Distracting the Billionaire's Son Read online

  We abandoned our sandals early on. The sand was cool and a little damp and reminded me of the night before when I wasn’t ready for it to. My cheeks would flush in response and I’d glance around to see if anyone had noticed. Jonah kept his distance, but sometimes I’d catch him watching me and I wondered if he was reminded of last night, too.

  The Silver clan were interested in me briefly, the newest attraction at the zoo, as Jonah had said, but they quickly grew bored and moved on to catch up with each other. There was another boy Jonah’s age, around 26 or 27, all the way down to pre-teens running around after each other. Shannon had a twelve year old cousin named Samantha I was sure was a burgeoning pyromaniac. She sat increasingly close to the fire, feeding everything that wasn’t nailed down into the flames.

  Shannon plied me with some cherry flavored, carbonated mixed drink with cherries skewered by a sword. I’d had four of them and was feeling pretty bubbly by the time the sun painted the sky a thousand different colors of orange and pink as it doused itself into the ocean.

  “He’s here, oh Jess.” Shannon’s voice pulled me from my reverie and I turned to see the car pull up and deposit the McCollisters at the edge of the beach. There was Mr. and Mrs. McCollister, blond and pale versions of Mr. and Mrs. Silver, two teenage girls in bikini tops and short shorts, an older girl about Melissa’s age in a bikini top, apple green jacket, and sari, and then, a dark haired young man that did not illicit any reactions from Shannon, and the infamous Henry.

  He’d clearly not given up surfing in the years since Shannon had seen him, and I totally understood the appeal. His blond hair was sun colored with skin like honey and muscles that, wow, took both our breaths away. He didn’t even bother to wear a shirt and only brightly colored swim trunks and tennis shoes without socks. He smiled easily and greeted Shannon with the appraising gaze she and I’d both been hoping for. When he hugged her, I could feel her tremble all the way to where I was standing.

  “Henry, this is my best friend and roommate Jessica Lewis. Jessica, Henry McCollister.” She kept her hand on his arm when he took my hand and shook it. Strong, confident. I felt butterflies in my stomach. Shannon deserved a boy like Henry.

  “A pleasure, Jessica. This is my mate, Cole Veras and my sister Eva.” Cole took my hand too, squeezed instead of shaking it. Cole mimicked Henry in being one of the most good looking boys on the beach that night. His blond hair was darker, a little longer and slightly curly. It made his face softer, more boyish. He smiled, winked.

  “Jessica. Can I call you Jess?”

  “Sure,” I breathed and was sad to feel his hand pull away from me. “Everyone else does eventually.” Everyone except Jonah.

  Eva nodded and quickly disappeared into throng of Silvers. Shannon invited Henry and Cole to the bar and I stepped back from the mass hugging that then took place between the McCollisters and the Silvers. I’d already filled up my lifetime of hugs in one night and had no interest in getting swept up in more.

  I lifted the sword of cherries to my lips and took the first one into my mouth. He appeared then, from behind, maybe so I wouldn’t run away. I sensed him before I felt his hand on the small of my back just above where the dress covered my skin. His breath touched the back of my neck, exposed where I’d pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail. It took all my will not to pull away.

  “Now that,” he murmured, “looks familiar.”

  My body blushed for him from my cheeks down to my thighs and everywhere in between. He could have no idea how his breathy voice made me react.

  I sucked the cherry between my lips, pursed them. His nostrils flared just a little.

  “You’re being admired,” he said and lifted his eyes across the bonfire to the bar. Sure enough, Henry and Cole were watching me, Cole leaning into whisper to his friend. Henry turned to Shannon, accepted a drink from her. “Will you meet him tonight?”

  “Would it matter if I did?” I asked. I took another cherry between my lips. His fingertips pressed lightly into my skin. He didn’t say anything for a moment.

  “No, it wouldn’t matter. I was just curious.”

