by Exley Avis
“You’re taking me to see Erika now?”
“Unless you don’t want to.”
After four days without her, Aiden didn’t need to be told twice and pulled the hat down low to hide his face.
“Stay close to Richard and let him do all the talking,” Ben warned. “There’s a helluva lot riding on this – and not just for you.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.” He reached for and shook Ben’s hand again. “I owe you for this.”
“I know you do.” Ben sounded serious suddenly. “And I’ll be collecting – big time.”
Erika opened her door tentatively at the appearance of Richard so late in the evening. She was already half asleep and hid behind the door, not wanting the bodyguard to see she was already in her pyjamas.
“Ben wondered whether you’d like to join us for a nightcap,” Richard said, nodding slightly at her, silently urging her to agree.
“Thanks but it’s late and I’m ready for bed.” Erika yawned on cue. “I’ve had dinner with Marty and I’m worn out.”
“Please!” Richard put his foot in the door, unusually insistent, and widened his eyes at her. “It would mean a lot to Ben.”
He willed her to understand how important it was that she accompany him and, thankfully, the penny dropped.
“Don’t bother changing,” Richard added. “It’s only us.”
Erika interpreted this as, don’t ask questions, just come quickly, so she dodged back inside to throw her coat on over her pyjamas. The bodyguard predictably followed them along the corridor so Erika made small talk instead of quizzing Richard, for fear of having everything reported back. Richard flashed her a grateful smile and unlocked the door to Ben’s suite.
“What’s going on,” she demanded as soon as they were alone but Richard raised his finger to his lips and shook his head. “No time to explain. You only have an hour.”
“An hour for what?”
“For me.”
Erika froze when she heard the deep voice behind her and didn’t dare turn around. For a moment, she thought she’d heard Aiden and she closed her eyes to cherish the fiction for a few seconds. A lump rose to her throat but she forced it down, smiling sadly as she turned in the direction of the speaker. Logic told her to expect Ben but, when her eyes registered Aiden standing in the bedroom doorway, her heart exploded with joy.
Without a second thought she ran to him and flung herself into his arms, letting him enfold her in an embrace that spoke of longing, missing and desire, all at the same time.
Aiden half pulled, half carried her through into the bedroom before kissing Erika with a tenderness that forced tears to her eyes. She responded eagerly, spreading her fingers across the back of his neck and pulling him closer so he could never escape from her again.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she said against his lips. “I thought I’d never see you again. Marty’s…”
“Shh.” Aiden quietened her again with another kiss as he tangled his fingers in her hair and swept it back from her face. “Ben’s told me everything. Just stop talking and let me kiss you.”
His kiss deepened, awakening sweet memories of all the times they’d made love and Erika pressed herself against him, unable to believe she’d found her way back into his arms.
Aiden’s hands slipped her coat from her shoulders and then caressed every inch of her, relearning the shape of her body and finding the sensitive curves and hollows that brought gasps of pleasure from Erika.
She waited for him to begin taking off her clothes but, instead, Aiden broke away from her, breathing hard and studying her lips that glistened and begged to be kissed again. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her onto his lap, cradling her against his chest.
“It’s been impossible without you,” he breathed, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. “When you didn’t phone that first day, and then I saw the pictures of you and Ben together, I went out of my mind.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But we needed to distract Marty.”
“I saw you outside the hotel together and convinced myself it was all over between us. You looked so happy. I thought the weekend had been about revenge. Seduce me, make me fall in love with you again and then run back to your lover so you could break my heart.”
“It wasn’t like that…”
But he didn’t give Erika any more chance to explain. Instead, his hand slipped under her camisole and traced the shape of her spine as he kissed her with renewed passion, his caresses making Erika beg him to touch every part of her body.
She needed to talk to him – to explain exactly how she felt and how much she’d missed him – but words would never go far enough. Instinct told her that her body could speak more clearly so she sat up and straddled his lap before taking Aiden’s face between her hands and kissing him again. Her tongue circled his lips. tasting and teasing him while his hands continued their exploration of her body, becoming bolder every second.
She pulled at Aiden’s sweater, obviously intending to strip him naked, but he caught her hands.
“What about Richard?” he asked.
She smiled seductively, turning his heart over in his chest. “It’s you I want – not Richard.”
Before Aiden could put up any more of a fight, Erika pulled his sweater aside and began kissing his neck, sliding her fingers down inside his t-shirt where she found his skin cold to the touch. Any resistance left Aiden at that moment and he tilted his head to one side, allowing her breath to warm him for the first time in days.
Unable to deny himself any longer, he pulled Erika’s camisole up over her head and gasped with longing at the sight of her, naked to the waist. He dragged her mouth down onto his and ravaged its sweetness with his tongue, impatient to taste the rest of her body.
Erika felt Aiden’s rising excitement and writhed against him. The heavy wool of his sweater scratched at her breasts, its roughness chafing her nipples until they were too tender to bear and she moaned in frustration.
