“Uh huh.”
Sasha left the suspicious looking Bill standing in her living room and went to the kitchen to start making homemade pizza for dinner.
Pizza, she thought wryly. I’ve gone from oysters and lobsters to pizza.
It was odd how quickly she’d gotten accustomed to Thomas’s lifestyle. At first she’d felt so out of place in his world, so undeserving of his affection, but sometime after the makeover and Amore photoshoot, she’d kind of gotten used to it. Jacuzzis, private jets, red carpets—the more time she spent with Thomas the less strange it had started to feel.
Sasha put the pizza in the oven and went to wake her mom. Julia was upstairs having a nap. Sometimes, the MS could really zap her energy.
“Do you want any dinner?” she asked Bill as she passed. He was peering out of the window.
“Nope,” came his monosyllabic reply.
Wow, Sasha thought. He’s basically a robot.
Sasha was on her way up the stairs when her cell phone started ringing in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw Thomas’s name displayed on the screen.
“Hi,” she said, pausing on the landing for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” Thomas began. He sounded harried.
Sasha frowned. “Sorry about what?”
“The security guard,” Thomas said. “He was meant to be there by now, but his flight got delayed.”
“No problem, he arrived about half an hour ago.”
“What?” Thomas said.
“The security guy. He’s downstairs right now.”
“No, he’s not,” Thomas replied, sternly. “His plane hasn’t even landed yet.”
A pit of anguish began swirling in Sasha’s stomach. Her gaze darted down the stairs to find that Bill was standing in the hallway, watching her coolly.
Heart racing, she sidled along the landing and slipped into her bedroom. “It’s Bill,” she whispered. “Your security guard from the plane.”
“That’s not who I sent,” Thomas replied. “Bill and Ryan were employed by Pippa. I fired them after I fired her. I couldn’t trust them anymore.”
“Then what the hell is he doing in my house?” Her voice was becoming shrill.
There was a moment’s hesitation before Thomas replied, “Get out.”
Sasha’s heart started racing. “You don’t think he’s going to harm us, do you?”
“If Pippa can get your sweet ex-boyfriend to turn on you, who knows what else she’s capable of.”
Sasha was trying to remain calm, but the craziness of the last few days made anything seem possible. If she could go from unpaid intern scraping together an existence in Chicago to millionaire actor’s girlfriend, what was to say that Bill the security guard couldn’t become Bill the hit man?
“My mom is sleeping. I’d have to hoist her into her wheelchair. I can’t just run.”
“For God’s sake!” Thomas barked. “Then arm yourself at the least. You’re American, I’m sure you have baseball bat around somewhere.”
“Baseball? Thomas, do you even know me at all?!”
Just then, the fire alarm started blaring.
“Shit!” Thomas cried. “What’s happening now?”
From the room next door, Julia’s panicked voice sounded out. “Sasha? Sasha, what’s happening?”
The smell of smoke reached Sasha’s nostrils. “Shit. I think he’s…oh God, I think he’s started a fire.”
“That’s it,” Thomas said. “I’m coming to get you.”
The phone went dead.
Sasha ran to her mom’s room. She was in bed looking panicked. Sasha raced into her arms.
“It’s okay, mom. Let’s see if we can get you up.”
She started heaving her mom up, ignoring all the safety instructions she’d been taught as a teen to make sure she protected her back. All she could think about was getting out the house as fast as possible.
Then she froze. There were heavy footsteps thundering up the steps and coming across the hallway towards them. Bill.
Oh God, Sasha thought.
The door creaked opened. Sasha gasped and swirled on the spot. Bill’s huge silhouette filled the doorway. He was holding something in his hands, something that was smoking.
“Please don’t hurt us,” Sasha cried.
“Huh?”
Bill stepped from the shadows of the hallway into Julia’s room, revealing that he was holding a burned pizza in his hands.
“Your dinner’s burned,” he said.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Sasha and Bill sat opposite one another with the charred pizza between them. Julia watched on, a deep frown line etched across her forehead.
