Deception

by Tory Hayward

  ‘That’s in eleven months,’ he said.

  ‘Long enough to make arrangements, I reckon,’ I said.

  He pulled me into a hug.

  ‘You’re watching the departures board, aren’t you?’ My voice muffled by his check shirt.’

  Amusement rumbled in his chest. ‘No.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘There’s a flight to Kuala Lumpur, it goes in an hour. I heard about a Malaysian Maharaja’s crown, from 700 AD …’ his voice trailed off. ‘No, I’ll come home with you. To Sydney.’

  ‘Go Dad. It’s okay.’

  He looked at Jack. ‘For the first time in my life I don’t want to leave her, I’m torn in half. It’s the saddest day, it should’ve been like this every time I left. Every time. How will I ever forgive myself.’ His voice cracked.

  ‘Merry’s good at forgiveness, I think.’ Jack had a knowing look in his eye. ‘Follow her lead.’

  I nodded. ‘I am when I understand why people act the way they do. When people explain.’ I pulled at Dad’s arm, and he looked at me. Tears glimmering in his eyes. ‘Go now. Come back to Sydney soon and we can talk, about Mum about everything. Deal?’

  ‘Deal.’ Dad nodded.

  ‘Go. You need to get your ticket organised and buy some toiletries and stuff.’ I pulled out my wallet. ‘Here’s my credit card. Use it. And let me know when you get to KL, I’ll have Accounts wire some cash and a new card.’ I’d realised Dad only had the clothes he was standing up in.

  ‘Okay.’ He pulled me into another brief hug, shook Jack’s hand in a manly way and strode off in the direction of the ticket counter.

  ‘Bye Dad,’ I whispered.

  ‘You okay?’ Jack searched my face.

  ‘I need a drink.’

  ‘It’s not even 9 am yet.’

  ‘Wimp.’ I headed off in the direction of the bar, which like in most International airports, never shut.

  The bar was as magnificent as the rest of the building, gold and marble, and completely deserted. Jack caught up as I reached the counter.

  ‘Absinthe?’ he asked.

  ‘It’s a bitter drink,’ I said. ‘It suited me perfectly, once. But lately I’ve lost my taste for it.’

  ‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘And for the record, I never thought it suited you at all.’

  ‘Vodka then?’

  ‘Vodka. Exotic, mixes well with many things and is excellent in jelly-shots. Yes. Totally you.’

  I laughed.

  ***

  We sat together on a cosy settee, looking out over the busy airport hardtop. I turned my glass so the ice chinked.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ I stared at the planes, afraid suddenly I might see rejection in his expression.

  ‘Be where you are,’ he said simply.

  I turned to him. ‘Truly?’

  ‘Yes. I’m in love with you, you see. Head over heels. Have been since the moment you tried to shoot me in the head at the beach house.’

  ‘Really?’

  He nodded, with a rueful grin. ‘You just … I can’t really describe it.’ He patted his midriff. ‘You were just in here, right away, the moment I saw you. I just—’ He hesitated and took a sip of his vodka. ‘I felt like I’d been consigned to one of the levels of hell.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said dryly. ‘That sounds like love.’

  ‘I mean, I had to get the jewels, and I knew I couldn’t get the jewels and have you love me back. The two were diametrically opposed. You seemed to hate me anyway. I knew it was useless and pointless to feel anything and I just couldn’t help it. When you looked at me, everything you were saying didn’t make sense. I could see the interest in your eyes. Feel it coming off you in waves.’

  A shadow loomed over us. ‘Gotta run,’ said Dad. ‘Bye, Merry.’ He kissed me on the head. ‘See you later, Jack Jones.’ And with that, he disappeared as quickly as he’d arrived.

  ‘What if you came back to Sydney with me?’ Nerves bunched in my stomach. He had a business. His life was in England, and equally my life was in Australia. ‘For a while? Maybe?’

  ‘That sounds like a very tempting idea. But there’s a flight to Singapore in a few hours, we could be on it?’

