22. Jet
Chapter 22
Jet
James Callaghan: Let’s talk.
I place my phone on the table. It’s 7AM. Callaghan’s up to something. Last night, he told me he wasn’t interested in a deal, yet now he suddenly wants to talk?
Turning my attention back to my laptop screen, large, trusting blue eyes shine back at me from the article.
“Jesus,” I mutter, pushing my finger and thumb into my eye sockets.
Ava pads up behind me in just a silk robe before I have a chance to minimize the article. “Jet, what are you—?”
“Nothing.”
She places a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from closing the laptop. “It’s okay. I’ve seen it before.”
Deep lines etch into her forehead as she stares at the headline of the news article .
“ Forest Girl – The thirteen-year-old, assumed dead, was found barely alive three days after the fatal plane crash that killed her father and the pilot.”
The picture accompanying it must be from before the crash. Ava’s grinning, her auburn hair flowing around her shoulders as she stands between a man and woman with matching smiles.
“Mum and Dad,” she explains as I close down the laptop.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have seen me looking at that. It was thoughtless of me.”
“It’s just facts in that article. I told you the worst parts.”
I reach for her hand, but she slides it off my shoulder and walks over to the open glass doors.
“What’s the plan for today then, Boss?” Her shoulders bunch up as she stands with her back to me.
“Callaghan’s texted me. I’m meeting him.”
“Do you want me to come?” She glances back over her shoulder.
“No. I need to do this one alone.”
“Okay.” She turns away, wrapping her arms around herself.
As I join her, her lips tip into a smile. “I didn’t think they’d stock this brand here. Seeing as it’s from a UK supermarket and all.” She takes the bottle of grapefruit juice from me.
“Really? ”
“Our fridge was full of it when we checked in. Funny, isn’t it?” She knocks her shoulder against mine, her eyes lighting up.
“Hilarious,” I murmur, looking at her as warmth blankets my chest.
We stare at each other for a few moments before I tilt her chin up. Her pupils dilate as I run the pad of my thumb over her lower lip.
“I’m going for a shower.”
“You should. You’re really sweaty from all that skipping.” She screws up her nose, but her eyes glitter.
“Okay…” I run my thumb over her lip more, dipping it into her mouth to graze the underside of her top teeth before cupping her jaw.
“Okay,” she repeats.
“Okay,” I echo.
I press the lightest of kisses to her lips, energy racing to my dick as she sucks in a quick breath and leans into me.
“There’s somewhere I want to take you tonight. You’ll need your bikini… the white one.”
That frilly little thing she calls swimwear is sexy as fuck on her. It barely covers her ass and makes me want to spank it and leave my mark.
“The white one?”
Nodding, I smirk, walking backward, enjoying the way her eyes narrow at me.
“Half of the engines you asked for. That’s what I’m offering. You give me the extra slots and they’re yours.”
I keep my hands still against my legs as I lean back in the chair inside the hotel’s open air cocktail lounge. The urge to smack Callaghan in the jaw is overwhelming. He’s enjoying this. He knows full well that half the number of engines I asked for might as well be none. It won’t help.
“Half?” I roll my lips, pretending to consider it.
“I think that’s more than generous of me.”
“Of course you would think that.” I reach for the glass of brandy on the table and take a mouthful.
“If you want the full amount, you know what I want in return. You could stop this whole display of following me around.”
My grip tightens around the glass before placing it down. “And you know that it will never be yours. It’s non-negotiable.” I lean back, steepling my fingers in front of my chest as I hold Callaghan’s gaze .
He mirrors my posture, relaxing into his seat and letting his gaze roam across the open terrace of the cocktail lounge and out onto the beach.
“There are some positives to you turning up, though.”
I follow his gaze and my entire body stiffens.
“My wife’s enjoying getting to know your girlfriend. She’s an interesting girl.”
Ava’s strolling along the shore in a blue bikini top and shorts, her head turned toward the water as she gazes out, lost in her own world.
“I recall the plane crash that killed her father. The press reported on it for weeks… Such a tragic story.”
I jump forward in my seat, knocking our table and almost causing our glasses to crash to the floor. “She’s got nothing to do with this. So let’s keep it to business.”
Callaghan pulls his eyes away from Ava, and I pin him with a glare, which he returns with a cold smile.
