by Tara Bond
He propped himself up on one elbow. “Did you get enough sleep?” He sounded concerned. “I know we were up late . . .”
“I’m fine.” I wanted to play it cool until I’d worked out what was expected of me. I really wasn’t sure of the etiquette. The night before had been a big deal to me, but that didn’t mean Alex saw it the same way. He’d had lots of one-night stands. Maybe he was just waiting for me to collect my clothes and go.
“Just fine? Well, that’s a blow to my ego.” The flirtation in his voice sounded promising, but I didn’t want to make any assumptions, so I kept quiet.
After a moment, Alex gently tugged at me, so I rolled over onto my back. I forced myself to look up at him. The bedclothes only covered him up to his waist, and it was hard to ignore his bare, muscular chest.
He cocked his head to one side, and studied me through lidded eyes. “So are you going to tell me what’s going on in that head of yours?”
So much for my plan to keep quiet. Even I couldn’t ignore such a direct question.
“I was just thinking about getting ready. You know, to go back to London . . .”
I trailed off. When Alex didn’t say anything immediately, I sneaked a look up at him, preparing myself for rejection. But his eyes were dancing with amusement.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to run out on me?” He feigned a look of sorrow. “What am I—just another notch on your bedpost?”
“Yes . . . no . . . I just wasn’t sure what was best . . .” I couldn’t believe how lame I sounded. Luckily Alex didn’t seem to care.
“Well . . .” he drawled, bending his head so his lips grazed my shoulder. “If it’s up to me,” he said between kisses, “I’d rather you stayed here for a little while longer. That is, as long as you’re in no rush to get back . . .”
I tried hard not to react, but as his fingers travelled across my bare stomach, I let out an involuntary gasp.
“It all depends on whether you give me a good reason to stay,” I said. And abandoning all pretence at nonchalance, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him down on top of me.
* * *
“Are you hungry?”
An hour later, we were still in bed. Alex was lying on his back, and my head was resting on his chest as he stroked my hair.
“Starving,” I admitted. It hadn’t crossed my mind until he said it, but it made me realise I could have really done with some food.
“Let’s go down and see what we can find in the fridge.”
“We’re expected to make our own breakfast?” I pretended to grumble, as he got out of bed and started to pull on some jeans. “I thought in a place like this we’d have servants waiting on us hand and foot. What’s the point of sleeping with a rich, entitled brat if there aren’t at least some perks?”
He laughed. “They know from experience that I like to be left to my own devices.”
I gave him a cheeky smile. “Does that mean I can go down naked?”
“If you like. But to be on the safe side, you might want to put on this.” He threw me his T-shirt.
Once I was decent, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the room. We were laughing as we ran down the stairs together, him leading with me trailing a little behind.
But at the bottom step he came to a sudden halt. I stopped behind him and peeped over his shoulder to see what was going on. There was a well-groomed, middle-aged man in a dark grey suit standing in the hallway. He was staring at me.
It was Duncan Noble.
The three of us froze—Alex and I at the foot of the staircase, his father on the flagstone floor in the elegant hallway. It didn’t take long for the silence to grow uncomfortable.
It was Alex who spoke first.
“Father.” The word was said with a flat hostility. “What are you doing here?”
“I asked Bill and Sarah to keep an eye out for you.” Duncan’s voice was equally cool. “I was aware that you’d started your little poker games again, and I had a feeling you’d hold one here sooner or later.”
Even though on the surface it seemed Duncan was annoyed about the poker game, I had a feeling there was more to it. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but I got the feeling his anger had more to do with me being there. My hand searched out Alex’s. He squeezed my fingers reassuringly, but under his father’s stern stare it didn’t help ease my fears.
Duncan’s eyes shifted to me. I flinched a little under his gaze. He’d been good enough to give me a job and invite me to dinner, and I sensed he was disappointed to see me here with Alex. The only thing I was pleased about was that I hadn’t made good on my threat of coming down naked, but with only Alex’s T-shirt over my underwear, I still felt very aware of my bare legs. I tried to pull the T-shirt down a little, wishing it covered more of me. Alex wasn’t much more dressed, in a pair of jeans and naked from the waist up. Unless Duncan Noble had chosen today to lose all powers of observation, it was pretty obvious what we’d been doing.
At last his gaze moved from me back to his son.
“Alexander. A word, please.” He looked Alex over. “And for God’s sake, put some clothes on.”
With that, he turned and headed towards the rear of the house.
Alex sighed as he turned to me. “I’d better go and deal with this.”
“Of course.” I was just relieved not to be part of the conversation.
“Won’t be long.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “Hopefully.”
I could have gone through to the kitchen and made myself some breakfast, but I didn’t feel comfortable with Duncan Noble around, so I decided to go back to Alex’s room to wait.
The house was pretty well soundproofed, but as I walked back up the stairs I could hear the distant sound of raised voices. Maybe I was being paranoid, but it was hard not to shake the feeling that the argument between Alex and his father had something to do with me.