  ‘I know a very nice antique jade market in Singapore,’ I said, almost casually, even though my heart was hammering. ‘We could drop in to Raffles, or somewhere like that, freshen up, see if there’s anything interesting happening ...’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The suite at Raffles in Singapore was cool, immaculate and filled with that dead silence you only get in the most upmarket hotels.

  Merry had been preoccupied on the flight from Myanmar, and Jack had left her to watch the clouds drift beneath the plane. He’d wanted to touch her. To feel the satin of her skin beneath his fingers, just the back of her hand would have done. But he left her alone with her thoughts. Let her process the events of the past forty-eight hours.

  The father had been an interesting character. Not an unpleasant man, he had a certain charm about him, but not especially pleasant either. He’d seemed aloof, and somewhat calculating. He’d regarded Jack as if deciding what use he could be, rather than as an interesting, living, breathing human. Jack suspected that was how he treated Merry most of the time.

  After the room door had closed, Merry swung around on her heel, her nose just inches from him.

  ‘Kiss me?’

  He loved that she asked. He loved that she met his eyes with no reservation anymore. Actually, he was one hundred per cent sure that he loved everything about her.

  He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. Waited a moment, enjoying the anticipation, and the deliciousness of having her so close, and then very gently kissed her.

  She relaxed against him, and he smiled as she opened her mouth beneath his and ran her tongue along his bottom lip.

  When they came up for air, she grabbed for his hand and tugged him to the bedroom, not that he needed any persuading whatsoever.

  She began pull his t-shirt up over his head, but he stilled her hands with his own. He’d waited a long time for this, and now he wanted to take it slowly. They had all the time.

  He sat her on the bed, and as he kissed her thoroughly he unbuttoned the light blue shirt she wore, kneeling as he got to the bottom buttons. Sliding it off her shoulders, he hesitated when she pulled back slightly from him.

  ‘You know I love you?’ Merry said, breathless and serious, eyes fixed to his. She licked over her swollen bottom lip as she waited to see how he’d react.

  ‘Yes. I know. Me too. I love you too.’

  Jack had never said those words to anyone and meant it the way he meant it then. Not even the Las Vegas showgirl he’d been married to for an entire fortnight. He certainly hadn’t said it in recent years. Hadn’t even found himself in a situation where it’d be appropriate.

  But now the words came unhesitatingly.

  ‘I love you,’ he said again, to see how it felt. Good, he concluded. It felt good and right. It felt real and easy.

  He pushed her shirt down off her arms, and as soon as she was free, her hands came up and cradled his face.

  ‘It scares me a little,’ she said.

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t be scared, Merry. I promise you have nothing to fear.’

  She kissed him again. Deeply. Her mouth open and her tongue exploring, so delicate and sensual he nearly abandoned his plan to take things slowly and instead tear off her clothes and bury himself between her wonderful thighs. He pressed up against her and peeled off the top she wore beneath her shirt and made short work of her bra.

  He cupped his hand around her breast and dropped his mouth to her hard nipple. She gasped and arched towards him, so he increased the pressure and a groan vibrated through her.

  It was more and more difficult to go slow.

  Pressing her back on the bed he unzipped her jeans and pulled them off, taking her shoes with them, and took a moment to admire the stunning woman giving
him come-hither looks dressed in nothing but her knickers. All his.

  Those knickers seriously needed to go. So, kneeling by her feet, he reached up and peeled them down just to the top of her thighs. Then he kissed her at the bottom of the landing strip she had. It killed him, that unexpected piece of Merry decoration. He didn’t mind really, what ladies did with their lady-parts; waxed, a forest of hair, pierced, tattooed … whatever made them happy, made him happy. But to kiss Merry, down that blonde patch of hair and find a very wet swollen clit not far below, it was his new favourite pastime. He didn’t ever want to stop following that particular path.

