Allure (27 page)

But then she changes the game, pushes me gently away and shifts position. I kneel up in front of her, and she takes my cock in her hand and covers it with mousse, and I swear, I could die right now and never be happier because I know what’s gonna happen next. She leans forward and takes my cock in her mouth, just the tip at first, but that’s enough to set my skin on freaking fire. So when she takes me in fully, and I feel my cock almost touch the back of her throat I’m this close to passing out, it feels so fucking good! And she knows, she can tell I’m about to come because she pulls away and pushes me over onto my back, straddling me, riding me cowgirl – one of my favourite positions, because I get to see so much of what’s going on. I get to see my cock disappear inside her. I get to see her pussy in all it’s glory, wet and wide open right there in front of me; I get to see her play with herself as she helps bring herself off. Man, I am in fucking heaven here!

And when the climax hits, it hits head-on, both of us crying out at the same time as she continues to grind down onto me, causing me to shoot faster and harder as I come in quick, full-on waves that are fucking exhausting. But, Jesus, I still can’t believe what’s happening to me; how crazy this woman makes me feel. She makes me want to do things I’d never dreamt of doing before, because I didn’t know I could. But I can, and, man, I am gonna do them all. Every single, sordid one of them.

I sit up and kiss her, both of us sticky and still covered in the mousse, and it makes us laugh, and that makes me love her even more. I haven’t laughed like this, not really, not in a long, long time.

‘I think we need a shower, Mr Cannon.’

‘And a change of sheets.’

She smiles, and slides a hand around the back of my neck, pulling me down for another kiss. ‘We leave tomorrow. We just bin these ones and sleep in the spare room tonight.’

‘Sounds like a plan.’

She throws me another smile and climbs off me, and I watch her red-hot body, still naked and covered in mousse, as she walks across the room, those boots stirring my tired cock from its all-too-brief respite.

Then she stops and turns around. ‘Want to share my shower?’

She needs to ask? And she laughs again as I practically jump off the bed and lunge at her, making her shriek out loud as I pick her up, and her legs wrap around me as I carry her into the bathroom.

We’re gonna get cleaned up, then we’re gonna sleep, and tomorrow she’s coming home, with me.

Tomorrow my fantasy becomes my reality.

Tomorrow my life begins all over again.

Kira

‘Can’t sleep, huh?’ Neal whispers into my hair as I lie awake, my head on his chest, his arm keeping me close to him.

I shake my head, my hand lightly stroking his stomach. His skin’s warm beneath my fingers and I don’t want to move from here until I have to. This is where I’m happy, when there’s just the two of us and nothing else to get in the way.

‘What are you going to tell people, Neal?’

He kisses the top of my head and gently squeezes my waist. ‘What d’you mean, what am I gonna tell people?’

‘They’ll want to know who I am. Where I came from. What I do; how we met.’

‘None of it is really anyone else’s business, though, is it?’

I move my head so I can look at him. I want to look at him. I need to. ‘Maybe not. But don’t be naive, Neal. People will still want to know, especially if I’m going to be working with you. Unless you plan on keeping me your dark and dirty secret.’ I smile, and he returns it.

‘Oh, we’re gonna have dark and dirty secrets, Kira, believe me. But I’m not keeping
you
a secret.’

‘But you’re not going to tell anyone I used to be an escort, either. You’re not going to tell anyone that we met because you booked me for a night of meaningless sex.’

‘I’m not ashamed of the way we met, Kira.’

‘Neither am
I.
But people will judge, Neal. They’ll judge
you
, and they’ll definitely judge
me
.’

‘It’s not gonna be a problem, baby, OK? Because nothing matters now except me and you.’

‘Is it really gonna be that easy?’

‘Are you having second thoughts about this, Kira?’

‘No. Baby, no. I’m just… people
are
going to ask questions. So, what do we tell them?’

His face breaks into a smirk, and it’s so fucking sexy. How does he
do
that?

‘We play a game, OK? We create the Kira everyone else sees – the beautiful English woman I met at a gallery in
Newcastle
. The woman who taught me love at first sight really does exist.’

The way he says the name of my home city still gives me butterflies. I could listen to him talk all day, especially when he ramps up the accent. That does it for me, and he knows it.

‘Kira Hardy by day, that’s who you’ll be. And at night, Kira Blu will come out to play – the wild and crazy woman with the killer body and a way of making her man’s cock hard just by looking at him. No one else needs to know about her. Besides, I kinda want her all to myself now.’

I smile a slow smile, because I think I like where he’s going with this. ‘Role-playing for real, huh?’

