The Bad Boys of Eden

by Avery Aster

  “Every day I’ve dressed and undressed you.” The coarse cotton fibers fisted in his hand raked over my backside, following a gentle buff from his palm as he massaged, almost kneading at my flesh.

  OMFG! My eyes rolled into the back of my head. On instinct I spread my legs a smidge. Air, I need to breathe. God, it’s hot as hell in here. “Fabian—”

  “All week I’ve cared after you and for you.” He spun me around. “And you go and give yourself to my boyfriend.”

  Unable to make eye contact with him, I focused my attention on the marble floor. “I didn’t know.”

  His fingers, the ones that every morning painted my face, pressed over my lips shushing me. “Don’t speak, Tabby. Not yet. I’m not done.” He extended his hand and with the other pointed to a nearby chair next to the sink.

  Holding on to him, I stepped out of the tub and made my way over.

  “Sit.” He ordered.

  I did and then he dropped to his knees beside me.

  “All week I have painted these toes.” He lifted one foot up, dried my calf, and pressed his firmly on the sole of my foot. His full beautiful lips kissed the tip of my big toe. My mouth hung open. What the frickin-A was going on? Just as I went to pull myself up in the chair, his grip around my leg tightened.

  “Umm.”

  Dark eyes narrowing, he raised his chin, and spoke in a timber voice, “And now—Je veux t’enculer.”

  “I want to fuck you,” I echoed his words, feeling that melting Klondike-bar-action all over again.

  “Oui!”

  Sweet bi-gay-a-licious.

  Chapter Seven

  Princess Lolly

  The Eden Castle

  “Faaabian,” I stifled his name in a heavy exhale.

  Done talking, he nipped at my clit.

  My legs, tossed up over his shoulders. He growled in French. I held onto the edge of my seat as if the chair might set sail for Bermuda. Who needs Air Carribea when you had Fabian Henry’s tongue lapping at your flesh?

  Trying to get a control of what was going on, I smoothed my hair back. Him, me, this, everything was happening at light speed.

  Pulling me into him, close and tight, his hands slid under my buttocks. With a slight tap, Fabian spanked me and I liked it. The pad of his thumb poked at my anus.

  “Nooo.” I squirmed. My front door had just been opened and here he was trying to bust into the back. Not gonna happen.

  With a lick of his thumb he replied, “Oui, Tabby. I will have your mouth, your pussy and this tight little derrière.” Possessed, Fabian wasn’t the soft spoken, tuberose smelling, flirtatious man I thought he’d be when it came to foreplay.

  Nope. They were both so different. I tried hard not to compare him to the man who’d taken my virginity. Oh, what was his name? Ha! It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours and here I was already in another man’s arms.

  Craporama!

  If I kept this up, I’d be labeled a whore by my nineteenth birthday.

  From between my legs, his adorable face peered up at me, “Stop!”

  “What?”

  “Such an American. You are thinking.”

  I leaned forward at him. “I can’t help but think. I’ve never had a man, ummm—”

  “Give you oral pleasure?” He asked as a single line ran across his forehead in surprise.

  “No monsieur,” I mocked his French timber accent.

  “Allow me this pleasure. S'il vous plaît Tabby.”

  Shaky at the revelation, I had all the power. Or should I say my vajayjay did.

  This man was putty in my hands. “Keep speaking French and say my name over and over again.” Getting my confidence, I grabbed onto those black luscious wavy curls, the ones on the plane ride I had dreamt about knuckling through my fingers.

  He returned his focus to between my legs.

  My fingers held a death grip on his hairline. Edging me to climax, every time I’d get close, I’d open my eyes and realize what the flip was going on. I couldn’t sum it up for any sane person to understand. A hum here, and hum there, and my body hummed all over.

  Toes curled.

  He spoke to me in French between tongue lashings. Fabian’s hands ran up my inner thigh, and then his short nails raked me on the way down. First, gentle. The second time, not so much. He increased pressure, causing everything all over my body to become extra sensitive.

  “Come on my face,” He said.

  Did I hear you correctly? Drunk in ecstasy, I gazed at him. “Say what?”

