Victory Storm

Dare Me

DARE ME

VICTORY STORM

Text copyright © 2023 Victory Storm

http://www.victorystorm.com

Translator (ita --> eng): LRizzi-Erneste

Publisher: Tektime

Cover: Victory Storm's graphic design - Stock: VistaCreate

This is a work fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced or disseminated byany means, photocopies, microfilm or otherwise, without the author's permission.

SYNOPSIS:
Their story began with a challenge.
Jake: "You will want me so badly that you will beg me to fuck you. You'll be so desperate that you'll do anything to have me."
Edith: "You'll want me so badly that you'll beg me to love you. You will be so desperate that you will do anything to forget me when you realise you can never have me."
A single summer threatens to burn Edith and Jake's souls from the moment they first met.
Edith is ready to start college and realise her dream of becoming a lawyer.
She has given her all to be admitted to one of the best universities in the country.
Jake is graduating law school with flying colours, despite his unruly and rebellious life.
Two different ways of life but a common goal: unacceptable for Edith, intriguing for Jake.
The clash is inevitable and that holiday will soon become the scene of a war to the death.
Two stinging tongues challenge each other, ready to tear each other to shreds, in a game of provocative glances and covert insults. However, one has to be careful, because if you play with fire, you risk getting burnt.

Love Storm series:

Love Hurricane

Broken Rules

Touch Me

Dare Me

Table of Contents

DARE ME VICTORY STORM

PART ONE

1

2

3

4

PART TWO

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

PART THREE

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

PART ONE

1

EDITH

"What do you mean you can't give me a loan?", I blurted out by now outraged.

"You understand perfectly well, Miss Merivale."

"This is about a student loan! I don't understand the problem."

I have already explained to you that your parents' financial situation is too compromised to give further subsidies."
"This is about my education, not my family. I'm in my final year of law school at Yale and I absolutely need that money to finish my studies."
"I completely understand that."
"No you don't! You don't understand a damn thing, otherwise you would know how much a year at Yale costs. I can't afford it without a loan. The scholarship they gave me barely covers essential expenses."
"Miss Merivale." The bank clerk's annoyed tone made me realise that I had reached the end of the conversation and was about to be dismissed. "Until your father settles his instalments with other banking institutions and closes the gap he left behind, no bank will be willing to give you another loan."
"But the right to study..."

"Good day, Miss Merivale," the man dryly dismissed me, returning to staring at his computer as if I were no longer there.

I held back a huff of impatience and stood up, gathering all the dignity I had left.
I allowed myself my twenty seconds of self-pity, after which I went back to being the badass Edith I had always been.
I grabbed my mobile phone and immediately booked a flight to Seattle. I had to get home as soon as possible and figure out what the hell had happened.
Already last year I had experienced difficulties because of the economic crisis that had brought my father's company to its knees, but then he had assured me that things would soon be fine. Being on the other side of the US, I had taken him at his word, but after my Platinium credit card had been deactivated, the phone call from my mother telling me that she wouldn't finance my last year at Yale, and the fifth bank slamming the door in my face when I applied for a student loan, it was clear that things had hit rock bottom instead of getting back up.

Fortunately, I had been brought up never to give up and always to get busy, so I didn't let anxiety or financial difficulties overwhelm me this time either.
Yale was too important to give up!
I hurried back to campus and packed a suitcase with the essentials. It was not my intention to stay in Seattle. I would be back the next day if I could talk to my father right away and get him to explain what the hell was going on.
Three hours later I was already on my way to the airport.
I was about to get out of the taxi when my mobile rang.
I prayed it was a bank alerting me that I had reconsidered, but "Mum" appeared on the display.
With a grunt of nervousness, I answered.
"Hi, Mum."
"Honey, you need to come home right away.” [mumbled speech]
"Did you get your lips done again?", I understood, noticing how badly she spoke. It happened every time.
"A touch-up."
"A touch-up?! I don't have the money for university, but you don't seem to have any shortage to keep going to the plastic surgeon," I blurted bitterly.
"You are beautiful now. When you get older, you will too."
"I will never do anything like that."
"Instead of lecturing me, come home now. Dad had a stroke."
"A what?"
"A stroke... You don't understand anything. I'll text you," she said, ending the call.
Shortly afterwards I received a message: "Your father has had a stroke. He is in hospital. Come here immediately. You know I can't handle everything by myself. Mum."
My legs nearly gave way, but I braced myself and replied that I was already catching a plane back.
I clutched the phone so tightly that my knuckles whitened.
I knew my father was desperate, exasperated by the financial situation we were in, but I did not believe that stress and poor nutrition could cause him a stroke.
I swallowed hard.
The bravado that had accompanied me all day had evaporated.
I loved my father. I had always had a good relationship with him. I was convinced that he had always told me everything and kept me up to date on his condition, whereas now I realised that during those years at Yale a chasm had opened up between us. A void that no longer allowed us to communicate and confide in each other as we had in the past.
I was sad about that, but I had never shown it. It had always been easier to pretend I was too happy and satisfied with my studies to grieve over that separation.
Now, reality had hit me with a deadly blow and I felt knocked out.

Wearily dragging my trolley, I approached the check-in desk.

Forty-five minutes later I was on the plane to Seattle.

JAKE

"I'm in the middle of a wrongful expropriation mediation and I have a deposition in two hours, Easton!", I blurted out furiously at that interruption. I hated being disturbed while I worked.
"Dad had a heart attack."
"Fuck," I huffed worriedly.
"Yeah, fuck."
"Is it serious?"
"No, he was caught in time, but it's already the second one and this time the doctors want absolute rest for him for the next two months."
"Sure, sure."
"He asked for you."
"About me?"
"He wants to talk to you."
"About what?"
"About work."
"I've got Jenson for that. I don't do acquisitions and buying and selling of..."
"He wants you, Jake. He has something to settle and he wants you to take care of it."
"I'm a lawyer."
"I know, but he wants you to handle it. He says Jenson would never give a clearance, so he needs someone in the family."
"What's this about? I hope it's a legal thing."
"He'll give you the details, the only thing I know is that you have to meet someone."
"Who?"
"Do you remember Paul Merivale?"
Hearing that name made my breath catch and for a moment I couldn't speak.
"Yes," I whispered faintly, feeling certain emotions crushing me like years before.
"He needs money, if I understand correctly. Our father always vowed to help him in the name of their longstanding friendship, and now Merivale is close to bankruptcy."
"So I have to write a cheque for him?"
"Yes, the daughter will come for him."
"Edith." Just saying that name made me risk choking on my own vocal cords.
"Yes, her. You met her some time ago. Do you remember?"
"Yes," sadly.
"You also fucked her, didn't you?"

"Easton...," I growled fiercely. He couldn't know it but uttering Edith's name and the word fuck in the same conversation was forbidden by law. My law.
"Okay, big brother, don't get hot. It's obvious that this is a chick who leaves her mark,' Easton snickered.
It was easy for him to talk, since the only girl he had ever loved still loved him. Although four years younger, Easton had already managed to have a relationship that I would never have had. I had often envied him, also because I had met Alice and her peppery temperament. That girl had the power to send even the calmest and most peaceful person in the world to the madhouse.

"Edith was just an insignificant interlude in my life. Nothing worth remembering,' I repeated like a good parrot who knew the lesson by heart. Years of repeating that mantra to myself had worked.
"A parenthesis of your imaginary or real life?" my brother provoked me.
"I ended it with her years ago," I specified firmly.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you get so pissed off when I mentioned her name? A closed parenthesis leaves indifference not anger."
"It's not anger."
"Then it's sexual frustration?" insisted Easton, bursting out laughing.
"Fuck off!", I blurted, relieved not to have my brother in front of me, as I blushed at the truth I would never admit even under torture.
"Someone here needs to fuck more!" he laughed amused.
"I fuck enough already," I raged. How could he tell me such a thing when he knew very well that I had many women with whom I enjoyed myself whenever I wanted. Sex was certainly not something that was lacking in my life. Even Easton had once scolded me for that!
"It is not quantity that makes the difference, but quality, and you have yet to find a woman capable of giving meaning to what you are and do."
"Since when did you become so cheesy and romantic?"
"Since I realised the difference between sex without commitment and sex with love. Not even a hundred of the shagging you do is worth as much as one of the shagging I do with Alice. One day you'll understand that too."
"I like my life the way it is."
"Only because you don't know a different one."
"That's not true," I retorted offended. In fact in the past I had begun to live a different life and try to love like Easton, but I had been slack, careless and often drunk. So much so that I had driven away the only person I wanted, exhausting her trust and patience. She had not been able to wait for me and I had done nothing to get a move on. In the end I had preferred to continue my dissolute life rather than leave my comfort zone and throw myself into something I didn't feel I could handle.
I had been a coward, but I was fine with that.