Overcome by lust, Erika pushed against Aiden’s shoulders, overbalancing him back onto the bed and knelt above him, dangling her breasts over his face and ordering him to kiss them. Glad to comply, his tongue traced the shape of each in turn, darting out across the tender skin under her arms and lingering in the deep cleft that divided her bosom. By the time he began biting, kissing and sucking her nipples he’d brought Erika almost to the point of orgasm and she cried out, pleading with him not to stop.
Refusing to wait one more moment for him, Erika wrenched off Aiden’s sweater and t-shirt, both of them laughing at the urgency that made them fumble and rush each other out of their clothes. Aiden tumbled Erika onto her back and pulled off her pyjamas, leaving her naked beneath him and helpless under his hot tongue that scorched across her belly and around her hip bones.
Erika’s climax built like a fever, taking over her senses. She needed Aiden on top of her and inside her, wanted to feel possessed and conquered by him. Instead he teased her and dodged out of her reach, even though his jeans bulged.
“Tell me,” he said softly against her neck before dropping his lips down to kiss her breasts once more. When Erika arched her back toward him he pulled away again, denying her the touches she grew wild for.
“Say it,” he ordered. “Tell me you love me or I’ll get dressed now.”
“Oh my God.” Erika cried out when he bit down hard on her nipple and her sex pulsated in the first throes of orgasm. “I love you. I love you. I love you. But if you don’t make love to me right now I think I’ll die.”
Aiden laughed so much his fingers could hardly undo his jeans but he freed the buttons at last and wriggled them lower down his hips. By this time, Erika had lost patience and pulled him down onto her, wrapping her legs around him and using her heels to force the jeans down over his taut buttocks. Once free, she shifted so he could enter her in one swift movement.
Four nights without her had made Aiden huge and hard. He thrust deeply, his excitement matching he
r own and their bodies consumed with the desperate need to satisfy their desires.
Erika’s body erupted with the intense shock of pleasure spreading up from her sex until even her throat constricted.
Her body absorbed Aiden, drinking him in and capturing him, gaining control over every touch and kiss until his only thought was her pleasure. He slowed or quickened his pace as she demanded until her body excited him too much and he lost all control.
She intoxicated him, filling his senses and discarding every inhibition, making him a slave to her body. Her sex clenched when she came, propelling him inexorably toward climax and forcing out every conscious thought.
Pushing one hand under her pelvis, he yanked her hard against him, grinding himself into her softness. Their bodies tensed together and, when they eventually relaxed, Aiden slumped against her before burying his face in her hair. He took a while to reclaim his voice.
“If I could freeze this moment…,” he began but his words were stopped with a kiss.
“You don’t need to,” Erika promised, the kiss still loaded with unspent passion. “I love you, Aiden Thirstan and there’ll be thousands of moments like this ahead of us.”
For four days she’d been haunted by guilt and now everything she wanted to say came tumbling out.
“You mean so much to me,” she said. “I can’t believe how quickly I fell for you again – or how hard. I know now that last weekend wasn’t only about sex and memories for me – it was so much more. The past warned me not to get involved but I can’t help myself.”
At this admission, Aiden kissed her again and ran his hand down the length of her body, feeling her mould herself to him at his touch and smiling as he realised he had as much power over her as she held over him.
“I can’t help myself either. I’ve been so lonely without you, Erika. And so cold.”
She laughed at this and let her fingertips explore his scorching skin. “Well you’re not cold now,” she said, brushing the damp hair back from his forehead. “You are very, very hot – in every sense of the word.”
Aiden rolled onto his side, pulling her with him but never loosening his hold on her. “I can’t bear to leave you.”
“I know. And I wish I could come away with you tonight.” Erika willed herself not to cry but the tears came anyway, drenching Aiden’s hot skin.
“Only a little while longer,” Aiden promised. “My lawyers are almost ready to lodge the papers.”
Erika shook her head. “There’s no time. Marty’s booked flights back to LA for next Friday. Once I’m there, I’ll never see you again.”
The thought made Aiden’s heart race and he clung to Erika. “It won’t go that far,” he said. “Ben and I have an idea to get you away.”
“What? How?”
“I can’t tell you yet. Just be patient. And brave.” He propped himself up on one elbow and looked down at her; her face tear-stained but still achingly beautiful against the pillow. “Everything will be fine. This will all be over soon and we can spend the rest of our lives making up for lost time.”
Only too willing to believe him, Erika breathed in deeply to suppress the tears and forced a watery smile. “We’d better get dressed. You need to leave.”
Aiden thought it a crime to hide Erika’s gorgeous body and kissed each of her breasts goodbye before pulling on her camisole for her. Erika giggled and helped him with his jeans, thinking what she might do to him if they had the whole night together again.
“You’re the sexiest man who ever walked this earth,” she purred, throwing herself back across the bed to watch him dress.
“There are thousands of Ben Ridley fans who’d disagree.” He feigned disapproval. “You look like you enjoy kissing him too much. It’s jealousy that’s made me so horny tonight.”
Erika knelt up and put her arms around Aiden’s neck. “In which case, I have the best of both worlds. If kissing Ben makes you want me this much, I intend kissing him all the more.”
Had they had the time, Aiden would have thrown Erika back down onto the bed and shown her exactly how wild his jealousy had made him but they heard a gentle tap on the door and Richard calling their names.