“So Pippa didn’t send you to beat me up in an attempt to get back at me for having her fired?” Sasha said.
“Nope,” Bill replied.
“Then why are you here?”
Bill just shrugged. “I don’t ask questions.”
Sasha didn’t doubt that for a second. But she still demanded he tell her. “You must know why Pippa sent you here?”
Bill wasn’t giving away any of his secrets. The whole time he sat at their kitchen table, Julia seemed progressively more anxious, as though she was expecting him to attack at any moment.
“Look,” Sasha said. “You’re upsetting my mother. This isn’t a game. It’s serious. I mean, she must have tapped my phone, right, in order to send you over in the first place. So she’s treading some pretty illegal ground here. Why don’t you just fess up? Tell me what’s going on and I won’t get the cops involved.”
Bill peered out at her through his dark, beady eyes. “What makes you think Pippa sent me?”
“Because you were on Thomas’s old security team, the one he fired. Who else would have sent you?”
“Maybe I came on my own accord.”
Something was unsettling Sasha. “I don’t get it.”
“Maybe…,” Bill said, “I don’t think you’re good enough for Thomas.”
Sasha flew to her feet so fast her chair screeched across the linoleum. “You’re ‘Mrs. Lloyd,’ aren’t you?”
Julia looked terrified, as Bill heaved his huge frame from his chair. He towered over Sasha. She couldn’t help but shrink back, as images of rusty chainsaws flashed through her mind.
“Get out of my house!” Sasha cried. “Don’t make me call the cops!”
Just then a noise came from the hall. Sasha and Julia flinched. Bill turned his head to the source. The door to the kitchen flew open, and a man dressed in black rushed in. He grabbed Bill, pulling his arms behind his back in a fast, fluid motion and pinning him to the table.
Julia flinched, as Bill hit the tabletop hard and the other man pressed his face to the side.
“Who are you?” Sasha cried.
“Gerald,” the man replied. “I work for Thomas Lloyd.”
Mouth open, Sasha watched the chaos unfold, as Gerald subdued Bill and heaved him back up to his feet.
“Let’s leave these nice ladies to their evening, shall we?” Gerald said sternly.
Bill grunted, as Gerald shoved him in the back, then began stomping down the hall. “You’re a whore, Sasha!” he cried as he went. “Thomas deserves better than a cheating slut like you!”
His screaming faded to silence.
Trembling, Sasha let out an exhalation and sank back into her seat.
“I’m so sorry about that, Mom,” she said. She felt terrible that her mother had been dragged into this whole crazy situation.
Julia looked at daughter, worry lines crinkling her eyes. “Sasha, I don’t feel safe in my own home anymore.”
Sasha’s heart plummeted. She’d let her mother down. “I…I know. And I’m sorry. It won’t be like this forever. I promise.”
Her mom just shook her head and tutted, then wheeled herself from the kitchen, leaving Sasha sitting there stunned.
Chapter Twenty Nine
The next evening, Sasha heard the doorbell, then Gerald’s voice shouted out: “It’s f
or you, Sasha!”
She stood, her stomach in knots, knowing that it would be Thomas. She thanked Gerald, as he passed on his way back into the living room.
There he was. Thomas Lloyd, leaning his shoulder against the frame of Sasha’s open front door.
“So,” he said. “Here we are again.”
Seeing him took Sasha’s breath away. There’d been a point where she never thought she would again. He was so handsome, in his steel gray suit pants with his shirt sleeves rolled up. Stubble had grown on his chin since they’d last been together, and it made him look more rugged. It was a good look and suited him well. At least Sasha’s body responded to it favorably, sending sparks of excitement between her legs.
Over his shoulder, she noticed his car was in the driveway. There was no driver though. He must have been another person Thomas had culled along with Pippa, Bill, Ryan…and Sasha herself.
“You didn’t have to come all this way,” she said, trying to keep her senses about her. She felt more than a little embarrassed to have made Thomas fly halfway across the globe because of an arson attack that turned out to be burned pizza. The last thing she needed to do was fawn all over him like a lovesick puppy.