‘You got it, beautiful. You ain’t ever gonna be bored in my world, darlin’.’

Oh, Jesus… that accent! And now those butterflies are well and truly awake.

‘But you shouldn’t be ashamed of who you were, Kira.’

‘I’m not. And I’m still her, Neal. I’m still that escort you paid for sex. She’s always going to be there.’

‘And I’m always gonna love her.’

He kisses me slow and deep and I fall against him. There are still so many things we need to talk about, but maybe I need to stop obsessing about every last detail and just run with it. Neal won’t let anything happen to me. He won’t hurt me, but then, how can I possibly know that? I’ve only known him a matter of weeks, how can I know anything about him? But I feel like I know enough. And that’s all I need.

‘Come on. We need to sleep. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow.’

I settle back down in his arms, my head back on his chest, the sound of his heartbeat filling my ears, a comforting sound, and I close my eyes. He’s right. We need to sleep. And I’m just drifting off when my phone ringing disturbs us both and I sit up, looking at the caller ID. It’s late. Almost two in the morning, and my blood runs cold as I see Benni’s number flash up on the screen.

‘Who is it?’ Neal asks, sitting up behind me and kissing my shoulder.

‘Benni.’

‘You gonna answer it?’

I’m almost scared to. But I need to. ‘Benni?’

‘Oh, thank God… Kira, babe, it’s Joey he’s…’

‘He’s what, Benni?’

There’s a panic in Benni’s voice that makes my blood run even colder.

‘He’s hurt, Kira. He’s really hurt. And he wants to see you. Says he isn’t going to sleep until he sees you. Can you get to the hospital? He’s in the General.’

‘What’s happened to him? Benni…?’

‘I’ll tell you when you get here, sweetheart.’

‘OK… OK, we’re on our way.’

I hang up and jump off the bed, flicking on the light as I pull jeans and a shirt from the wardrobe.

‘Kira? What’s going on, baby?’

‘Joey’s hurt.’

‘Hurt? How? I mean…?’

‘He wants to see me… which means he’s alive, at least, which is a relief, I suppose, but…’

‘Kira, darlin’, slow down. Come on. Take a breath, honey.’ He’s beside me, and he’s holding on to my shoulders and he’s calming me, because that’s what he does. That’s why I need him. But Joey needs
me
now. So we have to go. We have to go…

Twenty-Eight

Kira

‘We were heading off to catch a taxi home, the same route we’ve taken every night for God knows how long, but this time...’ Benni takes a sip of coffee and I keep hold of his hand as we sit out in the corridor, waiting for the doctors to finish another check on Joey. ‘They came from out of nowhere, about four of them, homophobic little bastards, shouting abuse and kicking him to the ground…’ He looks at me, and I feel my heart break. I feel sick and angry and I want to get hold of the scum who almost beat my best friend to death and show them what pain really feels like. But the police are quite confident they know who they are. And I can only hope they catch them, soon. ‘They just kicked and kicked, Kira. And he tried to fight back, because you know Joey, he hates to lose a bloody fight.’

I can’t help smiling, because Benni’s right. Joey hates to lose, full stop.

‘But he couldn’t overpower them, and
I
tried too, you have to believe me…’

‘Hey, come on. I know you tried, I mean, look at you.’

His face is bruised and battered, his arms covered in scratches and cuts and I know he feels guilty because he thinks he got off lightly.

‘They didn’t even take anything. They just wanted to prove their pathetic, twisted point.’

I pull him in for a hug and we hold each other tight in this dark hospital corridor in the early hours of the morning.

‘Where’s Neal?’ Benni asks, pulling back from me and wiping his eyes. ‘Because, I hope he doesn’t think he has to stay away; that this is something private. He needs to be here, too. He’s part of our family now.’

‘Whether he likes it or not, huh?’ I smile, and Benni laughs quietly.

‘We don’t really do conventional, do we, angel?’ I love that he calls me by the same nickname Joey’s used since the day we met. I love that Joey has someone so kind and warm and special by his side.

‘We’re not that boring.’

‘So, where is he?’

‘I don’t know, actually…’

I look around me, because I really don’t know where he is. I’ve been concentrating so hard on Joey and Benni that I didn’t even see him go.

‘Everything OK here?’

Relief swamps me as I hear his voice and I turn in my seat to see him standing there, still so handsome, even at this time of night, considering both of us got dressed and ready in a matter of minutes. I’m not so confident that I look anything near as good as he does. I feel a wreck, but none of that matters.

‘Where’ve you been?’ I ask, getting up and going over to him, pushing his hair back from his eyes.

‘I wanted to give you guys some space, is all.’

