Torment (B.A.D. Inc Book 1)

by Angel Devlin

  I reach for it and unwrap a black lace bra and matching panties. They have a silver bow at the centre of each.

  There’s a card in the box.

  Wear these. Ask your driver to bring you to Maximo’s for eight pm. I promise it will be worth it.

  It’s not signed but there’s only one person this is from.

  I decide that I’m most definitely attending. Not only that but it’s time for me to speak honestly to Deacon. About the fact that I’m done with game playing. I know we can’t go public because of my role on the show and fake relationship with Archie, but either we’re together or we’re not. I can’t cope with much more of this push-pull and the situation he put us in last night with Roscoe was embarrassing and risky.

  I leave my room to get something to eat and find Karla is in great spirits, telling me that she’s meeting Roscoe after he’s finished with some appointment he has. She leaves around five and with Liberty having gone out with Archie, saying she won’t be back this evening, it leaves me with our apartment to myself.

  I take my time in getting ready, rubbing a body lotion with a shimmer into every inch of my skin. It accentuates my tan and makes my skin gleam. I put the lingerie on that Deacon sent for me and then I dress in a simple dark green wrap dress. Simple to take off. It opens at the front by the tie waist and yet looks so sophisticated on my body. I add a smoky eye, leave my lipstick off and curl my hair slightly. Then I call the driver and I’m on my way.

  As I’m escorted to my seat, Deacon stands and once again he takes my breath away. He actually takes a breath as I approach him as if he’s nervous. It seems I’m affecting him like he is me.

  He greets me, moving closer. “You look so beautiful, Mia.” He pulls my chair out for me until I’m seated and then he retakes his opposite.

  “Thank you.” I smile, but he must notice my unease.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Fuck.” I wasn’t going to do this right now, but I guess there’s no time like the present.

  A waiter approaches, but Deacon sends them away with a wave of his hand and a snark to his features.

  “What’s going on, Mia?”

  “That’s what I want to know really.”

  He scratches his ear. “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “With us. Like one minute we’re fighting, the next we’re in bed. I don’t want to keep doing this game playing, Deacon,” I confess.

  I see him visibly relax.

  “Oh. Well, actually, Mia. That’s one of the reasons I wanted you to come out tonight. I feel the same way.”

  “You do?” Fuck, I wasn’t expecting that answer.

  He nods. “When I saw you with Roscoe last night… It ate me up inside and led to the stunt with his room which I realise was jealous and immature, not to mention risky to your TV career. I’m so sorry. I want to see where this goes, Mia, but you have to understand…”

  He wrings his hands and bites his lip. “I’m not used to this. I’ve never had a serious relationship. I’ll try not to fuck up, but this is whole new territory for me. But.” He reaches into his pocket and brings out a pale blue box with a white ribbon and my heart leaps.

  “This is to show you I’m serious.” He hands me the box.

  I fumble with nerves, almost dropping it. Removing the ribbon, I take it from the box and open the jewellery box within. I gasp as I look at the beautiful white gold necklace within. It has a lock pendant, encrusted with diamonds. I lift it carefully from the box.

  “Oh my god, it’s beautiful.”

  “Let me.” He says and he comes around my side. I lift my hair as he fastens the necklace around my neck. It nestles between the v from my wrap dress. I place a hand on it. “Thank you, Deacon. Thank you so much.”

  “The lock is to represent that you’re mine, Mia, and that I’m yours. I thought one day soon we might visit Paris and go put a lock on that bridge I’ve heard about.”

  I’m beaming. “That sounds amazing. Bit of a step up from taking me to Blackpool.”

  He laughs. “It wasn’t so bad there.”

  I stare into his eyes. “No, it wasn’t.”

  We eat our meal and for the first time I feel like we are a proper couple. We talk about the fact that we know we have to stay a secret for now, but once I get what I need from my TV career then we can go public.

