by Angel Devlin
Mia: Fuck you.
Deacon: Exactly.
Mia: I’m not allowed to leave until the end. I’ll be in my room just past midnight.
Deacon: How very Cinderella, except instead of a prince at the end there’s a King.
The rest of the evening is torture as Deacon doesn’t leave Karla’s side. Even Roscoe gives up. Once again, Liberty sidles up next to me.
“He’s pathetic. I get why you want to bang him, but please. All this trying to make you jealous fuckery. Go get your friend, don’t let him win.”
“You’re right.” I find myself thanking the person who has more savviness about her than any of us and I go straight up to Karla.
“Babe! I’ve hardly seen you. Come on, bestie, let’s hit the dance floor.”
Karla looks at Deacon and then back at me, her thought processes clear on her face. “Oh come on, it’s our night. You can hook up with the totty anytime.” I grab her arm. “Excuse us, Damon.” I pull her away and leave him standing there while I fight the smile that wants to break across my face.
“He’s called Deacon.”
“Who gives a fuck? Come dance and let’s celebrate our new series.” Looking out over the crowd I meet Liberty’s gaze eventually and I beckon her onto the dance floor. She looks surprised but comes over. “Thank you,” I whisper to her. “Now,” I say loudly. “This is our night, let’s celebrate.” We spend the rest of the evening, another eighty minutes, on the dance floor and I don’t answer my phone when it pings.
Just after midnight, I begin to make my way up to my room. I take my phone from my bag and look at the message I received while I was on the floor.
Deacon King: I won’t be in your room. The only games I like to play are my own.
My stomach plummets. I was so excited to finally get to my suite and meet him, but instead, I’ve gone too far and he’s left. I’m walking around a corner on the way back to my suite when an arm grabs me and a hand goes around my mouth swallowing my shriek. I can smell his aftershave and begin to relax.
“Let’s go,” he orders.
“Where?” I ask, but he doesn’t reply, just dragging me further down the dimly lit corridor.
He pushes open the door to a room and as we enter I see a bottle of scotch on the side and male clothing hung over chairs. So he’s choosing to fuck me in his own room. Is that the best he can come up with? I don’t care where he fucks me as long as he does, over and over again. He helps me out of my dress and strips me bare, throwing me onto the bed. He only removes the bottom half of his clothing and then he thrusts inside me, with no warm up. It hurts a little, but it’s soon replaced with pleasure as he punishes me through sex. Over the next hour or so he claims my mouth, my butt, and my cunt.
“Just a little reminder of what I said before. You are mine, Mia Hamilton. Never forget it.”
As he thrusts inside me once more the door bursts open. I shriek as a familiar male voice says, “What the fuck?”
Roscoe Freemont walks over to the bed as I scramble for the duvet to cover myself up. Deacon just rises from the bed and pulls on his trousers as if nothing crazy is happening right now.
“What the fuck is going on, Mia? Why are you in my room? I’m not interested in a threesome, if that’s what you were angling for.”
“God, no. I—” How the fuck do I explain this?
“Sorry, mate. Your door was open, and I thought it was my room. You know how it is. I’ve had too much liquor. Mia, go to your suite. I’ll meet you up there shortly. I’ll just make sure this guy is recompensed and has another room.”
He throws a robe at me. I put it on, gather my things and looking at Roscoe, I apologise for what feels like a thousand times.
“Girl, it’s all good. Don’t apologise for having a good time.”
I fly out of the room, straight into the lifts and I nod at people, pretending the new Princess of Park Lane is deliberately walking around the castle carrying her dress and shoes.
Once in my suite I throw everything down and begin to panic. If Roscoe recognises Deacon and says anything that would be a disaster.
Then Deacon strolls in as if nothing has happened at all.
“What the fuck, Deacon? Did you know it was Roscoe’s room?” I fly at him, spittle leaving my mouth.
