Tormenting Lila
Authors: Sarah Alderson
First published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Simon and Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Sarah Alderson 2013
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Sarah Alderson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eBook ISBN 978-1-47111-957-6
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Meet Ren, Tyler, Parker and Jesse this summer in The Sound, out August 1st.
My eyes flew open.
Alex’s lips stilled instantly against my neck. ‘What?’ he murmured, his hand reaching automatically for his gun, which was lying on the nightstand.
I shook my head. ‘Nothing,’ I said, forcing myself to smile at him, all the while trying to throw off a gnawing sense of disquiet.
Alex paused for a moment, studying me. I turned away from his scrutinizing gaze and focused on the semi-automatic he was gripping in his hand. With a quick flick of my eyes the gun went skidding
out of his palm and tumbled into the drawer of the nightstand. I slammed it shut and turned my attention back to Alex.
He raised an eyebrow at me, his blue eyes sparking in amusement.
I had tried arguing with Alex about the need to carry a gun. We were no longer being hunted by the Unit after all, and he was no longer a Marine employed by said Unit to hunt people like me down
and
contain
them. Therefore, my reasoning went, a gun was no longer a necessary part of our lives. But old habits died hard. And Alex refused to be parted from it. He kept it on him night
and day, and I’d caught him several times lovingly oiling the parts and checking the firing mechanism when he thought I wasn’t looking.
It had reached the point where I was seriously starting to envy the gun.
Although Alex hadn’t said anything I was beginning to wonder if his keeping the gun to hand was less out of habit and more about something else. The thing was, I didn’t want to
contemplate what the
something else
could be. The Unit was out of action as far as I was concerned. Richard Stirling, the man behind it, was missing, hopefully blown to smithereens along
with all his
research.
His daughter was behind bars – something which made me smile from ear to ear and do a little happy dance every time I thought about it. The world was full of
rainbows and unicorns and Alex loved me. Why focus on the negative?
Alex’s gaze fell to my lips. I cut my eyes in the direction of his hand, still resting on the nightstand and tugged it towards me, directing it to land squarely on my waist.
Alex laughed under his breath, pulling me closer against his chest. ‘We’ve talked about this, you don’t need to force me to do anything involving you, Lila.’
I gave him a look. That wasn’t strictly true and he knew it. But I’d given up trying to argue with him. There was only so much rejection my ego could take.
With Alex’s body warming mine and his hands starting to move of their own freewill along the length of me, my ego and every other part of my body felt soothed. I gave myself into his
kisses, letting them consume me.
It had been precisely eighty three days since our first kiss in that seedy motel near Palm Springs, and the feeling I got each time Alex’s lips came near mine (OK, when
any
part
of his anatomy came near mine) still persisted. It felt like all the air in the universe had been switched for a combination of helium and laughing gas.
But then it was back . . . just as I was starting to feel a groan building in my throat the niggling sensation returned – a prickling of the skin, a tightening of the scalp – that
served to distract me from the very awesome pleasure of running my fingers along the hard slab of muscle that was Alex’s stomach.
With a sigh I rolled out from underneath Alex and glanced up at the ceiling. ‘He’s here. I
know
it.’
Alex groaned and rolled onto his front, pressing his face into a pillow.
I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly at his back. It was infinitely satisfying to see Alex’s self-control finally starting to erode. Up until now his resolve had been
nuclear-bunker tight. There was no chink in it (believe me I’d searched). After spending six weeks sailing the Mexican gulf on a super-yacht and trying to find a way past it, I’d
finally resigned myself to the situation. I was going to be a virgin until I turned eighteen. Alex had started off by claiming it was to do with California State Law but when that excuse had worn
thin (given we were in international waters) he had eventually admitted that Jack might have had something to do with it too.
Turned out my brother held more sway than a Supreme Court judge when it came to laying down the law on Alex laying a finger on me. I pushed the thought of Jack away. Dwelling on it was risky.
Last time I’d been annoyed at Jack I’d almost caused a tidal wave.
I hopped out of the four-poster bed and crossed to the window. ‘Let me just call and check then I’m all yours,’ I said to Alex, already dialling Nate’s number.
Alex mumbled something into the pillow, which sounded like ‘You’re paranoid.’
‘No. I just know Nate,’ I answered ruefully as the phone began ringing in my ear. And I knew how far Nate would go to get a sneak peek at Alex naked. Almost as far as I would. Being
able to astrally project out of his body and fly anywhere in the world unseen, however, gave Nate an unfair advantage.
I pulled the curtain aside and stared out at the blue rippling expanse of the Sound in the distance. It was strange being on dry land after six weeks at sea, and even though I missed seeing my
mum and dad every day, I had to concede it was nice to finally have some alone time with Alex. Whenever we had attempted to sneak off together on the boat, inevitably Jack would appear. It had
begun to feel like we were lovers in a Victorian novel, with Jack playing the part of the interfering chaperone. Now it wouldn’t be long before the summer was over and life went back to
normal – whatever that meant – so I wanted to make the most of the time we had left. What luck, I thought, admiring the four-poster bed and the fluffy robes on the back of the door,
that Jack was a thousand miles away, playing Jack Sparrow in the Gulf of Mexico.
