Lust (The Stripped Bare Series Book 1) (19 page)

“I have my demons too, Max. I ran away from something in London. I was so frightened and so afraid but you make me feel safe. When I’m with you, I’m fearless.” He looks confused but I don’t elaborate. I don’t want him to be worried about me, too. I do enough of that on my own. We sit and hold each other for a while, just listening to each other breathe.

            
 
“Come on, we better make a move.” He slaps my arse lightly as I jump up off the bed. He climbs off and I admire his solid, structured arse walk through the door and into the bathroom.

Making my way into the living room. I grab my phone from my bag to make sure the school hasn’t rung. There are four more missed calls from Gavin and a couple of voice messages. I ignore them; I can deal with him when I get home. I don’t know what the hell is so important. He probably just wants to make my life a living hell. Well, he’s shit out of luck because nothing can break my happiness right now. I’m elated and content. I have a great job, a beautiful son and a perfect boyfriend. Life can’t get any better than this.

Max

Ma looked delighted when I introduced her to Jasmine. I didn’t want to leave but I could tell that she was getting tired and I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes open for much longer. I made her a promise to take Jasmine back again soon. She even gave her a kiss on the cheek before she left. It made my heart swell that my mum adored my girlfriend. I have never really had a girlfriend before. Even when I was a kid, I didn’t have girlfriends like all the other lads did. I had a lot of friends who were girls, I even dated a few of them, but I never classed them as my girlfriend. It seems so strange how natural everything with Jasmine is. She’s like a breath of fresh air to my life. It’s like I wasn’t really living before, but now I see the world so clearly. She has done that to me. She has made my life whole again.

I contemplate the day’s events as I drive towards Lust, the wind howling past me as I open her up on the main road. I will have to get my car out of the lockup soon. I want Jasmine to come on the bike with me but I have to remember that she has a son, a son that I can’t wait to meet and take out to the football, or cinema. Who would have thought, me, Maddox Fox, taking on someone else’s child? I’m not even afraid.

Removing my helmet, I walk into the club. Dexter’s sitting at the bar chatting to Liz. I smile when I see my best friend. I wish I could talk to him about Jasmine. I want to be able to tell him my feelings. We’ve always been able to talk to each other about anything, now it feels like we’re drifting apart.

“Hey, Max, what ya been up to?”

“Just been to see Ma, spent a few hours with her, then came here. Is the new girl here yet?” Just as I ask the question, a blonde haired girl comes walking through the door. Her tits are bigger than her head and her arse is hanging out of her shorts. I see Dexter’s eyes light up as she strides towards us with an air of confidence. She flicks her hair behind her shoulder and leans against the bar.

“Hey, boys. Which one of you delicious things is Max?” I don’t like her, she’s going to be trouble, I can tell. Dex, however, is smitten. I honestly don’t know why he set his sights on Jasmine; she isn’t his type at all.

“I’m Max. I’ll show ya were ya can get changed. D’ya have your music with ya so I can get it set up?” I haven’t got time for small talk. I want to go home and text Jasmine.
Is it crazy that I miss her already?

She reaches into her bag and pulls out a CD.A fucking CD, like w
e’
re in the 9
0’
s.
I’
ll have to go and transfer it to the Ipod. Dexter reaches across the front of me, his hand outstretched, “Hi. I’m Dex, I’m happy to show ya aroun
d
’n introduce ya to everyone.” Rolling my eyes, I stand up, heading towards the door. I love him to death but sometimes he can be such a slag.

He won’t ever change; I don’t think I could ever see him settling down with anyone. He was the same when we were kids, always had a different lass on his arm. I think he likes the attention; he never really got any from his parents. Yes, they loved him and he had a good solid family. But, his parents were never there. They left him to his own devices mostly, and he spent a lot of his time at our house. I remember him losing his virginity at fourteen, I was impressed at the time but I wasn’t in a hurry to get my dick wet then. I didn’t lose mine until I was seventeen. Her name was Emily; she was this cute girl that worked in the local McDonald’s. Neither of us had a clue what we were doing, so basically I just acted like a porn star. I watched a lot of porn back then, so I thought that was how it was meant to be. What a wake up call I got when I cum in under two minutes and Emily cried before getting her clothes and running away. I see her every now and then around town, she always avoids me like the plague.

“The dressing room’s this way,” I call to Michele as I walk backstage. She flutters her eyelashes at Dex before following behind in her ridiculously high heels.

Making sure she’s all set up, I head into Jake’s office to make sure all of the order is done for the morning. I suppose I should do some work if I have to be here. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I text Jasmine.

Max

Sent 18.25pm

To my sexy little water nymph

What the fuck is wrong with me… I can’t write that shit.

Hey Jazz. Just checking in to make sure you got home okay. I know you said yo
u’
re going out with your parents this evening but you can text me when you get home. Tha
t’
s if you want to. Max

I’m really crap at this texting shit. I sound so stupid. Pressing send, I shove my phone into the draw of the desk and make my way out to see how Miss Massive Tits is getting on.

