The Christmas Bet

by Alice Ward

  “God, I missed you,” I said as I leaned in and claimed her lips.

  She kissed my cheek and removed the mask from my face. “That’s better,” she whispered, kissing my temple, my cheek, the way I had hers the night she took her own mask off. As she moved in closer to me my erection grew, and she wiggled her hips over me.

  I laughed. “Here you are, finally. I’ll never let you go again.” I moved the hair away from her face and asked, “Does it bother you that my company’s reputation is in question? You trust me?”

  She grabbed my shoulders and settled herself over me, my hard dick right between her legs.

  “I was wrong to ever doubt you,” she said as I ground up into her.

  I couldn’t stop the growl that came from deep in my chest and I held her still for a moment, her heat pressed against me, savoring.

  “Are you sure? I want us to be completely real with each other. There is a good chance that I won’t be able to completely clear my name in the court of public opinion. The matter is very complicated and almost too difficult for the general public to understand. I’m not the bad guy, but it looks like I am.”

  “Roman.”

  “Yes?”

  “Stop talking.”

  I laughed and wrapped my hands around her hips. When her eyes met mine, I knew we were okay, more than okay. And we were the luckiest two people on the planet.

  I missed her body against mine. All I wanted to do was make love to her, so I trailed kisses over her neck, down her chest to her nipples that were hard and poking through the thin material of her bodysuit, flicking my tongue over them and listening to her moan. She ran her hand down my chest and lower, then wrapped it around my cock, making my hips jerk up into her center.

  I held her hair back with my hand as she slinked down into my lap and eased my pants over my hips. Then gargantua was free and she took me between her lips as I did the best I could not to thrust too hard into her mouth.

  She swirled her tongue around the tip of my cock until I was moaning and only wanted her heat wrapped around me. Then she pressed me down onto my back and sat on my lap, gyrating over my stiff dick with her spandex still on until we were both wild-eyed and panting.

  I loved watching what she was doing to me. I stripped her of the stage costume, and she crawled up me, kissed my lips while she grabbed my cock and danced it across her slit until she was ready. Then slowly positioned it in just the right place and slid down on my shaft.

  We both gasped, it felt so amazing to be one with each other again.

  We made love hard, deep and rough. We needed each other, and we’d been so far apart for too long. Even though it’d only been a short time, it felt like this was where we belonged.

  We laughed at how ferociously we were making love and I pumped harder and harder into her. I was about to come inside of her when I remembered. Groaning, I pulled out, rolled over, grabbing my pants, pulled out a condom, put it on and dove right back in.

  This time I rolled her on her back, spread her legs then plunged in, making her scream. She dug her nails into my back as my name left her lips. She clenched around me and her breasts arched up to my chest. I leaned in and took one nipple into my mouth, sucking, giving her my teeth, and growled as my balls tightened. She flew apart around me, and I let go as her pussy milked my cock. She screamed again as I emptied myself into her.

  Making love to her that night was passionate and beautiful. We showered and made love again, long into the night until we fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms on the dressing room couch. I didn’t care where I was, as long as I was with her.

  Having Adara back was like coming home again after far too long being gone. I thought we both came to the realization that no matter what life threw at us, we would handle it. We would overcome it together.

  EPILOGUE

  Adara

  When we got back to Montana, I feared there would be a retaliation from Jewel, however, everything was silent. I was hopeful.

  Roman’s sister and Peter came over as soon as we got home. I was nervous to meet Liliana, but Roman assured me that she would be an even bigger fan of mine when we met.

  When we heard them talking to Ms. White in the hallway downstairs, I panicked a little.

  “Don’t be nervous,” he said. “She’s a huge fan of yours, and I want to gloat a little.” He smiled and winked. “I’m really going to score cool points when she not only sees that I’m in a relationship with Adara Wilde, but I also unearthed her from missing.” He’d told Lil he had a surprise for her, but she had no idea how big a secret it was. It was a miracle we’d been able to keep it for this long.

  As soon as we came down the stairs, Liliana screamed. I gripped Roman’s hand as she rushed over to us.

  “Oh my god, Adara Wilde! Roman!”

  I laughed, and the night began. We had fun together, and Liliana and I became fast friends. All we talked about was music, and I played guitar with Liliana joining in on the chorus.

  After they were gone, I cozied up to Roman on the couch. “Liliana told me that you were going to be sponsoring the Coachella Music Festival.”

  “Yes…” I responded with a dramatic note of suspicion in my voice.

  “Well, I think I want to be a surprise guest and debut a song.”

  “The festival’s not until next spring, but anything you want.”

  I smiled. “Terrific. I’ve be undergoing surgery in a couple weeks to help loosen up the scar tissue. That will give me time to recover and grow stronger in the meantime.”

  And grow stronger I did.

  In addition to the studio, Roman had a fitness center built for me, along with an indoor pool where I could swim for hours. I spent weeks at the ranch writing songs and developing my voice. Ms. White and Roman would spent hours listening to me play and practice the songs I’d written. Each was different, complex. I was so excited to share my calling with the world again.

  I was happier than I could ever imagine being.