All I had to do repeatedly was to tell myself that she was not the one and to believe it and that was the end of it.
Stanford had helped me and my law studies had saved me from debauchery, giving me a purpose, to be a successful lawyer.
Now I lived for my work and I had sworn that no woman could ever make me lose my head again.

2

EDITH

I was consumed with tension.
Forty-five minutes, seated on a white leather chair, in one of the most austere waiting rooms I knew and with the anguish of not being able to achieve the goal for which I had made that appointment sixteen days earlier, was too much even for me.
I felt my resolve slipping away. I had never felt more vulnerable than at that moment and nothing seemed to be able to give me peace of mind. Not even the fact that I had come so close to that meeting, which had already been postponed twice by Mitchell Carson, gave me relief.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Edith, you're going to make it! Whatever it takes," I muttered to myself as I clenched my fists to stop the trembling.
My whole existence and that of my father depended on that meeting.

I still couldn't believe how life had spiralled so quickly.
It was inconceivable that I had to leave Yale a year after graduating law school, run across the continent to care for my father who was hospitalised with a stroke, and find out that my family was bankrupt.
Goodbye home, goodbye life of luxury, goodbye Yale and goodbye to everything I was used to.
I was desperate but I would have died rather than see it.
During those weeks I had rolled up my sleeves, thoroughly analysed every loss and my father's bad investments. I had even talked to three of Seattle's top financial advisors and they had all advised me to sell every asset before my father went to jail.
I had done that.
My heart was still bleeding with pain.
If I thought that would be enough, I was very mistaken.
The losses were huge but the chances of recovery were there. Too bad that after that economic disaster, the banks had closed the doors in my face. A humiliation that kept me awake for nights on end until my father convinced me to ask his old friend, Mitchell Carson, for help.
I hadn't seen the man since the summer of my graduation, but the memories that name triggered in me was like sharp shards of glass running through my skin.
It wasn't so much Mitchell that caused me that tension but everything he brought with him. I had even gone so far as to leave for the other side of the United States to get away from Oregon. That was why I had chosen Yale instead of Stanford.
"Miss Merivale, Mr. Carson is ready to see you," announced the very elegant personal assistant to the president of Carson & Co.
I fixed my hair and stood up feigning nonchalance as I followed the secretary.
Arriving at the door, I was invited to enter alone.
I shrugged my shoulders and strutted forward in my Jimmy Choo's vertiginous heels.
However, as soon as I took a few steps into the imposing white, minimalist office, where the large black glass desk stood out, I suddenly stopped.
Standing behind it was not Mitchell Carson, but his son.

"Jake," I whispered, feeling those splinters scratch my body again as his ice-blue, transparent eyes ran from head to toe. It was the first time I had seen him in a suit and tie. He looked much more mature, poised and determined than he used to. He was now a man in his own right and the magnetism of his manhood struck me violently, leaving me breathless.
"After three years, you still remember my name," he told me with that dangerous, bewitching smile of his that I remembered. Could it be that he hadn't changed at all?

Beneath that blue haute couture suit and white shirt, I knew that a far more rebellious and unpredictable soul lurked.
The pronounced jawline, that brown hair framing his face and those eyes... Oh my God!
'They say that the worst experiences in one's life are the hardest to forget,' I blurted defensively. I had promised myself to be loose, spontaneous, determined, but that look still had the capacity to make me lose my mind. With him it had always been complicated to remain neutral and impassive. With him that wall I always put between myself and others was as if it did not exist. Something I couldn't bear. Even three years later.
"Edith... Edith... I don't know if you should tell me such things. I thought you came all this way to ask me for a favour, not to insult me."
"I'm not insulting you. I just stated the obvious. The same one you must have already heard a thousand times from the trail of broken hearts outside your door, I imagine," I replied unable to control myself. Only he could hit me hard enough to poison my every word or gesture.
"So I broke your heart too?" he mocked me, chuckling. He knew I wouldn't admit to such a thing even under torture.
"I left early."
"Yeah, I forgot you had to run away to Connecticut to escape me."

"I did not run away. I simply chose to continue my studies at Yale."
"Even if you had been admitted to Stanford," he reminded me, determined to win. I bit my tongue.
"I prefer Yale."
"Before or after you found out I was attending Stanford Law?" he taunted me.
"You were just yet another incentive to choose one of the best universities in the world," I demeaned, determined to strip him of that arrogant, self-centred aura.
"But now you're back," he changed tactics, making me tense up like a violin string.
"Temporarily," I specified, punctuating the word well, syllable by syllable.
"Are you sure about that? I thought your future depended on this meeting."
"On this meeting and on your father," I specified, determined to get rid of him as soon as possible.
"My father is currently unavailable."
"When will he be? His secretary has already postponed the appointment twice and I urgently need to talk to him."
"You can talk to me."
"No, thanks," I asserted dryly, stepping back to leave.
"Perfect. I'll have your interview scheduled, but I don't know when my father will be available again. He's had a heart attack. The second one this year. Now he'll have to be laid up for a couple of months and I took his place temporarily because I realised it was important, but it's obvious I was wrong,' Jake explained, extending his hand to greet me and take my leave.

"I didn't know. I'm sorry about your father. Mine is sick too and I'm here on his behalf,' I muttered uncomfortably. As much of a bastard as he had been, I knew he would never lie about the state of his father's health, so I believed him and felt guilty for not realising it right away. Although I knew little about Jake, I knew that he had always hated working in his father's company, so only if something serious had happened would he have given in to such a request.
Despondent over that adverse fate, I shook his hand firmly but gently. However, his closed further around mine and suddenly he pushed me against him. I literally ran into him. I placed my hands on his broad, firm chest. I forced myself to pull him away from me, but I couldn't because his other hand was planted on my back, forcing me to arch it so I could look him in the face.
I was breathless as his zesty citrus scent with a undertone of juniper and amber enveloped me like an earthy breeze on a sultry day.
I gasped as his face brushed mine, his eyes shaded by thick dark lashes searched me and stared at my mouth with greed.
I thought he wanted to kiss me, as his pupils dilated like those of a predator a few steps away from its prey. I stood there, still, waiting.
Without realising it, I parted my lips and emitted a pained moan for that wait that was wearing me down and bending me like a blade of grass at the first gust of wind.

His mouth was only a few centimetres from mine and even though a little voice kept shouting at me to move away, to stop him and run away, I remained still.
Then at some point, his nose brushed my cheek and his mouth came close to my ear.
"Come back to me when you are desperate enough to save your father from bankruptcy and jail, as your life falls apart just a step away from your dream in the drawer," he whispered slowly, his voice hoarse and vibrant, capable of touching my every nerve ending.
I gasped and recoiled. I felt naked in front of him, now that I knew he was aware of my financial situation.
Jake let go of my hand instantly and I was able to pull away and stare at him with the same hate-filled venom with which I had left for Yale years before.
The defiance I read in his eyes was eloquent enough to silence me, but it was the desperate word that brought me back to my senses.
I wanted to slap him, insult him, throw him out the window, but I knew he was there and waiting for nothing else. If he hadn't changed in those years, I knew his provocation was just a way to break me down or commit a faux pas.
"Goodbye, Jake," I managed to say, picking up my wounded pride with all the dignity I possessed.
"See you soon, Edith," he greeted me in turn with a wicked smile and that 'this isn't over' expression.
I knew he wanted to have me. He had tried before, when we had first met, but he had never succeeded and I had sworn to myself that I would never give him such satisfaction.
I turned and walked determinedly towards the door.
Jake didn't say a word, but I could feel his fiery gaze set my back on fire.
I opened the door, stepped through and closed it behind me.
I had just blown my only chance to save my family!
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall.
"Are you all right, Miss?" The secretary had approached with concern.
"Yes, I just needed to catch my breath for a moment."
"I understand. Mr Carson always has that effect," she giggled.
I didn't dare contradict her for fear she might catch on to my lie.
I took a deep breath and thought back to my father. He was sick and it was the fault of the bankruptcy that was hitting him with the violence of a tsunami. I was the only one who could save him.
Then I thought back to Jake. Fate had really enjoyed being an asshole, leaving me at the mercy of Mitchell Carson's son, the very person I had sworn never to see again.
Because of him, I was giving up on saving my family?
No, I couldn't give up!
I wasn't going to let Jake win... I was really desperate.
I straightened my back and threw out all that negativity.
I put my hand on the handle of Jake's office door and opened it again.
The end justifies the means and I will get what I want no matter what.

