The Modeliser (31 page)

“Good party tonight,” he said wincing inwardly at the false
note in his voice. Her reply caused him to freeze.

“Night’s not over yet.”

Shit.
Alex slumped onto the sofa as Talia continued to stand in the doorway her eyes
watching him, eating him up, and causing havoc in his brain. He closed his eyes
and then felt his skin prickle as he felt her arm on his as she slowly sank
down onto the sofa next to him.

“Look at me,” she urged and reluctantly Alex turned sideways
to face her. Talia was making not attempt to hide the desire in her eyes.

“I want you,” she said baldly. And Alex groaned. Fuck. This
was a bad idea.

“Talia you’ve had a lot to drink.”

Talia smiled now. “I’ve never been clearer about anything
before,” she said with a determined look in her eye.

Helena
was out for blood. All afternoon and long into the night on the final part of
the shoot, Gabe had ignored her. From a professional point of view, Helena had
acknowledged that things were going well, very well. The initial photos had
already been emailed to Tobias, who’d telephoned her with a ringing
endorsement. This shoot would make the Époque special edition a sensation. And
yet for once, it was not work that consumed her. Even as she’d smiled and posed
in various locations around the Pompidou Centre, it was Gabe that had been on
her mind. In the week since they’d slept together and since Sula had finally
turned up, his detachment had started to get to her and never one to play games
– once again Helena decided she would confront him.

The early morning sky had been bright and blue as she’d
jogged alongside the Seine but for once running hadn’t had the desired effect,
it hadn’t calmed her thoughts or clarified her thinking. Gabe was fucking with
her brain and she didn’t like it. Still in her running clothes, she stalked
down the corridor towards Gabe’s 15
^th
floor room at the Ritz. Her
face was flushed not so much from the exertion but from the simmering cauldron
of emotions that she had been keeping so tightly under control.

At Gabe’s door she immediately banged hard on the heavy wooden
door. She waited a moment and then began to knock again when suddenly the door
gave way under her hand. Self-consciously, she let her arm fall limply to her
side as she took in Gabe wearing only a towel, standing in the doorway.

“Gabe…” Helena watched Gabe’s look of shock. He looked
surprised to see her. Surprised and not very happy.

“This isn’t…” he began. And suddenly Helena understood. She
didn’t need him to spell it out to her. His wet hair, his awkwardness. Gabe had
already moved on.

“Sorry, I should have guessed,” Helena began and then stopped
as her eyes zeroed in on something on the floor behind Gabe.

“What…” She started but found she could not get the words
out. Without thought, she pushed Gabe aside, entering his hotel room.

“Look Helena. I didn’t mean...” Gabe trailed off as Helena
stooped down to pick up the vintage silk Hermes scarf that had been carelessly
discarded on the floor. Helena looked at it for a moment and then up at Gabe.
His ashen face told her everything she wanted to know and yet, she wanted,
needed to see it for herself. Helena turned and stalked towards the bedroom
door, Gabe leapt and grabbed her arm but she shook him off with a glare.

“Get your hands off me.” As he let go, Helena marched into
the bedroom. She kicked the door open and stopped in the doorway as a wave of
nausea shot through her, momentarily winding her. In Gabe’s bed was her mother,
wearing nothing more than a smile.

“Darling,” Sula trilled, “this is hardly appropriate. Give
Gabe and I some privacy.”

Helena
was gripped by a cold lick of hate and she bit her lip for a long moment until
she drew blood. She moved towards the bed and looked down at her mother. For
the first time, there was concern in Sula’s eyes. Helena stared at her, her
eyes boring into her mother’s until eventually Sula dropped her gaze. Helena
did not hide the disgust or the disappointment or the hurt. In the sea of
betrayals and disappointments, Sula had finally crossed the line

“Darling…” There was an imploring tone in Sula’s voice. But
it was too late for that and Helena cut her off.

“We’re done,” she said with finality and as she strode out of
the room, she tossed the silk scarf in Gabe’s face.

“Helena!”

Helena
heard Sula calling out to her but she didn’t stop. She walked up the five
flights of stairs to her floor and she did not stop until she was in her room
and alone. And finally, only just reaching the bathroom in time, she hurled up
the contents of her stomach.