“You know what I want. Think about it,” he says.
He stands and walks away. I force my ass to stay in the chair so I don’t knock him out. My gaze tracks back to Ava, walking along with a serene smile. I inhale slowly, some tension leaving my shoulders as she stops and bends to retrieve something from the sand.
I pick up my brandy, a frisson of victory rumbling in my gut. Callaghan’s negotiating. Which means I’m getting closer. He might think he’s in control. But if he’s already offering half, he’ll give me the rest. He just doesn’t know it yet .
I drink, warmth enveloping my throat as Ava studies the large shell she’s picked up. Her eyes lift and she looks straight at me as if she can sense me. She waves, before holding the shell up.
I tip my chin in acknowledgment, and a smile lights up her face. My shoulders relax as she walks in my direction.
I’ll get everything I need from Callaghan, even if it wrecks me to do it.
“This is incredible.” Ava spins in the water, her eyes wide in wonder as she looks at the glow surrounding us. “Have you been here before?”
“No.”
“How did you even know about this place?”
I swim through the chest-height water to get closer to her. The light from the bio-luminescent plankton surrounds us as I pull her into my arms.
“It’s famous for it. Well, Ton Sai is. But this place…” I look around at the deserted area of the beach. “A friend told me about it. ”
“I can’t believe it.” She smiles as she wraps her arms around my neck and looks at the effervescent glow lighting up the water around us. “It’s so bright. So beautiful.”
She looks at me when I don’t respond. The hint of vulnerability in her eyes has me pulling her lips to mine. “It is. So fucking beautiful .”
I kiss her, relishing the way she whimpers around my tongue and pushes her body into mine like she can’t get close enough.
“You’re glowing. Just like in New York.”
Her eyes shine as she lifts her shoulders, then drops them with a grin.
“It’s flying to new places and getting bitten by the adventure bug. I’m not Ava-stuck-in-England-Roberts anymore. You should call me—”
“Firefly.”
“What?”
I stroke a strand of red hair back from her eyes. “You’re a bright light. Radiant and captivating… and distracting me constantly.”
She frowns, wrinkling her nose. “I thought you said Callaghan was opening up to agreeing on something. That you’re getting somewhere?”
“I am.”
She places her palm over my chest and eases back to study my face. “But if I’m distracting you, I shouldn’t have come. This deal is huge.”
“It is. It’s everything.”
Worry flashes in her eyes and I curse myself for making her feel any kind of responsibility to what’s going on. For being the cause of anything other than pleasure to bloom in her eyes when she looks at me. Because physical pleasure is all that we’ll ever have. There’s no outcome where I won’t cause her pain in the end. She deserves to be loved. Something she’ll never get with me.
“Callaghan’s shifting. I’ll get what we need. It’ll be over soon.”
She looks at me skeptically. Heat flares through my chest as my attention drops to her mouth. I’m a selfish prick. An asshole, just like she’s called me. Because I don’t have the willpower to resist taking her in all the ways she’ll let me for as long as I can. To make her mine and pretend the inevitable crash won’t happen.
To accept that I will break her, and she’ll hate me.
It’s only a matter of time.
“Do you regret what’s happened between us? Me being here? Last night got pretty heavy and…”
“Not for one second.”
I lift her legs around my waist and hold her under the ass with one arm as I rest my forehead against hers.
“Not for one fucking second.”
“But I’m distracting you—”
I cut her off with a kiss. “I never said that was a bad thing.” I squeeze a handful of her ass. “I want your distractions. Every single one.”
She sinks into me, running the tip of her tongue along the seam of my mouth .
“Especially the bratty ones,” I murmur against her lips, taking the lower one beneath my teeth and gently nipping it until her nails scrape the back of my head.
“You’re so rude,” she tuts.
“You ever fucked in a glowing ocean before?”
She giggles, her pulse beating beneath my tongue as I lick down the side of her neck.
“No. Have you?”
“This one time. With a girl who’s fiery as hell. One that likes to fuck in the ocean and then get eaten.”
“What?” She smirks. “By a shark?”
I shrug. “Maybe. We’re in their territory. I doubt we’d see them coming.”
