I gagged, my nostrils flaring as I fought for breath. At last, just when I thought I was going to pass out, he pulled back and let my tongue slide along his shaft, flicking over the head, hungrily, before taking him back into my mouth. When the door burst open a few seconds later, it could only mean one thing. Trouble.
ONE
ISABEL
The sun was rising when I left the club. It had been a hell of a night. Just making it to the queue for the taxis was a challenge. As I staggered out, I bumped into a gaggle of middle-aged women who scowled at me while I leant back against the wall of the club.
They were talking about me, I could hear them clear as a bell. Did they think I was asleep because I had my eyes closed or did they not care if I could hear?
“Downright indecent.”
“If she leans down any further, they’ll be out in the street.”
“And they wonder why guys won’t leave them alone.”
I ignored them. Just because they were unhappy with my outfit didn’t mean I was. If you’ve got it, flaunt it, that’s what I always said. And I had it.
I’d flaunted it too. All night my friends and I had been the centre of attention. It wasn’t that revealing an outfit anyway, short skirt, sequinned halter-neck, platform heels. I’d worn far more revealing stuff before without anyone commenting.
The guys in the club had been impressed. They’d been fawning over me and my friends all night. I’d been there with Charlotte and Abbey but neither of them had my stamina. Charlotte had wandered out at three and Abbey had gone about ten minutes later, looking greener than the liqueur she so pretentiously insisted on drinking.
I stayed on, ignoring her half-hearted attempts to get me to take her home when she went. I had three men taking turns to buy me drinks and I had no intention of stopping them. I only left when the place finally shut, joining the queue for taxis while doing my best to stay awake. I opened my eyes just enough to see how far the queue had moved and that was when I saw that one of my attempted suitors had joined the line and was sidling over to me, hoping to jump the queue.
“You look as good out here as you did in there,” he said, moving too close to me, not looking anywhere near as handsome in the cold light of early morning.
I heard the women in front of me tutting as I twisted in place, doing my best to stop myself from falling over. I was worried that I might collapse if I stood up straight without the wall for support. “I don’t feel that good.” I groaned as I said it, surprised by how slurred my words sounded.
“Oh, really?” he said, taking a step towards me and hooking his arm through mine. “Why don’t we take you somewhere to rest?”
“Saw her in there,” one of the women said, looking straight at me with dagger eyes. “Cheap as her clothes, getting men to buy her drinks all night.”
“Actually I’m Jonathan Fleming’s daughter,” I shouted across to her, feeling the guy’s hand tightening its grip on me, saying it as much for his benefit as for theirs. “One phone call and I could have a limo here to pick me up.”
“Course you could, just taking a taxi for fun, are you?”
“Leave it,” the man said as I began glaring at the woman. “Ignore them.”
I turned back to the guy with his arm still round me. I think he was called Greg but I could have been wrong, I’d had a lot of drinks since he’d introduced himself. “You know Jonathan Fleming, right? You don’t think I’m making it up, do you?”
He paused before answering, a long enough pause to make the women laugh and me scowl. “You do,” I snapped.
He shrugged, his eyes fixing on someone else. He moved down the queue without another word. I watched him, suddenly feeling suspicious. It was hard to put my finger on anything specific but it was like he was looking for something and whatever it was, I was too difficult a choice.
He found it past the group of women. There was a girl on her own, a girl far too young to be out clubbing. His arm was already sliding round her shoulders by the time I pushed past the gaggle of women, stumbling towards him.
“I’m not interested,” the girl was saying, doing her best to remove his hand from her shoulder. He was much stronger than her and nobody else seemed to have noticed her struggles.
“Don’t play hard to get,” he replied, his voice having a hint of menace to it all of a sudden.
“Get off her!” I snapped, shoving him in the small of the back. It wasn’t a strong push but it caught him off balance, sending him crashing into a group of men who immediately started pushing him back. It looked like a brawl was on the verge of breaking out. I turned to move away but the group of women were still snarling at me.