Alex
was at war with himself. And as Talia swung her leg over his hips to straddle
him, he thought that someone up there must have a sense of humour. Alex “
lock
up your wives
”
Golden was trying to do the right thing, was trying to be a better man but
Talia was having none of it. She ground her body into him so that her breasts
were crushed to his chest and his rapidly growing erection was right where she
wanted it. She pressed a kiss to his lips, her tongue teasing his mouth open.
Alex pulled his head away, turning so that all she had was the side of his
face. But that was no deterrent, he felt her tongue dart around his ear and
then her teeth nip gently at his earlobe.

“This is not a good idea,” Alex groaned, even as his good
intentions were rapidly evaporating. Even as he said the words he was gripping
her hips to grind her onto him.

“Sound like you mean it,” Talia teased as once again her lips
found their way to his.

He
tried to pull away, he tried to recite his nine times table, he tried to keep
Helena’s words in mind; Talia wasn’t his type, they weren’t right for each
other, not by a long shot. But he could not hold on to these reasons, not when
Talia was climbing off his lap to stand before him. With a confidence he didn’t
know she had, she slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders and pushed
the dress down. Alex froze as once again he was confronted with her large,
round breasts and those dark nipples that were now hard as pebbles begging for
his tongue. All reason and logic and caution were gone and his cock leapt in
his painfully confining trousers. He watched her push the dress down her waist
and then she did a little shimmy to push the dress down over her hips until it
fell to the ground. Slowly her eyes rose back up to meet his and Alex felt the
full heated beam of her gaze. And yet there was something else in her eyes too
– a look of uncertainty and then Talia bit her lip and the expression was
gone. She stood clad in only the tiniest of lace underwear and she held her
hand out to him.

“You coming?” She said with as much bravado as she could
muster. Alex watched her bite her swollen lower lip and then he reached forward
and grabbed her arm, pulling her back into his lap.

“Too fucking right,” he replied before he kissed her hard as
all the pent up sexual tension finally exploded between them. He kissed her
until she was breathless and begging and then he rose, with her almost naked in
his arms and stalked up the stairs to the bedroom.

Talia’s
eyelids felt heavy, as though they were weighted down but nothing, absolutely
nothing would make her close them. Not when Alex Golden, was slowly taking his
clothes off, just for her. She watched him rip his shirt open and she
swallowed, her mouth dry as he flicked open his belt and slowly eased his
zipper down. He moved towards the bed as he kicked of the trousers and Talia
smiled – no boxers. It figured. In a second he was on her, pinning her to
the bed and Talia welcomed the weight of him. Christ it had been too long.
Almost a year, well more than a year really, but it was time to stop counting
now. Talia leaned into Alex but before she could really savour the feel of him
– his smooth chest flattening her breasts, the friction of his hard cock
as it made contact with her stomach - he had spun them, so that they lay side
by side on the bed facing each other.

This time, his kiss was slow and gentle leaving her aching
for more. His hands were gently cupping her ample breasts, teasing and then
retreating before they touched her nipples and Talia let out a groan of
frustration as he abandoned her breast to start to kiss her lips again. Her
hand moved down between them and she gripped him, revelling in the sense of
having Alex Golden totally at her mercy.

“Slow down,” Alex said pulling her hand back up. Gently he
began to stroke her face pressing small kisses along her neck. Talia was
fizzing with anticipation and frustration and finally she burst.

“What are you doing?” She demanded.

“What?”

“I’m serious,” she snapped. “You’re treating me like I’m made
of glass.”

“I think we should take it slow.”

Talia let out an infuriated sigh and sat up in bed.

“Is this because I’m not some model?” She snapped. Alex gazed
at her in bafflement.

“I was trying to… to make this good for you. To be nice.”
Alex finally said and Talia hissed out a sound of rage.

“I don’t want nice. I want the full Alex Golden Hollywood
experience. I want to be fucked.” She snapped out and then stilled, perhaps she
had gone too far. She watched as Alex stared at her and for a moment she could
have sworn she saw a stricken look in his eyes but it was quickly gone.
Forcefully, he pushed her backwards, until her back hit the mattress again.