  In French Fabian repeated his orgasm on demand command. Determined and in control, he lifted me off the chair and onto the floor.

  On top of him, I knelt over his striking face.

  “Relax.” His grip on my ass was firm. His nose, that long freaky tongue, all of it, was up inside probing me.

  Leaning forward I owned my vajayjay power. So close. Every part of me was on fire. All of a sudden, I felt his wet tongue, licking where his thumb had been moments before.

  WTF!

  I tried to get up.

  He snarled, “Mademoiselle, as I said, your derrière is mine.”

  Sweet booty-licious. My hands on his shoulder, I gyrated my hips to the left.

  He moaned, pushing his tongue past the ring of muscle.

  Forbidden excitement pinged through me. A touch of my clit, I repeated the motion to the right. Frantic, I pressed my fingers against my sensitive spot.

  “Come woman. I want to drink you.” He begged.

  With a slight bounce, I held onto his shoulders feeling the wave of my orgasm washing over me, “Yes! Fabian.” I ground out, and shut my eyes, tight. Explosions of color pulsed behind my eyelids, enough to where I let go, and fell beside him.

  On our backs, we lay there for a minute, speechless, panting.

  “Tabby, you are—

  There was a loud rapping thud at the door.

  It took us both by surprise.

  I got to my feet and reached for my robe, cinching it around my waist.

  Fabian, who was still fully clothed, sat up and said, “Enter.”

  Gustave. From the look on his face he was disgusted.

  “Red. Nice to see you decided to show up for work.” With a cold glare at Fabian he continued, “You know the rules, Monsieur Henry. Consider yourself fired from Claire La Femme. Pack your things and go.” He turned and left the bathroom.

  “Hey!” I ran after him into the main living area.

  Blake, Lex, and Vive sat on sofa with Hedda. Speechless, their mouths hung open.

  “Gustave you can’t fire Fabian. He wasn’t breaking your silly rule.” I gave him a look letting him know I knew about their policies. “I’m not one of your models. This morning, I quit. So technically, I’m an Eden guest who bumped into a friend.”

  Fabian came up behind me.

  “Is that so?” Gustave got in my face. Eyes intent, he was pissed.

  Rounding back my shoulders I wasn’t afraid of him. “You have no model, and now no stylist. Maybe you can take pictures of the beach.”

  Out of nowhere Vive cackled. Then snorted and said, “Sorry.”

  Anger streaked his cheeks. He forced a smiled and stepped to the side of the room with Fabian.

  Man to man, he and Fabian cussed one another out. Their shouts turned to a conversation and then a few minutes later ended with a chuckle.

  I didn’t like sound of that.

  Lex raised her hands up in the air and mouthed, “What’s going on?”

  I shrugged.

  Together they approached me in one uniformed stride. “We have a proposal for you Mademoiselle.”

  There is one thing I hated more than an itt-bitty airplane I can’t stand up in, flip-flops, the Caribbean and the French and that was a proposal. “What?”

  Gustave slung his arm around Fabian’s shoulder. “Tomorrow we do one last shoot with you. Your new lover will get to keep his job and I’ll double your rate.”

  “A quarter of a million dollars,�
� I stuttered.

  “Oui.”

  Lex shot up from the sofa, standing beside me she asked, “What’s the catch?”

  “Yeah.” Vive and Blake followed.

  “You are a Brillford. The daughter of the royal house in Austria, are you not?” Gustave stood tall, rocking himself up on to his tippy toes.

  “Sorta.” I crossed my arms. I had no flippin’ clue where he was going with this.

  “We shoot you, here, in the Eden castle. Made up like a princess.”

  “Okay, sounds easy enough.” I said as my besties started to sit back down.

  “Then throughout the shoot you disrobe.”

  “Naked?” Vive shouted and everyone crowded around him.

  “It will be tasteful.” Gustave defended.

  “No frickin’ way!” On instinct my hand came wide to strike Gustave across the face.

  He grabbed my wrist and hissed at me to cool it. “Mademoiselle, you know my work. If Claudia and Naomi can show their body off, why can’t you?”

  “We’re not like them.” Vive answered for me. “For starters Gus—Taddy doesn’t need this job. She’s got my money for school.