He grabs hold of my wrists, pinning them above my head and pushing me next to the wall. “Of course, I knew. I warned you. You’re mine. Flirt with anyone else and I’ll make it very clear to them too.”
I gasp. “You did that on purpose?”
“If you’re playing games with me, Mia, you need to know I always win. And I’ve just made Roscoe an offer that he can’t refuse, so you can be reassured he won’t breathe a word.”
“Get out,” I yell.
He moves his free wrist and splits open my robe, teasing a fingertip from my collarbone all the way down to my pussy and then he dips a finger inside me, where I’m still wet and deliciously sore from earlier.
“You sure you want me to leave?” He quirks a brow. “I’ll go, but just think. I only did it because I’m falling for you, Mia.”
Goddamn him and his silken words. I arch up to his finger and my anger is forgotten as his lips fix on mine and he fucks me against the wall.
He’s gone the next morning when I wake up, with just a message on my bedside table that says he’ll call later.
My head’s in a mess thinking of what had gone on the night before, but I don’t have too much time to think on it as I have to be ready to attend a celebratory breakfast.
The producers show us the early press reviews. Rather than be savaged, Park Lane Princesses is said to be the best reality show to date with likeable characters that have decent backgrounds.
Karla, who is sitting next to me reaches over and squeezes my hand. “It’s going to be a success.” She squeezes again.
Then the editor of B.A.D. magazine comes to the front of the table and copies of the magazine are passed around.
“That’s the editor of B.A.D?” I look at Karla to find her mouth has dropped open.
“Yes, Jack Chambers.” I confirm.
“I thought Jack was a guy. Oh my fucking God, when we saw her at the B.A.D offices I thought she was an assistant.”
I turn to my friend and laugh. “Only you. She’s Jackie ‘Jack’ Chambers.”
“Thank fuck I didn’t say anything,” she whispers before turning back to listen to Jack.
“This is the magazine that will be released on Tuesday,” Jack says.
The cover has only me on it, a crown on my head. I’m standing in lingerie and the tagline states.
Mia Hamilton. About to rule the world.
“Fuck, Mia. You really do seem to be the media’s new darling,” Karla says, but there’s a tightening under her eyes. She quickly flicks through and I watch, holding my breath.
Luckily, inside is a large spread featuring everyone and a decent piece about Karla. “Oh good, they do realise there are other people in it,” she says, winking, but I’m not fooled by her forced joviality.
Not fooled at all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Deacon
My fists rain down on Tyler’s hotel room door. The hallway is in silence, but that’s not really a surprise seeing as it’s six am on a Sunday morning after a party full of free alcohol the night before.
A groan sounds out before the stomping of his feet gets louder.
“What?” he barks, his eyes barely open. His hair is in total disarray and he’s only wearing a pair of boxer briefs.
Not wanting to give him a chance to hide whoever might be in his room I shoulder barge him out of the way.
His room smells of sleep, so after glancing at his empty king-sized bed, I push the curtains apart and throw open the window to allow some fresh morning air in.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he repeats, shutting the door, running his hands through his unruly hair and staring longingly at his bed.
“Stop pining. We’ve got
work to do.”
“Oh and here I was thinking you’d turned up to grill me.”
I eye him up and down, looking for evidence of him spending time with a woman, but I see none. No scratch marks, no love bites. Averting my eyes from his almost naked body, I take in the room. His clothes are strewn around but there’s nothing that obviously belongs to a female. The only items on his bedside table are his Rolex and a half empty tumbler of water, sans a woman’s lipstick.
“Disappointed?” he asks, pulling on a pair of trousers and a t-shirt.
“I don’t know,” I admit honestly. “Something’s going on with you and I can’t quite put my finger on it.”
“Jesus, I turn down one woman and everyone thinks my life is coming to an end or something. I’ve already had a grilling from Jack. Should I expect Ant and Oliver any second to complete the set?”
