Chapter 34
HALLE
The doorbell rang just as I was seconds away from having my sixth orgasm in the last twenty-four hours.
Wait. Maybe it was the seventh? Might’ve even been the eighth. I’d lost count. I wondered if there was an entry in the Guinness World Records book for most orgasms delivered by one man in a day? If so, Jake should seriously consider entering.
He was so dedicated to showing me a good time with his tongue that when the doorbell rang a second time, Jake still didn’t flinch. He continued licking me with gusto. And I was totally here for it.
I squeezed my eyes shut again and pushed his head deeper.
‘Halle?’ a voice boomed from the door. ‘Are you okay?’
My eyes flicked open. That sounded like Sammie.
I wanted to cry out that I was more than okay and ask if she wouldn’t mind returning once I’d finished coming, but when she knocked and called out again, I noticed the concern in her voice and didn’t want her to worry.
And I definitely didn’t want her to call housekeeping and risk them opening the door to see Jake’s head between my thighs.
‘Y-yeah!’ I called out, trying to catch my breath.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she replied. ‘I’ve been calling you because you missed the briefing and you were due to check out of your rooms two hours ago so I wanted to make sure you were okay.’
Check out? Two hours ago?
Jake’s head bolted up. Clearly he was as surprised as I was about Sammie’s announcement.
I reached for my phone.
‘Shit! It’s almost two o’clock!’ I whispered.
I was about to say that I didn’t know how that had happened, but we’d been up half of the night shagging. Then when we woke up after ten, Jake told me about his agent hassling him.
Once I’d posted the photo, he’d gone down on me before going another round.
We’d showered, come back to bed then we must’ve fallen asleep.
And when we woke up about fifteen minutes ago, Jake had very kindly offered to eat me out again and I was raised to have manners, so it would’ve been rude to refuse.
I had no idea it was so late though.
‘Hold on,’ I called out. ‘I should speak to her,’ I whispered to Jake. He nodded, gave me one last long, slow lick, then sat up.
I jumped off the bed, dragging on a dressing gown and tying it tightly before heading to the front door.
‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Sorry. I didn’t know it was so late. What do you mean we have to check out? We’re here for another week?’
She smirked and I saw her eyes trail upwards to my hair. It was probably a mess and I got the feeling from the look she gave me that she knew exactly why we’d missed the briefing.
‘Don’t worry! We’re not kicking you out.
Once you’ve been here a week, we transfer couples to a luxury villa to help you get to know each other better.
Although something tells me you’ve already checked that box…
’ She flashed a knowing smile. ‘I couldn’t reach Jake either.
Have you heard from him?’ Sammie raised her eyebrow.
Yep. She definitely knew.
Jake had also put his phone on silent once we’d done the Instagram post.
I turned back to the bed and saw him sitting there in his boxers. Fuck, he was hot. I gave him a look that I hoped said: shall we fess up? When he nodded, I turned back to Sammie.
‘Jake’s here.’ I opened the door wider so Sammie could see and when she caught sight of him, her eyes bulged.
‘Ohhhh… I had a feeling…’ She grinned. ‘But I had to make sure, y’know. Just in case you hadn’t attacked each other or something!’
‘We’re all good,’ Jake said as he walked to the door.
‘So I see!’ Sammie smirked. ‘When you’re ready, come to reception and I’ll take you to your villa.’
Sammie rubbed her chin a few times as she looked at Jake, then grinned.
Strange.
‘Thanks. We’ll be quick,’ Jake said.
‘I’m sure Halle would prefer if you weren’t!’ Sammie cackled and walked off. ‘I’ll stall housekeeping for you, don’t worry!’ she called out.
Jake and I laughed then closed the door.
When I turned to face him, my eyes popped.
‘Shit!’
‘What?’ Jake frowned.
‘Whilst Sammie was talking to us, she kept rubbing her chin. I thought it was strange, but now I understand why.’ I shook my head.
‘Why?’
‘Because you’ve got my juices all over your chin!’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘Nope.’
‘I thought I licked everything off! Oh, well,’ he shrugged. ‘It’s a badge of honour. If you haven’t already figured it out, I’m not ashamed to say that I’m addicted to eating your pussy, so sue me.’
‘Sounds like something you should wear on a T-shirt!’ I joked.
‘Proud Pussy Eater,’ he grinned. ‘Has a nice ring to it!’
We both burst out laughing.
‘Come on. We better get packing. Looks like we’re moving in together!’
* * *
As Sammie waved goodbye and we closed the door to our brand-new luxury villa, I let out a squeal.