“Kiss me one last time,” Erika begged, suddenly serious as she surrendered herself to Aiden’s lips and imprinted the memory of his mouth against hers.
“We’ll be together again before you know it,” Aiden promised. “And not for a few hours stolen here and there. For a lifetime, if we want.”
It was a future too idyllic to be true but an image that would be all Erika had to sustain her until she saw Aiden again – whenever that might be.
“I love you,” she whispered against his cheek. “And I don’t think I’ll ever tire of saying it.”
“Good. Because I never want to stop hearing it.”
His hands shook when he helped her back on with her coat. He pulled her toward him for one last, gentle kiss, every nerve wanting to hold onto her for ever. But both of them knew it wasn’t possible and Richard’s knock came again.
All they knew for certain was, that after that night, neither of them wanted to say goodbye again.
Chapter Nine
Erika had a beautician’s appointment was at an exclusive Mayfair spa, chosen especially by Aiden.
“It’s ladies only,” he’d told her the night before, calling her on a phone that Richard had smuggled in. “Once you’re inside, the bodyguards won’t have a clue what you’re up to.”
Leaving the disgruntled guards behind her at reception therefore, Erika went through to the changing rooms and undressed. She put on a bathrobe, as if preparing for a facial, and made her way upstairs to one of the luxurious treatment rooms. At the third door along, she knocked before going inside where a similarly-dressed woman waited. She stood up as soon as she saw Erika and held out her hand, smiling warmly.
“So lovely to meet you at last, Erika. I’m Catherine Walker. I’ve heard a great deal about you.”
Erika had spent the past week wondering what one of the country’s foremost entertainment lawyers would look like but had never believed she’d meet her dressed only in a towelling robe and flip-flops.
“I’m sorry this is all so cloak and dagger,” Erika apologised but saw the funny side. “If my manager knew we’re meeting…”
Catherine waved her apology aside and laughed. “Don’t worry. It makes a change from wearing heels.”
Erika’s mind flicked back to the morning when she’d seduced Aiden in his suite – she obviously did all of her best work in a bathrobe – and she savoured a few choice moments before realising Catherine was speaking to her.
“I need a statement from you before we finally lodge proceedings against your manager,” Catherine explained. “Because you both live in Los Angeles, we’re filing in California, not London.”
The mention of court action made it suddenly feel all very real and Erika swallowed hard, knowing she was setting foot on a one-way street that could lead her to financial – or career – disaster.
“What are my chances of success?” she asked, wondering whether she was really prepared for the answer. “I can’t stay with Marty a minute longer than I have to. He’s unbearable.”
Here Catherine flinched slightly, professional caution preventing her from issuing any guarantees. “You need to prepare for a fight and, from what I’ve learned of Mr Cooper, he doesn’t exactly stick to the rules.”
“Neither have we.” Erika mentioned the devious ways they’d come across most of the evidence but Catherine had already taken care of it.
“You’re paying me to ensure the papers are in order, so don’t worry.” Catherine smiled, oozing confidence, and Erika relaxed finally. “But I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t warn you of the risks. Depending upon how the courts interpret your contract, you could be liable to pay high punitive damages for breaking it.”
“Meaning financial ruin?” Erika drew her own conclusions when Catherine didn’t answer immediately. “I d
on’t care what it costs, as long as I’m free from Marty. I can always earn a living somehow.”
“We’re also taking action to recover your copyright. Mr Thirstan says it’s a priority.”
“As long as I reclaim my music, I don’t care if I’m left barefoot and bankrupt.” Erika quoted Aiden but hoped neither figured in her future. “I want Marty out of my life. The money’s secondary.”
“And, of course, you’ll be financially secure once you’re married,” Catherine added, making Erika wonder exactly what Aiden had been telling her.
“Married?”
“To Ben Ridley.” The lawyer looked wrong-footed for a moment and assumed she’d been mistaken. “I’m sorry. Are those just rumours?”
“No.” Relieved Aiden had kept quiet about their own relationship, Erika rushed to embroider a credible white lie. “Ben and I are engaged but we won’t fix a date until after the court case. I don’t want him dragged into the middle of all this.” She rushed to change the subject. “What’s going to happen?”
Catherine took a deep breath. “We first need to prove that Marty’s potentially guilty of fraud in every country that’s holding money and then have the courts there freeze the accounts. Teams of lawyers are standing by in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, and so on, ready to begin proceedings at a moment’s notice. You have a strong case but it could take months to unravel and, even if we’re successful, the American tax authorities will want their share before you’ll see a penny.”
Catherine opened her laptop and put a microphone on the table between them. “Now I need a detailed statement about your career and your business relationship with Mr Cooper. Begin from the moment you met him and tell me everything you can remember. Even the smallest detail could be vitally important.”
Where to begin? Erika wondered, taking a deep breath.
She closed her eyes and imagined herself arriving in America five years earlier, heartbroken and tear-stained, feeling like her entire world had just ended. In her pocket were the keys to Aiden’s apartment and two new songs, written on the flight over from London.