“Jesus fucking Christ,” Thomas gasped, and then she heard him let out a guttural roar.
The sound of his orgasm over the phone and the sight of his orgasm on the screen made the feel of her own orgasm in the moment intensify. The throbbing wasn’t slowing, if anything it was getting even stronger.
“Fuck!” she cried.
“Yes. Yes. Keep going. Keep going.”
Finally, the Sasha and Thomas on the screen became still. In the real world, Sasha’s orgasm began to subside. Then the video cut out.
“Wow,” Thomas said, panting into the phone. “That was like having a foursome with myself.”
Sasha laughed, feeling dazed and breathless. Her cheeks were hot. “I know.” She took a deep breath. “Did you come?”
“Yes, absolutely everywhere.” Thomas let out one of his carefree chuckles. Then he exhaled. “We were so good together.”
“Yes, we were.”
“I wish…”
“What? What do you wish?”
There was a long silence.
“I wish that you hadn’t ruined it.”
The line went dead. Sasha listened to the sound of nothing.
“So do I.”
Chapter Twenty Six
Sasha looked at the black screen of her cell phone. That was so typical of Thomas, taking her to the height of ecstasy one minute then bringing her crashing back down to earth the next. She was about to berate herself for always getting swept up in his game when she realized that a part of her liked it. The highs and lows of being with Thomas were the exact opposite of the stable niceness she’d had with Chris. That he could make her feel the whole gamut of emotions on the emotional spectrum was part of the reason why she loved him.
Love. There it was. That word again.
Sasha shook her head and began putting her discarded clothes back on. Her body pulsed with pleasure, every little nerve ending alive with sensation. Sex with Thomas had given her a newfound love of her body and all the things it could do. She would never have known how empowering it felt to watch herself have sex if it hadn’t been for Thomas. If there was anything good to come out of the whole scandal, that would be it.
She’d just put her clothes back on when she heard a strange noise coming from outside. She paced to the window but was stopped in her tracks by a shrill cry.
“Sasha!” her mom called.
Sasha bolted out her room and flew down the stairs. Her mom was in the living room, pointing wildly at the window.
“Someone was there!” she cried. “Someone was looking in!”
Stomach churning with anguish, Sasha pulled back the curtain and stared out at the black evening. She couldn’t see anyone.
She went to the front door and peered out through the peephole. There was no sign of a person.
“Whomever it was, they’ve gone,” she called back to her mother, trying to sound calm and in control. Inside, she felt anything but. She went back into the living room.
“Who would be snooping around?” Julia asked. She looked terrified, her eyes wide with fear.
“It was just one of Thomas’s fans,” Sasha said as nonchalantly as she was able. “I’ll let the cops know.”
As soon as she mentioned the cops, her mom’s scared eyes grew even wider.
“The police?” she cried, panicking. “Are we in danger?”
Sasha tried to calm her. “No, it’s okay. It just comes with the territory. They’ll be harmless, but it’s still good to send out a warning signal and let them know that it’s not okay to snoop around someone else’s property.” She tried a shrug, hoping it would make her look blasé about the whole thing. “It’s trespassing, ya know?”
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Sasha and Julia both jumped a mile, shattering Sasha’s pretend bravado in an instant.
“Don’t answer it!” she cried at her mother.
Julia was clearly panicking, looking around wildly. “The cops!” she shouted. “Call the cops!”
Before Sasha got a chance, a blinding light flashed through the curtains. Sasha never thought she’d be relieved to see the paparazzi, but intrusive pictures were preferable to a chopped off head.
“It’s just the paps,” she said with a huge exhalation. She put the phone back down. “We need to make sure the curtains are shut properly.”
She went over to the window and flipped the bird at the man standing on her lawn. The haters will just love that, she thought, as he snapped several pictures of her stern expression and rude gesture. She shut the curtains to block the view of the photographer outside.
“Let’s go into the kitchen, Mom,” she said. “We’ll have more privacy at the back of the house.”
