Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

The small jet taxies into the private runway of City Airport. It’s a sunny spring day, and the hostess advises us that it’s warm enough that coats aren’t needed.

“Fuck,” Leo bites, looking out of his window. “I really can’t be dealing with his shit right now.”

I peer out across Casper to find Freddie sitting on his bonnet by the hangar where a few Ranges are also parked.

“Never fucking listens,” Christopher grumbles, rubbing his hands over his face. He can’t actually see Freddie from where he’s sitting on the other side of the plane. I’m guessing he’s finally managed to talk to him.

Casper sits back in his seat as the plane comes to a stop. He has Grace greedily sucking down her milk. The air hostess, an experienced mother, told us that it would help stop her ears from popping during landing. It seems to have worked.

“You don’t actually know what he wants,” Arabella says, looking over at Georgina, who’s still got her headphones in. “Not everything revolves around—”

“He better not be here for her.” Casper glances at Georgina, and his expression hardens.

“You know I can hear you, right?” Georgina stands abruptly.

She grabs her large Louis Vuitton monogrammed tote and heads for the still-closed door, her headphones still in. She’s wearing a light pink, silk tracksuit with a cropped white T-shirt underneath and a well-loved pair of white high-top Converse laced up like ballet slippers.

“Good,” Casper replies.

Pulling her sunglasses from her bag, she puts them on without a waver of her ice queen demeanour. She shakes out her messy waves as the door opens, and without a word sticks Casper the finger as she walks out.

“Don’t do it,” he grits out under his breath as she nears Freddie.

I’m so rapt watching how this is going to unfold that I miss whatever the air hostess is telling us.

“Good girl,” Casper smirks as she walks straight past Freddie to one of the waiting Rovers.

God, I just have this awful sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that gets worse when we finally get off the plane.

I want to go back. I want to get back on the jet and have the pilot take us back to Spain. To our untouchable castle.

Instead, I get in the car and try to swallow down that gut-wrenching sense that this is far from over.

Sleep has been an evasive thing the last couple of weeks. Getting used to life back in London isn’t as I expected it. I haven’t slipped back into what I left behind. Mostly, it feels like starting from scratch.

I have Casper and Grace to focus on day in and day out, but there’s always that niggle in the background of what’s going to happen. When is the bomb we’re all ticking along to going to explode?

I stare at Grace through the wide bars of her small grey crib. The weight of Casper’s arm around me, the heat of his body pressed up to mine soothes my unquiet thoughts. My worries. I know that with him, we’re always safe. But knowing that, I worry of something happening to him.

My eyes close at the feel of his breath blanketing the shell of my ear, his hand flattening over the base of my belly as he tucks me deeper into him. A leg hitching over mine so that I’m completely cocooned by him.

“What are you worrying about?” he whispers into my ear.

“Nothing. Not really anything.”

“You’re awake before the sun.”

“I couldn’t get back to sleep after her feed.” A smile pulls at my lips at Grace’s peaceful slumber. Her hands are lifted over her head, and her lips are parted in silent breaths. “I have my six-week check tomorrow, and Lucian wants to talk to me too…”

He didn’t say what he wanted to talk to me about, but I got the sense that it was something important. Not urgent, just significant. Maybe it’s more about my mother. Or maybe it’s him trying to be a part of my life. I really don’t know.

“I’m sure everything is going to be fine.” He kisses me behind my ear, and I push as close to him as I possibly can, to the point that I’m practically beneath his hard body. My front flush to the mattress, his front to my back.

His dick stirs, hardening against my arse. The need between us is insatiable. It’s always simmering beneath my skin, pulling and coiling tight. Until he touches me, and it always boils over.

My pussy clenches as I push up into him, the heat between us making my heart thrum in a flat-out rhythm.

“You want me to take your mind off it?” Casper kisses my crown, his lips pressing hard to my hair as he inhales deeply. As though he can literally breathe me in.