“We’re just worried.” The words sound weird, even to my own ears. Of course I care about the guys but I’m not one to worry about anyone. I wonder if Mia is rubbing off on me more than I want to admit.
“Well that’s rich. I’m not the only one who’s hiding things, am I? I wasn’t the only one who didn’t make any effort to pull last night. Who’s got your attention, Deacon? Mr. I Rarely Do Repeats, it seems has his replay button stuck down.”
“Okay fine. You’re right,” I admit, hoping it might guilt him into a few truths as well. “I’ve been seeing one woman, but it’s so not what you think and it won’t be going on much longer.”
His eyes are laser-focused on mine as if he’s trying to read between the lines. “So what? You’re taking the whole ‘drop ‘em and cause as much pain as possible’ to a whole new level?”
“Something like that.”
We stare at each other, him fighting the inevitable and me waiting for it to fall from his lips. He might be a stubborn motherfucker but I’ve got the fucking medal and he knows he’s not going to win here.
“Ugh… I’m trying to bang someone who’s resisting. That’s it. I’ve not got some dirty secret or anything.”
I lift a brow at him, not believing a word of it but dropping it for now. “Call the guys, get them here. Call room service while you’re at it, get us some decent coffee.”
He stares at me for a beat. “Who made you God?” he mumbles, grabbing his phone from the dresser and scrolling through.
I refrain from pointing out that B.A.D. might belong to the five of us, but if it wasn’t for me, then it wouldn’t exist.
I drop my arse to one of the chairs in his room and listen to him wake the others up.
Over the next thirty minutes they all appear at Ty’s door in varying arrays of sobriety.
“Is this fucking necessary?” Jack grumbles, stumbling into the room alongside Oliver, no surprise there, and falling on to Tyler’s bed.
Oliver joins me at the table while Ant perches his arse on the bedside table, Tyler sitting on the end of his own bed.
The four of them stare at me, waiting to find out if the news I’ve got for them is worth this early morning.
“I’ve got Roscoe Freemont. But he flies back to the US for filming tonight. If we want him then it needs to be today. Oliver, get your team out of bed and get them to the studio. We need shit hot photography on this. Jack, Ant, and Tyler, you three stay here to do as planned. Jack, you need to look at your publishing schedule. If this guy is going to be as big as he’s tipped to be then we don’t need to hang around. But we also need more. Anyone manage to get anything else from last night?”
A few names are mentioned but nothing earth shattering or who Fully Loaded haven’t already featured. Oliver assures us that his team got some great images of the evening and that our social media is already blowing up with the ones that have been released.
We chat for a while longer, coming up with a plan before everyone disappears to get ready.
“Oliver, downstairs in twenty. Make sure everyone is already there. I’m going for Roscoe now.”
He nods and disappears from the room.
“You’re a ruthless bastard, you know that right? Do I even want to ask how you got Roscoe to agree to this at such late notice?”
“Probably not. Put some real clothes on, we’ve got work to do.”
The temptation to spend my last twenty minutes in that castle inside Mia is high but twenty minutes would never be enough for either of us, so instead I head for Roscoe instead of getting his people to wake him.
I get a similar response to Tyler when he pulls his door open, but one reminder of how much I’m giving him for this, and he soon wakes himself up.
Once we get to B.A.D., Oliver disappears off to set his team up for the shoot and I take Roscoe up to my office.
Tiffany is sitting behind her desk as I requested and the coffee and breakfast I asked for is sitting on the coffee table between the sofas in my office.
I nod at her as I close the door behind us. She knows me well enough by now to know it’s as much as a thank you as she’s going to get. Most of my appreciation for everything she does for me comes via her pay packet.
I’ve not really got much enthusiasm to interview him myself, but I need to make sure he understands that what he discovered last night doesn’t leave his lips ever again. In hindsight it was a dumbarse thing to do but I needed to show Mia that I was serious about her using other men to try to make me jealous and that was the perfect reminder of who she belongs to.
