Lovers and Liars: An addictive sexy beach read

by Nigel May

  His brain pinballing with the things he had seen and read, Zlaten rode home as quickly as his strong legs would take him. A smile spread across his face and he cycled into view of the tiny building he called his home. He could see a light on inside the property, which meant that his parents were already home from work. He rushed through the door, excited to tell his parents the stories he had learnt over the previous few hours, and found them in the kitchen, sitting at the scratched wooden table. The delicious smell of food wafted throughout the house from a stove in the corner of the room.

  His parents, who doubtless knew the history of the fortress inside out, sat and listened to their son as he let the information he had soaked up flow from his lips. It was nearly an hour later that Zlaten came to the end of his announcement, finally pausing for breath.

  ‘So, you have had a good day, it appears,’ said his mother, stroking his mop of red hair back into place from where the day’s adventure on his bike had blown it out of style.

  ‘But now it’s time to eat, Zlaten. Your mother has prepared a hearty meal for a growing boy like you,’ his father told him. ‘All this exercise on your bike is making you a strong lad with a healthy body. You have muscles that put your father to shame. So let us eat what she has prepared. It is your favourite, kavarma.’

  Zlaten let a broad grin spread across his face as he envisaged the rich and spicy stew that was about to be served. It was indeed his favourite and he had recognised the smell as soon as he had rushed through the door.

  As he helped lay the table and the three of them settled down to eat, Zlaten was the happiest teenager on earth. His day had been an amazing one, full of adventure and legend, of strength and belief.

  ‘A good workout then, Hatton? Your body is looking phenomenal, but then it always does!’ Fidge’s voice was peppered with suggestion as the streams of the shower jets ran down Hatton’s frame. ‘But then I need you in top form for Barbados. If you’re to defend your title, which I have every confidence you will, then we need to keep you in top-notch condition.’

  But Hatton’s mind wasn’t concentrating on the upcoming fight in Barbados or his gruelling fitness regime, the last thing he was thinking about was the Belter in the Swelter. He was thinking about that meal he had shared with his parents over a decade ago. It had been delicious; it had also been the last meal they had ever shared. The last food they had ever shared as a family unit. Family was something that should never be taken for granted. Never.

  If it hadn’t been for rivulets of water from the shower pouring over Hatton’s face, Fidge Carter would have been able to spot the lines of tears running down his cheeks.

  24

  The balmy Bajan night air, layered with a heat that Nikki normally found perfect as it kissed her skin, was for once becoming more than a little uncomfortable for the eldest Rivers daughter. As a bead of sweat formed at the back of her neck and weaved its way down her spine she knew that the temperature of the tropical Barbados climate was the last thing making her shift awkwardly in her seat: it was the knowledge of what she was about to do.

  Nikki was sitting opposite Julian Bailey on the sea-view terrace of Barbados’s famous The Cliff Restaurant. It was always one of her favourite places to eat on the island and when Julian had suggested that they spend some time there together away from all of the madness of the Velvet empire and the horrors of Max’s recent death, she had leapt at the chance. She needed to be alone with Julian. There were things that needed saying – and they involved a certain DJ.

  She had planned to speak to Julian the moment she and Blair had touched down on the island some days earlier, Blair having accepted Nikki’s offer to accompany her from New York without hesitation. The two of them had formed some kind of strong connection and even though neither of them really knew what it was, there was a curiosity that meant they wanted to spend as much time together as possible, while they still had the chance. There was no mention of a relationship as yet but they both knew that this was more than idle flirting; and something inside Nikki sensed that she was definitely more than just another notch on the DJ’s already heavily marked bedpost.

  With nothing in his diary for a few days, Blair was happy to be there for Nikki, ignoring any hint of sexual attraction from those around them, but making the most of stolen moments to be together and share their passion.