Trembling, Julia agreed.
“Sasha,” she said, as her daughter pushed her through the hall in her wheelchair. “I wish you hadn’t gotten involved in all this nonsense.”
Guilt whirled inside of Sasha. So far, her mom had been pretty understanding. She’d welcomed her, soothed her, and made her feel safe and loved. This was the first indication she’d given that she was disappointed in Sasha’s behavior.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Sasha said. “I wish I hadn’t either.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
Thomas’s security guard arrived that evening. Sasha recognized him as one of the men who’d accompanied them on his private plane when she’d first left Chicago.
“Bill, isn’t it?” she said, as she gestured him inside.
“Yup,” the man replied. He was a burly guy, all stocky and thick-necked, with peering, suspicious eyes.
“Do you want a coffee or anything?” Sasha asked.
The man glanced around the room. “Nope,” he said without looking at her.
Clearly, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist.
“Well, you just do whatever it is you do,” Sasha said. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
“Uh huh.”
Sasha left the suspicious looking Bill standing in her living room and went to the kitchen to start making homemade pizza for dinner.
Pizza, she thought wryly. I’ve gone from oysters and lobsters to pizza.
It was odd how quickly she’d gotten accustomed to Thomas’s lifestyle. At first she’d felt so out of place in his world, so undeserving of his affection, but sometime after the makeover and Amore photoshoot, she’d kind of gotten used to it. Jacuzzis, private jets, red carpets—the more time she spent with Thomas the less strange it had started to feel.
Sasha put the pizza in the oven and went to wake her mom. Julia was upstairs having a nap. Sometimes, the MS could really zap her energy.
“Do you want any dinner?” she asked Bill as she passed. He was peering out of the window.
“Nope,” came his monosyllabic reply.
Wow, Sasha thought. He’s basically a robot.
Sasha was on her way up the stairs when her cell phone started ringing in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw Thomas’s name displayed on the screen.
“Hi,” she said, pausing on the landing for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” Thomas began. He sounded harried.
Sasha frowned. “Sorry about what?”
“The security guard,” Thomas said. “He was meant to be there by now, but his flight got delayed.”
“No problem, he arrived about half an hour ago.”
“What?” Thomas said.
“The security guy. He’s downstairs right now.”
“No, he’s not,” Thomas replied, sternly. “His plane hasn’t even landed yet.”
A pit of anguish began swirling in Sasha’s stomach. Her gaze darted down the stairs to find that Bill was standing in the hallway, watching her coolly.
Heart racing, she sidled along the landing and slipped into her bedroom. “It’s Bill,” she whispered. “Your security guard from the plane.”
“That’s not who I sent,” Thomas replied. “Bill and Ryan were employed by Pippa. I fired them after I fired her. I couldn’t trust them anymore.”
There was a moment’s hesitation before Thomas replied, “Get out.”
Sasha’s heart started racing. “You don’t think he’s going to harm us, do you?”
“If Pippa can get your sweet ex-boyfriend to turn on you, who knows what else she’s capable of.”
Sasha was trying to remain calm, but the craziness of the last few days made anything seem possible. If she could go from unpaid intern scraping together an existence in Chicago to millionaire actor’s girlfriend, what was to say that Bill the security guard couldn’t become Bill the hit man?
“My mom is sleeping. I’d have to hoist her into her wheelchair. I can’t just run.”
“For God’s sake!” Thomas barked. “Then arm yourself at the least. You’re American, I’m sure you have baseball bat around somewhere.”
“Baseball? Thomas, do you even know me at all?!”
Just then, the fire alarm started blaring.
“Shit!” Thomas cried. “What’s happening now?”
From the room next door, Julia’s panicked voice sounded out. “Sasha? Sasha, what’s happening?”
The smell of smoke reached Sasha’s nostrils. “Shit. I think he’s…oh God, I think he’s started a fire.”