I get everything I need from Roscoe before sending him off in Oliver’s direction. I stop my dictaphone and drop it into my pocket to deal with later. My most urgent matter is to remind Mia that I’m not only her alpha asshole but the kind of guy she can rely on… trust. A wicked smile turns up my lips at the thought.
Pushing myself from my seat, I march in Tiffany’s direction.
“I need you to book me a table for tonight. Somewhere exclusive. Somewhere where we won’t be disturbed or papped.”
“I know just the place.” She winks and turns back to her computer.
Usually I’d trust her with the next task as well, but Mia is different to any of the women that has come before and she’ll see right through a bullshit gift. Whatever I buy this afternoon needs to mean something.
Thankfully, I find exactly what I want only minutes after walking into Harrods. I have it boxed and wrapped before heading for an extra special gift which, admittedly, is more for me than it is for Mia.
I arrange to have that one delivered to her penthouse ready for this evening with a note to be ready and waiting for a car to pick her up thirty minutes after filming, and to be wearing the contents of the box and not a lot more.
My cock stirs at the thought of her wearing what I’ve just picked out.
Knowing I’ve got a few hours to waste, I hit the gym, write up Roscoe’s interview, and then do something that I don’t do very often.
“Deacon?” Mum asks sounding shocked on the other end. “Is everything okay?”
“Of course. Just checking in,” I say, as if it’s a normal thing.
She hesitates to answer, proving how unusual this call really is. “O- okay. That’s g- good.”
“How are you?”
“I’m… uh...” A voice sounds out in the background.
“Sorry, have you got company? I can go,” I offer but just hearing the deepness of the voice has my skin prickling.
“No, no. It’s okay. It’s just your…” My heart pounds erratically against my ribs. Do not say what I think you’re going to say, I silently beg. If she does, then she’s pretty much just hit the final nail in the coffin for my time with Mia. “Dad.”
All the air whooshes from my lungs as I take on that one word.
“Why?” I bark. “Why is he there?”
“We’ve just met up a few times this past week. I bumped into him in the supermarket. We’ve been chatting.”
Bumped into him my arse. Everything Dad does is meticulously planned. He doesn’t just bump into my mum randomly. He wanted her so he foun
d her.
My fingers grip onto my phone so tight I’m worried it’s going to shatter.
“Mum, do not tell me you’re letting him back in.”
“It’s complicated, Deacon,” she sighs.
“No. No, it’s fucking not. He’s a liar and a cheat. There’s nothing complicated about that.”
“I know it sounds simple. But it’s not.”
Unable to listen to her make excuses for him again, I make my own and hang up.
I pull the phone from my ear and stare at it as the call ends and my wallpaper is revealed. It’s a photo of Mia from Blackpool. I put it there to make her think this was real. That I really cared. But I can’t deny that looking at her multiple times a day doesn’t settle something inside me.
My teeth grind as I realise all the things I’ve planned need to start to be put into action. If that motherfucker is worming his way into Mum’s life once again then it’s time to make a move towards the finish line, no matter how much the thought of this all being over makes my heart ache.
My phone fades to black as I sit thinking about what’s to come, but seconds later it lights up again with a message.
Mum: Trust me. I won’t allow him to walk all over me again x
Her words do little to make me feel better about the fact she’s spending time with him at all, but I need to let her do her thing.
I get confirmation through from Tiffany that’s she’s found me somewhere for tonight along with the address. To say I’m impressed with her find would be an understatement. That along with what’s wrapped and currently sitting on the dresser in the hall should tell Mia everything I need it to about how serious I’m taking our relationship.
This dinner is starting to feel like the last supper. But it’s my father I want pinned to a cross. By his balls.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mia
By the time the breakfast is over I can’t wait to get out of the castle. I retreat to my room and dive under my duvet enjoying some downtime. In the early afternoon the doorbell goes. Shortly after, Liberty barges into my room throwing a large box on the end of my bed before exiting.