‘This place is incredible!’ I jumped up and down like an excited child. I thought the room I was staying in before was fancy, but this was on a whole different level.
The villa had a huge open-plan living room with a plush white sofa and massive TV screen. The neutral décor looked like it was straight out of a minimalist interiors magazine.
There were two bedrooms, but the master bedroom was insane. It had a four-poster bed, complete with translucent white curtains and gorgeous white and gold cushions.
There was a bathroom with a ginormous walk-in shower and we had a plush kitchen too.
But the outdoor area was even more mind-blowing. As well as having our own small pool, there was a hot tub outside the bedroom patio and a large daybed.
Wow.
‘I guess this is all pretty standard for you,’ I said, remembering that Jake was famous and probably stayed at places like this all the time.
‘Not really,’ Jake said as he sat down on the sofa. I sat next to him and OMG, it felt like I was sitting on a cloud. ‘At the height of my fame I stayed in a lot of nice places and yeah, my house was pretty special too, but it’s been a while since I stayed anywhere like this.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Because…’ He looked at me, then his gaze dropped to the floor. ‘I’m broke, Halle. Not just broke like down to my last thousand bucks. I mean, barely have a cent to my name kind of broke.’
Shock rolled through me. I mean, I knew he wasn’t as famous as he used to be, and he’d mentioned his accountant screwed him over, but I kind of assumed he meant he ‘only’ had a few hundred thousand in the bank rather than millions. Y’know, like first-world, rich people problems.
‘I’m so sorry.’ I took his hands in mine. ‘I had no idea. If you don’t mind me asking, what happened? You’ve had loads of hit songs, so I thought you’d be okay?’
‘My biggest hits were with the band and when we signed those contracts we were young and na?ve so I never made much from that. As for the money I made from my solo stuff, my accountant screwed me over. I trusted him so didn’t keep a close enough eye on him and not only did he steal from me for years, he didn’t file my taxes properly so a few years ago I got stung with a huge tax bill that almost wiped me out and then…
then some other stuff happened that I had to pay for which finished me off. ’
‘Can’t you remortgage your house or something to free up some cash?’
‘Had to sell my home to pay my debts.’
‘Shit. So are you renting now?’
‘Nope.’ He blew out a defeated breath. ‘Before I came here, I was crashing on my best friend’s couch. His wife wants me to move out though, so I’ve no idea where I’ll go after I leave this place.’
Wow.
I blinked repeatedly as I tried to take everything in.
‘Jake.’ I squeezed his hand. ‘That’s awful. I’m really sorry. It seems so unfair. You’ve worked your arse off since you were a teenager and now…’ I paused, worried about making him feel worse about the situation.
‘And now I have nothing to show for it,’ he said.
‘I wasn’t going to say that. I… all I meant was, for everything you’ve done and achieved, it’s not right that you’re in this situation. But don’t you get royalties or something every time your song is played?’
‘Yeah, but no one really plays my songs any more. Or so my agent tells me. And anything I do earn goes straight to paying my debts.’ He exhaled again.
‘Fuck. Why the hell am I telling you this? We were having a good time and now I’ve made everything heavy.
Why don’t we test out that bed? Looks pretty nice, huh? ’
‘No,’ I said firmly, looking him deep in his eyes.
‘Just because we agreed that this isn’t a relationship, doesn’t meant that we can’t talk about serious stuff.
I know we haven’t known each other long, but I like you.
I care about you. I want to know that you’ll be okay when you leave here.
I don’t know anyone in LA that you could stay with, but I can ask my best friend Vanessa if she does and… ’
‘It’s okay.’ Jake squeezed my hand. ‘I really appreciate you looking out for me, but I’ll be fine. I shouldn’t have brought it up. It’s kinda depressing. I’m gonna go for a walk on the beach. Clear my head.’ He got up, then kissed me softly on the forehead. ‘Do me a favour though, please.’
‘Course.’
‘When I get back, can we pretend we didn’t have this conversation?
My life has been pretty shitty lately and, well, this past week with you has been awesome and I know it’s not the responsible thing to do, but I just wanna stay in this happy bubble a little longer and have fun before I have to face up to reality again, okay? ’
‘Okay.’
‘Thanks.’ He kissed me again, this time on the lips, sending a zing shooting up my spine. ‘I’ll catch up with you later.’
As I watched him leave, my stomach sank. I felt for him, so much. I wished there was something I could do to help.
Just as I was racking my brain, my phone buzzed. It was a notification that I’d had a missed call from Vanessa. I dialled her straight back.
‘Hey!’ I said.