Fly You To The Moon (3 page)

5.

Despite Nicolas’s encouraging words about just being herself
being best, Ava didn’t feel up to entering the evening parlor all by herself. She lingered on the landing outside her room, waiting for the Pipps family to emerge from their room. It didn’t take long for Tom and Patty to appear, both dressed up in simple but neat brown clothes.

“Hi,” Patty said, beaming up at Ava. “You’re the girl from Earth.”

Ava grinned. “I am. And you’re the girl from Luna.”

“Are you going to live here with
us from now on?” Tom asked curiously.

“Well, for a while,” Ava replied. “Shall we go downstairs?”

“Yes, we should,” Patty said, her young face all serious. “We shouldn’t keep the guests waiting. That’s what mom always says.”

As they all descended the stairs, Ava
pondered Tom’s question. What would she do once her time here in Luna Six was up? Did she want to move back into the house that reminded her of her dead father and her old life, or did she want to start all over, in a new place? Maybe she could set up a farm in Sutton, just like Nicolas had done here, and teach people how to get the most out of tilling the soil.

All thought
s about Earth evaporated from her mind when Ava stepped into the dinner room and was greeted by a large group of official-looking people sitting at the table. Her palms turned sweaty when she saw all the blue and black suits and dresses. Why had she chosen to wear this outfit again? She was sticking out like a sore thumb in this crowd. Nicolas should have stopped her from showing up in this dress.

Ava
smiled feebly when Nicolas got to his feet and pulled her toward the head of the table. “Ava, this is your grandmother Olivia,” he introduced his mother to her. “Mother, meet Ava, Colin’s only daughter.”

Olivia Carter’s green eyes narrowed when she looked up at her granddaughter.
“Avaleria,” she nodded icily, using Ava’s full name. “Well. My condolences. Colin was still very young. I guess a common life on Earth was too hard on him.”

Ava
clenched her fists. Actually, his parents punishing him for his choice of partner had been the hardest on her dad. “I guess,” she echoed. “You must be sad your son died and you missed the funeral.”

Olivia’s eyes hardened. “He was not really my son anymore. You know that.”

“Oh, right. The whole disowned-because-of-scandal thing. How could I forget?”

“And this is my dad,” Nicolas
quickly interjected before the situation would get out of hand. “Alistair Carter.”

Old
Mr. Carter gave her an equally cold welcome. Nic pulled her along and introduced her to some other Elite friends of his. One of them, a brown-haired woman with a scandalously low cleavage, smiled insincerely up at her. “Welcome, dear. My name is Clea. It’s so noble of my Nicolas to take care of you and take in his niece for the time being.”

Ava
shot the woman a skeptic look.
Her
Nicolas? Whatever happened to Nic not being ready to settle down yet? Either this woman was too big-headed for her own good or Nicolas was a big, fat liar. “Nice to meet you,” she mumbled, equally hypocritical.

When she finally sat down at the end of the table where Nic’s personnel was
seated, she felt as if she’d been forced to run the gauntlet twice. All these people were cold, cruel and horrible – there were no other words for it.

“Don’t let them get to you,” the
young man to her right mumbled softly. “This is the one and only time you’ll have to see the Carters.”

Ava turned her head to look at the blond man sitting next to her. “How do you know?”

Her neighbor smiled. “Nicolas is expected to formally introduce you to his family and Elite friends. You’re not expected to become friends with them, though. Of course, if they extend a hand, you take it. If not, you keep on living your life and they’ll conveniently ignore you.”

“This whole Elite etiquette is giving me a headache,” Ava grimaced.

“Fair enough. Even I can’t keep track of every little peculiarity in their culture, and I’ve worked here for quite some time.”

“What’s your job here?”

“Groundskeeper.” He extended a hand. “I’m Alen Novak. And I’m not a trained groundskeeper, actually, but your uncle was the only person in Luna Six who was willing to give me a job.”

“Half-uncle,” Ava mumbled. Somehow, she felt the need to point that out.

“Half-uncle,” he dutifully repeated. “You should be happy. He’s one of the good guys.”

“He seems to be.” Ava
observed Nicolas as he sat down between his mother and Clea, the latter one fawning all over him. “What’s her story?” she asked quietly.

“Oh, Clea?”
Alen laughed with a hint of derision. “Nicolas is dating her on and off. I think she wants him to tie the knot soon, but I don’t see that happening.”

“No?” Ava bit her lip. “
Like, he’s just fooling around?”

The groundskeeper stared at her inquisitively. “What’s it to you?”

Momentarily lost for words, she looked away. Good question – what
was
it to her? “Never mind,” she muttered.

At that moment, Nicolas got up again and raised his glass. “I would like to officially welcome Ava Windsor to my household,” he announced. “May she always be safe and protected under my
care.”

