Beneath This Man (13 page)

‘Yes!’

‘You’re staying with me?’ His grip of my breast tightens, his hips powering forward relentlessly.

‘Oh God! Oh God! Jesse!’

‘Answer the fucking question, Ava!’ His unremitting blows are sending me wild, my head spinning, my core trembling violently.

‘Yes!’ I scream on a rushed release of air as I’m rocketed skyward in a deliriously wonderful sensation of satisfaction, buzzing from top to toe, my back arching, my body in fits of spasms.

‘Oh yes!’ He collapses on top of me, pinning me to the worktop.

I flop my arms above my head on an exhausted sigh and let my muscles naturally contract around him as we lay panting and sweating on the island. I’m completely and utterly shattered. I could go back to bed, but I’ve got to go to work and not that I would admit it to Jesse, I really don’t want to. I would rather he carry me upstairs and love me all day long –maybe longer.

‘Morning.’ I say between pants.

He lifts his head up to look at me. ‘God, I fucking love you.’

‘I know you do. You shaved.’ I breathe. I really could go back to bed. I feel like I’ve been on one of his torturous runs.

‘You want me to grow it back?’

I reach up and run my palm down his newly smoothed face. ‘No, I like seeing all of you.’

He turns his face into my palm and kisses it, then pushes himself up and plants a kiss on my stomach before withdrawing from me to sort his trousers out.

He stares down at me as he refastens his belt then wipes his moist, lush lips with the back of his hand. ‘I’ve got to go. Get out of my sight before I take you again,’ He clasps my hand and pulls me off the counter before dropping a long sensual kiss on my lips. ‘Now.’

I debate remaining exactly where I am – I want more, but he seems content with getting on with his day without me and that has to be a good thing. I don’t want to derail him, so I saunter off butt naked and well aware that he’s watching me. I stop at the archway and turn to face him, finding him standing with his hands in his pockets, legs spread slightly, his eyes twinkling. He’s studying me very carefully.

‘Have a nice day.’ I smile, reaching down and running my finger over my moist cleft, and then up to my mouth. Oh, I really am a little temptress.

‘Fuck off, Ava.’ he warns.

I grin and pivot, taking myself upstairs. I am such a slut! But I don’t care. I’m pleasantly surprised by his happy persona this morning. I had been bracing myself for a challenge, trying to get myself out of the penthouse Jesse-free and on with my working day. This is progress. I’m pleased.

It’s Monday and I have a lot of work to sort out.  I feel powerful and I need to power dress to enhance my confident attitude. Thank God Kate took the initiative to pack some work clothes and… my black, sleeveless pencil dress.

I shower and make the best job I can with my hair before slipping my dress on and grabbing my red heels on the way downstairs, but I come to an abrupt halt at the door.

Shit!

I haven’t got my car and some of the files I need are in there. I exit the penthouse hastily and race downstairs to find Clive taking a delivery outside the foyer. I run out into the sunshine towards him while putting my shades on. ‘Clive, I need a cab!’

‘Ava, how are you this morning?’ He beams at me. ‘Your transport is here.’

‘My transport?’

He points towards a black Range Rover, and I see John leaning against the hood on his phone. He has his customary shades on and his black suit. He nods at me, as per his usual greeting.

I start walking towards him, but remember something. I swing back to face Clive. ‘Did Jesse speak to you about the visitor he had yesterday?’

‘No, Ava.’ Clive makes his way back to his desk.

Hmmm. I thought not. I carry on my way and as I approach John, I catch the tail end of his conversation.

‘She’s here, Jesse, I’ll be there soon.’ His rumbling voice always makes him sound like he’s in a bad mood. He hangs up and nods at the car, his indication that he wants me to get in.

I take myself around the front and climb in. If I wasn’t in such a rush, I would probably complain. ‘Why are you here?’ I ask as I settle in the passenger seat.

‘Jesse asked me to take you to work.’ He doesn’t sound impressed.

I don’t want to put him out. Jesse must have realised before me that my car wasn’t here, but I could have just got a cab. There’s no need to arrange lifts for me and anyway, why didn’t he just hang around and take me himself?

‘I need to get my car. Do you mind? It’s at Kate’s, she lives in Notting Hill.’