“You asked for it,” he growled. And somehow, her legs were
already wrapped around him. Alex reached for the condom that he’d dumped on the
nightstand and he tore it open with his teeth. With one hand he unfurled it
onto his cock even as his fingers were playing with her, dipping into her. His
eyes were locked between her legs, as though he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Talia raised herself up so that she could watch too even as she felt little
seismic shocks begin to go off all over her body. She watched as he thrust one
and then two fingers into her. She fell back with a moan, her head hanging off
the edge of the bed.

“More,” she demanded. And he gave her more, coming down on
her, raising her leg so it was braced over his shoulder. With a groan, he
thrust all the way into her and Talia shrieked with the force of it, she felt
so full. He thrust once and then twice but his fingers were still on her clit,
still urging her on. She came loudly and as he continued to thrust roughly into
her, without pausing, she found herself shattering all over again. As though
from a long way away she finally heard Alex let out a long groan as he came. He
collapsed on top of her and for a long time they lay there shattered, their
bodies mashed together.

Slowly, the world began to reform around her but Talia was
already drifting off. The last thing she heard before sleep claimed her were
Alex’s whispered words in her ear.

“Was that Hollywood enough for you?”

Tamara
Fearson had been dethroned. She was no longer the biggest bitch in town. That
title now belonged to Angelina Starling.

 
Tamara had woken
to her doorbell being rung insistently. A glance out of the window had revealed
a pack of shouting journalists and photographers, the shutterbugs flashing up a
storm on the normally quiet and exclusive street. Immediately, she knew that
something was terribly wrong. Her voicemail box, when she switched her mobile
phone on, was full and the first message had made her blood run cold.

“Tamara – call me. Papers about to run an expose on
you. It’s not good.” Tamara switched the phone off even as it started to
vibrate in her hand, signalling an in-coming call. Her contact at the Daily
News had tried to warn her but of course she’d been out playing house with
Vassily. Tamara switched on her little used laptop computer and navigated to
the Daily News website. The headlines were damning.
Scheming, Adultery,
Blackmail
.
There it all was, laid bare for the world to see. Somehow the truth of her
involvement in the Angelina scandal had been discovered and there was more too.
Her affair with Damian and several other married men, her selling of gifts on
eBay to raise money and worst of all, her plan to target Vassily at the launch
of Imperium. And there was Angelina on all the covers – revealing her
betrayal by her “friend and mentor” Tamara. As she scanned the Internet pages,
noting that the story had already been picked up by several of the tabloids and
the weekly rags too, Tamara allowed a gasp of horror to break free as she
realised how deep the betrayal went – some of the details were too
specific, the facts precise and accurate. Casey must have sold her out too, she
realised. Tamara let out a shriek of fury and launched the laptop across the
room watching as it broke into two pieces and crashed through the glass coffee
table. She was still for a moment and then she stood up and strode upstairs,
back to her bedroom. Tamara lay down in bed, even as the sound of the
journalists outside her house shouting questions drifted up to her. As she
pulled the covers up, she reasoned to herself that eventually they would leave
her alone.

Talia
woke feeling like a new woman. There was a stiffness in her neck and she had
only a hazy sense of time and place. She hadn’t been hungover in a while and it
took several moments for the party to come back to her. Even as her mind raced,
her body by its aches and pains was also giving her a rapid rundown of last night’s
action. Talia froze as she realised that Alex’s arm was flung over her, his
tanned arm a sharp contrast against her own brown skin. His hand was filled
with her left breast and her breath locked in her chest as she tried to figure
out the appropriate etiquette for the morning after a one-night stand with your
movie star boss. Her face broke into a wide grin. She felt a thrill run through
her as she glanced over at Alex, his chest rising and falling in even breaths.
She had never wanted to be famous, never wanted to be on the cover of Heat but
it was nice at least to have done something worthy of those magazines, she
thought.
 
She was filled with pride
too. She had finally seduced a man and not just any man, a movie star. She’d
finally gone out and taken what she wanted, demanded her sexual satisfaction,
Talia felt the sense of power travel through her, this could get addictive.
Quickly she shut down these thoughts, it was morning and she had to get a grip
on the situation. It was time to make an exit. Her eyes darted across the room
– her clothes were all the way downstairs and she held a groan in check
as gently she tried to sidle off the bed and put some distance between herself
and Alex.