JAKE

I took a deep breath.
Seeing Edith again after three years had been like being hit by a hurricane.
I closed my eyes and for a moment the newly graduated Edith, who had swept me off my feet three years earlier, merged with the image of my current one.
Fuck, she hadn't changed at all!
She was still beautiful with those jade-green eyes, that silky amber skin, that black, straight, ass-length hair that was the sexiest I'd ever seen.
Not to mention that mole a couple of centimetres above her upper lip!
That day she was wearing a very tight emerald-green sheath dress with a shallow neckline, but which by no means hid her disruptive shape in all the right places.
It was an attack on a man's sanity.
Every part of her body seemed to say 'fuck me', but then it was enough to dwell on those eyes to hit a wall and realise she was out of his reach.
Edith had been the only woman capable of resisting me and had always made me feel that I was in the off-limits zone next to her.
I had never been able to accept that boundary. I had lived my entire adolescence destroying and trampling on every stake, law and morality in my life.

She was the only one who had withstood the blow, sending me out of her life with no chance of reply.
I was crazy about her and when she left for Yale, I found myself not even knowing who I was anymore.
I had hated her for that.
I had sworn that I would take revenge and that sooner or later she would be mine no matter what.
Now, after years, I was convinced I had forgotten her and instead, there I was, in that damn office, with an erection so painful it squeezed my balls, and the woman I wanted who had just slammed yet another door in my face.
Was I going to see her again?
I was sure I would. When my father's secretary had alerted me to a certain Edith Merivale who kept urgently asking for an appointment, I had immediately started investigating her and her family.
I knew about her father's financial disaster, her mother's avoidance of problems, and her difficulty in finishing her studies, so much so that she had cancelled her final year because the scholarship did not cover the full cost of Yale. She had an overdraft of fifty thousand dollars and after what had happened to her father, her reputation was compromised. Even applying for a student loan had become a pipe dream.

If she was lucky, she could have finished law school at a second-rate state university and hoped to get an underpaid job as a public defender.
Or be a model as she had a killer body and a face that made you want to kiss her after the first look, but I knew she hated people who stopped at appearances and for her, beauty was a real curse.
I was about to grab my jacket and leave the office when I saw the door open again.
I had to stifle a cry of triumph when I saw Edith shyly re-enter.
"Assuming I am desperate enough to ask for your help, are you willing to meet me?" she exclaimed with flushed cheeks.
"That's up to you," I replied, forcing myself to assume a relaxed and indifferent posture, even though I was throbbing inside. "What are you willing to give me in return?"
Edith, I've got you!

She stared at me with wide eyes for a long moment, but then recovered and lowered her gaze in embarrassment.
"Anything you want." It was only a whisper but I heard it loud and clear.
"Watch what you say or I might ask a lot more of you than what you're willing to give me."
"I'll do whatever you ask," she reiterated determinedly, carefully treading her words as she walked to the seating area to the left of my desk. I saw her sit calmly and seductively on the small sofa, signalling for me to follow her.
Suspicious but too excited not to seize the opportunity she was handing me on a silver platter, I sat down next to her, leaning in until I brushed against her. How could I resist her?
"Even ask you to sleep with me?", I teased her determined to drive her crazy. My tactic worked because the shock on her face was obvious, but she recovered quickly. It was obvious she was trying to hide her vulnerability.
"Just once or...?" she asked, without looking at my face and playing with a lock of her raven hair.
This time it was I who was stunned. Was she really considering my proposal?
I was convinced she was going to yell at me, accuse me of suing or kill me with a stapler... Anything, but not that she would give in like that and so easily!
"Excuse me, can I have something to drink?" she asked me, before I could reason enough to give her an answer.
At that moment I also felt the urgent need for a drink and ran to the small bar cabinet at the back of the room. I took two glasses and poured some whisky.
Then I came back to her just as she pulled her Filofax out of her bag and placed it on the small table in front of us.
"Do you need to take notes?", I asked her, pointing to the diary and handing her the glass.
"I think it's only fair that in a negotiation, any doubts are clarified and I would like more clarification from you," she replied seriously, sipping the drink with her eyes closed and relaxing against the back of the sofa. She took deep breaths and with each inhalation her breasts pressed against the light fabric.
She was so sexy that I had to take a deep breath myself not to get on top of her and make her mine in that instant.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything. You know my father has huge problems and we've already lost everything, but you're the only one who can help him get going again. You were right before, I am desperate and I swear I would do anything. Now, you talked to me about... about sleeping with you. You know I can't say no to you, but I want to know how long this commitment should go on and what you're basically proposing."
"In a nutshell, you're asking me for a contract between dominant and submissive."
"Exactly."
"You said you would do anything, so that will be rule number one. Write it in your diary," I replied, hiding the amusement I felt at the absurd turn that interview was taking.
"Timing?"
"As long as I want."
"That's rule number two?"
"I can see you're a fast learner."
"And you will help my father in return by funding him?"
"If you're good, yes."
"In what way?"
"I'm sure you'll get there on your own."
"Like, for example, getting down on my knees in front of you," she proposed, actually kneeling in front of me. I remained dumbfounded as her hands rested on my knees, making space between them. "And unzip your trousers?"

"That can be a good start," I whispered hoarsely, as her fingers stroked my groin, turning me on like crazy.
Then she set about undoing my belt and pulling down my zip and making her way to my boxers.
I looked at her and realised that this was not the Edith I knew. Or was she, but I hadn't noticed?
I stopped her, pinning her wrist.
"Don't play games with me, Edith."
"I'm not playing, I just want you to help me," she replied, before licking her upper lip and pulling her face closer as she lowered my boxers.
I was one step away from losing control. I could feel it.
Driven by the darkest, most raging desire that only Edith could unleash within my soul, I placed a hand on the nape of her neck, entwined my fingers in her incredibly silky hair, pulled her even closer to me and kissed her.
Her mouth immediately became rigid, but I did not let myself be restrained. I bit her lower lip and rubbed my lips over her icy lips until they became warm and yielding. I deepened the kiss, forcing her to open up for me and let me in. I wanted total control, to feel her mine, to brand her.
Under my assault, I felt her trembling and panting, but I gave her no respite. I continued undaunted, kissing her, devouring her, stripping her of all armour, wondering how I had managed to stay away from her during those three years.
Why hadn't I followed her to Yale? I couldn't remember. The only thing I was aware of was that Edith had never been mine as I had always wanted her to be, and now having her so close, kneeling before me had unleashed desires as roaring and sharp as blades. Yes, because she could be dangerous and capable of tearing me apart as and when she wanted, but I had sworn to myself that I would never again allow her to have such power over me.

Now, even though what we were doing was not planned, I felt that I would continue that perverse game if it would get me what I had been craving for years.
Breathlessly, we pulled away.
The red lipstick on Edith's lips was smeared and her hair ruffled.
Not to mention her wide eyes, green and lit up like headlights, as she stared at me shocked and excited.
Fuck, how I wanted her!
"Do you want me to lick and suck you until you cum?" she suddenly asked coldly, after a long breath. In an instant I felt her barriers rise again, and that made me furious. I had always hated this ability of hers to knock me out of her mind.
'I thought it was obvious,' I hissed through clenched teeth as her hand stroked my thigh.
"Here? In your father's office?" she worried fearfully.
"We're alone."

"Yes, but I feel uncomfortable. Please..." she pleaded, rearranging my underwear and closing my trousers.
The magic was over and I didn't even know how it had happened.
"Edith," I hissed one step away from losing my temper. She couldn't turn me on like that and then dump me at the most beautiful moment.
"Tonight. At your house. I'll... I'll be all yours, if you help my dad," she begged uncomfortably, getting up and hastily grabbing her things from the coffee table. By the looks of it, fear or shame had gotten the better of her.
I stared at her and noticed that she had changed. It was not like her to show such fragility and for a moment I felt sorry for her.
"Who's to say you won't change your mind again?"
"I promise that by six o'clock tonight, I will be ready. As I have already told you, I will do anything to save my family."
"Every promise is a debt, you know that?"
"It is my motto. I never break my word. You should know me."
It was true. Edith had always been famous for never breaking her word and that put me on alert, because that was the part of her that had blocked me before. I had to be careful.
"I thought I knew you... until you knelt in front of me."
"You didn't stop me."
"And miss such an opportunity? Never!"
"Beware of wanting something too badly or you might get burnt," she said in a seductive voice, caressing my face and giving me a brief but intense kiss on the lips.
I had already learnt that lesson years earlier thanks to her, but I did not say so.
As quickly as she had approached, she pulled away. I wanted to stop her, but I couldn't. Edith had been and still remained elusive, but now I had a chance to make her mine and I would not miss it.