Thomas’s eyes roved from her feet and up the length of her body, lingering slightly on the fabric of her T-shirt as it strained against her breasts, before settling on her eyes.
“I didn’t?” he said, drawing out the sounds and raising an arrogant eyebrow. “Because when we were speaking on the phone, it didn’t sound like I had much choice.”
His eyes roved back down to Sasha’s body. She folded her arms over her chest.
“You made me panic,” came her rebuttal.
Thomas’s eyes widened. “Oh, did I now?”
“Yes!” Sasha shot back. “With all your ‘find a baseball bat’ and ‘get out now’ stuff!”
Thomas gave her a stern yet mischievous look. He took a step forward until their bodies were so close Sasha could feel the heat coming from him. She felt her body drawing closer to him like some powerful force was pulling her closer to him.
“Are we going to stand here arguing on your doorstep all night?” Thomas whispered, his breath hot on her skin. “Or are you going to let me kiss you?”
Sasha’s lips parted instinctively, and a sigh escaped her lips. “I thought you said...” she began, her voice little more than a whisper. However, Thomas silenced her by reaching his hand up to her face and skimming his rough fingertips against her smooth cheek. Sasha gasped with pleasure, as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear then let his fingers run down her neck. Chills ran up and down her spine. “You said you needed more time,” she murmured, feeling almost drugged by the sensations rippling through her body.
Thomas looped an arm around her waist lightly. He whispered into her ear, “I said my brain needed time.”
Then he tightened his hold on her, pulling her into his body so she could feel his erection pressing into her. Sasha had forgotten how huge he was, and how incredibly hard he could become around her. She fought all the impulses inside of her that told her to pull his pants down and suck him off right there on the doorstep. Even so, she couldn’t help the squeak sound that came from her throat.
Thomas’s breath tickled her earlobe as he said, “My cock, on the other hand...”
Sasha suddenly pushed him away, as the creaking noise of her mother’s approaching wheelchair sounded out from behind her. She swirled on the spot, knowing her cheeks were flushed.
“Mom,” she said. “Look who’s here. It’s Thomas.”
She moved away to reveal the older woman sitting in her wheelchair behind her. Gerald, the security guard had pushed her along the hallway at her insistence. Since he’d arrived last night, he’d taken on a sort of caretaker’s role with Julia, as well as a security guard. Though she’d been suspicious of him at first, the two had quickly become as thick as thieves.
In the doorway, Thomas stood strategically to hide his bulging erection. He coughed. “Mrs. Jones. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He reached down and shook her hand.
“Call me Julia,” the older woman said, as she cast suspicious glances from one pair of guilty eyes to the other. “So you’re the reason my daughter’s lost all common sense?” Then she added, “You look taller in real life than in the movies.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Thomas said. Then he nodded to the security guard. “Gerald.”
The men shook hands.
As Sasha moved back to allow Thomas to enter her home, she noted the twinkle in her mom’s eye. Julia couldn’t resist a polite, handsome man. Thomas would charm her, no matter how angry she wanted to be with him.
Sasha showed Thomas into the living room. Just like when he was in her shabby apartment in Chicago, having him enter her world felt incredibly strange. Thomas had such a presence about him that he stuck out like a sore thumb any time he wasn’t surrounded by opulence. It made her basic living room look like the bad set of a budget movie.
She went to the kitchen to make coffee for everyone and noticed that her hands were trembling. Just five minutes in his presence and Thomas had already managed to knock her off kilter.
When she returned, her mother was proudly showing Thomas and Gerald baby pictures.
“Weren’t you quite the cherub?” Thomas said from his place on the floral sofa as Sasha walked in. He flashed her one of his wicked grins.
“Oh please,” Sasha said, putting the cafetière on the table. She could feel heat creeping up her neck.
“I mean it,” Thomas said with a sly look. “You were the picture of innocence.”
He enunciated the last word in a subtly suggestive way that made Sasha cough. She pursed her lips and shook her head, then busied herself with pouring the coffee.