She whips her head side to side studying the surface of the ocean as her grip tightens on my neck. “You’re joking?” Her eyes widen at my serious expression. “Put me down. I want to get out.” She tries to remove her legs from my waist.
“Stop wriggling.”
She squeals as movement of a fish beneath the surface causes a ripple to break nearby.
“Stop,” I command as she struggles in my arms.
“Put me the fuck down, Jet!”
I want to spank her ass, but can’t in the water, so I grab her chin instead and force her eyes to meet mine. She glares at me.
“Do as I say, Ava.”
“You’re being an asshole. Put me down.” Her hands ball into fists against my chest.
“There are no sharks here. It’s a cove. ”
She stops struggling, but her chest still rises and falls in anxious pants, so I carry her closer to the shore, stopping when the water reaches my groin.
“Now quit the attitude or I won’t spend the rest of tonight with my head between your thighs eating you out.”
Her brows shoot up her forehead. “You bastard. You made me think there were sharks on purpose.”
I clasp her chin again and drag my thumb over her pouty lower lip.
“And why would I do that? Do you think I like you not listening to me? Like it when you do things that make me keep track of the number of times I need to spank your pretty, round ass?”
Her eyes narrow.
“You’re right.” She moves her hand down my chest, forcing it between our bodies and into my swimming trunks. She runs it over my rock-hard dick, moving lower, before digging her nails into my ball sack, enough to make me hiss.
“You wouldn’t do something so mean.” Her nails push deeper, and she smirks as my chest rumbles with a tortured groan. “But if there were sharks, I’m pretty sure they’d eat you first. Lying CEOs are probably their favorite. Extra salty.”
I lean forward to kiss her, but she tugs my balls, making me curse.
“That’s it, you fucking asked for it,” I hiss .
I pull the white ties against her hips undone and rip her bikini panties off. “I’ve warned you before not to be a brat.” I toss them away from us into the water.
“Jet! They’ll float away.”
“Let them fucking float.”
She stares at the white fabric drifting out to sea. “I like them!” She tries to pry herself from my arms again.
“Stop being a brat,” I growl.
She opens her mouth to protest but I clamp my hand over it, making her eyes snap to mine.
“I’m a fucking billionaire. I’ll buy you more… I’ll buy you whatever the hell you want, Ava. I’ll spoil you every goddamn minute you’re mine.”
Her lids hood as she breathes through her nose, softening in my arms.
“That’s better,” I coo, dusting the tip of my nose over hers. “Now reach down and take my cock out. I’ve waited long enough to stuff your cunt full of it.”
Her eyes flare in defiance as she refuses to move.
I raise a brow. “You know I’ll play this game all night if I have to, Ava. It’s nice and peaceful with your mouth shut.”
She huffs against my palm, then frees my dick.
I hold her eyes as I position her, then pull her down onto it, savoring the way she stretches to take me.
“Fuck yeah,” I groan, loving the way her whimper is muffled by my palm.
“This is mine.” I hold myself deep and circle my hips. “You’re mine.”
She whimpers against my fingers .
“Take it,” I grit. “You’ve got me fucking addicted, Ava. Now deal with the consequences.”
She runs her hands through the hair at the back of my head as she looks at me.
“That’s it.” My voice softens as she loosens up and lets me fuck her, thrusting my hips up and making her ride my dick like she’s my personal fuck toy. “You take my cock like such a good girl. My good girl.”
Her eyes roll as I pull back and then drive up again, over and over. The water slaps against her ass each time I sink her down onto me.
“And you’re going to come for me like this, aren’t you?”
She tries to nod with my hand clamped over her mouth.
“Yeah, you fucking are,” I groan, my balls aching to fill her as she clenches around me. “That’s it… Let it go.”
She holds my eyes, and I can pinpoint the exact moment her orgasm steals her from me, making her eyes glaze over and her breath stall. I bury myself inside her, enthralled. Ignoring the fact this will all end one day. It has to. But until then, I’ll keep her distracting me. Because fuck, I crave being distracted by her. It’s better than the high that comes with winning.
“Ava.”
I rip my hand away from her mouth and replace it with my lips, kissing her with a guttural growl as I come hard inside her.
She cries out my name .
“That’s it,” I hiss as she squeezes me, milking every drop. “That’s it, Firefly.”
Better than winning.