  Jack still haunted us and had planted more people throughout the different businesses that were supported by his company to decimate Roman’s reputation, even though he was in deep legal trouble himself. I was stressed, but as fast as Jack started fires, Roman and his company put them out. Roman continued to counter what Jack threw at him and started to open up positive dialogue between people and offer absolute transparency. Slowly, this grassroots effort was taking hold.

  Public trust was a hard thing to win, but I was doing my best to encourage him, to be his cheerleader.

  My singing career was taking off again. I used my iPhone to film a home video and posted it online. I think it was the rawness of it that made it go viral, along with sneak peeks of new songs I was writing.

  I even got a call from Pink saying she loved my rendition of “Glitter in the Air,” which I sang with a mix of gritty, raw emotion. She said it had a real Adara Wilde vibe, and she wanted to meet with me at Coachella.

  I was thrilled. I’d always wanted to sing with Pink. We’d met several times over the years, but never got a chance to work together.

  Roman and I were happy, our relationship grew and flourished as we began to love each other more and more.

  Finally, there was only a week before the festival and I was ready. My video was edited, my place was set in the Coachella line up, and Roman’s company was sponsoring the event. There was a lot of dialogue started about sustainability, child labor, trafficking and things that mattered, all because Roman was fighting back against people who questioned him. All and all we were in a good place, we just had one more shot to fire.

  We packed our things and Pete and Liliana brought their camper van, and this time Roman had to go along with the crazy idea, because he needed to work the festival with Adam and a host of other people from his office. They all rented camper buses and it was so much fun. I loved camping in a tour bus for a couple of nights. Roman hated it, but he had to learn to loosen up.

  Before the craziness began, we wer
e all sitting under the stars having wine with his crew when he reached over and took my hand as he so often did.

  “You know you’re amazing, right?” His face glowed with love.

  “You know you are, right?” I countered and we kissed.

  “Oh my god, I love you guys so much. Adara, you have to marry my brother so he’ll stop being such a snobby bore. You’ve got to start rubbing off on him,” Liliana chimed in right in Roman’s ear.

  I loved his sister, she was the perfect friend for me. We hung out a lot, which left Roman with Pete. Roman had admitted, however, that Pete was growing on him.

  On the day of the show, Pink and I sang “Glitter in the Air” as a duet. The crowd went wild. As she walked off the stage while I took the mike, I had to wait for the audience to calm down before I was able to speak. When they finally stilled, I sat on a chair, my leg in a glittering brace, not hiding any longer.

  “Thank you for being here and for welcoming me to the stage, it’s been too long.”

  There was another round of thunderous applause.

  “I’m glad to be here, but I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for one man.” I had asked the cameraman to highlight Roman during my speech before the show.

  The camera focused on Roman and he looked surprised as the monitors displayed his face.

  “Without Roman Wellington, I wouldn’t be here with you tonight. His company, Crave, is sponsoring this festival.” The crowd roared. “His struggles trying to get people to understand his heart and passion inspired my next song tonight. I hope you enjoy it and understand that the beauty around us isn’t always revealed in the places where we are looking. He taught me that, and I hope after seeing this video, you will be the first to understand what’s really happening around us.”

  The music to “See” started, and I sat at the piano and began to sing as a video played behind me. In the video were clips of the women in Brazil on the coffee plantation, singing, eating, and enjoying each other, despite the sun and the hardship of their labor.

  If you always had a mirror, what would you see?

  What would that reflection be?

  There were clips of women at Jewel, which painfully highlighted the horrible abuse they had suffered.

  Could you divine god’s plan?

  Could you fight against the tyrants of the land?

  Pictures of Jack’s company flashed onto the screen, and the video we took of the people he’d paid to hurt Roman saying that hunger and poverty drove them to it.

  Could you see me screaming there behind the vacant stare?

  Then images of people working together, and phrases about unity and change.

  It’s time we take a mighty stand and reach out to our fellow man….

  At the end, a full orchestra joined me on stage as I sang with a close-up on my face.

  The crowd screamed, fans threw flowers, and the cameras panned around the festival showing people in tears. I’d done it, showed them the things hiding in the noise, and in doing so reflected some of the beauty and the tragedy in our lives.

  Just when I thought life couldn’t get any better, Roman joined me on stage with a microphone. “I have one question for you, Adara Wilde.”

  I turned to the crowd and spoke into my mic. “What does he have up his sleeve?”

  The crowd collectively gasped, and when I turned back to Roman, he was on one knee, holding a small ring box in his hand.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked as he opened the box to reveal a diamond ring so big that the lights reflecting off it nearly blinded me.

  I was happy I had a headset, because I would have dropped the microphone. I walked to the man who was willing to carry me whenever I needed him to and didn’t hesitate. “Yes, a thousand yeses.”

  The crowd cheered as he put the ring on my finger and it sparkled in the stage lights. I grabbed his face and kissed him hard on the lips as the crowd screamed louder.

  Coachella was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life, and thanks to my song, “See,” turning into a number one hit, the story was now out there, the truth. It didn’t take long for people to discover that he was a part owner in Jewel. That was scandal enough, but then the media broke the truth and revealed most of these women were being kept as sex slaves who were unable to leave the property and forced to cater to their client’s sexual whims. A sting operation closed the place down.