“So,” Thomas said. “Here’s what I propose.” He took a sip of the coffee then instantly made a disgusted face; clearly, it wasn’t the quality he was used to drinking. “The four of us here head to my Aunty Mabel’s house in the Oxfordshire countryside. I’ve been there for the last few weeks trying to get my head together. It’s a beautiful place, very calm. Aunt Mabel’s a dear, really. She will give us all plenty of space to do as we please.”
Julia tipped her head to the side. “You want me to leave my home? I’ve been here for almost thirty years. I intend to die here.”
“Mom,” Sasha said. “Don’t say things like that.”
“It’s just temporary,” Thomas said, spreading his hands wide, palms up invitingly. “I think that considering the circumstances we ought to relocate. Just for the time being. What happened with Bill has got us all rattled. Really, we should have moved on as soon as the letter arrived—”
“What letter?” Julia said, cutting him off.
Sasha pressed her lips together. Thomas’s eyes darted to her.
“Oh,” he said, stumbling over his words. “I-I thought you were aware. Perhaps I was mistaken.”
Sasha sighed. It was time to come clean. “Mom, Bill had been sending me online abuse. He must have been obsessed with Thomas or something and jealous that I was involved with him. He sent me a letter, to the house, saying he’d found out where we lived.”
Julia’s face paled. “Why did you keep that from me?”
“I didn’t want to worry you,” Sasha said soothingly. “But that was why Thomas sent Gerald here in the first place.”
“This isn’t like you Sasha,” Julia replied. “You never used to keep secrets from me.”
Sasha twisted her hands in her lap. She hated seeing her mom like this—upset, fearful. She wished she could comfort herself with the knowledge that had she known getting involved with Thomas would harm her family she would never have done it, but deep down she knew that was a lie. Just being in the same room as Thomas again had reminded her that every negative thing that had come about from their union was worth it and was more than offset by the times they spent between the sheets. If she could go back in time and change the past, she w
ouldn’t.
“Mom,” Sasha said boldly. “I’m sorry that you got tangled up in this mess. But I love Thomas. I want to be with him. And that means accepting everything that comes with it—the paparazzi, the crazy stalkers, the phone taps, the backstabbing.”
She took a breath. It felt so good to get this all off her chest. Ever since she’d met Thomas, she’d been sucked into a strange game where she never knew whether she was coming or going, whether he’d be on her side or against her, whether he wanted her or despised her. She couldn’t control Thomas’s heart or mind, but she could control her own, and that meant staying true to herself.
She didn’t look for Thomas’s reaction. She didn’t want to read anything in his face that might reveal whether or not he loved her, too. Right now, she didn’t need to know. She just needed him to know.
Julia was still frowning.
Sasha took her mom’s hand. “You’ve never even been abroad. Think of this as an adventure. This can be like all the holidays we never got to go on after Dad left. And Gerald’s coming, too. You two get on famously.”
From his lookout post by the window, the security man chuckled.
Sasha could tell her mom was starting to soften. She took a sip of her coffee. Then as she moved the mug from her lips, she said, “What’s the weather like in England? I need to know what to pack.”
Sasha let out a breath of relief and hugged her mom. Knowing she had permission to return to England with Thomas made her feel as giddy as a teenager being granted a midnight curfew.
Gerald wheeled Julia out of the room, so she could start packing. Sasha and Thomas were left alone. The silence was so thick she could almost touch it.
“Sasha...” Thomas began.
Sasha shook her head, cutting him off. She smiled. “Don’t. Don’t say anything. I don’t need to know.”
Chapter Thirty
Being on Thomas’s plane again was like déjà vu. Only this time there was no chance for steamy sex because Julia—fatigued from the drive over—was napping in the bedroom. Gerald decided to rest up too, having been awake all of the previous evening on security duty. That left Thomas and Sasha in the main room together. They decided to make their way through a bottle of wine.
ROMAN (Lane Brothers Book 5) Page 104