  “Yeah, and while your publication has a Vogue-like reputation, we can’t start off our first year at college with more tabloid crap.” Lex’s hand bounced on her curvy hip.

  “Crap,” Gustave echoed her insult. “I see. Well if you don’t do the shoot Fabian is out of job. Leon too.” He glared at me as if he knew of my feelings for them. “And we shall invoice Mimmie for our time, airfare, hotel, day rates, etcetera, etcetera.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “Watch me.” Before I could get another word out, Gustave was out the door.

  “Fabian, how could you just stand there and not say anything?” I turned my frustration on him.

  He didn’t seem as fazed as I expected him to be. Perhaps Gustave had threatened to fire him before. Or maybe Fabian never challenged his boss.

  “We shoot at nine in the morning. I’ll be at your room at seven to get you ready.”

  “Just a second.” I grabbed his shoulder. “You’re in on this with Gus.”

  “I don’t have a choice Taddy.” He said my name without the “b.”

  My heart sank.

  The alliances had been set. It was Team Taddy vs. Team Gustave.

  “What’s the big deal?” Blake chimed in. “Their magazine is artsy. You’re gorgeous. Gus is the best photographer in the world.”

  “Blake! You heard what Lex said. We don’t need any more media mud in our face.”

  “This will help your reputation, Mademoiselle.” Fabian said.

  “How so?” Vive asked.

  “Anyone who poses for Gus has—how do you say in English—career transformation. They become goddesses, immortal superstars or supermodels for that matter, Oui.” Fabian spoke with confidence.

  “I just want to be yours truly, Taddy. Honest. I don’t want fame. I just want my friends and school.”

  “Then do it with style, with us.” Fabian rubbed my arms sending an electrical surge of anger and excitement through my body. I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss him or punch him, probably both. “Do you trust us?”

  “I don’t know…”

  Fabian appeared hurt by my reply, his cat-like eyes that I’d grown fond of seemed sad. “When you were lost at sea, did you, or did you not, put your life in my boyfriend’s hands?”

  “That was different.”

  “Answer the question.” His black eyes widened as if hungry for my reply.

  “Yes, I trusted Leon with my life.”

  “Then allow us this opportunity to only do right by you Mademoiselle.”

  I didn’t know what else to say other than, “Let me think about it.”

  “Very well.” He said his goodbyes to the group and left.

  My palms at my face I rubbed my eyes and pulled back my hair. I felt as if I was going to go out of my mind. “Could this week get any more insane? First Leon and I have sex in the water, and again on the beach. Now this,” I said frustrated without thinking.

  “Come again?” Blake asked.

  “You lost your virginity to a gay guy.” Lex blurted.

  “Shut up Alexandra!” Vive snapped as if Lex had hit a nerve.

  “Oh. My. God.” I smacked my lips shut realizing as Blake and Vive stared at one another with a look of “been there, done that,” on their faces—they had sex when we were at Avon Porter.

  “Holy shit!” Lex who was sometimes a little slow, even without the Xanax, caught on.

  “Seriously, Vive, Blake popped your cherry? It wasn’t Sanderloo?”

  Lex’s mouth hung open, “Holy—” I covered it with my hand.

  “We were fifteen.” Blake said.

  Unfrickin’ believable.

  “Sixteen,” Vive corrected. “We were drunk.”

  “And stoned,” Blake admitted.

  Lex and I were getting dizzy from turning our heads back and forth.

  Vive’s voice rose, “I was nervous. Sex was awkward back then.”

  “No. You were perfect, Vive.” Blake reached out for her hand, kissed the top of it and said, “I couldn’t think of any other woman in the world that I would’ve rather lost my virginity to. That night was special for us.”

  “Why do I suddenly feel jealous?” Lex asked when I released her muzzle.

  “That explains why you two are so close,” I reasoned.

  Together, we all sat on the sofa and talked.

  Blake looked at me and said, “Can you imagine if society said that you had to have sex with a woman. You knew it wasn’t your cup of tea. But you’d be willing to try, to see if it was or was not for you. Would you do it?”