“That’s it,” Thomas said. “I’m coming to get you.”
The phone went dead.
Sasha ran to her mom’s room. She was in bed looking panicked. Sasha raced into her arms.
“It’s okay, mom. Let’s see if we can get you up.”
She started heaving her mom up, ignoring all the safety instructions she’d been taught as a teen to make sure she protected her back. All she could think about was getting out the house as fast as possible.
Then she froze. There were heavy footsteps thundering up the steps and coming across the hallway towards them. Bill.
Oh God, Sasha thought.
The door creaked opened. Sasha gasped and swirled on the spot. Bill’s huge silhouette filled the doorway. He was holding something in his hands, something that was smoking.
“Please don’t hurt us,” Sasha cried.
“Huh?”
Bill stepped from the shadows of the hallway into Julia’s room, revealing that he was holding a burned pizza in his hands.
“Your dinner’s burned,” he said.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Sasha and Bill sat opposite one another with the charred pizza between them. Julia watched on, a deep frown line etched across her forehead.
“So Pippa didn’t send you to beat me up in an attempt to get back at me for having her fired?” Sasha said.
“Nope,” Bill replied.
“Then why are you here?”
Bill just shrugged. “I don’t ask questions.”
Sasha didn’t doubt that for a second. But she still demanded he tell her. “You must know why Pippa sent you here?”
Bill wasn’t giving away any of his secrets. The whole time he sat at their kitchen table, Julia seemed progressively more anxious, as though she was expecting him to attack at any moment.
“Look,” Sasha said. “You’re upsetting my mother. This isn’t a game. It’s serious. I mean, she must have tapped my phone, right, in order to send you over in the first place. So she’s treading some pretty illegal ground here. Why don’t you just fess up? Tell me what’s going on and I won’t get the cops involved.”
Bill peered out at her through his dark, beady eyes. “What makes you think Pippa sent me?”
“Because you were on Thomas’s old security team, the one he fired. Who else would have sent you?”
“Maybe I came on my own accord.”
Something was unsettling Sasha. “I don’t get it.”
“Maybe…,” Bill said, “I don’t think you’re good enough for Thomas.”
Sasha flew to her feet so fast her chair screeched across the linoleum. “You’re ‘Mrs. Lloyd,’ aren’t you?”
Julia looked terrified, as Bill heaved his huge frame from his chair. He towered over Sasha. She couldn’t help but shrink back, as images of rusty chainsaws flashed through her mind.
“Get out of my house!” Sasha cried. “Don’t make me call the cops!”
Just then a noise came from the hall. Sasha and Julia flinched. Bill turned his head to the source. The door to the kitchen flew open, and a man dressed in black rushed in. He grabbed Bill, pulling his arms behind his back in a fast, fluid motion and pinning him to the table.
Julia flinched, as Bill hit the tabletop hard and the other man pressed his face to the side.
“Who are you?” Sasha cried.
“Gerald,” the man replied. “I work for Thomas Lloyd.”
Mouth open, Sasha watched the chaos unfold, as Gerald subdued Bill and heaved him back up to his feet.
“Let’s leave these nice ladies to their evening, shall we?” Gerald said sternly.
Bill grunted, as Gerald shoved him in the back, then began stomping down the hall. “You’re a whore, Sasha!” he cried as he went. “Thomas deserves better than a cheating slut like you!”
His screaming faded to silence.
Trembling, Sasha let out an exhalation and sank back into her seat.
“I’m so sorry about that, Mom,” she said. She felt terrible that her mother had been dragged into this whole crazy situation.
Julia looked at daughter, worry lines crinkling her eyes. “Sasha, I don’t feel safe in my own home anymore.”
Sasha’s heart plummeted. She’d let her mother down. “I…I know. And I’m sorry. It won’t be like this forever. I promise.”
Her mom just shook her head and tutted, then wheeled herself from the kitchen, leaving Sasha sitting there stunned.
