. Maybe she could do something too. There had to be information somewhere about what had happened that night. Saul and Marta’s version would only be one to suit them. On the other hand, if she raked something up that was best left where it was…

  “Oh god,” Jai muttered at her side. “Please don’t let it be me.”

  Summer tuned back in.

  “And the winner of the best male butt is…Jai Winter.”

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jai muttered under his breath and pushed to his feet, a smile plastered on his face.

  “We might as well go home now,” Charlie said. “I’m mortified. I thought I was a shoo-in.”

  Kate laughed and clapped harder.

  Jai stood on the stage clutching a chunk of metal. “Thanks very much,” he said into the microphone. “I didn’t realize so many people had seen my backside. My mother is going to kill me.”

  He came back to his seat as everyone laughed and applauded.

  Summer leaned in to whisper, “Did you know fifteen percent of women think their ass is too skinny, thirty percent think their ass is too fat, and the rest don’t care because he’s a good guy and they love him.”

  Jai nipped her ear.

  “Ouch. Well, that’s er…interesting.” She nodded toward the award. It was a twisted tower of silver with golden balls trapped in the center. “What’s it supposed to be?”

  “No idea. I can use it as a doorstop. Though I don’t have a door I need to keep open.”

  She smiled. There were several more awards and they all applauded.

  “Fingers crossed now,” Charlie said.

  “No way will I win,” Kate muttered.

  “I’m going to go up there and demand a recount if you don’t.” Charlie gripped her hand.

  The presenter read out the names of three people who were up for an award for best newcomer in the fashion world.

  “Calm down, Charlie,” Kate said. “I’m not going to win.”

  “You’re already a winner. You won me. I love you.”

  Kate laughed but Summer saw the look that passed between them and when Jai squeezed her fingers, she thought he’d seen it too.

  “The winner is…Kate Snow Designs.”

  The color drained from Kate’s face. “Bloody hell.”

  Charlie looked as though he was going to burst with pride. He pulled Kate to her feet, sent her off toward the stage and stayed on his feet, clapping and whistling and making as much noise as possible.

  “I’ll congratulate you privately,” Summer said. “I really think I need another look at that winning butt.”

  * * * * *

  They left with requests from Kate and Charlie that they come for dinner, and Summer was thrilled they’d made their first friends together. And Charlie Storm? Mags and Lindy wouldn’t believe her. Jai ordered a cab to take them back and Summer snuggled next to him. She’d really enjoyed herself, but Jai was on edge. Not hard to guess why.

  “You want to see if we can return to the UK tonight?” she whispered. “Then you can speak to your brother first thing in the morning.”

  “We’re too late for a flight or the train.”

  Which told Summer he’d have gone if he could.

  “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow then,” she said.

  “We were going to spend the day in Paris.”

  She stroked his face. “We can do that some other time. You need to sort this out, Jai.”

  “I was looking forward to walking around speaking some made-up language.” He stared into her eyes. “I’ll ask the concierge to find us an earlier plane.” He swallowed hard. “Marta…”

  “What?”

  “She said she’d claim I raped her. She showed me a picture on her camera. A flaw in her plan, though, because who’d take a picture instead of stopping what was happening? But she said they’d get Krista to make the claim instead.”

  “Oh Jai.”

  “It’s crap but mud sticks. I don’t know what they’d hold over Krista to make her say it and it would probably get withdrawn but the damage would be done.” He leaned his head back against the seat. “I’m going to drag you down. You ought to run away from me as fast as you can.”

  “Marta came into the ladies’ brandishing that phone. She showed me that picture and a few others.”

  Jai stiffened.

  “I threw her mobile in the loo.” She smiled.

  Jai gaped at her—then hugged her so hard her lungs verged on the point of collapse.

  “Don’t leave me,” he whispered. “Please don’t leave me.”

  As if she could.

  When they got back to the hotel, Jai tugged her over to the reception desk. It was the same woman on duty.

  “Bonsoir. Could you tell me if Mr. and Mrs. Saul DeVries have checked in yet? I know they wanted a room near ours. I wasn’t sure if you’d been able to accommodate them.”

  She tapped on a keyboard. “Yes. They’re in the room just down the hall from yours.”

  Jai went as tight as a violin string. “I need a favor. We’re booked onto a flight to London tomorrow night. I’ll bring the booking details down so you can change them. I want to fly back as soon as possible. We’re going to pack our cases now and leave them in the room. There are also a number of evening gowns that someone from Fixx will collect. I want a driver to bring our luggage and pick us up from some other location in central Paris. I’ll give you my mobile number and once you know the flight and the time we need to be collected, let me know.” He put a hundred Euro note on the counter. “For your trouble. I don’t want Mr. or Mrs. DeVries to know about this. I’m not happy they’re staying here, or that they have a room close to ours.”