3

EDITH

That afternoon I did only three things. I went to my father to let him know that Carson & Co. would help him, bought a ticket to Connecticut after phoning the university and telling them not to cancel my senior year enrolment, and sent an email to Jake explaining my condition and that I would not be going to his place that night.
My father was very happy with my help and that of his friend. I explained to him that I had been dealing with his son, Jake, because Mitchell had had a heart attack. This worried my father very much.
"I thought you and Jake had a bad relationship," my father said thoughtfully.
"That's water under the bridge. He is much more mature now and I know he will do the right thing," I replied, pretending to really believe what I was saying. Sometimes I was amazed at how good a liar I was.
"He's a lawyer now, you know? That job must have changed him."
"Definitely."
"Maybe one day you'll find yourselves going up against each other in court."
"I doubt it," I sighed, trying to suppress a shudder. Grace, Jake's cousin, had revealed to me that the man was a shark and he was really good. She had also sent me videos and I was impressed by his audacity and the charisma with which he always managed to get the jury on his side. His closing arguments were orgasmic.
A shark who, however, when he sees a woman kneeling in front of him, no longer understands anything.
For once, I thanked my beauty and with a certain determination, sent the email to Jake, right after I had bought the plane ticket.

I was at the airport when I received his call.
"You don't really think you can get away with this!" he ranted as soon as I answered. He was so out of it that I was convinced he had also been drinking.
I could understand him. I too would have pounced on the first bottle of whiskey after reading my email.

"Jake, calm down. I only kept my word, which was that I would do anything to save my family," I told him, trying to keep my tone almost formal and professional.
"Fuck me?!"
"I thought you liked that," I laughed unable to contain myself.
"Fuck, Edith, you're a bitch."
"No, I'm just desperate, but not desperate enough to sleep with you to save my father from bankruptcy. Did you really think I could fold like one of those dying pussies from some porn novels?"
"I never thought that, but then you... you knelt in front of me. You're the one who started by saying you were willing to do anything and started talking about timing and sex. I initially proposed it to piss you off, but then you went along with me..."
"And you thought I was really willing to be your whore?"
"You weren't going to be my fucking whore!"
"Yet I'm sure that if I take that recording to the police, no lawyer will be able to defend you against a charge of aiding and abetting prostitution," I reminded him, gloating with glee, casting my mind back to that morning, when I had decided to re-enter Jake's office.
I'd always known he had a soft spot for me and I'd pushed the right button when I'd decided to trick him into saying I'd do anything and showing off. It was amazing how I had managed to seduce him in such an insidious way.
It was only when I had realised I had succeeded that I had been able to do this that I distracted him, asking him for a drink, so that I could take my mobile phone out of my bag and record our conversation. I had just hidden it in my Filofax, when he had come back to me.
"Fuck off!"
"Jake, asking a woman for sex in exchange for financial aid is extortion and aiding and abetting prostitution."
"I won't give you a penny!" he threatened furiously.
"If we then consider that I walked out of your office, as if running away, with my hair tousled and my lipstick smudged... well, I can always add sexual harassment to the charges. Your secretary and the usher can be my witnesses,' I continued undaunted.
"Are you taking revenge for what happened three years ago?" he tried to understand.
"No."
"From the premeditation with which you orchestrated this, you wouldn't know it."
"There is no premeditation. I just had a stroke of genius when I left your office the first time. I didn't want to give myself away."
"Bullshit."
"Think what you want. I don't care. For now, the only thing I want is for you to strike a lucrative deal with my father."
"Or else?"
"Or the recording of you inviting me to suck your cock ends up with the police."
"You're a bitch!"
"There, an insult!", I scolded him over his insults. "After this, let's make it a forgiveness if you apologise."
"Fuck you!"
"You're right. An apology is useless. Compensation is better. Fifty thousand dollars in my account by tomorrow might help me forget your foul, abusive language that offends my personal dignity."
"Are you kidding?" he exploded blusteringly.
"Do I look like I'm joking? You know I never say anything just to say and now I would be grateful if you would fund my studies at Yale. Look on the bright side. By the end of this, you may be able to boast of being a philanthropist."
"I won't give you a damn thing!"
"I'll send you my account number as soon as I get to Yale."
"If you want that money, you'll have to come here to me."
"And let you do what you want with me? No, thanks."
"I thought you were strong and determined enough to not even let me touch you, but maybe I was wrong." His suddenly calm and arrogant tone alarmed me. That was the most dangerous Jake.
"I'm not afraid of you," I asserted firmly. I couldn't accept that he was highlighting my vulnerability in front of him.
"I know, Edith. You are not afraid of me, but of yourself. You know there is something going on between us and that all it takes is a spark to..."
"You are wrong!"
"Yet that kiss today said something different."
"I was playing a part."
"If that's the lie you tell yourself to sleep at night, that's fine with me. I won't be the one who thinks back on that kiss tonight and unable to sleep a wink, imagining what might have happened next. As much as you keep denying it, you want me and you never forgot me even though you put three thousand miles between us. I know it and so do you."
"I... I have to go," I pronounced with difficulty, feeling my body tremble at those words.
"Of course. Run... run all you want, but you can't escape me forever," he replied with a calmness that made me shiver even more.
When Jake ended the call, I was completely overwhelmed with excitement.
You won't be able to escape me forever.
Why did I feel that this was a real and concrete threat?
Why did part of me want it to happen, while another part just wanted to run away?
That night, on the plane, I realised that Jake was right.
I would never be able to fall asleep. On my lips I still had his taste and his mark. A trace that only brought back memories that had never been forgotten but had scratched me for years like a shower of glass shards. Indelible scars that still hurt at times, pushing me to close in on myself even more.

JAKE

I'm an asshole.
How could I have thought even for a moment that Edith wasn't making fun of me?
Apparently, the experience of three years earlier had not helped me.
Yet Edith had warned me, telling me she would do anything to save her family.
Anything.
Even pretend to be willing to satisfy my sexual appetites just so she could record them and use them against me.
I, on the other hand, had actually believed that I had her. As if that were possible...
Yes, the experience of three years ago wasn't worth shit!
When had I ever managed to make Edith mine? Never!
The only thing I had managed to do was to go mad for her and then lose her.
I was still stinging from her departure, without even a note or a last kiss.
I had suffered for her.
I had wrecked my motorbike for her.
I had sworn never again to feel for a woman what I had felt for her.
With a flood of bitterness in my heart, I got up and left the house.
I needed to think, to find a valid excuse to justify my stupidity, but above all to understand why seeing Edith again had left me restless, upset and so aroused that I still had an erection at the thought of her.
Getting back on the motorbike and setting off aimlessly caused me déjà-vu.
It was the same thing I had done when she had left the Hamptons years before.
I thought back to what I had told her on the phone, that she wouldn't sleep a wink that night thinking about me.
Well, actually, I was the one who was going to spend many a sleepless night.
I knew it. Edith had always been this to me, madness, excitement, insomnia and aimless travel.
And now she even had me!
Would I have given in to blackmail?
Yes, and not only because my father had already asked me to lend Paul Merivale a hand after learning of his misfortunes, but also because I was sure that Edith would not hesitate to make me pay for having to kneel before me.
I knew her well enough to know that the gesture was worth every penny she asked for in her email.
However, I was too much of a bastard to give it to her.
Edith, enjoy the money and the degree, because one day, you will not know when or where, I will come back to you and take my revenge.
Revenge was a dish best served cold and I knew how to wait.

4

EDITH

By the time I arrived in New Haven I was tired and exhausted.
The flight had been delayed for forty-five minutes, my neighbour had been clucking her tongue non-stop due to an annoying tic, and my mind had not ceased thinking about Jake for a moment.
I looked at the time. Jessie, my roommate, must have already left for work at the pub downstairs. I didn't have much of a relationship with her. She wasn't the kind of girl I confided my secrets to and more times we bickered about her passion for loud heavy metal music than anything else.
Was it so difficult to use headphones to listen to music without disturbing the whole neighbourhood?
Sighing with relief, I opened the door.
I dragged my trolley inside through the living room, which overlooked the messy kitchen with the sink full of dirty dishes. It was impossible to hold back an expletive in the presence of that chaos. I had only been away a few days and Jessie had taken the opportunity to go wild.
I made my way to my room and literally threw myself on the bed.
I closed my eyes and in an instant the image of Jake materialised in front of me.

