“Hey, don’t knock it. Being a daredevil got me into this plane and married to your mother,” Doug would wink in response, “now get this bird up to Vh and let’s soar, hey kid?”
Douglas Somerset. Dying. Tom takes another desperate breath, struggling with the thought.
“Tom?” he hears Corentin ask kindly. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Tom gasps out. “I’m fine.”
“You need to come home, Tom. You need to—”
“I have to go,” Tom says abruptly. He pulls the phone away from his ear and disconnects the call, cutting off Corentin and his protests.
His father can’t be dying, he tells himself. His brother is wrong. He’s just trying to get him home. It’s just another attempt to get Tom back in the family fold — another attempt to control the direction of his life.
When he goes back to the Hotel La Reine, Ari is still sleeping. Tom curls up in the bed beside her, pulling her nakedand intoxicating warmth towards him. He allows himself to run a hand over her skin, dipping his fingers between her thighs and stroking her silky and wet heat. She wakes with a moan upon her lips, a moan that turns into a smile when she opens her eyes and sees him next to her.
“You need to stop,” she says softly, even as she opens her legs wider to Tom’s searching hands. “We ran out of condoms last night — we don’t have any protection—”
But Tom is already covering her mouth with his own, silencing her wise words. He wants to bury himself and his troubles within her, wants to feel her gorgeous and slippery warmth clenched around him. He kisses her again, trailing his mouth down to her breasts, and now Ari is out of words, and so is he.
Afterwards, he sees Ari counting days on her fingers, and feels a dart of worry. They’d had slip-ups before, had given in to lust at times they shouldn’t, and it had always been okay. Still, he feels nervous until he sees Ari smile.
“We should be okay,” she tells him. “It’s the wrong time for anything to have — well, it was the wrong time.”
“I’ll get condoms as soon as I can,” he promises. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”
But Ari silences him with a kiss. “It’s fine,” she says again. “I’m as much at fault. But next time we need to be more careful, okay?”
He nods, but it’s all in vain, because there isn’t a next time.
The second call comes just after they arrive in Germany, and this time it’s his father.
“Tom, please,” his father begs, and Tom looks over at Ari.
“I need to go,” he tells her. “My father is sick. I need to leave.”
* * *
“What didn’t you know?” Sasha said again, and Tom could hear his heart hammering in his chest. He opened his mouth to speak, before closing it again rapidly. He felt sweat beginning to form on both his neck and brow, and he licked his lips, clenching and unclenching his hands at the table.
“What didn’t you know?” Now there was a dangerous tone to Sasha’s voice, and he looked over at his mother desperately.
But Marnie, for once, was silent. She was staring at Tom in shock, horror and something that looked a little like happiness. She was pleased, Tom realised. She was happy at this unexpected turn of events.
“He didn’t know that Ari was bringing her daughter,” a quick and cheerful voice suddenly broke in, and both Tom and Marnie turned to Sebastian, who was all at once by Sasha’s side and refilling her wine glass merrily. “And I know what everyone is thinking, it isn’t professional to bring a child into our work. But I can assure you both, Sasha andTom. . .” the knowing tone to Sebastian’s voice made Tom snap to attention, and he saw Sebastian shoot him a look “. . . we will be nothing but professional where your special day is concerned. Your happiness is our priority. In fact, I might just call Ari now and tell her to check into a hotel with Reine. Luis can come here, and—”
“No.”
Tom looked up at the sharp tone his mother was using. Marnie was sitting at the table, her shoulders tense and eyes dark, staring at Sebastian dangerously.
“No?” Sebastian asked. “With all due respect, Mrs Somerset, you of all people can see that Ari bringing Reine here would beentirely inappropriate.”
“Because of the wedding,” Sasha piped up. “This is my day and, honestly, I don’t want some brat running around and getting all of the attention.”
At the word ‘brat’ Sebastian seemed to tense. Tom watched as he bit his lip, clearly swallowing down a response. “As you say, darling,” he finally purred, and Tom heard the lie on his lips.
He hates her,Tom realised.He hates Sasha.
He looked over to his mother, who was also staring at Sasha with venom.And my mom hates her too. Everyone hates her but me, and even I sometimes...