  “Maybe,” I offered.

  “Who would you pick?” Blake pressed on.

  “Vive, no doubt.”

  “Forget jealous. Now I’m offended.” Lex tossed me a decorative pillow.

  “I’m sorry honey, but Vive is…hot.”

  “Thanks Taddy, You’re pretty too,” Vive said, acting as if we were about to have a lesbian moment.

  “And Lex who would you pick?”

  “I don’t like this game.” Lex said, reminding me of the dream I had earlier of our childhood. It was obvious this conversation was making her uncomfortable.

  Later, Vive and Lex went to the spa for facials, while I crawled in bed with Hedda and slept. I don’t know how I could get any sleep with all of the insanity going on between my friends, the boys, and now this opportunity to pose nude, but I did. When my head hit that pillow I was out.

  No Candy Land dreams. No sexy moments either.

  “Stop,” I awoke to Hedda licking my face. I looked at the clock, 8:00pm. Ugh. I walked out to the main area and noticed Lex was watching TV.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked.

  “Vive is at the bar. Blake is asleep in his room. Leon came by.”

  “He did?” My spirit lifted.

  “Yes and he brought you those.” She pointed to a crystal vase filled with long stem roses. Blossoms of pink, yellow, and white were mixed together. “There’s a card too.”

  “Did ‘ya read it?”

  “Duh!” Lex smirked.

  “Don’t tell me.” I said and plucked the envelope from the bouquet. Inhaling the scent, I closed my eyes, and realized I’d never had anyone send me flowers before. Once again, Leon broke a new first for me.

  Opening the card, I read his cursive writing. It was in French. Errr.

  This note was clearly written by a dude. I couldn’t make out what it said.

  Lex smiled as I came back into the room.

  “What does this say?”

  She laughed and read out loud, “Princess Lolly—you are beautiful. Own it.”

  “Wow.” My heart melted all over again. I sat beside her on the sofa.

  “When did you two talk about Candy Land?”

  “At sea, we chatted about a lot of things.” I thought back to that raft fo
r a minute. “Lex, why do you think I gravitated toward Lolly when we were little?”

  Sitting dessert plate she munched on to the side, she said, “Why do kids like what they like? Sponge Bob. The Smurfs. Who knows? Lolly was the spirit of adventure. She danced to the sound of her own music, following shiny things that fascinated her. Isn’t that you?”

  I nodded. “It’s exhausting being me sometimes.”

  “I can only imagine,” she replied jokingly, lifted the plate and offered, “Cookie?”

  * * *

  Uncertain if I’d go through with it or not, the next morning, I found myself showered and ready as if my subconscious had wanted to move forward with the photo shoot.

  There was a knock at the door. Blake was still asleep. Dang those pills knocked him out. I went to answer it.

  “Coming,” I tied the robe around my waist, turned the knob expecting to see Fabian with his make-up kit and clothes for today.

  “Salut,” Leon greeted me, taller than I remembered.

  “Hi,” I managed back at him.

  Holding a large lollypop in his hand, he appeared nervous. “May I come in?”

  I stepped back, giving him space to enter.

  Leon glanced at the flowers. “I did not know if you had a favorite flower. Red is your favorite color but I did not want to send the wrong message, twice.”

  “Thank you. They’re lovely and the card’s message was touching.” I pointed to the prop in his hand. “So we’re really doing a Candy Land theme, huh?”

  “Oui.” He stepped closer and handed me the lollypop. Cut from grained colorful wood it was a scepter. “Master made this for you. He’s transformed the entire ballroom downstairs into the Lollipop Woods.”

  My heartbeat quickened.

  “Taddy I am sorry for taking advantage of you and our situation.”

  “Don’t be silly. You didn’t. I encouraged you to have sex with me.”

  “I should have told you about Fabian,” he lowered his voice.

  “Maybe, but perhaps you thought you’d never see him again.” I reached for him.

  He nodded slowly, taking me into his arms. It felt good to have him hold me again. That citrus smell of his was back. I loved that.

  “I have no regrets about us and our time in the water, do you?”

  His forehead touched mine lovingly. “You were my first woman.”

  “What?”