  “It won’t be that long and I quite like the idea of being your secret lover.” Deacon plays footsie with me under the table.

  When the meal is over and he’s paid the bill, he gives me one of his killer smiles.

  “So now, do you fancy coming back to mine and showing me that other present I got you?” He winks.

  Going into my jacket pocket, I pass him the panties across the table. “I thought you could keep a pair we’ve not ripped. Oh, and I wore them all afternoon.” I part my legs under the table, the wrap part of my skirt dropping. I pull it further open, revealing my bare pussy. His breath hitches.

  “You, me, out of here right now, or I’m going to fuck you on the table.”

  I laugh, close my outfit and we dash back to his place.

  He takes his time in tasting and fucking me and as he eventually collapses onto his bed at the side of me panting, he says. “Am I forgiven for being a jerk last night?”

  I turn to him.

  “Yes. I have to say though, once again, the thought of being discovered turned me on.”

  He wiggles his brows. “Did it now? Hmmm, I know somewhere I can take you sometime where if you want we can be watched.”

  My eyes widen.

  “It’s an exclusive club. No one’s allowed to reveal who visits there. We can have a night out there, let loose, and then if you fancy it, we can get a watcher.”

  I lick my bottom lip while I imagine how I’d feel about someone else being there.

  “And you’d be okay with another man watching?”

  “Yes.” He fingers the lock around my neck. “Because that’s all he can do since you belong to me.”

  His mouth fastens on mine and he proves his point to me over and over again.

  When I wake the next morning, a text from Karla lets me know that she stayed out the night with Roscoe.

  “It would appear my friend’s crush on you has ended,” I tell Deacon.

  He shrugs. “I’ve no interest in Karla.”

  “Well she’s moved on to Roscoe Freemont. Which will help the ratings and her career.”

  “Clever girl. It also means she can try to take the spotlight from you.”

  I think about his words, and about how she’d looked at the magazine reveal. Then I shrug. “She can have it. As long as I get what I need from it.” I move down the bed. “But what I need right now is your cock in my mouth.”

  The next week passes with the usual filming, and my sneaking out to see Deacon, while I lie and say I’m visiting my mum. Karla and Liberty are busy doing their own thing and don’t seem to care about where I am anyway.

  On the Tuesday that my magazine cover comes out, the agent I agreed to represent me when I signed up for the show, contacts me to say there’s a high-end cosmetics company who are keen to work with me. She sets up a meeting for the following week. This is it. What I’ve been waiting for. The endorsements that can lead me to a career of my own, making my own money. I realise I’ve been neglecting my studies of late and vow to get back to them as soon as I can. I’m interested in law and I feel like studying keeps my mind strong, but between filming and Deacon there’s just been no time.

  Karla, Liberty, and I all have a celebratory night around the television when the first episode airs. There’s an immediate difference to our lives as we begin to be recognised on the streets.

  I’m feeling on top of the world by Saturday. Tonight, I have a date with Deacon at a bar called XCluSiv where I have a feeling the club he told me about is.

  I’m enjoying breakfast when suddenly the buzzer rings and I find Tara, the producer of the show at my door, along with Shauna, the PR person
.

  “Oh, were we expecting you? Sorry, I didn’t realise. Come in.” I move away from the door.

  “No, you weren’t expecting us. Mia, have you seen the newspapers and online showbiz news yet today?”

  I shake my head, not liking the expressions on their faces right now. “No, why?”

  Shauna passes me a copy of a well-known trashy tabloid paper where on the front is a photo of me drinking a pint of bitter in Blackpool, looking inebriated. The headline states.

  Mia Hamilton. Park Lane Princess: From Ivory Tower to Blackpool Tower.

  “There are photos here of you looking less than ladylike.” Shauna says as I turn the pages to see more of me downing pints with the locals. Someone there must have taken photos of the posh woman drinking and then realised afterwards as the programme came out that they could make some fast money.