  Liar, I thought. His answer hurt. Cole was very good looking and I liked the appraising looks he was giving me across the party, but he’d want me to take off my shirt and he’d be frustrated by my inability to do so. He’d question it, because they always do, and he’d spend the rest of the retreat avoiding me. Jonah’s strange attention, as inconsistent as it was, was preferable. He didn’t ask questions last night and I didn’t think he would start now.

  “I should go join them.” I started to step away but his hand briefly held me still. I waited, waited for him to pull me back, but then he let go and when I glanced over my shoulder, he was already gone.

  ***

  Cole, as it turned out, was completely predictable by Jonah’s standards. He asked me if I would like to meet him on the beach that night, after the party had died down. He said he wanted to get to know me. He touched my hair, tucked it behind my ear, didn’t notice when I flinched away. He said he liked my dress, that he saw me as soon as they’d pulled up. The compliments were lovely and free flowing and a little addictive and I told him yes, I’d meet him. I liked the ocean in the moonlight. Not a lie. He didn’t need to know I was thinking about what I’d already done there, not what we might do.

  After dinner, a messy, BBQ affair, Shannon and Henry disappeared and I was glad for her. I caught Jonah sometimes watching me, but most of the time he was engaged in conversation with Eva McCollister, who I began to hate as soon as she took off her jacket and gave him full access to her stomach and breasts.

  It was after Shannon disappeared that Mr Silver decided to regale his family with news that Jonah was leaving the states for Japan for a year. There was no cheer in his proclamation, only disappointment and disgust.

  Mr. Silver poured more champagne into his glass and into those glasses around him. “Because my money, my fortune, my legacy isn’t good enough for Jonah. He’s got to make his own name. Isn’t that right Jonah?”

  I stood on the other side of the fire, but it was impossible not to see the smoldering humiliation in his dark, handsome face. The muscles in his jaw flexed and he kept his eyes on his glass. I couldn’t tear my gaze from him. It felt wrong to leave him to the wolves like this.

  “I had no idea I wasn’t allowed to have my own future. I’d have made wiser choices if I had known.” His tone was icy and quiet, but unsettled. No one interfered, most of the tipsy family members pretended to ignore the display, just like Shannon and Eric did.

  My gaze must have been heavy indeed, because finally he looked up straight at me and held me still beneath his commanding stare.

  “Here’s to the only Silver to ever abandon the family. Cheers.”. Mr. Silver raised his glass in the air and none of the family members clapped.

  Jonah polished off his mixed drink in one swallow and came at me with determined steps that overtook me in seconds. He wrapped his fist around my upper arm and dragged me away from the fire and away from the celebration. If anyone noticed, they didn’t say, but then everyone was trying to avoid looking at Jonah.

  He dragged me up the beach to the docks where the boats were kept. Jonah said nothing and I didn’t dare speak until we were out of sight of the bonfire and he pushed me against the back wall of one of the outbuildings along the shore.

  “Lift up your dress,” he demanded and pressed his palm against the metal wall beside my head.

  “W-what?”

  He growled deep in his chest, a rumble of anger I could feel in the space between us. His mouth fell close to my ear and his voice lowered to a dangerous level. “Lift. Up. Your. Dress.”

  My hands shook as I obeyed, excited and also a little scared. I clasped the soft, slippery material in my fists and pulled the hem up my thighs to my belly.

  Jonah leaned against the wall, his face above mine but intimately close. He pushed his knee between my legs and forced my feet apart shoulder width. And then h
e touched me, pressed his hand between my legs and rubbed me hard over my panties. My eyes opened wide and I groaned because finally, finally I could find release where he’d denied me the night before, even if it was in this humiliating position, spread legged, in the shadows in public where anyone could walk by and see what he was doing to me.

  “Listen to me,” he instructed and it was difficult to compose myself enough to turn my eyes up to his hard gaze. He was bathed entirely in darkness, but the moonlight caught the whites of his eyes just right so I could see them burning hot into mine. “You are not to orgasm until I tell you to. Do you understand me?”

  I had no idea what he was saying. The way he was fondling me between my legs was exquisite and needy, desperate in the way we’d both been the night before. I needed to feel that release, needed it so badly. Was he asking me not to? How could I not?