She’s good, I have to give her that. She has the punters eating out of the palms of her hands as she climbs the pole and wraps her legs around the top. Her tits almost pop out of her barely there top as she drops down. It doesn’t matter, though, because as soon as she has her hands free, her top is off and thrown to some bloke with his tongue hanging out.

“Dex, aren’t you meant to be at the door?” His eyes look like they’re about to pop out of their sockets.

“Yeah, in a minute, dude. Harry’s covering.” He doesn’t even turn to look at me. He’s totally fixated on the stage. I’m actually glad, maybe if he obsesses over Michele, then he’ll forget about Jasmine. “Have you seen the size of this girls tits?” he says, loudly so everyone can here.

“Nah, man, I’m totally blind… Of course I’ve seen them, you can’t miss ‘em.”

By the time I get home it’s gone midnight. I’m annoyed, I was meant to be home earlier but I ended up doing more work than expected. Some idiot caused a scene and we had to get the police in. I spent most of the night writing statements instead of doing the order that I was meant to be doing. To top off my night, Jasmine still hasn’t text me back, which has seriously pissed me off. Needless to say, I’m not in a great mood.

Throwing my helmet on the chair I lie on the sofa staring at my phone. Man, I have it bad. I miss her already and I only saw her this morning. I must fall asleep because the next thing I hear is some bird giggling. Sitting up, I glare over the back of the sofa at Dexter who has fallen on the floor. That’s not the worst of it, though; Michele is lying on top of him. For fuck’s sake, he’ll shag anything with a set of tits. I should be happy really, but no doubt he’ll have forgotten about her by tomorrow.

My mood hasn’t gotten any better. Jake’s decided that he’s taking the rest of the week off, so I have to cover for him until Monday. Jasmine still hasn’t text me or rung me and I don’t know if I should be worried or annoyed. I thought everything was going really good between us, but I haven’t seen or heard from her since she walked out of my flat yesterday afternoon.

“Hey, Max,” Piper calls, as I walk through the club towards the bar. I have the order list in my hand, I guess if I’m stuck here I should really do some work.

“Hey, Pipe, everything okay?”

“Um, yeah. Jazz text me this morning to say she was feeling ill. She asked if I could let you know.” Why didn’t she text me? Have I frightened her off by taking her to see Ma? Has she decided now that she doesn’t want me? What did I do wrong? I’ve messed up. I finally find my mermaid and I lose her. “Max, you okay?” Shit! Trying to regain my composure, I turn around so she can’t see my face.

“Yeah, whatever. Tell Liz she’ll have to cover.” My voice starts to break and I make my way back to the office. The order can wait. So many different things run through my mind as I lie on the sofa in the office. I just don’t understand why she wouldn’t call me, or text me back. Maybe there’s a family emergency or something and she just doesn’t want to worry me? Picking up my phone, I try to call her. It goes straight to answer machine. I quarrel with myself over leaving a message. In the end I don’t.

“Max, the order really needs to be done, we are low on champagne.” Liz sticks her head through the door. I pinch my eyes before standing up.

“Be out in a min.” I call. Grabbing the order pad I walk out to the bar. It doesn’t take me long to fill the forms in so I take a seat at the bar and Liz passes me a glass of lemonade before I have to go and type it into the computer.

“Hey, man,” Dex says, slapping me on the back.

“Hi, dude. What ya up to?”

“I just popped in to see if you’re likely to be home early tonight? I’ve got Michele coming over for something to eat.” Yeah right, the only thing that will be getting eaten is Michele’s pussy.

“I’ll make sure I stay here till closing.” I wink at him.

“Thanks, mate, you’re a star.” He pats me on the back and walks back out the door. I make a promise to myself to spend more time with him. I’ll arrange for us to spend the day together next week. We can go up to the horseshoe pass together and make a night of it somewhere like the good old days.

Making my way back to the office, I pull out my phone once more, just to check to see if Jasmine has text me. She hasn’t. A horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach knocks me sick. I sit down at the desk and press the call button next to her name. It rings twice before going to answer machine. Has she really just cut me off? I try again but this time it rings once and then goes to answer machine. I’m seriously annoyed now. Grabbing my helmet and keys from the sofa, I call out to Liz in the bar to let her know that I’m nipping out for a few minutes.

I’m not sure which house is hers, I know the street from her files but I never actually bothered to check the number. The rows of houses all look the same, but eventually I spot her car in the drive. I pull up just across the street, a little bit further down. I don’t mean to stalk her but I need to know if she’s blowing me off or not. I’m just about to take my helmet off and climb off the bike when a tall man walks out of the door. Jasmine is behind him, she looks like hell. Maybe she really is poorly? He turns around and hugs her, kissing her head before walking down the drive and getting in his posh BMW. Who the fuck is he? Is she shagging someone else? My insides are churning and my throat closes up. I can’t breathe, I feel like I’m having a heart attack. This pain in my chest is excruciating. Taking deep breaths I try to regain control. I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t know what the hell is going on here. I start the bike back up and drive home. Fuck her, if she doesn’t want me then I’m not gonna hang around and let her fuck me over
.