There was no answer from Nate, which made the alarm buzzing in my head double in volume. I hung up and dialled Suki.
She answered on the third ring.
‘Hello?’ she said tentatively. In the background I could hear seagulls.
‘Suki? Where are you?’ I asked.
Suki cleared her throat. ‘Atlanta,’ she said, though it came out sounding more like a question than an answer. ‘Where are
you?
’ she asked.
I narrowed my eyes at the horizon. Suki could read my thoughts, even over the phone, so there was no point in lying. ‘I’m in Nantucket with Alex.’
‘What are you doing there?’ she asked lightly. The sound of seagulls cawing in the background grew louder.
‘We had to come to Boston. Alex had an interview at Harvard. So we decided to spend a few days in Nantucket before we fly back to LA.’
‘I thought he was going to accept the place at Berkeley.’
‘Still deciding,’ I said, turning to look at Alex over my shoulder. He had rolled over and was watching me. My gaze fell to his chest and I almost lost my train of thought. I turned
back to the window. ‘Listen, is Nate with you?’ I asked Suki, remembering why I was calling in the first place.
There was a pregnant pause on the line.
‘Err, yeah, he’s um . . . he’s just . . . in the bathroom.’
‘You sound like you’re outdoors.’
‘Um, well, he’s peeing in a bush. We went for a walk.’
‘You went for a walk?’ I asked sceptically, an image of Suki in her standard uniform of six-inch heels and figure-hugging couture flashing before me.
‘Yes. Nate’s grandma was driving us mad. I am tired of being Nate’s beard.’
‘His what?’
‘His beard. It’s what they call a girl who acts like the girlfriend of a boy who likes boys to hide the fact he doesn’t like girls.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I
don’t want to be a beard any more,’ she said petulantly.
She had a point. Nate clearly needed to come out the closet to his grandmother.
‘He’s not in the closet. He’s in the bathroom. I told you,’ Suki complained.
‘I though he was peeing behind a bush?’
‘Yes, that’s what I said,’ Suki said, her voice sounding muffled.
‘OK, listen I have to go,’ I said.
‘Say hi to lover boy,’ Suki giggled. ‘Oh, and Lila, wear the green dress tonight, that’s his favourite. It might even get you to fourth base. It had better, because
frankly Nate and I are tired of waiting for you guys to do the jiggy jiggy.’
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it speechless, wishing my powers worked long distance so I could throw something heavy at her head.
‘Why am I friends with you?’ I demanded.
‘Because you love me,’ answered Suki, sighing happily, before hanging up on me.
I turned back to Alex, ready to jump back into bed, but he was already standing by the door, pulling on a T-shirt. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go. We’re wasting this
beautiful day.’
My shoulders slumped. Alex had obviously located the chink in his armour while my back had been turned and cemented it closed.
‘Let’s rent some bikes and hit the beach,’ he said, throwing me my bikini.
Miller’s Bike & Boat Rental was set a little way out of town and by the time we got there it was nearly midday. Outside stood a row of bikes, and several oars leaned
against the wall. We pushed open the door, the bottom half of which was boarded up with a sheet of wood, and wandered inside.
Behind the counter sat a boy of about nineteen. The first thing I noticed was that he was reading
American Psycho
, the second that a heavy-looking wrench sat on the counter right beside
him.
‘Hi,’ Alex said.
The boy looked up from his book, his shoulders tensing and his hand twitching straightaway towards the wrench. Seeing us though he relaxed, laid down the book and hopped off his stool.
‘Hey, what can I help you with?’ he asked with a smile.
‘We’d like to rent some bikes,’ Alex answered, glancing around at the display inside the store.
The boy immediately crossed to the row of bikes running down the centre of the store and asked whether we wanted hybrids or road bikes, at which point I switched off, not having a clue what the
difference was. I was much more interested in the pile of books I could see on the counter so I left Alex to it and edged over towards the desk.
There was a pile of well-thumbed novels stacked up beside the till, including my very favourite David Mitchell and a few biographies of musicians. Behind the counter was a door that stood
propped open, revealing a storeroom filled with bike paraphernalia and fishing equipment. A guitar stood leaning up against a crate. I glanced over my shoulder at Alex and the boy, who were now
busy chatting as they did something to the handlebars of one of the bikes.
Although generally I only had eyes for Alex, I would have to be blind to not notice how good-looking the boy was, with dark hair and light-brown eyes and the kind of lean but muscled body that
fitted white T-shirts were made to show off. I could just imagine him playing guitar in a band, or posing on the front of
Rolling Stone.
He was exactly the kind of guy who Nate and Suki
would bust a gut lusting after. I said a prayer of thanks that they were in Atlanta, a thousand miles away.