  Jonah suddenly grabbed my whole sex in his hand and held me tightly against the wall with his body. “Look at me.” That got my attention. I looked at him, gave him my whole attention. My whole obedience. I knew what was happening, knew this was his response to his father’s verbal public whipping. I could feel the need in his voice to control something, anything. Me. “You will not climax. Not until I give you permission. Do you understand?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Don’t you dare disobey me.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  He held my eyes and I didn’t dare look away. I needed his power to keep me from disobeying him, especially when he slid my panties aside and pushed his fingers into me. His face remained hard and impassive, but his breathing became quick and irregular when he discovered how desperately turned on I was by him.

  He slid his fingers in and out of me quickly, groping and probing feverishly for some hidden treasure within my soul. Jonah pushed his palm against my clit and rubbed while he fingered me, sent shockwaves of intense pleasure into my body and I had no idea how he wanted me to obey him when he did this to me. Kittenish mewls escaped my lips, moans like begging I couldn’t possibly quiet. My thighs quivered under his expert ministrations, so much so I thought I was likely to collapse before I could possibly climax.

  “Control yourself,” he whispered and I was at once desperate and ashamed. How did this man have such wanton control over me like this? Why couldn’t I control myself? It made no sense. I’d never have been attracted to someone like him before in my life.

  “Control yourself right now. Don’t you dare take your pleasure from me without permission.”

  I was panting and so was he. He worked his fingers roughly between my legs, pressing me back with his body, and his breath felt so hot on my face. He was so close I thought he might kiss me. He moaned quietly when I tilted my head back and whimpered, ashamed and insanely more turned on in that moment than I ever had been in my life. His hand was absolutely soaked I was so hot for him. He groaned and pressed his mouth against my throat and sucked like some kind of unchecked teenager.

  “Please,” I begged. “Please Jonah.”

  “What?” he whispered, his mouth moving irresistibly close to mine.

  “Let me come. Please let me come for you.”

  He rubbed his body against me, the size of his engorged erection pressing into my hip through his pants. “Mmm. Do you deserve it? Do you honestly think you deserve it?”

  “Yes, yes please, Jonah. Please.”

  Abominable bastard stopped fingering me right at that moment, cupped me in his hand and leaned his mouth against my ear. He kissed my earlobe with almost affection. Almost.

  “No,” he whispered, barely more than a breath. “You don’t deserve it. Not yet.”

  And then he pushed away from my body, abandoned me there, and walked out from behind the building and back to the party without another word. I stood there with my head back against the wall, shock and shame and anger coursing through my body. I gripped my skirt up around my hips even still. My neglected pleasure soaked the thin fabric pressed between my thighs. Denied. Monster. How could he do this to me twice in a row? How could I have so eagerly let him?

  Why did I wish, more than anything else, he’d change his mind and come back to fetch me, to press me into the sand and take me in the cooling waves?

  I waited several agonizing minutes, but he did not come back and strangely, even though I was seconds away from bursting through the dams and letting the fireball in my belly explode, I didn’t touch myself. He’d told me not to climax until I was given permission and something in the way he’d said it, demanded it, also made me want to listen even now. I fixed my dress, my panties, my hair, and stumbled down the beach back to the party as if nothing had happened. I didn’t look for him when I returned to the crowd, didn’t search for him, but I could feel him everywhere. I could smell him. He was near, always, but I didn’t have the strength to seek him out.

  Cole lingered near me when I returned, dragged me to the fire to dance with the other cousins. I let him give me drink after drink so I could calm down, and after a while the scene behind the building almost seemed impossible.

  The dancing was fun, the alcohol helping me make a big fool of myself just like everyone else, and I loved the feeling of the sand between my toes and the music. When a small Silver snatched my sandals and took off down the beach, me clumsily after him, I wanted nothing more than to be a Silver for the rest of my life. Not for the money, but for this, being a part of something bigger than myself.