‘Tell him, Kira.’

I look over at Benni and smile, before turning back to Neal. ‘You don’t need to do that. You need to be here, too. You’re part of this ridiculously unconventional family of ours now, OK? So you need to be here.’

He slides an arm around my waist but looks at Benni. ‘I’ve just seen the doctor come out of Joey’s room. You can go back in there now.’

‘
We
can go back in there,’ Benni says, standing up and taking Neal’s hand, dragging us all off in the direction of Joey’s side room.

‘I guess I don’t have a choice, huh?’ Neal shrugs and I just throw him a small smile. No, he doesn’t. These guys come as part of the package. He gets me, he gets Joey and Benni, too. We’re a family.

I go into the room first. Joey’s sitting up now, and he seems a little brighter than when I first saw him a little under an hour ago. His face is a mask of bruises, though. And I know he has three broken ribs, but thankfully that was all that was broken. I just hope the bastards haven’t damaged his spirit, because that would kill me.

He takes my hand as I sit down on the bed beside him, but his eyes are on Neal, who’s standing at the back of the room with his hands in his pockets.

‘Dear God. He looks like
that
even after being woken in the middle of the night; like he’s just stepped off the pages of a magazine photo shoot.’ He turns to look at me. ‘And then there’s you. Angel, you need him to give you some tips. And if he still wants you after he’s seen you like that then he’s a keeper.’

Yeah, he’s still my Joey. ‘It’s your fault I look a mess. I was bloody terrified when I got that phone call, what did you expect me to do? Slap on full make-up before I check you’re still alive?’

‘A coat of mascara wouldn’t have hurt.’

‘Bitch.’

‘Slut.’

I lean over to give him a hug. ‘I love you so much, Joey Princess. Don’t you ever put me through this again, you hear?’

‘I love you too, angel. But I’m still standing by the mascara suggestion.’

Benni sits down on the other side of the bed and takes Joey’s hand, squeezing it tight. His face is stained with all the tears he’s cried and I just want to wrap them both in cotton wool and keep them safe. They’re older, bigger, and a hell of a lot wiser than me but I just want to keep them safe.

‘What did the doctor say?’ Benni asks as he absent-mindedly rubs the back of Joey’s hand with his thumb. ‘Have they got the results of the scan?’

‘All clear. No head injuries, just some possible concussion. Apparently I’ve been very lucky, if you can call being beaten up by a gang of homophobic idiots lucky. They want to keep me in for a few more hours, for observation, that’s all. Anyway, how are you? My hero…’

‘I’m hardly that, Joey. I couldn’t do anything to stop them.’

‘But you tried.’ Joey reaches out and lightly touches Benni’s face, their eyes locked together. ‘You tried. And I love you, I love you so much.’

He kisses him gently, and I get up and go over to Neal and he pulls me in against him as we watch Benni and Joey talk. It’s so obvious they’re in love, and that makes me happy, it really does. But what’s happened tonight, I don’t know if I can leave them now.

‘You OK?’ Neal whispers, squeezing my waist.

I look up at him and let him kiss me quickly because his kisses continue to calm me tonight. I kind of need them. I need
him
. But I really do think Joey might need
me
now. And that changes things. ‘I’m fine. I’m just relieved none of this seems to have damaged him too much. But, he’s also good at hiding how he really feels sometimes. I hope he isn’t putting on a front because he doesn’t want to worry anyone.’

‘You look tired.’ He gently strokes my cheek and I fall against him, closing my eyes for a second or two, just breathing him in. ‘You need to sleep, and I think Joey probably needs some rest, too.’

‘I need to talk to him first, Neal.’

‘He needs to rest, Kira. And so do you. We’ve got a big day tomorrow…’

‘Five minutes, Neal. OK?’

He kisses the top of my head and lets me go. ‘I’m gonna grab a coffee. I won’t be long.’

I watch him leave before I sit back down on the bed beside Joey.

‘I’ll go keep Neal company,’ Benni says, giving Joey’s hand another quick squeeze before he gets up. ‘Give you two a bit of time alone.’

‘I’m quite jealous,’ Joey sniffs as Benni closes the door behind him. ‘I wouldn’t mind some one-on-one time with Blue Eyes myself.’

I smile and cross my legs up underneath myself, clasping my hands together in my lap. ‘I’m not going, Joey.’

‘Not going where, angel?’

‘
New York
. I’m not going. Not now. I can’t.’

‘Don’t do this, Kira.’

‘I’m not leaving you, Joey. Not after this.’

‘Oh no, lady. You’re not laying this one on me. I am
not
going to be the reason you put your life on hold, do you hear me?’