  For the first forty-eight hours it had been easy to find time to be together, the rest of Nikki’s family out of the picture as they sadly made their way back from Crete, having made arrangements for Max’s body to be transported back to St Lucia, where he was to be buried. Nikki had spoken to Heather as much as her sister’s grief would allow, her own tears surfacing and falling down her face with every conversation as she tried to comprehend what her sister must be going through. After each conversation, Blair had been there to wrap his arms around Nikki and to offer any support he could. Just his touch seemed to make things a little more bearable to Nikki, their contact as far from sexual as possible, yet somehow intimate. She was falling for Blair and it wasn’t just the fact that he was there for her at her time of sorrow, there was more to it than that. He made her feel safe and seemed to take her away from all of the heartache and madness that had somehow managed to grip its hands around her life over the past few months, strangling almost all semblance of enjoyment from it. Thoughts of the men demanding money from her seemed to momentarily vanish. The loneliness of her love life in recent times was erased without trace every time Blair held her close, while her seedy tryst with Julian was the last thing she needed to consider.

  Or at least it was until Blair needed to fly back to New York to get his set ready for an upcoming DJ residency at Velvet Toronto. They had spent nearly three days together on the island, but as she watched him board a plane just two hours before her own family landed in one of the Velvet private jets from Crete, flying off into the clear blue sky, Nikki felt a tear run down her face. It wasn’t just caused by her misery at the loss of Max, it was caused by the oh-too-soon departure of Blair Lonergan.

  As his plane disappeared from view, Nikki’s mobile phone sounded: it was Julian. It was the first time they had spoken since she had been back in Barbados, a fact she hadn’t shared with him. With Sheridan away from the island, Julian hadn’t been at the hotel that much and besides, with her family in her thoughts and with Blair by her side, there simply hadn’t been room for him anyway.

  She clicked the phone on, attempting to disguise the fact that she was crying as she spoke. ‘Hi, I’m back in Barbados. Can we meet?’

  It was then that he had suggested The Cliff.

  Nikki watched a couple paddle into view on a pair of boards, skimming across the ultra-smooth surface of the Atlantic Ocean below the restaurant. The Cliff wasn’t just a treat to the taste buds, with its delicacies of striploin steaks and chargrilled ‘dolphin’ – actually a local fish called mahi mahi and mercifully nothing to do with anything remotely related to Flipper – it was also a visual treat, famed as being one of the most beautifully located restaurants in the Caribbean. Nikki adored it, as did many of the wealthy and famous visitors to the island, who loved to dine on some of the best food Bajan dollars could buy.

  ‘Now that’s the way to arrive!’ laughed Julian, placing his knife and fork on his plate as he finished off the last traces of his seared tuna.

  ‘It certainly is,’ stated Nikki, draining the remaining drops from her wine glass and rapidly pouring herself another. Nikki loved a great red and knew what flavour, tones and bouquet made a good wine, but tonight she had managed to drink nearly a whole bottle without so much as even noting the taste. She was using it as a pool of courage for what she knew she had to do. ‘There’s a hotel around the bay and visitors from there can paddleboard around to The Cliff’s beach instead of driving here. Some of them turn up in wetsuits and then strip them off on the beach to reveal their dinner clothes underneath. I’m not sure I’d like it to be honest, I think a neoprene wetsuit would definitely crease the
Emma Cook I’m wearing, and this cami dress isn’t getting spoilt for anything!’

  ‘I’m not sure you’d stand up straight on a paddleboard in the first place given the wine you’ve knocked back!’ laughed Julian. ‘You’ve necked almost that entire bottle.’ He placed his hand under the table and squeezed her knee, allowing his fingers to meander up her thigh and under the silky fabric of her dress as he spoke.

  ‘Not here, Julian,’ countered Nikki, pushing his fingers away from her. ‘I’m not in the mood. What with Max’s funeral and everything that has been going on lately, you letting your fingers do the walking, especially in public, is the last thing I need. And besides, there might be people here who know Dad. He is still on the island, you know.’ Nikki knew that her words were more than snappy and paused for a second, seeing Julian’s wounded expression, before adding ‘sorry’ as an afterthought.