The other people present reluctantly raised their glasses too.
When Nicolas took a sip of his wine, he looked warmly at Ava from across the room and then winked at her as if to say ‘let’s show them what we’re both made of’. It felt like they were a team, somehow.

When dinner was over, the crowd dispersed. As Alen had predicted, Nicolas’s Elite friends left without even looking back. Her grandmother and Alistair Carter came up to her to formally say their goodbyes, but it was clear they didn’t expect to see her anytime soon.

“Thanks for
getting me through this,” Ava told Alen once they were helping Mrs. Pipps to clear the table. “You’ve been a great support.”

“Anytime,” Alen replied. “Just tread carefully when it comes to Nicolas.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you seem to like him a bit too much,” Alen said calmly.

Ava’s eyes widened in horror. Was it
that
obvious? “No, I don’t,” she spluttered.

“Yes, you do.” He smirked. “Don’t try to pull the wool over my
eyes, Miss Windsor. I studied psychology, amongst other subjects.”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Just what kind of ground
skeeper are you?”

“The over-educated kind,” he
deadpanned. “In fact, I’ll be out of here soon. Your
half
-uncle got me a position on a space station. The commander is a friend of his.”

“That’s really nice of him.”

“Like I said – he’s one of the good guys.”

After clearing the table, Nicolas’s personnel scuttled off into various directions. Since she had no task to attend to and no idea what was expected of her, Ava tried to find the
sitting room she’d stumbled upon earlier. Maybe she could watch a movie. She’d rather read a book, but her chest of books hadn’t arrived yet – she’d had to book a stupid, slow cargo transport because she’d been out of money.

“Good evening,” a syrupy voice greeted her when she entered the room. Clea was
stretched out on the couch, her upper body resting against Nicolas’s chest. She was sipping wine and stroking his leg so close to his groin that it was clear Ava was interrupting something.

“Hi,” she replied, giving a small wave of her hand. “I just wanted to say goodnight, Nicolas. Thanks for dinner. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, we’ll talk tomorrow.” His eyes looked glassy, the sparkle all but gone from his green irises. God knew how many glasses of wine he’d already drunk with Clea draped over his lap. Suddenly, she felt unreasonably angry with him. “Have fun,” she added a bit venomously before swiveling around to leave the pawing couple far behind.

6.

Once upstairs in her room, Ava couldn’t concentrate on anything
long enough to relax. She tried reading a magazine, watching a nature program on the screen above her bed, taking a bath, but nothing calmed her down. At last, she picked up her pad and called Georgie back.

“Hey,” her friend answered on the third ring. “Are you insane? Calling me
when I’m not at the office? That’s going to cost you a fortune.”

“I’ll ask Nicolas to pay for it,” Ava replied glumly.
“Because he is
such a nice guy
.”

“Uhm…” Georgie looked puzzled. “I don’t see how that can be bad news.
You don’t look too enthusiastic.”

Ava flopped down on her bed. “
Why should I be? Nicolas is every girl’s wet dream,” she snapped. “He’s sexy, handsome, good to all his employees, the least Elite Elitist I have ever come across. I’m even pretty sure he’s attracted to me, because we keep having these awkward moments of touching and staring at each other. The problem is: he’s my guardian, so I’m guessing he’s not gonna go there. Oh, and he has a slutty girlfriend called Clea who was practically dry-humping him in the living room when I walked in on them.”

Georgie inhaled sharply.
“You’re jealous.”

“No, I’m not. I know there’s nothing serious betwee
n them.”

“Still.”
Georgie winked at her. “It would be nice if
you
were the one humping him – unseriously.”

“Shut up.” Ava flushed crimson.

“What does he look like?” her friend wanted to know. “Can you show me a picture?”

“I don’t think I’ve seen any pictures of him
in the hallway. Nicolas seems to be kind of big on wall tapestries.”

“Well, come on. Take a look around. There have to be a couple photos somewhere. Or better yet, show me the real thing.”

Ava sucked in a mock-scandalized breath. “You want me to go back to the living room and catch them on camera doing the wild thing? You evil witch.”

Despite her words, she was actually in the mood to snoop around a bit. Horses couldn’t draw her back to that living room, but
she wouldn’t mind checking out the second floor. Sitting in her room hadn’t helped her relax, so it was time for some action.

“Look, this is the second-floor landing,” she told Georgie, flipping the pad over so the cam was directed away from her. “Cool, huh?”

“That looks posh,” Georgie exclaimed. “Just how many rooms does one guy need in a house?”

“His servants live in the manor too,” Ava explained. “So far, I’ve met the housekeeper’s family and the groundskeeper. I think they all live in the east wing of the house.”