Chapter Twenty Nine
The next evening, Sasha heard the doorbell, then Gerald’s voice shouted out: “It’s for you, Sasha!”
She stood, her stomach in knots, knowing that it would be Thomas. She thanked Gerald, as he passed on his way back into the living room.
There he was. Thomas Lloyd, leaning his shoulder against the frame of Sasha’s open front door.
“So,” he said. “Here we are again.”
Seeing him took Sasha’s breath away. There’d been a point where she never thought she would again. He was so handsome, in his steel gray suit pants with his shirt sleeves rolled up. Stubble had grown on his chin since they’d last been together, and it made him look more rugged. It was a good look and suited him well. At least Sasha’s body responded to it favorably, sending sparks of excitement between her legs.
Over his shoulder, she noticed his car was in the driveway. There was no driver though. He must have been another person Thomas had culled along with Pippa, Bill, Ryan…and Sasha herself.
“You didn’t have to come all this way,” she said, trying to keep her senses about her. She felt more than a little embarrassed to have made Thomas fly halfway across the globe because of an arson attack that turned out to be burned pizza. The last thing she needed to do was fawn all over him like a lovesick puppy.
Thomas’s eyes roved from her feet and up the length of her body, lingering slightly on the fabric of her T-shirt as it strained against her breasts, before settling on her eyes.
“I didn’t?” he said, drawing out the sounds and raising an arrogant eyebrow. “Because when we were speaking on the phone, it didn’t sound like I had much choice.”
His eyes roved back down to Sasha’s body. She folded her arms over her chest.
“You made me panic,” came her rebuttal.
Thomas’s eyes widened. “Oh, did I now?”
“Yes!” Sasha shot back. “With all your ‘find a baseball bat’ and ‘get out now’ stuff!”
Thomas gave her a stern yet mischievous look. He took a step forward until their bodies were so close Sasha could feel the heat coming from him. She felt her body drawing closer to him like some powerful force was pulling her closer to him.
“Are we goin
g to stand here arguing on your doorstep all night?” Thomas whispered, his breath hot on her skin. “Or are you going to let me kiss you?”
Sasha’s lips parted instinctively, and a sigh escaped her lips. “I thought you said...” she began, her voice little more than a whisper. However, Thomas silenced her by reaching his hand up to her face and skimming his rough fingertips against her smooth cheek. Sasha gasped with pleasure, as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear then let his fingers run down her neck. Chills ran up and down her spine. “You said you needed more time,” she murmured, feeling almost drugged by the sensations rippling through her body.
Thomas looped an arm around her waist lightly. He whispered into her ear, “I said my brain needed time.”
Then he tightened his hold on her, pulling her into his body so she could feel his erection pressing into her. Sasha had forgotten how huge he was, and how incredibly hard he could become around her. She fought all the impulses inside of her that told her to pull his pants down and suck him off right there on the doorstep. Even so, she couldn’t help the squeak sound that came from her throat.
Thomas’s breath tickled her earlobe as he said, “My cock, on the other hand...”
Sasha suddenly pushed him away, as the creaking noise of her mother’s approaching wheelchair sounded out from behind her. She swirled on the spot, knowing her cheeks were flushed.
“Mom,” she said. “Look who’s here. It’s Thomas.”
She moved away to reveal the older woman sitting in her wheelchair behind her. Gerald, the security guard had pushed her along the hallway at her insistence. Since he’d arrived last night, he’d taken on a sort of caretaker’s role with Julia, as well as a security guard. Though she’d been suspicious of him at first, the two had quickly become as thick as thieves.
In the doorway, Thomas stood strategically to hide his bulging erection. He coughed. “Mrs. Jones. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He reached down and shook her hand.
“Call me Julia,” the older woman said, as she cast suspicious glances from one pair of guilty eyes to the other. “So you’re the reason my daughter’s lost all common sense?” Then she added, “You look taller in real life than in the movies.”
Wyatt (Lane Brothers #1) Page 104