Upstairs, I curled up on one of the armchairs. I expected to be there for just a few minutes before Alex came up, but the time stretched on, and he still hadn’t reappeared. At one point, I heard what sounded like the front door slamming. But even then he didn’t come back up.
Eventually I began to feel stupid, lying there in my underwear. I got up and dressed. Whatever was going on, it seemed best to get out.
I’d just slipped on my shoes when Alex appeared in the doorway.
“What happened?” I felt relieved to see him. “Is everything all right?”
He didn’t answer but just stood there, staring at me, his face unreadable.
“Alex?” I prompted, as the silence became unnerving.
“Everything’s great.” He walked over and flopped down on the bed.
It wasn’t the response I’d been expecting. “Really? Because your father didn’t look particularly happy. What did he want?”
“The usual. To bawl me out about the poker games.”
“Oh . . . right.”
I waited for more of an explanation, but none was forthcoming. I contemplated joining him on the bed, but something held me back. There was a distinct shift in Alex’s mood. All the flirty banter had gone, and he had one arm thrown across his face, so it was impossible to see his eyes. This was the cold, standoffish Alex of the week before. Whatever his father had said to him had obviously had an impact.
He raised himself up on his elbows and regarded me.
“Look, I’ve got a few things to sort out here. Are you all right getting the train back to London?”
My mouth dropped open. I wanted to ask what had happened to breakfast, but instinct warned me not to. “Sure,” I said instead. “The train’ll be fine.”
“Good. I’ll call you a cab.”
I got my belongings together as he made the call, trying to ignore the cold, nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“I’m going to take a shower,” he said, once he was off the phone. “You can see yourself out?”
“Yeah . . . sure.” I didn’t know what else to say. Things seemed
to have got awkward, and I had no idea why. I was going to leave it, but something stopped me. “Alex?” I said.
“Hmm?”
“Maybe I’m being paranoid . . . but was your dad angry about us being together?”
But he was busy texting on his phone, and hardly looked up as he said, “Why would he be?”
I frowned, searching my brain. There was only one thing I could think of—however far-fetched it seemed. “I don’t know . . . Maybe this is a stretch, but you know he and my mum fell out? I wondered if it had anything to do with that . . .”
I’d never been able to get my mum to tell me why she’d ordered him out of the house that night. What could be so awful that it would affect how Duncan Noble viewed my relationship with Alex?
But Alex seemed uninterested in my musings. “I think you’re reading too much into this.” He finally tucked his phone away, and walked over and kissed the tip of my nose. It should have felt like an affectionate gesture, but there was something almost dismissive in it. Or perhaps it was my imagination. “What can I say? Thanks for a great night. You’re the best.”
The whole conversation felt off, but it wasn’t anything I could put my finger on. I couldn’t keep asking if things were all right. I decided Alex’s strange mood undoubtedly had something to do with whatever had transpired between him and his father.
He was already at the door. Somehow I didn’t want our conversation to end like that. I searched in desperation for something to say. “Do you think you’ll be back by tonight? Because if so, you could stop by the club.”
He paused, then turned and regarded me for a long moment. “Yeah,” he said eventually. “Yeah, you’ll see me there.”
“Great.”
The brightness in my voice was forced. I wanted to say something else, but somehow his stance wasn’t encouraging me to speak up.
On my way downstairs, I couldn’t shift that strange, nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. But how could that be? Everything had been perfect between us before he’d talked to his father. But I couldn’t imagine that anything Duncan Noble had to say would turn him against me.
Chapter 21
That evening at Destination, I spent the whole time with one eye on the door, looking out for Alex. He never turned up. I texted him during my break, asking where he’d got to, but I received no reply. I thought about trying to call him, but I refused to be that girl.
“What’s up with you tonight?” Jas said as we were changing after our shift. She threw her balled-up tunic at me. It caught me on the head and I looked up in surprise.
“What’s that?” I hadn’t been paying any attention to what was going on around me.
“I was telling you that Hugh has asked me to move in with him, and I wanted your opinion on whether it was a good idea.” She stuck her nose in the air and sniffed, feigning hurt. “But obviously you had more important things on your mind.”
She looked at me expectantly, but I just shrugged. I didn’t want to say anything about Alex just yet. We hadn’t talked about what our relationship was, and I didn’t want to start running my mouth off.
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Fine.” Jas rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell your best friend then. I don’t care.”
She proceeded to rerun her story about moving in with Hugh, and again she asked me for my opinion. That kept us occupied, and she appeared to forget all about wanting to learn my secret.
Jas and I walked out of the club arm in arm. The first thing we saw was Hugh parked across the road, waiting for her in his black Bentley. The irony wasn’t lost on me. I’d spent so much time telling her that Hugh would let her down, and he was there and Alex wasn’t.
Jas grabbed my hand. “Come on. Hugh’ll give you a lift back to Alex’s.”
We hurried over to the car. Hugh got out and held the passenger door open for Jas.
“Hey, babe.” She smacked a kiss on his cheek. “Nina needs a lift home. That all right?”