I had to forget him!
He had made me suffer before. I wasn't going to let him do it again.
Edith, remember how much you cried for him.
Yet my body still sizzled from that kiss.
I could still smell his scent on me.
"Enough! Edith, I forbid you to think back to that idiot!", I blurted out furiously, running to the bathroom and turning on the water to fill the beautiful bathtub, the highlight of the flat.

If the house was small, sloppy and with peeling wallpaper in several places, the bathroom, on the other hand, had been renovated. Whoever had lived there before had died and left in the flat a white enamelled cast-iron bathtub, with feet in the shape of golden lion's paws. I loved that tub, even though it was only a hundred and fifty centimetres long and I had to stand with my knees bent when I lay down.
I filled it with water, bubble bath and a few drops of jasmine oil.
Meanwhile, I emptied my suitcase and undressed, walking around the house naked, since I was alone.
Then I took a glass of white Sauvignon wine, dry and aromatised as I liked it, and a small stool that I placed next to the bathtub, so that I could rest my glass and mobile phone on it.
When the tub was sufficiently full, I immersed myself in the warm, perfumed water.
I let my tense body relax, caressed by the foam. Only my knees were sticking out like two pink mounds.
I leaned my head on the edge and took the glass of wine.
I took a sip, savouring the hints of citrus and dried fruit, typical of the Californian vines of Sonoma County.
I took a deep breath, exhaling so hard that I emptied my lungs completely. I felt the spasmodic need to release everything that had happened that day from my body and mind.
I had taken a big risk. Provoking and seducing Jake had been dangerous. His lips on mine were taking me back in time to that summer I would have paid to forget. To end up in that vortex of excitement and desire that Jake had dragged me into, to the point where I lost my mind and blew my principles was something I had never forgiven myself for. During those years I had believed that time would make me immune to him, but seeing him again had destabilised me.
There was something even more exciting and seductive about his sleek new look, his controlled, feline posture... I knew what lurked beneath such a veneer of perfection and total control.
He was not the good guy he let on. No, inside him was a rebellious soul, tormented and lost, so destructive that it dragged you down with it.
A soul that I had loved and that had torn me apart.
By now I could think back to him without crying, but it had taken me months to make peace with myself and admit that I had made a mistake and that I had to pay dearly for my weakness.
A weakness I had no longer allowed myself with anyone.
I had built an armour around myself.
But then why had seeing him again made me feel like I was being rained on by shards of glass?
Why did I feel that Jake still had the power to hurt me?
Why was my body screaming that it still wanted him?
What was wrong with me?
Why did I feel guilty for going so far as to threaten him and make him look like a criminal?
I had crossed the line with him.
I had been forced. My family came first.
Yet I knew I had brought it on myself.
I could have handled that encounter in so many ways, but I had chosen the worst.
Edith, Jake has always had the power to bring out the worst in you.

"Fuck!" I growled, noticing that the Edith I thought dead was still alive and longing for what had been taken from her years before. Jake still hovered in and out of me like a ghost, making me restless and unable to reason.
I drank the wine greedily and sank even deeper into the water.
"You just can't get over me, can you?" Jake's voice made me gasp so loudly that water leaked out of the tub. I straightened up and stifled a scream when I saw Jake in the flesh, leaning lazily against the bathroom door frame as he sipped a glass of my wine and surveyed me with those ice-coloured eyes that had populated my dreams and nightmares for a long time.
He was wearing the same clothes as that afternoon. He had taken off his jacket and the white shirt had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
"What are you doing here?", I whispered quietly and trying to cover myself with white suds.
I wanted to run away but I was naked, wet and stuck in that tub!
'I wonder how many years must pass before your memory is permanently erased. I'm sure you're wondering the same thing, aren't you?" he said heedless of my question, which I repeated with more emphasis and anger.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Jake stared straight into my eyes and took a long moment before answering me. It was as if he was trying to stretch me like a rubber band until I snapped.
"I came to bring you the fifty-thousand-dollar cheque to cover your last year at Yale," he replied candidly, approaching me casually.
"In the email I left you my bank details. You could have transferred it to me instead of bothering to come all the way here,' I replied sourly, as he cleared the small stool and sat on it.
Now our faces were almost at the same height, and when his arm rested on the edge of the tub, I felt like I was being hit by a two-thousand-volt electric shock.
"How did you get into my house?", I tried again, not taking my eyes off Jake's hand that had been playing with foam, a short distance from my knees.
"I knocked and your roommate let me in."
"Jessie's not here."
"She was."
"When I got here, she had already gone to work."
"I know, in fact she let me in and went to the pub. She let me wait for you here. What a nice person, isn't she?"
"How did you get here before me?", I asked bewildered.
"With my new Cessna Citation. It's faster than your airliner, you know."
"Did you fly it?", I asked dazedly.
"I have my pilot's licence."
"After crashing your motorbike, you decided to try your hand at a plane?"
That sentence must have touched a sore spot, because Jake's gaze darkened abruptly, leaving an aura of anguish on me. I didn't say it, but I actually knew that Jake hadn't had an accident since I had started law school at Yale.
However, I remembered his last accident. His cousin had gone so far as to accuse me of being the culprit. She had later apologised to me, after which our relationship had cooled down a lot. I hadn't seen her since that time and we just emailed from time to time, in which she told me about the exploits of Jake, one of the youngest and smartest lawyers in town. She had also sent me videos of some of the trials Jake had won. It had been thrilling to see him in front of the jury defending his client and convincing the jurors to back him despite the scant evidence in favour of the defendant.
"I no longer allow any woman to drive me so crazy that I lose control," Jake replied seriously, laying a cool hand on my knee.
My skin quivered and Jake's smile let me know he had noticed.
"Are you sure?", I found myself teasing him in turn, against my own will. Inside, I huffed in irritation because for the umpteenth time, I had felt like challenging Jake and I hadn't been able to contain my unhealthy urge to have my way.
Jake's hoarse, seductive laugh gave an adrenaline rush to all the dormant butterflies in my belly.
"I see you haven't lost the habit of provoking me," he replied, sliding his hand into the water, running over my knee and thigh all the way down.
I gasped.
"You're in my house, in my bathroom, and you're bothering me while I'm washing," I explained, but he moved even closer until I could feel his breath on my face.
"You'll never be able to wash me off, Edith," he blew on my neck, as his hand made its way into my intimacy.
"Jake!", I gasped, as he penetrated me with his fingers.
I couldn't say any more as he bent further and in an instant his mouth took possession of mine.
His tongue made its way in, caressing and teasing mine as his hand continued to torture me.
I groaned in pleasure and without realising it, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
Why couldn't I rebel?
Why did I still remember so vividly the pleasure he could give me?
I bit my lip, scolding myself that in those three years I had not allowed a boy to get that close again. Jake had been the last one I'd had sex with.
I was almost about to climax when Jake pulled away from me slightly to look at my face.
"Abstinence isn't good for you if it only takes one touch to bring you to orgasm," he whispered with a wicked smile.
"Grace!", I screamed in frustration. She was the only one who knew my university life.
"My dear little cousin likes to mind our own business. I'm sure she's told you about every woman I sleep with."
"You're wrong. I don't care," I retorted furiously. Actually, I knew something but I had specifically asked Grace not to keep me up to date because I needed to stop thinking about him. The only thing I had accepted willingly were the reports on his successes. I had almost died of envy when I found out that he had been hired at Kragen & Dorian Associates even before he had qualified as a lawyer. Apparently Seattle's most prestigious law firm had jumped the gun so as not to miss out on the winning steed of the year's new graduates.
At that moment he represented everything I wanted.
All I needed was a final year at Yale and I would have sparked. I could feel it!
"You little liar," Jake chuckled, bringing me back to reality.
A sob escaped my throat as his hand moved away from my thighs. He stood up and grabbed my towel to wipe himself off.
Apparently, he had only retaliated by leaving me as unsatisfied as I had been with him a few hours earlier.
Bastard!
He left the bathroom and was wearing his jacket when he returned.
From an inside breast pocket, he took out a cheque.
"Now you owe me," he said, laying it on the stool.
"You're rich enough not to ask me for the bill and then I'd like to remind you that that amount barely covers your insults and what you almost forced me to do."
"Your accusations were a cheap shot but you will pay for those too," he replied with a calmness that sent shivers down my spine.
"I owe you nothing."
"You owe me so much that a lifetime won't be enough to repay me. If I just think back to three years ago..."
"I too paid a heavy price for what happened," I pointed out with a lump in my throat. Bringing up the past was a bad idea.
"Not enough, but I swear one day I will come back to you and ask for the bill with interest."
"I need a date and time. You know, I have a pretty full schedule."
He approached the tub again. By now the water was cold and I was shivering a little.
"I'll come to you when you forget about me," he whispered through his lips, giving me a light kiss.
That will never happen.
I didn't know what to reply and before I could reconnect my poor neurons overloaded by the tension caused by his presence, Jake had already left my house.
I lay still for a long time, inebriated, unable to reason, until I felt a contraction of pleasure in my lower abdomen remind me of what that bastard had left undone.
"Damn!" I growled, hitting the surface of the water with my fists

PART TWO

5

EDITH

Three years earlier.