  “Now it’s not the end of the world. But obviously we need to say why you were there and do some damage limitation on your image. Because classy this isn’t.”

  “I’m so sorry, I just was having some fun,” I protest.

  “You’re under a microscope now, Mia. Your every move will be watched and judged. We’ll say it was for a charity event and hope the press believe us, because there’s nothing the press like more than to take one of the UK’s darlings and expose a seedy side of them.”

  Fuck. What is Karla going to say when she sees these? How do I explain why I was in Blackpool? I look through the paper quickly, assessing the images again. Thank goodness, Deacon is not on any of them.

  I need Deacon, I realise. He works in these circles. He’ll be able to get me out of this.

  “Leave it with me. I know someone who can help. Just give me an hour,” I tell them.

  “One hour. Then we go with our story about the charity event.” I’m told. I beckon them inside and order coffee and refreshments and then I call Deacon, hoping he can provide a solution.

  Deacon tells me he’ll be straight around to mine and so I only have twenty minutes of excruciating polite chat to endure before he arrives.

  He walks in, dressed in a black business suit looking every inch the professional he is, and like he owns the world.

  He shakes Tara and Shauna’s hand. Tara is a little overfamiliar with him which gets my back up, but he doesn’t respond to her. He’s all business.

  “I’m releasing a statement that says Mia was out with me in Blackpool. I’d taken her there as part of an extra feature we’re doing for the online part of the magazine. An accompaniment to her cover. It was to show that despite being uber rich, she could still mix in with the normal folk as it were.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us about this, Mia?” Shauna looks annoyed.

  “That’s my fault. I told her I’d already okayed it with you,” Deacon announces. “Then it slipped my mind to actually do so.”

  I watch as he’s lectured by my PR agent on how he should proceed in the future. “While we are delighted with the coverage you have given us thus far, nothing must happen without our prior approval.”

  “Well, now this has happened, I’ll not proceed with that angle anyway. It’s ruined now. If we can sit and work on a joint statement to put out…”

  They do exactly that and as they sit with Deacon and he uses his charm and wit on them Shauna begins to unwind.

  In the meantime, I have an angry Karla calling me, asking me to explain today’s headlines. I lie yet again, telling her what Deacon has told Tara and Shauna and add I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I know she’s entirely fucked off with me, but I’ll worry about that another time.

  By the time they’ve finished chatting, Deacon has it that the tabloid will look like it’s run by idiots and I will look like some amazing person as he shares shots he took of me on his phone where I’m putting a healthy amount of money in a homeless persons cap, something I don’t even remember doing, obviously drunk at the time.

  I fix my arms around his neck once they’re gone.

  “Fuck, Deacon. Thank you so much. You saved me.”

  “Happy to help. You need to be careful from now on though. There’ll be people out there who’d like nothing more but to see you fall off your new throne.”

  “Deacon King, I do believe you are the ruler of my heart,” I tell him.

  “Mia.” He clasps my hands within his and his face takes on a seriousness I’ve never seen before.

  “What?” I say softly.

  “I…” He swallows. “I’m falling in love with you.”

  Tears spring to my eyes. “I love you too,” I tell him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Deacon

  My heart pounds as I say those words, but it’s not for the reason I’m sure it should. It should be with joy for what’s to come for us. I have just cemented that whatever this is between us is a real relationship. The words tasted bitter on my tongue as I said them, but now, seeing the love pouring from her eyes, I feel like the biggest arsehole on the planet because she has no idea what’s coming her way. She’s even less of a clue that the mess I got her out of this morning was only there because I leaked it. The second I got off the phone with my mum I knew it was time to start moving towards my end goal and those images from Blackpool were the first step. They were anonymously sent to the right inbox and only hours later they were up online with a less than glowing editorial next to it. It was perfect and exactly what I hoped for. I expected to feel some kind of achievement, but the reality was far from that. The second I saw the ‘news’ online when I woke this morning, regret twisted my stomach. Sadly though, not enough to stop me.