He nods his acceptance, lets his window down and leans his arm on the frame. He looks like one mean mother fucker. I wonder how he and Jesse know each other. Yes, he works for Jesse, but he seems to be in the know about the drink problem too, or lack of problem –whichever. A million questions dance on my lips, but I resist asking him. If there is one thing I do know about Big John, it’s that he’s not a big talker, but then one question just shoots right out.

‘Did you get the gates sorted?’

His face turns slowly towards me and I see his forehead slightly wrinkled, an indication that he’s frowning. I hold his stare, but he still doesn’t answer.

‘The gates of The Manor.’ I prompt. ‘They malfunctioned last Sunday.’

He starts nodding and turns his face back to the road. ‘All sorted, girl.’

I bet they are. Does John know what I’m thinking?

We travel in silence, except for John’s humming, and he drops me at Kate’s. ‘Thanks, John.’ I call, jumping out of his car.

‘S’all good.’ he rumbles, and he’s gone.

It’s eight. I have time, so I run up the path to Kate’s house.

I head straight through to find her whisking a gigantic bowl of sugar and butter. ‘Hey.’ I dunk my finger in her bowl.

She swats it with her spoon. ‘Out! I’ve got so much to do! I got absolutely nothing done yesterday.’ She’s really flustered which is a million miles away from her usual calm and collective façade. What’s got her in this state?

‘Oh yeah?’ I smirk.

‘Fun!’ she snaps, tipping flour onto the measuring scales. I take the sensible decision to leave it right there. ‘How’s your brother?’ she asks.

Oh, we’ve gone from Dan to brother? ‘He’s good.’ I won’t go into too many details.

‘Jesse?’ she asks, her tongue hanging out as she bends down to gage the scales.

‘Yeah,’ I flop down into one of the tub chairs.

She straightens up and looks at me questioningly. I haven’t got time at the moment to go into too many details, there is far too much to get her opinion on.

‘Ava?’

I sigh. ‘He wants me to move in. I said yes, but that’s only because he fucked some so called sense into me after I said no. He followed it up with a reminder fuck this morning.’ I shrug.

Kate gapes at me. ‘Wow!’

I laugh, ‘Yes.’

‘Isn’t it a bit soon?’ she asks.

The question shocks me, but I’m glad she’s of the same mindset as me. ‘I think so. He wants me day and night and a little bit in between. He’s bad enough already, with his demands, control and worrying. I can’t lose my identity.’

‘Well said. Have you told him this?’ She tosses the flour into the bowl and starts mixing again.

‘No. Hey what went down at The Manor on Saturday night and why didn’t you answer any of my calls?’ I fire the questions accusingly.

She shoots her bright blues to mine. ‘Nothing!’ she barks defensively. ‘I forgot to call you back.’

I’m immediately suspicious. ‘I was referring to the police turning up.’ I say with a raised brow. She was a bit quick to shoot that answer at me. What has she been up to?

‘Oh!’ She gets all flustered and flappy as she returns to mixing her cake mixture a little too frantically. ‘I don’t know. Jesse turned up and the police left shortly after.’

‘Hey, chick!’

Sam’s cheerful voice comes from the doorway and we both look up in unison.

I cough, looking anywhere and everywhere, except at Sam. ‘Hi.’ I wave a flappy hand in his direction. He’s a nightmare. I feel my face burning up as I glance at Kate in desperation, silently begging her to do something about the cheeky sod.

‘Samuel, put some clothes on.’ Kate scorns him on a small smile.

‘I’ve come to help.’ he whines.

I continue to direct my eyes all over Kate’s workshop to avoid him. Jesse was right, he is an exhibitionist. He’s completely naked, except for one of Kate’s miniscule Cath Kidston aprons, and as he walks past me, my eyes drift and I get a right eyeful of his tight, naked butt.

‘You’ve already put me way behind.’ Kate moans, slapping his naked rump with a spatula full of cake mixture.

‘I hope you’re going to dispose of that now!’ I laugh. She shrugs and starts licking the spatula on a smile. She’s enjoying my discomfort.

Sam turns to face me with the biggest grin on his cheeky face, clearly enjoying my embarrassment too. And then he bends slightly, shoving his arse in Kate's face. ‘Now you’re going to have to lick it all off.’

I jump out of the tub chair in a complete fluster. ‘I’d better be going.’ I blurt, my voice high and squeaky. I don’t want to witness the impending clean-up operation of Sam’s caked buttocks.

‘See ya!’ Kate laughs as I make my escape.

‘Hey, how’s my buddy?’ Sam calls.