"Mitchell Carson is like King Midas, you know? Everything he touches turns to gold and I need him to make that quantum leap I so desire. Only then will I be able to give you the life you deserve," my father repeated to me for the umpteenth time, as the gate opened to a beautiful property surrounded by greenery.
"I like my life the way it is," I replied, huffing. I detested my father and his ambition. An obsession that did not even come from him but from my mother, who urged him to do more, to work harder, to take greater and greater risks, to seek out high-ranking friendships, to buy bigger and bigger houses...
I loved the father I had before. The loving one, who read me bedtime stories in my twelve square metre bedroom with the broken Hello Kitty alarm clock.
We weren't poor before, but we weren't particularly rich either, while now we were rolling in gold, but it never seemed to be enough. It was never enough. Having reached one goal, there was immediately another ready. A real race against time, in which there was less and less room for me.
Actually, I had never stopped loving my father, but that was not what I wanted for him.
Sometimes he was so exhausted and anxious that he would run out of breath.
I felt bad for him.
That's why I had decided to humour him and pretend to be the happy daughter who knew daddy's new super-rich friend, so much so that I agreed to take a holiday together, at the Carson mansion in the Hamptons.
A huge mansion with an annexe where I could relax, recharge my batteries in preparation for my departure to Stanford, and make friends with the Carson family and others.
My mother was also supposed to be with us, but she had had the bright idea of getting her lips done before departure and something had gone wrong. Now her mouth was deformed and she couldn't drink without drooling all over herself. Desperate, she had locked herself in her bedroom, pretending to have the flu.
So there was only my father and I to make a good impression on the famous and much-loved Mitchell Carson.
When we parked in the driveway, we found a Maserati in front of us, from which a middle-aged man with black hair and blue eyes was getting out. He exuded charm and wealth, but there was a strain on his face that I didn't like.
"Mitchell!" my father greeted him excitedly, getting out of the car and joining him.
"Paul! Sorry I didn't send anyone to pick you up at the airport, but I just got in from Seattle on a pressing engagement. I still have to consult with the servants, but I have already had a bedroom prepared for you and your wife at the mansion, and I thought for your daughter to go and have fun with the boys. The annexe is large and there are five bedrooms."
"Unfortunately Marisa caught a bad flu and couldn't come, but I'm sure Edith will be happy to join your children and their friends," my father replied, too eager to make a good impression to criticise the choices of the host.
In a moment, my father followed Mitchell into the villa, after briefly introducing us, while a maid took my suitcase and motioned for me to follow her.
'I can do it myself,' I told her, noticing the effort she was making to carry my suitcase full of books. Besides, I was not used to being waited on hand and foot. Even though I could afford a maid today, I still liked getting by without anyone's help.
The woman gave me a smile full of gratitude.
"The annexe is on the left. At the far end you will find a swimming pool and a white building with blue window frames. Your room is the second door to the right on the first floor. Mr Carson has also advised me to inform you that his niece, Grace Carson, will also be there shortly."
I knew Grace. She was the daughter of one of my father's business partners and had always been kind to me. I let out a sigh of relief at finding a friend in that unfamiliar place.
"Who will be with us?"
"Jake, Mr Carson's son. Easton, the youngest son was supposed to come too, but he ran off yesterday with his friends and no one knows what happened to him."
"Is that normal?"
"With Jake and Easton nothing is normal, but we're used to it by now. That's just the way they are and since their mother died, things have gotten worse."
"Other crazies to watch out for?"
"The Ashton twins, Lucinda and Gregory, and finally Engineer Polsen's lonely son, Sean. While the twins spend all their time on their mobile phones or shopping, Sean prefers to play video games. You are more or less the same age. Jake is in his third year of university, while the twins graduated last year."
"And what do they do now?"
"The Ashtons are on sabbatical, while Jake is attending Stanford Law."
"Oh my God! That's the same university I'm going to! I applied to Stanford, Yale, and Harvard, because they have the best law schools in the US!", I exclaimed excitedly to meet someone who could tell me about life as a law student at Stanford, the only university that had responded positively to my application. Harvard had turned me down (a humiliation I would never get over), while Yale had put me on the waiting list.
The maid gave me an understanding smile, but her expression didn't look so happy.
Determined to get to know Jake Carson, with whom I already felt an affinity, I grabbed my suitcase and set off briskly towards the annexe.
"Ah, miss, don't mind the mess. Yesterday, Master Carson had a party for his birthday while his father was travelling, and we haven't finished sorting out the lounge and pool,' the woman warned me worriedly, after taking her leave.
Party?! An upstanding, intelligent, mature Stanford student (who mirrored my image of what I would soon become) had organised a party?
No, impossible!
However, as soon as I left a palm tree-lined path behind me, I actually found myself in front of a swimming pool full of plastic cups, bottles, bikinis, used coloured condoms... I would have lingered further, but I almost stepped on what looked like a puddle of vomit, while two employees were hurrying to collect the rubbish and send away the last guests who had fallen asleep on the floor or on the deckchairs.
"Jake, you're a legend!" one guy shouted in a slurred voice, getting up from the lawn and walking towards the exit with a staggering stride.
I thought back to my very rare quiet parties and sleepovers where we drank non-alcoholic sparkling wine and strawberries. Not even in the worst of times had I ever reduced the house to that state. Not least because if I had, my mother would have killed me and buried me in the garden.
Carefully, I arrived inside the building and found myself in a large living room with an attached kitchen.
It was a hellish mess. It was as if a bomb had exploded in there.
Nauseous from that disaster, I quickly made my way upstairs, where I found several doors.
Second door on the right, right?
I went to my room, praying not to find it strewn with vomit or used condoms, but when I tried to turn the handle, I found it locked.
I applied force several times, but to no avail.
Convinced I was in the wrong room, I approached the previous one.
That one was also closed.
Then I tried again with the one opposite and to my relief found it open.

I opened the door wide, but the scenario that presented itself left me so shocked that the handle of the suitcase slipped out of my hand, causing the duffle bag to fall noisily to the floor.
That clang attracted the attention of a pair of blue eyes, as clear as the sea, which opened and pointed at me like a hawk.
With difficulty I looked away to dwell on the trio in front of me, reclining in a large bed.
Asleep, two completely naked girls, clinging to a boy in the middle who was staring at me in curiosity and excitement.
No matter how hard I tried not to give in, I finally looked at his entire undressed body, flowing over his face, his skin golden from the sun's rays filtering through the French doors, his puffy, hard pecs, his perfect abs, sculpted like marble, his...
Oh my God! Just as I was staring at his cock, it hardened and swelled in a shocking way. I felt a heat invade my stomach and belly, while my cheeks burned with embarrassment.
I knew that my physical beauty never made me go unnoticed, but no man had ever shown such open interest.
I held my breath at that sight. I had seen naked guys before, but not complete strangers who were so shamelessly aroused by staring at me.
Yes, staring at me , because that idiot was really scanning me with such a ravenous expression that even my toes twitched.
'I had asked my dad for a present for my birthday, but I wasn't expecting... you. Well, he's outdone himself this time. I'll have to thank him and forgive him for being a day late," he exclaimed with that arrogant, seductive air that I wanted to slap off his face.
"I am nobody's gift," I managed to say, regaining lucidity. Never was I going to let that jerk make me feel like a sex object.
'I'll decide that,' he sighed in a slightly sleepy voice, stretching and freeing himself from the tentacles of the two octopuses on either side of him.
'I decide that! Who the fuck does this asshole think he is?
Before he could get up, I gave him the middle finger, walked out of the room and slammed the door so hard I risked unhinging it, waking the two girls.
"Jake, what's going on?" one of them asked.
I didn't hear the answer. My brain had gone haywire when I had realised that that was Jake Carson, the law student at Stanford, my future university classmate.
How could Stanford have accepted a dickhead like that and me? By what criteria had we both been deemed eligible?
The mere idea that I had anything in common with that nymphomaniac imbecile made me gag.
Bitter as ever, I returned to the ground floor. To my surprise I found Grace Carson having a diet shake prepared by the waitress, whom I had earlier seen intent on cleaning.
I approached with a smile. It had been three months since I had seen Grace, as she was studying at another school and our fathers had no longer organised dinners together.