  “I need to get back to work,” I say. It’s not entirely true, I just need to be out of her penthouse to get a little breathing space after those confessions.

  “Oh, right yeah.” Her cheeks redden as if she once again forgot I have an actual job that I need to be at.

  “I’ll pick you up after filming later though. Ten right?”

  “Right.”

  Cupping her jaw in my hand I pull her to me for a kiss that will ensure she remembers who she belongs to while having to act with Archie this afternoon. Being forced to watch the first episode at the launch party was fucking painful, getting to see him following her around like a lost puppy in the hope she’d throw him a bone. I know it’s fake but even still, I fucking hated it.

  The day drags knowing what tonight is going to hold. My attitude gets worse and worse as the day goes on to the point that Tiffany even looks shocked when I bark at her and she’s used to my brand of asshole after working with me for so long.

  I’ve not spoken to Mum since I phoned her last week. I can’t bear to hear that she’s allowed that cunt to step back into her life once again, or worse, allowed him to move back in. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened, so I wouldn’t be all that surprised. I wonder what Mia’s mum did wrong for him to decide my mum is the better option all of a sudden.

  I stay in the office until the very last minute knowing that if I go home, sitting and waiting to go and pick her up will drive me crazy. I shower and change in my office bathroom before heading out to find the car I ordered.

  I’m pulling up outside their building in no time. I’ve got a few minutes before I’m expecting her to appear so I pull my phone out of my pocket and open my photo app ready to make a plan for my next move. Those images from Blackpool I leaked were nothing really in the grand scheme of things. Some of what I’ve got here though, they’re another story and could ruin everything she’s building right now. It’s a shame she’s ended up in the middle of this mess, but she’s still the same thing to me as she was the day I discovered who she was. A means to an end, that’s all she is, and I need to remember that when she looks at me with her big green eyes thinking she knows the kind of man she’s sharing her bed with and allowing into her life.

  My plans are cut short when the door is opened and a familiar head pokes inside.

  “Hey,” she says as I scramble to close down what I was working on
and shove my phone back into my pocket.

  “Hey, beautiful.” I take a second to appreciate what she’s wearing as she climbs in. “Whoa, you certainly dressed for the occasion.”

  “Is it okay? I had no idea what to wear.”

  I run my eyes down her little black dress and to the black shoes that have straps wrapping around her ankle and up onto her calf. The dress is skin-tight with a square neckline that pushes her tits up perfectly. The need to drop my face to them and get a taste of her has my cock straining against the fabric of my trousers. Reaching over, I take her hand in mine and place it on my crotch.

  “It’s more than okay.” Her lips form an ‘O’ as she realises the effect she has on me. Leaning into her, I whisper in her ear. “I would take you right now,” she glances up at the driver and tenses, “But I think we can have so much more fun where we’re going.” She swallows nervously.

  “A- are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, after this morning and what came out about Blackpool, the last thing I need is someone spilling that I went to some seedy sex club.”

  “One, this place is far from seedy. It’s exclusive. Trust me when I tell you that everyone else in there wants to keep their involvement there private. Everyone’s in the same boat. And two, I won’t put you in the position to be caught. If I thought there was any risk at all we wouldn’t be going.” This isn’t entirely true, but I haven’t leaked our whereabouts tonight as much as it might help my mission. I respect the club and the owner too much to do that to him. So as promised, tonight and our potential visit to the basement will be kept quiet.

  “O- okay.”

  “We’ll just go for a drink in the bar first. If you change your mind or aren’t comfortable once we’re there, we don’t need to go down. We can come back here and I can fuck you on every surface in your penthouse.” She knows as well as I do that it’s not a possibility with Karla and Liberty there, but the idea of it alone is enough to have her eyes darkening with desire. She wasn’t wrong when she said the possibility of being caught turns her on.