  He took a moment to give that wet swollen clit a little attention with his tongue. Holding her still as she began to press herself up against him, wanting him to increase the pressure, and parting her legs more, inviting him to explore more. He breathed in her beautiful musky scent and tortured her gently for a few minutes.

  ‘What do you want, Merry?’ he asked as he raised his head.

  She looked at him for a moment, as if trying to figure out what he meant.

  ‘I want you in my mouth,’ she said with a small wicked grin.

  Before he had time to argue it was his turn to play with her, she’d dragged him up to standing, unzipped his jeans and had released his almost painful hard-on from the confines of his underwear.

  Just the touch of her hands made him have to put a tight grip on his control. She glanced up at him, that small wicked grin still in place.

  ‘This is what I want.’ She placed a tiny kiss on the end of his painfully hard cock, and Jack had to focus on not exploding at the delicate touch. Then she opened her mouth over him, enveloping him in wet heat, and he gave up thinking about anything at all.

  There was one thing in his world, and it was Merry. He tipped back his head and tangled his hands in her hair. She explored him with hands and tongue. It felt perfect.

  He couldn’t pick the exact moment when he knew his grip on control was slipping. But one minute all was fine and the next he knew he was perilously close to orgasm, and he so didn’t want to go there just yet.

  ‘Merry, please,’ he murmured.

  She scooted up the bed and lay naked against the pillows.

  ‘Please?’ she asked, eyes dancing.

  He ripped off his t-shirt and kicked his jeans and shoes aside. Then he practically dived on her. She parted her legs and arched herself up to him, and he slid deep into her.

  He groaned at the effort of holding off the orgasm, it was taking everything he had.

  ‘Come for me,’ whispered Merry into his ear. ‘I want to feel you.’

  He thrust once, then twice … then it could have been three times or a thousand, and came, deep inside her. Gasping at the intensity of it, feeling like he poured every cell of his body into her.

  ‘Merry,’ he muttered. ‘Oh, I love you Merry.’

  He rested for a moment, holding his weight off her on his elbows, his forehead leaned against hers. Feeling the beating of his own heart, as it slowed slightly, and her breathing beneath him.

  ‘I haven’t told you about my special talent,’ he said.

  ‘Oh?’ She moved slightly, but he pressed her into stillness with his hips.

  ‘After I come, if I take a minute to let the sensation pass, I stay hard. I can keep going as long as I want,’ He paused for a moment. ‘Or as long as you want.’

  ‘That is a special talent,’ she agreed seriously. He grinned. He’d never been the roll over and start snoring type.

  ‘So—’ He looked deep into her eyes. ‘You are going to climb on top of me, and I am going to fuck you until you come. Not once, but three times.’

  Her pupils dilated.

  ‘Three?’ she looked unsure about this.

  He nodded confidently. ‘Yes. Three.’

  He gently rolled over, and pulled her over him. Pressing up into her, and watching her face as she started to ride his still-hard cock. Her expression turned serious, a small frown of concentration between her eyes, as she came closer and closer to her own orgasm. He didn’t stop watching her, as she gasped his name and arched towards him, and then he felt the feather-light contractions of her orgasm.

  ‘That was one,’ he said, as she leaned forward to kiss him, panting, with sweat glistening between her breasts. He leaned up and licked it away.

  ‘Now for number two—’

  ‘Please,’ she said. ‘Yes.’

  ***

  Jack stood back and watched Merry haggle with a jade trader. She was rattling off numbers in Chinese so fast that he, with his more rudimentary grasp, could not keep up. She had her eye on a beautiful piece, a jade horse, not especially old but he liked it.

  He wanted her again, now, as he watched her barter for the horse. He couldn’t get enough of her. All these years of remaining steadfastly single. Of keeping away from relationships and commitment, because the most important thing was not to be tied down. To be free to roam the world and never be stuck somewhere small and contained, and now this.

  He never thought he’d been so happy. He didn’t care about the world anymore, or being free; if Merry was there then he was content.

  ‘That man is in pain,’ Jack referred to the expression on the jade trader’s face. Merry had ripped her way unhesitatingly through his profit margin and he wasn’t happy.