Despite the time that had passed, Grace hadn't changed at all, with her cream-coloured skin and her hair frayed by too many straightening irons with which she insisted on straightening her brown curls.
"Grace, you wanna make it snow? You drinking a milkshake?", I exclaimed amused, drawing her attention.
"Edith!" cried Grace, coming towards me happily. She too was relieved to find a friendly face there. I leaned down to kiss her. "I need to lose weight. I'll never find a boyfriend as long as I keep being this fat,' she explained with a pout, showing me the glass filled with a thick, green liquid.
I smiled happily and nodded as if she had said something completely reasonable. I was relieved by that change in her. I could no longer bear to hear her say, "No guy will ever want to be with a quadriplegic."
"Have you met someone?", I provoked her, patting her cheek.
"No, but Sven says I have to eat less junk food."
"Who's Sven?"
"My new babysitter," she replied, swallowing that concoction in disgust and pointing to someone behind me.
I turned and found myself standing in front of an armoire of a man.
"Hello," I managed to say, as my eyes ran in shock over that mass of muscle and that angelic-looking but icy-eyed face.
He did not answer me but nodded his head in greeting.
"Does your mother know that Sven is a man?", I stammered unable to think of anything else but Grace's super anxious mother leaving her daughter in the hands of man.
"Yes."
"And does she also know he's crazy hot?"
"He's a great nurse - slash - physiotherapist - slash - massage therapist. Plus, he doesn't bother me because he doesn't speak English," she replied resolutely.
"What does your sister say?"
"Nothing. Emily is too busy to be fooling around with guys our age. A 26-year-old is too old for an 18-year-old, according to her."
I didn't have the courage to ask any more about Grace's twin. I knew they didn't get along. They were different in appearance and character. Moreover, Emily was jealous of her parents' attentions towards Grace because she had ended up in a wheelchair after a bad accident as a child.
In the past, several times Grace had asked me to intervene to help Emily, who idolised me in an almost sick way. She had even gone so far as to dye her hair black and buy green contact lenses to look like me. Sometimes she would draw a mole on her face like mine.

'Too bad she copies your beauty but not your character,' her mother had once told me, after bringing Emily home drunk as a skunk.
Not to mention her bad grades at school... She had flunked that year and I knew her father had enrolled her in a special class to make up for the lost year. That's why she wasn't with Grace.
I decided to change the subject.
"Good thing you came. The rooms upstairs are locked and I don't know where to go," I explained.
"I know. The maid was just telling me that it was Jake's birthday yesterday and he had a party, taking advantage of his father's absence, who banned them after yet another fuck-up he and his brother Easton had. The servants locked our rooms yesterday afternoon to avoid intruders. She has already given me the keys to our rooms. I will stay on the ground floor, while you will have your own room upstairs. I can't wait to unpack and tell you all about it,' Grace informed me, handing me a silver key.
With relief, I took the key and went back upstairs to sort out my things, while my friend did the same with her new nurse downstairs.
With a grimace of disgust, I walked past Jake's room. The door was closed but shook slightly under some repeated pounding. Through the wood I perceived moans, gasps and screams....
Oh my God! They are having sex right behind this door!
I quickened my pace and locked myself in my room.
I let go of my suitcase and threw myself on the bed.
I sighed in surrender to the holiday that was going to be more difficult than I had imagined.
Fortunately, I was not a person to be crushed by circumstances.
I took a quick look around the room. It was in shades of blue and beige. Very relaxing, but not very spacious.
There was only a small wardrobe and a very tiny table. Only the bed was large and comfortable.
I breathed deeply to relax and relieve the stress accumulated from the journey. Then I got up and calmly began to unpack. I put my clothes in perfect order and then arranged the books, which I had brought, in alphabetical order and by genre, on the small desk.
Finally I took a shower and changed clothes, preferring a loose top and shorts, with a white bikini underneath.
I took my time. I wanted to feel comfortable and calm for when I got out of there.
Almost with a nervous sigh I opened the door after almost an hour. Luckily I did not encounter any unpleasant beings and went downstairs, where I heard various young voices laughing and joking.
I crossed the whole hall and walked towards the garden, where everything had been put in perfect order and a large table arranged in the middle.
Right there I found Grace with other young people. As soon as she saw me, she waved me over and introduced me to the other guests.
The Ashton twins. Lucinda and Gregory. African-Americans, older than me by a year, black hair with red locks for Lucinda, black eyes, exaggeratedly made up for her. Lucinda watched me with great curiosity, squaring me from head to toe. Her brother did the same but with a very different look and the smirk that was painted on his face irritated me. I gave him back a look of pure annoyance that caught his eye and made him decide to abandon his idea of annoying me and go jump in the pool.
Next to Lucinda sat Anya Grabovia. Confident, full of fake smiles and eye winks. I knew girls like her and they never brought anything good. There was only a desire to excel in those blue eyes and when they rested on me, I read envy and irritation. However, she was the first to strike up a conversation as if she wanted to be my best friend.
I sat down between Grace and the one guy who didn't even give me a passing glance, so engrossed was he in his notebook. "Sean Polsen. Future computer programmer, he's two years older than us and doesn't like talking to people who can't express themselves in html code," Grace whispered in my ear, noticing my interest in the boy with reading glasses and brown hair.
Finally someone I could be with without being pelted with stares and idiotic phrases to pick me up!
"Have you seen Jake?" asked Anya, as a waitress served us iced tea and fresh fruit.
I smiled to myself, because I was sure there was something between her and Jake.
"I think he's still in his room," I replied, nibbling on a strawberry.
'Yeah, but he's not alone. Earlier I heard he was fucking a chick,' Gregory joined in, exiting the pool and returning to sit with us.
"Have you met him yet?" asked Lucinda, briefly looking away from the mobile phone she held in her hand, which absorbed her completely.
The only difference from Sean was that she would point at something on the screen to Anya and then together they would giggle, whereas Sean was a lone wolf.
"I had the misfortune of running into him this morning while looking for my room."
"Speak of the devil and...," Grace whispered, elbowing me a little and pointing at Jake who was coming towards us.
"I wouldn't talk about misfortune. Look how cool that is!" said Lucinda to me, before turning back to her phone.
I burst out laughing not knowing if her joke was a joke or she meant it.
Maybe we were looking at two different things.
Jake was only wearing a swimming costume. He had wet dark hair and blue eyes, sleepy after a night of hot sex.
He had an incredible physique, well defined and with every muscle artfully outlined and sculpted, but my eyes preferred to linger on his right hand holding a beer, while with the other he clutched one of the two blondes I had found in his bed.
"I didn't know degradation was cool," I let slip.
Gregory burst out laughing. Sean also looked at me for a moment, but his gaze seemed more concerned than anything else.
"Someone's looking for trouble," Lucinda's brother snickered.
'I don't want any trouble, but come on... Do you see him too? He just got up and he's already attached to the bottle! Please!"
"You forgot that flapper on him," he pointed out.
"A desperado, you mean."
"Not as much as you when he dumps you," Anya blurted out.
'There's no danger of that. I assure you Jake Carson doesn't interest me in the slightest.

I happily leave him to all those girls so desperate to think they can find a moment of enjoyment with someone like that."
"What gender are you?", Lucinda egged me on.
"The kind that seeks excellence and maturity in a man, not a kid whose mental development stopped at five years old and who within the next ten, will die of cirrhosis of the liver."
"Edith." Grace's hurt voice made me realise I had gone too far. I wasn't in the habit of bad-mouthing someone like that, but there was a certain resentment inside me that had yet to dissipate.
Jake is studying law at Stanford like me! I will never accept being put on the same level as him!
' Of course Jake remains a great cousin. Loser and desperate with women, but great as a cousin,' I tried to make up for it with an unconvinced smile.
I had known Grace for three years but we had never talked about her cousins and now it puzzled me to see her feeling bad for one of them.
"Jake is more than that. He's better than he looks."
"Then I don't understand why you hide all these incredible qualities under this thick layer of decay and debris."
"You're too harsh on him."
"Severe but fair," I hissed sourly, noticing how Jake had quickly dismissed his guest as if she were an annoying gnat and stuck to his beer again.
"Good morning everyone and welcome to my humble home!", Jake exclaimed as he joined us.
As expected, Anya got up to kiss and hug him. He hardly reciprocated. He did not seem particularly interested and when he became aware of my presence, he probed me again like a hawk.
'We have already seen each other this morning,' he told me in a suddenly hoarse and sensual voice. It sounded as if he wanted to fuck me on that table at that moment.
"Get another boner in front of the others and I'll cut it off," I answered him telepathically with a tugged grin and a grim, scowling look.
He must have taken the hint, because he started laughing and talking to the others.
I looked at the time. It was almost noon.
I had been invited to lunch at the mansion to meet Mitchell Carson and be with my father.
I got up ready to leave.
"Where are you going?" worried Grace.
"Lunch with my dad today. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Hey, where are you going?", Jake stopped me, standing in front of me as I was walking back into the house.
"I don't owe you any explanations," I immediately clarified.
"I know, but I want them anyway."
"Am I your guest or your prisoner?"