Which left the west wing to explore. Quietly, Ava tiptoed to the room adjacent to her own. When she gingerly tried the handle, the door swung open, showing her a bedroom that was a little bit smaller than her own. Probably a guest room, then. There were some bottles of perfume and a small case on the table next to the bed. The floor lamp in the corner of the room illuminated the room with a yellow, peaceful light.

“Bingo,” she exclaimed when she
spotted a large portrait of Nic hanging on the wall between the two windows facing the door. “Look, that’s him.”

“Oh God,” Georgie said, half-giggling.
“I see what you mean. He doesn’t look very –
uncle-ish
, does he? You
are
in trouble. What the hell was your father thinking?”

Ava got a bit closer to zoom in on the picture. Georgie was right – Nicolas looked glorious in it. His dark,
medium-length hair, emerald eyes, strong chin and straight nose gave him an almost regal appearance, and yet he looked roguish in a way. He looked as if he could be a lot of fun once you got to know him privately.

And then, voice
s drifted in from the corridor. She froze, unable to speak when she recognized Clea’s sultry voice and Nic’s dark chuckle. “Shit,” she hissed at her friend. “It’s Clea and Nic in the hallway. They’re going to his bedroom.”

“So let them,” Georgie hissed back.

“Okay.” Ava exhaled. “I’ll stay put until they’re gone. I
really
don’t want to bump into whatever they’re doing.”

“Call me back later?”

“Yeah, will do.”

Ava clicked away the video call and
stood listening at the door, which was still slightly ajar. To her utter horror, Nicolas and Clea seemed to be heading straight for the room she was in. She scrambled away from the door, trying to suppress her rising panic. Why would they be headed
here
?

And then it hit her. This was a guest room, and Clea was clearly the guest using it.
The perfume and the beauty case had to be hers. “Oh, shit,” she groaned. Without thinking twice, she launched herself at the first door she saw on the left. It seemed to be a walk-in closet. Maybe she could hide there until they left again –
if
they were planning on leaving again. Maybe they wouldn’t.

Ava shrunk back in the shadows of the closet when the main door opened and Nicolas stumbled inside, unsteady on his feet from the alcohol. He was followed by Clea, clad in just a black thong and a see-through bra.
Ava gritted her teeth when the woman pressed herself against Nic, her body flush with his, tearing at his partly unbuttoned shirt.

Silently cursing her curiosity, she closed her eyes and tried to shut out the noises coming from the room. Clea giggled. Clothes dropped to the floor. Nicolas moaned deeply. Somehow, being forced to listen without watching was even worse, so she quietly crawled
back to the closet door, carefully opening it to a wider crack before peering into the guest room.

Nic
was standing in the middle of the room, and a naked Clea was sitting on her knees in front of him, eagerly sucking his cock. Ava clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from gasping out loud. Heat burned on her cheeks. Her eyes swept over the ripped muscles of his stomach, his broad chest and muscular shoulders, his hard cock throbbing with lust and his large hands resting on Clea’s shoulders as she went down on him. Witnessing the scene turned the spot between her legs instantly hot and moist. It was terrible to watch another woman doing this to him, but at the same time, it was mouth-watering to see Nicolas in all his naked, luscious glory.

Ava
gulped when Nicolas pushed Clea off him and sank down on his knees too. “Turn around,” he told her gruffly. She could hear Clea moan when he swiftly entered her, slamming into her from behind like an animal in heat.

“Fuck
me,” Clea sighed in ecstasy. “Make me yours.”

Nic’s
stomach muscles rippled under his skin as he pushed into Clea’s wet hole, in and out, in graceful, fluid movements. Ava licked her lips. It was sick she was watching this, but she couldn’t help being turned on by it. All she could do was imagine what it would feel like if he were doing this to
her
. A shameful rush of blood to her pussy made her muscles clench deliciously at the thought.

With a loud grunt, Nicolas spilled himself into Clea. Wiping the sweat off his brow, he turned her around again and pulled her down,
lying her next to him on the bedroom floor. His hand slipped between her legs, and the woman arched her back to meet his fingers. It didn’t take him long to make her come.

Clea kissed him on the cheek and smiled up at him before staggering to her feet.
“Take a shower with me?” she purred.

Nicolas gathered his clothes and got up. “I’ll shower in my own room,” he said. “Goodnight, Clea.
I had fun.”

Clea tried to wipe the hurt expression from her face.
“Yeah, me too. See you in the morning.”

Whoa – that was actually kind of brutal. Nicolas made it very clear to her how he thought about their sexual relationship. It was fun, and that’s all it was
to him.

When Nicolas left the room and Clea disappeared into the bathroom, Ava waited a few more beats before crawling out of the closet. Quiet as a mouse, she snuck out of the guest room and ran to her own without looking back.

“I’ll call you back tomorrow, Georgie,” she mumbled before putting her pad on the bedside table and hopping into bed. Somehow, she didn’t
quite feel up to the task of telling her friend what had just happened.