  She turned and smiled. ‘I know, but I can get him down a few more dollars.’

  The trader groaned.

  Merry whipped around and named a sum.

  The trader nodded, helplessly.

  ‘Done and done,’ she said, pleased. Then handed over some notes and picked up the small jade horse.

  ‘Going to give it to Lib,’ she said.

  ‘Aren’t there some test results about her sick husband?’ Jack asked, remembering.

  ‘Thursday,’ she replied. ‘I have to be back in Sydney by Thursday. They’re finding out if the treatment went okay. It’s a big day.’

  ‘Can I come with you? Back to Sydney I mean?’ Jack spoke quickly. He didn’t want to make assumptions, didn’t want to assume she wanted him trailing around after her. Part of him was terrified she’d say no and he’d have to return to London, alone.

  ‘I’ve been so afraid you’d want to go back to London,’ Merry said. ‘I didn’t want to ask you to come to Sydney, in case you thought I was being pushy or—’ she hesitated. ‘Or that it would be a weird thing to ask—’

  They stopped next to a tiny teahouse, and Jack grabbed her hand, pulled her inside and sat her down.

  Awkwardness surrounded them like a cloud, and he reached out and placed his hand over hers, wanting to make her relax, to trust that he felt the same way. Hot tea was put in front of them by a waiter and the scent of jasmine wafted around. ‘I’m in love with you, Merry. Believe it. Where you are is where I want to be, don’t be scared to ask.’

  ‘I’m in love with you too,’ she said.

  He smiled, she’d whispered it in his ear the night before, over and over, but the circumstances had been a little different then.

  ‘I need a break,’ he said. ‘The last few months have been complete hell. Wuu Sing Chow is not a pleasant person to be mixed up with. I need to go see my parents. It’s been years since I spent any real time with them. I just want—’

  He paused, searching for the right words.

  ‘I just want to stop for a while. Get my surfboard and be mocked by younger fitter surfers in the waves, wake up and wonder what day it is. Be a bum for a while.’

  ‘I can’t surf,’ Merry said. ‘I have terrible sense of balance and reflexes like a lead balloon. But I can sail. You know that yacht parked outside my house, we could sail that up to Queensland. Stop in at Norfolk Island on the way.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ he asked, excitement uncurling in his midriff. ‘That would be amazing.’

  ‘Completely serious. I know some nice spots we could stop at on the way.’

  ‘We could make this work, couldn’t we?’ he said, fe
eling suddenly certain about the future. That it would have Merry in it and it would be breathtakingly fabulous.

  ‘I think it’s worth a try.’

  Chapter Thirty

  Lib, her two sons, and husband Nathan stood at the end of the jetty and waved and waved until Jack and Merry rounded a corner, out of Sydney’s Middle Harbour and could no longer be seen. The boat’s motor puttered comfortably, and the water was oddly still in the early morning light. Distantly a group of rowers slipped through the water, barely leaving a wake behind them.

  ‘It’ll probably rain, it always does at Easter.’ Merry, glanced at the sky.

  ‘Don’t care,’ said Jack. ‘I love this boat, even in the rain.’

  They’d spent three blissful months together, getting to know each other better, falling more and more in love and finding out how they fit together as a pair.

  The news from Lib had been good, Nathan had got better and better. He was, in his own words, kicking leukaemia’s bum. It would be a long time yet before he rode his bike and regained his status as The MAMIL, but he was well on his way towards a life free from illness.

  And now Jack and Merry were off on the adventure they’d planned in Singapore together.

  Merry’s phone beeped and she pulled it out.

  ‘It’s Dad,’ she said, reading the text message. ‘He wishes us fair winds and good luck.’

  She tucked the phone away. ‘Shall we raise the sails?’

  ‘Aye, aye cap’n,’ said Jack.

  Thanks for reading Deception. I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage toryhayward.com, follow me on twitter @pentropictweets, or like my Facebook page.

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