"I'll leave that up to you, baby," he replied languidly, licking his upper lip. "If it were up to me, you have no idea what I would do to you."
"And I don't even want to know. Find someone else to give your sick ideas vent to."

"Beautiful and aggressive. I like you!"

"You're out of your mind," I managed to say, placing my hands on his pecs and pushing him away.

"I don't even know your name," he tried to stop me, but by then I was already in and ignored him completely.

I turned one last time and saw him in Anya and Lucinda's arms.

6

JAKE

Breathtakingly beautiful!
And, fuck, she had taken it out of me! My brain had gone haywire as soon as I had seen her walk into my room that morning. Only my dick had been sober and awake enough to give signs of life.
If I hadn't been drinking so much and hadn't had Ashley and Cora all over me crushing me, I would have gotten up in a hurry and rushed to meet that goddess.
Only Cora had noticed my upset and had taken advantage of that stranger's effect to enjoy one last time before leaving.
I had come hard, thinking back to that long black hair to that perfect ass, those jade green eyes staring at me wide-open and unable to tear themselves away from my body, that full, sexy mouth made even more irresistible by that mole near the corner of her upper lip. My skin was charged with electricity under her surprised and shocked gaze.
Not to mention those tits pressing against the delicate fabric and those kilometre-long legs.
I had never seen a more beautiful girl than her. Not even on television.

You are going to spend all your summer holidays with her, Jake. You'll have time to fuck her and enjoy yourself until your cock is consumed.

I was already looking forward to having her in my bed soon, when I had seen her again in the garden and she had given me that hate-filled look.
I had breathed that emotion in deeply, knowing that I would soon turn it into something more exciting, with her kneeling in front of me, sucking me off.
In an instant I had gotten hard again and had had to distract myself to put the python down.
A rest that had been very short-lived, because when she had asked me if she was my prisoner, a roundup of scenes of us fucking in every position and way possible and unimaginable had flashed through my mind.
"Forget about her," Anya had distracted me, as I was lost staring at that rare beauty's butt as she walked away after trying in vain to put me in my place.
"Who is she?", I asked dreamily.
"Edith Merivale, a friend of your cousin's," she replied in a sour tone.
"Edith," I pronounced, relishing the sound of her name.
"I suggest you forget her before you humiliate yourself any more than you already have," she whispered in my ear.
"Someone capable of humiliating me has yet to be born," I scoffed.
"Anya is right," Lucinda joined in, showing me her mobile phone.
I looked at the screen. It was a video shot earlier in that garden.
"I wouldn't talk about misfortune. Look how cool that is...", Lucinda was saying, turning the camera towards me, as I walked out into the garden to greet my guests. Then she moved back to Edith, as she laughed bitterly, looking at her as if she were stupid or blind.
That sarcastic giggle immediately made me nervous. A little voice in my brain screamed at me not to continue watching the video, but by now anger was taking over.
"I didn't know degradation was cool," Edith had replied, giving me a disgusted look.
That gesture made me snatch the phone out of Lucinda's hands and turn away from those two hyenas.
I felt that humiliation was just around the corner.
"Someone's looking for trouble," Gregory understood.
"I don't want any trouble, but come on... Do you see him too? He just got up and he's already on the bottle! Please!", Edith had gotten even more fired up. She was calling me an alcoholic!
"You've forgotten that flapper who's all over him."
"A desperado, you mean."
Desperate?! How dare she? I'll fucking destroy this one!
"Not as much as you, when he dumps you," Anya had defended me. Too bad I didn't give a shit about her. By now I could feel the sulphuric acid running through my veins.

"There is no danger. I assure you that Jake Carson doesn't interest me in the slightest. I gladly leave him to all those girls so desperate to think of finding a moment of enjoyment with such a person."
She had again dared to call the girls who succumbed to my advances desperate! Bitch!
"What gender are you?", Lucinda had provoked her.
"The kind that seeks excellence and maturity in a man, not a little boy whose mental development stopped at five years old and who within the next ten, will die of cirrhosis of the liver."
With that last sentence my subtle self-control went to hell and I hurled Lucinda's mobile phone into the pool.
I didn't even listen to the stupid meddler's screams of protest.
With the demon in me, I went upstairs in search of the one who would soon beg to be fucked and forgiven by yours truly.
Many doors were locked and although I tried knocking and calling Edith, no one answered.
"Miss Merivale has gone to the villa. She was invited to lunch by her father," a maid informed me.
I was actually supposed to attend that lunch too, but I had completely forgotten about it.
I hurriedly put on a T-shirt and headed for the villa.
I heard a ring on my mobile phone.
It was a message from Anya: 'So you don't forget'. Attached was the video I had just seen.
Bitch, it's useless for you to do this. It's over between us and I'm not fucking you anymore.
I entered the building and immediately caught a glimpse of Edith walking towards the corridor leading to the dining room.
I grabbed her from behind, blocking her with an arm around her shoulders.
She gasped in fright but then turned and saw me.
"You again? What are you doing here?" she huffed.
"This is my house."
"Does that give you the right to harass me as and when you want?"
"Maybe you'd rather I made a video of you?" I said, putting the mobile phone in front of her face and starting the shot.
Edith stiffened against my body as soon as she realised what we were watching.
She tried to free herself from my embrace, but I intensified my grip until the end of the video.
"I didn't know Lucinda was recording," she merely told me, breaking free from my grip.
"Did you think you were getting my attention with this shit to get you laid?", I blurted out.
"It didn't work?" she asked with wide eyes and a suddenly guilty, sorry tone in her voice.
"No, but you're well on your way to pissing me off." I had no intention of letting her screw me over.
"Oh God, I'm sorry. Really, I don't know what to come up with anymore to make you fall in love with me. I'm obviously going to have to deal with it. You just broke my heart, but I promise I'll try to get over it. I'm a strong girl, you know?" she continued, wiping away a fake tear and moving even closer to me.

Her perfume enveloped me and again I felt my brain go into overdrive. This was worse than heroin!
"Fuck, if you do that you make me feel like shit."
"Oh no, you don't need me for that. You are shit. With or without me," she replied suddenly serious, turning away and continuing towards the dining room.
She had fucked me! Again!
That realisation made me want to drink again. This time a stupid beer wouldn't be enough.
I had to take a deep breath for several seconds before I followed her and joined her at the table, where my father and Paul Merivale, Edith's father, were already there, I could see the resemblance. They had the same beautiful eyes. Eyes that made me lose my head.
I sat down next to Edith, in front of our respective fathers.

"I suppose you have already had the pleasure of meeting each other," my father exclaimed with a tug-of-war smile. I knew very well that he was ashamed of me, but he had not yet given in to the idea of leaving me in my own cesspool of a life. He always had to try to involve me in his affairs and make me look like the prodigal son.
"Your son is a perfect host. I received a welcome I won't so easily forget," she replied, turning a meaningful glance at me, which I reciprocated with a forced smile.
"I care to remain indelible," I said, sending her a look equally full of promise and threat.
Luckily a waiter arrived to serve drinks.
Now that I was twenty-one I could drink alcohol even in front of my father, so I motioned the waiter to serve me some white wine.
He was about to pour it into my glass, when I saw Edith's hand settle on top of the goblet.
"For him, just water," I warned the waiter, then gave me a wide, innocent smile. "I'll say this for you, Jake. You don't mess with cirrhosis of the liver."
My father choked on his wine and Paul looked at his daughter in bewilderment.
"Edith, I don't think so... Remember we're guests," he tried to save himself in the corner.
"I meant it for him," she replied in a voice so innocent no one would believe she was acting.
"Mitchell, you must forgive my daughter. Edith, she is used to drinking wine in moderation and my father-in-law taught her never to abuse alcohol. That's why she cares about others. She does it with me too. She doesn't do it with malice,' