All That Glitters (16 page)

‘How serious is it with Johnny?’ Danny asked, interrupting Ella’s fantasy. She landed with a thud.

‘It’s not,’ she said slowly, as her heart sank. ‘We only got together last night. As far as he’s concerned it could just be a one-night stand.’

As Ella said the words out loud pain ripped through her body, but she knew – just knew – that this wasn’t a one-night thing for Johnny. He’d said they were soul mates. He said he was falling in love with her. And she believed him.

‘Well, that’s okay then,’ Danny said, satisfied. ‘As long as it’s just sex, and it’s discreet, then it should be okay. We’ll have to run it past Aaron and Nash, of course—’

‘What!’ Ella yelped. ‘I’m not running my sex life past Aaron. Or Nash!’

Danny sighed. ‘Ella,’ he said seriously, ‘you have to. It’s damage limitation in case something goes wrong. Aaron and Nash need to know what you’re up to. It’s important. They control all aspects of our lives, and they can help you—’

‘I don’t want Aaron or Nash to control every bit of my life!’ Ella cried out. She felt protective of her new relationship, defensive of having to admit what she was up to, and she was suddenly close to tears. ‘What I have with Johnny is nothing to do with you, or with Aaron, and I’m going to keep it that way!’

‘But you can’t,’ Danny said simply. ‘When we got married you agreed that you’d have no secrets from any of us. You can’t
not
tell Aaron.’

Ella stood up. Popcorn fell onto the floor and she trod it into the carpet. She didn’t care.

‘I’m not telling anyone about Johnny, and neither are you,’ she said furiously. Her eyes were blazing in anger. ‘Johnny’s part of my
private
life, and I intend for him to stay that way. I’ve given up all control to be your wife – God, I can’t even choose my own outfits – but I’m not giving up control of my relationship with Johnny. Never.’

Ella stormed out of the living room and ran up the stairs to her bedroom, where she threw herself onto her bed and burst into tears.

Johnny tipped the room-service waiter, closed the penthouse door behind him, and then picked Ella up and swung her around the hotel room. ‘God, I’m so pleased you agreed to an early dinner before we go to the studio,’ he said huskily. ‘I don’t think I’d have managed to do a run-through and then a whole show without needing to fuck you in the middle of it. It would have been unbearable.’

They were in a suite at the Sanderson Hotel in central London, and to ensure their privacy they’d arrived separately, with large sunglasses masking their faces. While Johnny dealt with room service, Ella had wandered around the room, marvelling at how the entire eighth floor of the hotel had been made into a gigantic suite. There were two bedrooms, both with silver-leaf sleigh beds, the bathroom had a gorgeous steel floor-standing bath, and sheer curtains were draped against glowing glass walls that acted as room dividers.

‘I ordered bits and pieces we could share from the restaurant downstairs,’ Johnny remarked as he led her into the dining room, and then he grinned as he watched Ella’s eyes widen as she lifted the lids off the gleaming silver serving domes. There were noodles with poached lobster, crispy soft-shell crab, papaya and pork belly salad, roasted duck, rib-eye steak skewers . . .

‘I don’t think I can eat all of this,’ Ella said faintly as she took in all the food. It was a Malaysian banquet.

‘You don’t have to eat any of it,’ Johnny smiled, and he raised his eyebrow. Ella immediately felt lust rise up inside her, and she swallowed hard.

‘We should eat before we go on air,’ she whispered, but Johnny acted like he hadn’t heard her. He scooped her up, placed her gently on the bed, and began to undress her as slowly and as carefully as he could.

‘We’ll eat when I’m ready,’ Johnny grumbled, and Ella gave into him. Of course she did. Why else would she have come to the hotel if it wasn’t to be close to Johnny again?

An hour later Ella couldn’t get enough food. She stood by the table as she devoured the crispy crab, and ripped pieces of steak coated in chilli and sesame from skewers.

‘I thought you said you wouldn’t be able to eat,’ Johnny laughed, and Ella blushed.

‘I worked up an appetite,’ she admitted as they sat down to their cold dinner. She thought of the picnic they’d had at his house several days earlier, and how spending time in bed with him made her hungry. ‘You seem to do that to me.’

‘And what else do I do to you?’ Johnny asked.

Ella swallowed. ‘You make me feel like I’ve come alive,’ she said honestly. ‘Like my body is on fire.’

Johnny leant back in his chair. ‘You’re falling for me,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘You try to hide it, but when we’re in bed it’s obvious.’

‘I’ve never hidden anything with you,’ Ella grinned, but she didn’t acknowledge what Johnny had just said, didn’t confirm how much she liked him. The truth was that she’d been falling for Johnny Cooper from the moment she’d met him. And they both knew it.

‘Even though it’s cold, this food is amazing,’ Ella said, her eyes dancing as she changed the subject.

‘Well, make sure you eat enough so you have lots of energy for tonight. I’m really looking forward to doing the show with you later,’ Johnny said conversationally, as he picked up a piece of lobster expertly with his chopsticks.

‘Me too. It’s such a coup that Gable Blackwood’s actually agreed to appear tonight by satellite link. Although I agree with the producers – he should only be on for five minutes. It’s last week’s news.’

‘Absolutely,’ Johnny said. ‘But that’s not what I was going on about. I meant I can’t wait to stand on live TV while smelling of you. I can’t wait for us to be together on camera, and for us to share that same post-coital glow.’

Ella felt her face flushing again. She’d never come so hard, or so fast, as she had just done with Johnny.

‘Nobody will be able to tell we’ve just had sex,’ she laughed. ‘Or if they can, they won’t think we’ve just done it with each other.’

Johnny raised his eyebrows. ‘You read all the pieces in the paper last week about the “obvious chemistry” between us on screen,’ he began. ‘Maybe people will put two and two together and think we’re an item. I almost hope they do.’

Ella put her fork down. ‘Johnny, we can’t let anybody find out about this. I’m married.’

‘Yes, but you don’t love him.’

‘It’s not like that,’ she said, and she paused for a moment. ‘I love Danny, but our relationship’s never been particularly . . . sexual. But he
is
my husband, and I’d never want to hurt him.’

Johnny leant forward. ‘So what are you saying?’ he asked. He no longer looked relaxed. ‘That if it came to it you’d choose Danny over me?’

Ella shut her eyes. She didn’t want a fight. Not now. Not with Johnny.

‘This is still very new,’ she began as diplomatically as she could. ‘If we were doing the dating thing we’d only be on our second date this afternoon. But I can’t deny my feelings for you. I’m mad about you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I think I’m obsessed!’ she laughed, and luckily Johnny laughed too.

‘I think I am too,’ he murmured, and Ella’s heart soared. ‘I just wish you weren’t married.’

Ella sighed. ‘I know what you mean,’ she said. ‘But let’s just see how this goes. We need to be sensible about it – the last thing either of us wants is to get found out. It would destroy my marriage, and our reputations.’

‘You’re right,’ Johnny said, as his eyes flashed with something she couldn’t quite work out. ‘The last thing we want is for this to end up in the press.’

Chapter Eleven

Ella took a sip of her champagne, watched the lush French countryside whizz by, and tried as hard as she could to get the wide grin on her face under control.

She didn’t normally get excited about seeing fields – especially ones that looked exactly like the patchwork of green and brown that surrounded Castle House – but this time she couldn’t help it. Every time she looked out of the train window and caught sight of the farms and tiny towns, a jolt of electricity rushed through her. They were in France! She and Johnny had two carefree days of being anonymous ahead of them . . . and in one of the most romantic cities in the world. Okay, so they had to play it cool right now because they were in a public place and could be caught out, but every time Ella looked at Johnny she felt herself get a little bit more turned on. She couldn’t wait to get to the hotel so she could be alone with him.

‘Have you been to Paris before?’ Johnny asked Ella as he watched her gazing out of the window. The setting sun streamed through the glass of the Eurostar train, and as it caught her face her eyes sparkled and her light brown hair shone like spun gold.

‘Only once, with Fin,’ Ella replied, as she remembered the ‘romantic weekend’ her ex-boyfriend had taken her on. They’d flown to Charles de Gaulle airport from London, and by the time they’d found a cab and endured a two-hour drive to the hotel, they’d both become irritable. The hotel, which had looked so good on the internet, was dirty, tired, and on the outskirts of the city, and the only place they’d managed to find dinner that night was a twenty-four-hour supermarket. They’d spent their first night in Paris eating crisps and dry pieces of sausage in their hotel room, and the only programmes they could find on the TV were in French.

The weekend had got worse. While Ella was looking at a map on the Metro a homeless man had rubbed his filthy hands over her ass, and none of the shops that she’d wanted to go to were open. Wine was expensive, waiters pretended not to understand Fin’s French, and the whole thing had been a disaster. They’d not even managed to have sex.

‘It wasn’t the best weekend away I’ve ever had,’ Ella admitted, and as she thought of Fin she unintentionally compared him with Johnny. They were completely different.

‘So you haven’t experienced the pleasures of Paris properly? Good. I want to be the one to show you my favourite city in the world.’

At Paris Nord station they got into a chauffeur-driven car, and as they settled into the leather seats Ella expected Johnny to wrap his arms around her, or to rest his hand on her bare thigh. Instead he looked out of the tinted window and kept his face expressionless. Ella felt her heart sink – she’d expected Johnny to at least kiss her as soon as they had some privacy – but she told herself not to read too much into it. After ten long agonising minutes of being ignored, Johnny turned to her, and his ice-blue eyes pierced hers.

‘You want me, don’t you,’ he stated simply, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a small, cruel grin. Johnny let his eyes roam across her body, and Ella felt his gaze on her skin, as if it was penetrating the simple cotton Aubin & Wills dress she was wearing. She squirmed, and Johnny laughed out loud. ‘Ella, you’re so obvious.’ His tone almost sounded like he pitied her.

Without saying a word Johnny raised the partition between them and the driver, and then he pulled Ella onto his lap so she was facing him. There was a delicious moment of nothingness, and when Ella could stand it no longer she scrabbled at Johnny. Her hands ran across his hard, muscular body, but when she leaned in to kiss him Johnny restrained her two hands with his one, and tilted her head back with the other.

‘Easy now,’ he said softly, and Ella moaned in desperation. Johnny took his hand away from Ella’s chin, and then, with a spiteful smile, he slipped it in between her legs. She was wearing a tiny thong, and as she felt Johnny’s finger lightly rub the silk and chiffon she could barely contain herself. But just as Ella thought she was going to lose it, Johnny pulled his hand away, and gently placed her back on the seat next to him.

Without saying another word he lowered the partition, and resumed looking out of the window as they drove along the Champs-Élysées.

By the time they’d got out of the car and through the large glass doors of the George V hotel, Ella could no longer hide her desire. She was lost in an exhilarating mix of desperate longing for Johnny and sweet frustration. She needed him. Now.

‘We should go to our room straight away,’ Ella murmured in Johnny’s ear. ‘What if someone spots us here? It’s probably the most well-known hotel in Paris.’

Johnny glanced at her, but took his time walking around the art deco foyer. Every so often he stopped and marvelled at the crystal chandelier, or gazed at the huge flower arrangement dominating the room. ‘
Wonderland
isn’t broadcast in France,’ he said eventually, but he barely looked at her. ‘Nobody here knows us; our secret’s perfectly safe.’

Ella wasn’t convinced, but she was so desperate for Johnny’s touch that she didn’t really care, and when they were whisked up to the Empire Suite, Ella pushed Johnny onto the huge bed of dark wood and smashed her body against his.

‘What’s the rush?’ Johnny asked in mock surprise, and Ella practically growled at him. ‘Is something the matter?’

Tiny beads of sweat had appeared on Ella’s body, and she whipped her dress off in one easy movement. Apart from her silk thong she was completely naked, and she stared at Johnny with such need, such hunger, that he couldn’t look away.

Ella’s hands trembled as she unzipped Johnny’s fly. He was harder than she’d ever seen him before, and without giving him another chance to tease and taunt her she pushed her body against his.

As soon as Johnny entered her she came instantly, and then, after a long, lavish hour of sex, she came again.

Afterwards Ella lay on her side, and watched him as he dozed. His dirty blonde hair was messy from where she’d pulled at it, and she could see the beginnings of a love bite on his neck, and on his chest. Johnny shifted slightly in his sleep, and before she knew what was happening, he had flung his arm over her, and pulled her closer to him.

Ella nestled her face against the dark blonde hair on his chest, and as she breathed in the scent of him, she realised she no longer just wanted Johnny. She needed him, and she’d always need this.

When Ella woke up the next morning she found herself alone in the huge, luxurious bed. For a moment panic engulfed her and she wondered if Johnny had left her – what was it about him that made her feel so insecure? – but she could smell coffee from the living room, and realised that Johnny had ordered breakfast.