I don’t look back for fear of what I might see. ‘Fine!’ I shout, slamming the door behind me. Kate’s short, curt response to my enquiries about The Manor is making my head spin. I don’t want to even think what I’m thinking.

I drive myself to work. I would’ve just grabbed my files and jumped on the tube, but I plan on collecting my remaining belongings from Matt after work. That chore, I am not looking forward to. I’ve been putting it off all week in light of his telephone call to my parents. I’ve not spoke to him about it, and I don’t plan to either. What would be the point? I don’t want to get into a spitting match with him and in fact, I don’t ever want to see him again. Not after today, anyway.

I arrive at the office on time to a huge bunch of calla lilies lay across my desk. I sigh. How does he arrange flowers so quickly?

I find the card.

You’re a savage and a tease.

You drive me crazy,

I love you.

Jx

I drive him crazy? The man is delusional. I fire a quick text to him;

I know u do. Flowers r beautiful. Thank u for the ride…2 work. Ax

I settle at my desk and bring up my email and list of things to do, but I’m quickly distracted from my work when I remember that I’ve not taken my pill. I grab my bag from the floor and rummage through.

After a good few minutes of searching, I have my bag turned upside down on the desk and everything sprawled all over the place.

‘Shit shit shit!’ I curse. Please, not again.

‘Morning, flower.’ Patrick strolls into the office.

‘Morning,’ I don’t look up from my futile searching. I deserve a medal for being so bloody careless. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ I ask, scrunching up a handful of loose receipts and chucking them in my wastepaper bin.

Patrick grunts a few times. ‘No, I bloody didn’t. Look!’  

I drag my attention from the pile of handbag crap all over my desk to see what I’m supposed to be looking at. ‘What?’ I ask. He points to his head, so I get out of my chair and lean up on my tiptoes, but I can’t see anything. ‘Patrick, what?’

‘That, there, look!’ He bends slightly.

‘Patrick, what am I looking at?’

‘There, that ruddy great bald patch!’ he says, his voice annoyed.

I scan his mop of thick silver hair looking for a bald patch, but I’m damned if I can see one. ‘Patrick, there is no bald patch.’ I appease him.

‘Damn well would be if I didn’t take my vitamins.’ he grumbles. ‘Nice flowers.’

‘Oh yes. My brother.’ I blurt out quickly. I need to have a word with Jesse about this.

‘How lovely.’ He smiles, making his way to his office.

My phone starts dancing across my desk, alerting me of a text.

YOU are beautiful and I know you know. Cheeky! I miss you. Jx

He misses me. I melt all over my handbag contents. I miss him too, but I’m now dreading having to go back to Doctor Monroe for the third time. This is ridiculous.

With my phone in my hand, I decide I may as well get the one call I really don’t want to make out of the way. I dial Matt, and it rings twice before he answers.

‘Ava?’ He sounds pleased to hear from me. I want to smash his face in immediately.

‘Hi, I could do with picking those bits up.’ I get straight to the point. If I didn’t need my things, I wouldn’t call him at all. Just thinking of him makes my skin crawl; talking to him has me physically itching. I was with him for four years. How did this happen?

‘Of course.’ He’s too eager and it doesn’t sit well.

‘Can I swing by after work? Say, six-ish?’ I ask.

‘Sure, I look forward to it.’ he replies cheerfully.

I want to hiss down the phone at him, tell him exactly what I think of him, but I know he is probably expecting some sort of backlash from me. I’m not going to indulge him. What I do and who I do it with has nothing to do with him.

Why did you ring my parents, you worm?

‘Great, see you then.’  Why did I say that for? It’s not great at all. He may be looking forward to it, but I’m certainly not. Once I have the rest of my things, I won’t ever be seeing him again.

‘Yeah, see you later.’ he sings. He sounds almost smug.  

I shudder and hang up. If I could, I would send Kate around to get my things, but I know that will just end in tears and possible police intervention. I’ll be in and out in ten minutes. I can resist the urge to pound on him for the short amount of time it’s going to take me to gather my stuff and retreat.

‘You want a coffee, Ava?’

I look up and see Sally fiddling with her ponytail. There’s something different about her. ‘Please. Did you have a good weekend, Sal?’ I ask. Why does she look different? She shuffles on the spot and blushes ten shades of crimson, and then I notice that her high necked blouses have been replaced with a scoop neck top. Wow! Sal has great tits! Who would have thought?