  During the sting, authorities discovered that Jack was laundering money from business deals that exploited workers, used a child labor force, and had ties to corrupt government. Jewel was the least of his worries, and frankly, I could see why he spent so much time there — he could easily hide in the fantasy.

  Life was busy, but Roman and I always made private time for us. On top of managing a career and planning the wedding of the century, I also started the “See” foundation to help women recover from abuse. In fact, I bought Jewel when it went on the market and paid the women who had worked at the brothel to help reinvent that space that we now called Revive. Roman’s sister joined the board of Revive and became an integral part of their operation.

  Roman helped with the marketing and ensuring that people knew what it was and why it was there. There was a counseling center with an arts gallery attached, which provided studio space for singers, dancers, artists, writers, and anyone else who wanted to work through their abuse story with artistic expression.

  There was a thrift store and fashion design studio, housing for those who needed a safe place to stay. A restaurant and theater, a playground, a swimming pool, and a trampoline park. There was also a community space where people were welcome to hang out and a small garden where food was grown for the restaurant.

  Everyone was there to heal, recover, and have fun, thus taking the shame out of surviving their ordeals. Janis was one of the managers and many of the women she’d worked with started to heal and start their lives over again.

  Brandy struggled, but she finally left Harmon and was a resident at the housing center and working to get her life back on track.

  As for my new family, Roman’s sister and Pete just announced they were going to have a baby. They were now the most sickeningly happy people in the world, but I loved them.

  When Pete announced they would be moving into the lake house for the duration, I thought Roman’s head was going to explode.

  Then I saw the spark of excitement in his eyes. And that got me to thinking about being the kind of man I now knew he was. The kind who loved his family, wanted kids, and hoped to fill the halls of a very lonely mansion.

  That night as he was getting ready for bed, I posed provocatively on top of the soft duvet. “Do you want babies, Roman?” I asked playfully, running my foot across his thigh when he stepped closer. “We could have little rockstar slash dot com babies. Or at least practice.”

  I squealed as he dropped down on the bed next to me and rolled me underneath him, kissing me hard on the mouth.

  When he came up for air, he laughed. “I’ve heard that takes lots and lots of practice.” Then he pulled my shirt over my head, unhooked my bra, and kissed the sensitive flesh of my neck.

  Pulling back, our eyes met, and he looked at me with loving desire. “As long as they end up as cool as you are, I’m game for spending all night making babies.”

  So we practiced. And practiced.

  And a year later, the pregnancy stick turned pink.

  As we celebrated our love and the new life we would be bringing into the world, we became man and wife, with only our close family beside us.

  I’d thrown away my mask, thanks to Roman.

  But every now and then, when I was feeling frisky, I thought I might ask him to put his on.

  THE END

  Continue on to read a special sneak peek of my recent release, The Cabin.

  A Sneak Peek

  THE CABIN

  Alice Ward

  CHAPTER ONE

  Zoe

  I have THE most exciting news, my darling. Call me.
xxx

  I stared at the text message, then swiped it off my screen with a furious thrust of my thumb. My mother had exciting news? My stomach churned in dread. I leaned forward and thunked my forehead on the steering wheel of the old Jeep I’d been driving the past six weeks, trying to not imagine what it was. Or worse… what it had to do with me.

  For most people, the triple x at the end of her message would probably be as sweet and innocent as multiple kisses. For me, it served as a reminder of something very different. More than that, I knew my dear mother had placed them there on purpose. Just another dig with the verbal blade she always carried.

  In addition to that cryptic message, I also had eighteen missed calls from her. Thirty-one other text messages. Numerous FaceTime attempts. Facebook messages. Twitter DMs. Snapchats. All in the past six hours.

  She was cycling. Manic. Compassion and worry broke through the frustration.

  Why did I have to be the grown-up in our relationship?

  I sighed and sat up. I’d call her, but first, I needed to call my agent and give her an update on my book. I was almost finished. About six more chapters to go and “Come Closer” would leave my hard drive to be churned through the editors and proofreaders before, hopefully, becoming a best seller. Maybe then I’d call myself an author and have a prayer’s chance of actually making a decent living writing about the pretend world I wished I lived in. A world where happy ever afters were a reality, not the fantasy I knew them to be.

  Icy cold wind took my breath as I opened the Jeep’s door, and I tugged the woolen cap down over my ears. It was much colder today. It had been nearly sixty just yesterday with lots of sun to make it feel even warmer. Today, dark gray clouds billowed overhead, rolling across the sky as if racing to some unknown destination.

  Icy drops kissed my face, and I looked up in wonder before catching a few of the fat flakes on my gloved hand. The intricate white designs melted quickly on the chocolate-colored wool, but more replaced them quickly enough.

  Snow!

  Raised in Southern California, I’d never seen real snow before now, and I lifted my face to let it fall onto my tongue. I’d seen that done in movies as a child and had always wanted to know the taste. There really wasn’t a flavor, but I laughed at how wonderful it was to feel the icy goodness melt in my mouth.