  Julian removed his hand from her leg. ‘I know, I have a meeting with him in the morning about a new annex to Velvet Toronto. We need to discuss finances for how to expand the already existing hotel. You can rest assured that I won’t be mentioning any of our recent financial transactions. Although I must be honest, seeing you looking so fucking sexy in that dress does make me want to make a deposit of my own as opposed to a withdrawal and I think we know that I’m not talking about cash!’ He grinned as he placed his hand back under the table and onto Nikki’s thigh again.

  The action made her both jumpy and angry and she sprang to her feet, knocking the table as she did so and causing her glass of wine to topple over, spilling a puddle of red. The disruption caused diners gathered at tables situated around them to stare across at them both. Nikki felt a wave of self-consciousness wash across her and she sat back down as a team of restaurant staff hurried to their table to mop up the spillage.

  ‘I told you I am not in the mood for sex, Julian,’ she hissed through gritted teeth. It was true; it wasn’t just the melancholy and post-funeral funk that was cooling her desire for sexual physical contact, it was Julian. She could feel herself recoil and her mind echo to the refrain of ‘What was I thinking?’ as she felt the touch of his hand against her flesh. He was old enough to be her father – as well as being her father’s best friend. What had she been thinking? She liked Julian, but that was where it should have ended, she could see that now. She knew that she had been shagging him for a purpose but suddenly that didn’t seem to matter anymore. The flow of cash was necessary but the price she had to pay to obtain it suddenly seemed more than nightmarish. Nikki didn’t need to dive into the leagues of her own mind too deeply to work out what had caused the change in her: Blair Lonergan. Just the thought of him seemed to allow an inner smile to spread within her.

  Julian was obviously annoyed but tried to understand where Nikki was coming from. ‘I’m sorry, the funeral must have been so hard for you. I know you were incredibly fond of Max, we all were. I didn’t mean to pressurise you. We can wait until you’re ready to play again. And you needn’t worry about anybody here knowing Sheridan. He and Sutton are over at Sandy Lane tonight for a hotel business dinner dance. Sutton was telling me about it earlier. It’s a huge annual event and nearly everyone connected with the hotel world in the Caribbean is there all weekend. I was supposed to go, but chose to be here with you. I’ll meet him over there in the morning to discuss Toronto.’

  But Nikki wasn’t listening to the details of her parents’ dining arrangements. She had stopped hearing when Julian had said the words ‘ready to play again’. A stone of woe lodged in her stomach as he spoke. She knew she never would be ready so she needed to be honest. After all it was the whole purpose of meeting Julian in the first place. As the staff cleaning the table walked away, leaving the pair of them alone, she knew that this was her opportunity.

  ‘There won’t be a next time, Julian. I don’t want our affair to continue.’

  Nikki could see the colour drain from Julian’s face as she reinstated her meaning. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’

  ‘But we’re good together, you and I. You know that…’ Julian’s voice was soaked in confusion.

  ‘I know, but I need the sex to stop.’

  ‘Why?’ It was a simple question but one that Nikki obviously needed to answer. ‘You like the money I give you, don’t you? All those nice little handouts?’

  ‘Yes. And you loved the sex I gave you in return.’ Nikki’s words were horribly matter of fact, her own thoughts not allowing her to dress it up with pleasantries. She deliberately chose the past tense, needing to make sure that her message was clear, no matter what the consequences.

  ‘But we have a connection, Nikki. We understand each other. We both know what we have to do to get on in life. To succeed.’

  ‘I understand that I caught you in my linen basket sniffing my dirty underwear and that I needed cash so I forced you into giving it to me. It wasn’t hard.’

  Julian looked crestfallen. ‘I give you the money because I care about you. Not because you found me in your bedroom, which was…’ He paused before completing the sentence. ‘Unfortunate.’

  ‘How do you think my father would like it if I told him that I caught you in my room?’ Nikki was firing off anything she could think of to try and bring the conversation to a close. She just needed to tell Julian that it was over and for him to take it on board. She’d think of other ways to earn the cash for her blackmailers if need be. She’d think of something but now was not the time.