  “I understand.”

  Less than fifteen minutes later, they’d changed and were walking away from the hotel.

  “We’re not sleeping tonight, then?” Summer asked.

  “We’re doing what we would have done tomorrow.” He slung his arm over her shoulder. “Istin fertchto basi?”

  “Yabble.” Summer laughed.

  They walked by the Seine, kissed, marveled at the illuminated monuments, kissed some more, sipped cocktails prepared by ultra-hip bartenders who tossed bottles like juggling balls, kissed a lot more, and danced cheek-to-cheek in a busy club on the Boulevard St. Germaine until Summer’s feet ached.

  While they drank coffee at an all-night café, Jai checked his phone. “We�
��re booked onto a flight at ten-twenty this morning. A car will pick us up at eight from Rue de la Montaigne Sainte-Genevieve. The steps in front of the church. That’s not far from here.”

  “Four hours. What can we do in four hours?”

  “What would you like to do?”

  “Did you see the sign on the window in this place?”

  Jai shook his head.

  “My French isn’t brilliant but doesn’t chambre á louer mean room to rent?”

  His eyes darkened. He pushed to his feet and went over to the bar. After a brief discussion, he came back smiling with a key.

  The room was at the top of three flights of narrow wooden stairs. When Jai opened the door, he sucked in a breath. “Are you sure about this?” he whispered. “Smells like someone died in here.”

  Summer pushed him inside. “There’s a bed. It’ll be fine.”

  It looked awful. Thin curtains, threadbare rug over stained boards, a cover on the bed that Summer didn’t even want to touch and a bare bulb complete with loose wires hanging from the ceiling. She took a deep breath and dragged back the blue cover from the bed. The sheet beneath looked clean.

  They undressed quickly, piling their clothes on a chair, and Jai threw a condom onto the bed before he pulled her into his arms.

  “Don’t tell me if you see an insect,” she whispered and stood on his bare feet to take hers off the floor.

  “Oh god.” He stepped carefully over to the bed and they dropped onto it.

  As they lay face-to-face, he ran his hand down the curve of her body and onto her backside. “I can’t believe my cock talked me into paying for this dive but I’ve wanted to fuck you all night and I’d prefer not to get arrested.”

  She leaned forward and licked across his mouth. “You still taste of beer.”

  He smiled. Summer reached down with one hand for his cock and with the other she caressed his face, running her thumb over his cheeks, around his jaw, along his lips. As she worked her hand over him in long, twisting strokes, she pressed her mouth against his. The kiss started gentle and soft and they nibbled each other’s lips, tongues barely touching.

  “Yum, yum, yum,” she mumbled and nipped along the length of his upper lip, her heart pounding so hard she was sure she could hear it.

  Jai pulled back and gasped. “Enough.”

  “Enough kissing?”

  “Not the kissing.” He gripped her wrist to stop her pumping his cock. “You’re good at that and I’m too close.”

  She laughed and let her hand drift to his butt as she trailed her tongue up the sweep of his jaw and through his hair to his ear. His deep groan reverberated through her. She teased around the shell of his ear, sucked the lobe, nipped it and puffed warm air onto him until his breathing stuttered.

  “Oh Christ. I know I’m repeating myself but you’re too fucking good at that too.” He leaned back and gazed into her eyes, his own sparkling in the dim light. “Everything you do winds me tighter. Everything you do makes me burn hotter, faster, brighter. I ought to be pushing you away from me as hard as I can because I can only bring you trouble, but I can’t let you go. I need you. You make me strong. Christ, I can’t believe you saw those pictures on Marta’s phone and then tossed it in the pan.”

  “That wasn’t you.”

  “Yeah it was.” His voice dropped. “D-did you think it wasn’t? I’ve done just about every depraved thing you can think of.”

  “That’s not what I mean. It wasn’t you in those photos. Not the Jai I know. Don’t torture yourself. There’s no point in self-pity. It’s a waste of energy.”

  “But I’m not out of the mire yet.”

  “Yes, you are. You can’t shelter Evan any longer.”

  “But if it brings him down…”

  “Then it brings him down, but it won’t come to that. Your tormenters are cowards. Threaten them hard enough and I think they’ll buckle.”

  “Think?”

  “We’ll make them buckle. And if they don’t, we’ll run away to some desert island and build a little house and live on coconuts and sex.”

  He swooped on her mouth and she arched into him, chasing his tongue with hers. She had no idea if she could help Jai break free of the mess he’d made of his life, but she’d spend her last breath trying. Their arms wrapped around each other, they kissed more deeply, their tongues tangling, rolling, twisting. His cock pressed urgently against her stomach and she could feel him shaking.