“Of course.” Hugh made his way to the driver’s seat, as I climbed in the back. “I was going to ask if you wanted to go to the party anyway.” He said it matter-of-factly, as though it was obvious what he was referring to.
“What party?” Jas asked.
Hugh frowned. “The one at Alex’s, of course. I thought that’s why you suggested giving Nina a lift . . .” Hugh trailed off as he glanced round at me.
Jas’s eyes shifted from one to the other of us. She could clearly sense something was up too, even though she had no idea what it was.
“Well, let’s get going, shall we? The sooner we get there the better.”
Jas chattered on during the journey, filling what would otherwise have been a tense and awkward silence. When Hugh parked the car, she suggested they come up with me, and I didn’t object. I had a feeling I was going to need all the support I could get.
The moment the lift doors opened I heard the sounds of a party. Music was booming so loud that the walls and floors were shaking, and above the beats I could hear shouts of laughter. The cold feeling I’d had in the pit of my stomach all day—the feeling of foreboding—began to spread, but I forced it back down. Whatever was going on, I needed to face it.
I walked into the living area to find Alex and a dozen of his friends. He was sprawled across the couch, a half-finished bottle of Taittinger in one hand. It looked like it wasn’t the first he’d drunk that night.
“Are you all right, babes?” I turned to see Jas looking at me with undisguised concern. Although I hadn’t told her about last night, it must have been clear to her that I was more affected by the scene before us than I should have been.
Hugh was standing by her side, frowning, clearly not happy about what we’d walked in on.
“I’m fine,” I said, my voice sounding distant and detached even to me. “Just—would you mind waiting here for a moment?”
Jas nodded vigorously. “Of course.”
I left Jas and Hugh huddled together in the doorway, and walked over to where Alex was sitting. I did my best to ignore the scantily clad blonde sitting beside him.
“Alex?” He looked up at me with glazed eyes. “Can I have a word?”
“You can have anything you want, sweetheart.” Alarm bells were already going off. There was something too mocking in the way he said the words for them to be flirtatious.
I looked pointedly at his friends. “Can we talk outside?”
“Why would we do that?” He made no attempt to move. Instead, he stretched his arms across the back of the couch, settling further into the cushions. He gave a deliberate glance over the group. “You can say whatever you want in front of my friends.”
He took a swig from the champagne bottle, and handed it to the blonde next to him. Seeing that, part of me was tempted to walk away. It was obvious he didn’t want to know me. But the other part of me wanted to know what had changed. I remembered how sweet he’d been at first in the morning, and how I’d genuinely thought we’d connected. Had all that been in my imagination?
“So?” he yawned. “What is it you wanted?”
“I just—” I had a feeling I was about to make a fool of myself, but I had to know. “I just want to understand why you’re being like this.”
“Like what?” He looked at me with such a blank expression that I almost began to doubt myself. “We slept together. That’s all. Why’re you turning it into a big deal?” He turned to the others, rolling his eyes at them. “Remind me never to deflower a virgin again. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.”
I drew in a sharp breath. From behind me, Jas cried, “Oh no!” Then as I heard the chorus of titters from around the room, I could feel my cheeks reddening, and I hated myself for showing a reaction.
“You bastard,” I hissed.
“Sticks and stones . . .” He was unperturbed by my name-calling.
I shook my head in disgust, and turned away.
“Funny . . .” His voice stopped me in my tracks. The sheer incongruo
usness of the word made me turn back to see what he had to say next. He was looking at me with cold eyes, and that faintly mocking smile, which made me want to punch him. “I thought it would make you happy.”
“Why would it?” I spoke through gritted teeth.
“Because you can congratulate yourself on being right about me all along.”
I stared at him for a long moment. It was hard to believe that this was the same person who’d brushed the hair from my eyes the other night, who’d seemed to care so much. It was like a bad TV show, where he’d been body-snatched and replaced by an alien. Was he really that good an actor? And was I really so stupid that I’d fallen for his performance? I’d thought I was better than that.
I turned away then. If there was one thing I wouldn’t do, it was let him see me cry.
Chapter 22
“How’re you getting on, babes?”
I looked up to see Jas staring at me sympathetically. It was the same look she’d been giving me since she’d brought me home with her nearly two weeks earlier.
She’d been surprisingly discreet and hadn’t pressed me for details about what exactly had gone on between Alex and me, which I was grateful for. Too much of my private life was already public. There’d been enough other witnesses to my final scene with Alex, and word had clearly got around the club—from customers to staff. Conversations now stopped as I walked into the staff changing room, and I could see people looking at me like I was that girl—the one stupid enough to sleep with a louse like Alex Noble.
“Honestly? Not that great,” I said, as Jas slid into the seat opposite me. “It’s tough out there.”
It was Monday morning, and I was sitting at her kitchen table, with my ancient laptop in front of me—looking for another job and a place to live. My mum would be out of rehab in a couple of weeks, and then we’d have a month to get ourselves together before Social Services assessed whether we were fit to care for April. Our social worker’s recommendation to the court would determine everything—which meant I needed to find a way to make sure we looked like we could provide a safe, stable home for my sister.