  When Shannon didn’t return to the cabin after midnight, I left to meet Cole not far from where I’d met Jonah the night before. When I was close enough to the water to smell its salty breeze, I changed my mind. I didn’t want to meet Cole on the beach. Instead I cut through the trees off the path so Cole wouldn’t see me. I went to the cabin without a pod, on its own at the edge where trees gave way to sand. I took off my shoes and tiptoed up the stairs to the front door, high off the water, and knocked softly. It was late. He might not even be awake.

  He might not even be alone.

  The thought came unbidden. Eva McCallister could be inside. I could be interrupting them right at that moment. But if they were, I heard nothing to describe it. I gave myself four seconds of bravery before turning back down the stairs.

  The door opened before I got to the bottom, a lazy yawning sound on hinges rusted by the ocean water breeze. He leaned against the door, shirtless, shorts hung low on his hips. He had bed hair, messy and I liked him like this, sleepy and unkempt.

  His body, in the bright moonlight, was exquisite. He didn’t have the bulging muscles of Cole or Henry, but narrow, cut hips and a serious strength in his shoulders that suggested he was made of something stronger than the rest of us mere mortals.

  His sleepy gaze fixed on me, surprise mingling with something else for just a moment.

  “Are you lost, little girl?”

  “No.” I turned, took a cautious step closer to him.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  I took another step up. “Oh, I know I shouldn’t.”

  “You should be meeting that boy who couldn’t take his eyes off you all night.” His breathing changed, I could see it in the rise and fall of his chest, quicker now. As fast as mine.

  “I am. Aren’t I?” I took another step. Inches separated us.

  His mouth parted, an argument there, or something more unkind. Finally he stepped back, held the door open further.

  “Get in here.”

  I did as I was told. His room was bigger than ours, but not by much. He had a desk and a queen sized bed, several pillows instead of my one. He shut the door and the only light seeped in through the cracks made by the curtains not being closed tight enough. It let me see him for a moment as he came toward me and then we were both in darkness. I was sure he could hear my heart pounding. Did he know, could he possibly know, how badly I hoped he’d satisfy me at last?

  He touched my hair, let it out of its restraints. His fingers hesitated in the soft curls and I wondered if he knew I could feel h
im touching me like that, too gentle for someone who’d been anything but for two days.

  His voice came out harsh, barely more than a whisper.

  “I want you on your knees.”

  I did as he wished. His hands followed, stayed in my hair, briefly touched my cheek.

  “Take them off.”

  I hooked my fingers around his boxer shorts, pulled them down so he was free. It touched my cheek, hard already. I wondered if he’d been thinking about me as he lay in bed. I instinctively put my hand around the base of it. His breath sped up and I heard the softest of moans.

  “Prove to me you deserve more.”

  There it was again, the challenge and I whimpered hearing it. More. I wanted more. I’d do whatever was necessary to deserve it.

  I took him into my mouth, not nearly as slow as I had last night, eager to feel his cock against my tongue. He gasped and bucked toward me. He wanted more, too. I closed my mouth around him, dropped my hands to his balls to touch, to play gently with between my fingers. He responded by pushing his hips toward me, to dig his fingers in my hair and pull me closer to him.

  I launched an attack upon him, eagerly sucking, wanting to taste him and he rewarded my eagerness. It was salty like I’d remembered it, not entirely unpleasant, and a part of me hungered for it in a way I didn’t know myself to previously. I slid my mouth off him, licked him clean, and dropped my head to his balls. I’d never done that, not with anyone else, so I didn’t know how he’d react when I licked them each, took one between my lips and kissed it and sucked gently.

  “Shit,” he gasped. I peeked up at him as he threw his head back, made unsteady by my administrations. I wrapped my hands around his thighs, felt the hard cut of his muscles where his thighs met his hips. I took the head of his cock again between my lips again pushed him back into my mouth where he belonged. He helped, began working his hips back and forth. I quickened my pace, used his hunger to get him deeper and deeper into my mouth.

  I twisted my hand, drove him along the roof of my mouth towards my throat.