‘You’re not the reason…’

‘Are you having second thoughts?’

‘Well, I am
now
.’

‘Before this happened. Were you having second thoughts about getting on that plane in, oh, let me see, ten hours’ time?’

‘Not really…’

He raises an eyebrow, and I can’t hold back the heavy sigh. ‘No. I wasn’t.’

‘Then I’m the reason.’

I open my mouth to speak again but he’s too quick.

‘And before you start banging on about how I need looking after, don’t even go there. Are you listening to me? I’m forty-five years old. I’m all grown up, and I’ve been around the block more times than you’ve had strange cocks inside you.’

‘Thanks for that, Joey.’

‘You think I’m going to let those ignorant pricks get to me? You know me better than that, Kira. Yes, I was a bit shaken, of course I was, but I’m not scared, and what happened is
not
going to affect my life in any way. Do you hear? I might have to rest up for a day or two but by the weekend I’ll be back in my heels strutting my stuff on that stage. And you’ll be in
New York
with that gorgeous man, doing all kinds of unspeakable things, of which I want details, by the way.’

I smile. But I’m not convinced.

‘Kira?’

‘What?’

‘I meant what I said. I’m not just telling you what I think you want to hear, OK?’

‘I don’t think you’re doing that.’

I do. But I don’t think either of us are in the mood for a fight.

‘Talk to me, Kira.’

‘What if it really is a case of me and Neal… what if it really is a case of it being nothing more than this huge, insane sexual attraction? And what if that fades, and I still don’t love him…’

‘You don’t love him?’

‘I don’t know.’ I throw my head back and sigh again. ‘I was about to get on a plane and fly halfway across the world with a man I’m not even sure I love.’

But I think I do. I think I love Neal Cannon, in some way. And I think I love him more than I care to admit. I’m just too scared to face up to an emotion I’m still not sure I can handle.

‘You
are
getting on that plane, lady, if I have to drag you on there myself. And I will, if I have to, broken ribs or not.’

‘You want rid of me?’

‘I want you to be happy. And quite honestly, Kira, these past few days, since Neal came back to get you – because that’s what he did, remember? He came all the way back here, to get you. Can’t you see how romantic that is?’

I throw him a look.

‘Romance, Kira. You should try it sometime. Think about what he did, for
you
. Look, these past few days I’ve never seen you happier, OK? You might not realise it’s happening, but your face lights up when you talk about him, and when you’re together – can you not feel the heat? You two make a terrifyingly beautiful couple, you have no idea...’ He looks at me, right into my eyes, and I know he’s serious now. ‘Don’t throw this chance away, Kira. Don’t lose that man. Don’t let fear take over again. Take his hand and run, angel.’

‘I don’t want to leave you, Joey.’

And I don’t. I don’t want to leave him. But I don’t think I can leave Neal, either.

‘I’ve got Benni, Kira. And that man is the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me, after you, of course.’

I smile at him. I love him so much, and I’m just finding it hard, knowing I’m going to be so far away from him after ten years of us being so close.

‘He’s my soul mate. And he will look after me, don’t you worry about that. We’ll look after each other. So you are getting on that plane this afternoon and you’re going to start living again. And are we done here? Because you really are giving me a headache now.’

I smile again and lean over to hug him, carefully, because of his ribs. But he pulls me in and holds me tight, and we stay hugging for what feels like a long, long time.

‘Take his hand, and run,’ he whispers in my ear.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Neal

‘You ready to go home now?’

She nods and I hold out my hand and she takes it, her fingers wrapping around mine and I love that feeling. Something as simple as holding hands – it was a feeling I’d let go of, something I’d forgotten could feel so good. So safe.

‘Is Joey OK?’

‘He’s fine. Benni’s going to stay with him. He’s just gone to get him a cup of tea, seeing as it’s almost breakfast time now.’ She smiles, and even though she’s tired and emotional it still lights up her face. ‘Come on. We really need to get some sleep if we’re going to make that flight.’

She starts to walk away but I squeeze her hand to stop her, pulling her back against me. ‘Are you really sure you want to do this, Kira? I mean, after tonight…’

She touches my face, her fingers running lightly over my cheek and I catch her hand, our eyes locking. ‘I’m sure.’

And I think I believe her. I thought, after tonight, she might have had second thoughts, but I guess when she was in there, talking to Joey, he made her realise something. He helped her see what it was she really needed to do.

I smile, and she kisses me, and I feel a little breathless with a fear I’ve only just realised was there – the fear that this could have been a turning point that may not have gone the way I wanted it to.