  Julian’s answer floored her. ‘Tell him. Your dad and I go back a long way, Nikki, and he knows me inside out. I know all about your father and he knows all about me. We’ve been to many a party together and experienced many a riotous night out. You don’t think for one minute he’s so squeaky clean and innocent, do you, that he’s as golden as the sand on the beach down there? Is anybody in your family like that? Maybe Heather at a push but the rest of you…’ He left the sentence hanging. ‘I don’t think so. So tell him what you like. He won’t believe you, even if he does think it’s a pretty hefty possibility, knowing some of the situations your dad and me have found ourselves in over the years. He knows my shining halo slipped and rusted a long time ago.’

  Things weren’t going to plan for Nikki and the words tumbled from her lips before she had time to think them through: ‘You keep the money coming to me otherwise I will tell him you forced me into having sex with you.’

  ‘Now that’s low. I never forced you to have sex with me and you know it. You offered it on a plate thinking that was what you had to do to gain the money from me.’

  It was now Nikki’s turn to have her words soaked in confusion. ‘And wasn’t it?’

  Julian explained. ‘No, I’d give you anything you wanted. You know I idolise you, always have done. But I never thought you’d sleep with somebody like me, someone of my age. When you caught me face-deep in your knickers of course I was mortified but your so-called blackmail was a way for me to see more of you, to bring us closer together. You gave me the come-on when you asked for the first batch of cash and I’d have been mad, as any man would, to have turned you down. I’m sleeping with you and giving you the cash but I’d happily do either without the other.’

  ‘But I had to sleep with you to get the cash, didn’t I?’ questioned Nikki, trying to cast her mind back to just how the affair between herself and Julian had begun in the first place. Hadn’t she always been the one in the driving seat? Now she wasn’t so sure.

  ‘Says who? You offered me sex and I took it. You already thought you had me over a barrel for the money by threatening blackmail about catching me with your knickers. If you thought you were using me in the bedroom to get what you wanted from the boardroom then you were wrong.’

  There was finality in his tone.

  Nikki wasn’t sure how best to continue the conversation and instead stared down at the beach, where another set of diners were pulling on wetsuits and preparing to mount their paddleboards.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ It was all that she could think of to say.<
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  Julian was direct with his reply, his tone strong, clear and cut from rage: ‘For what? For sleeping with me and allowing an old man to live out one of his dirty fantasies that he’s been jacking off to ever since you reached a legal age, or for threatening to tell your father? Or for thinking you were blackmailing me in the first place? I would have done anything for you, Nikki.’ It was now Julian who was using the past tense.

  ‘Would have done?’

  ‘Not any more, not now I see your true colours. Threatening to screw me over to Sheridan. Not the best idea you’ve ever had. It’s kind of easy to get over someone, even someone with your beauty, if they threaten to try and ruin you.’

  She tried to think of a suitable response but couldn’t.

  ‘So why the change?’ asked Julian, his anger rising. ‘Last time you were on your knees sucking my dick you seemed more than happy. Is there someone else?’

  Nikki decided not to mention that she had met Blair. Had Julian considered what had been going on between the two of them a relationship? She assumed not but decided to leave the DJ out of the conversation.

  ‘Things change, that’s all.’ She could feel her heart grow heavy as she struggled to make sense of Julian’s increasing anger.

  Julian stood up and stared down at Nikki, obviously jumping to his own conclusion: ‘So there is another man. Things will certainly change in the morning when I tell Sheridan that his daughter has been siphoning off funds from his Velvet empire for the last few months, that I’ve suddenly noticed an imbalance in the books and that money has been heading your way. He won’t question how I know it, he never questions anything I do, but he will wonder why his dear daughter has been taking money from him from behind his back. I do too, but if you were happy enough to jump into bed with me to obtain it then I couldn’t care less what it was for… so long as I was getting my end away. I thought about digging around to find out the real reason you needed it, but the simple truth is I didn’t care. But your dad will want to know, he’ll be desperate to know why you’ve betrayed him. And you know full well that that kind of family treachery will kill him. I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes this time tomorrow.’