  When she lifted her leg over his hip, he shifted and slid velvet-wrapped steel straight into her.

  Then straight back out. “Shit. How can I forget so easily?”

  He grabbed the condom and ripped it open. Then he was in her again, stretching her, pushing until he was buried deep. She tightened around him and he inhaled sharply. Her body responded to him, each thrust echoed by a wave that grew in intensity. They step-climbed together, pulling each other along. He slipped an arm under hers and held her head as he increased the speed of his shunts. He kissed her mouth, her nipples, tugged at the piercings before he was back on her lips, and all the time he hammered into her.

  Her neck arched but he held her firm. Their hips clashed together, the fast-slow pace shared between them until she felt herself reaching the point where she had to fall. She thrust herself harder against him and his response jarred her entire body.

  “Summer,” he gasped. “Oh Christ.”

  Sweetness rolled through her and over her as sharp spikes of pleasure speared through her sex. She cried out as she came, her muscles clenching hard around him to drag him with her over the edge.

  They didn’t move until he began to soften. He withdrew carefully, keeping hold of the condom, and she wished she was on the Pill so she could keep him inside her.

  Jai stepped into the bathroom, switched on the light and recoiled. “Oh fuck. Try not to need to come in here.”

  She heard the toilet flush and then he leapt on the bed and put his arms around her.

  “Insects or dead body?” she asked.

  “Insects and dead body.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  As they stepped out of the green channel into the arrivals hall at Heathrow, Jai took out his phone and called his brother.

  “Hi, Jai. What’s up?”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “O…kay.”

  Jai guessed Evan had heard something serious in his voice.

  “Want to come around for a meal tonight?” Evan asked. “I can’t promise the sort of gourmet dining you’re—”

  “I need to see you before that. Now, preferably.” He guided Summer toward the taxi rank.

  “I’m at home until one. Are you in trouble?”

  Jai couldn’t bring himself to answer that. “I’m coming from Heathrow. See you soon.” He ended the call.

  They climbed into a cab and he gave the driver Evan’s address. There were five missed calls and five messages on his phone. All from Saul, demanding his presence at his house that evening. He could almost feel Saul’s anger. The coiling knot of tension grew ever larger in his stomach.

  Summer showed Jai her phone. She’d had a message from the police asking her to call them. It turned out they had some photos they wanted to show her to see if she could identify the guys who’d burst into her flat.

  “We’ll go later,” Jai said and she nodded.

  Her fingers crept into his.

  “Hey, aren’t you that model?” the cab driver asked.

  “Yes, I am,” Summer said. “I’m always getting recognized. Can you turn the music up? I do love Indian rap.”

  Jai mustered a laugh from somewhere.

  The closer they came to his brother’s place, the more nervous he grew.

  “You want me to be with you when you talk to him?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I have to do this on my own.” Assuming he managed to open his mouth.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he anticipated. He mentally groaned. It would be worse.

 
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Jai said quietly. “About Evan. He saved my life when I was eight. I was messing around in my father’s shed, attempting to make a firework, and I accidentally set fire to the workbench. I tried to put it out but instead managed to spread the flames between me and the door. I was so fucking petrified I couldn’t move. By the time I’d pulled myself together, it was too late and I was choking on thick smoke. I curled up at the back of the shed and hid my face in my hands. The next thing I knew, I was outside on the wet grass, coughing my guts up with Evan rolling around beside me. His hands were on… He’d burned his face and his hands and legs getting me out. He’d wrapped me in an old sack and carried me to safety. I didn’t have a single burn.”

  “Wow. What a brave boy.”

  “He had to have a lot of operations, skin grafts. No more playing the violin. He thanked me for that and said he hated it anyway, but he didn’t. Evan always watched out for me. I think because Richard was so independent and outgoing, and really not interested in doing anything with me, I just retreated into myself. Evan was the one who made the difference in my life.”

  “And for the last ten years, you’ve protected him.”

  Jai lowered his voice even further. “I know what he did was an accident.” Oh god, if it wasn’t?

  He suspected Summer had seen his unspoken thought.

  “That’s what’s kept you quiet, kept you cooperative,” she whispered. “The tiniest glimmer of a thought that it might not have been an accident.”

  He took a deep breath and felt his head give a little nod. The pain in his heart left him speechless.

  * * * * *

  Evan opened the door with a smile on his face that faded as he looked from Jai to Summer.

  “Hi. Come in.”

  “Summer, this is my brother Evan.”

  She held out her hand. Jai felt a jolt of love when she didn’t flinch at the sight of his scars.

  Evan closed the door. “Bella’s out at the kids’ school helping with reading. You want a coffee?”

  “No thanks,” Summer said.

  “I’m fine. Can Summer sit in the living room while we talk in your study?”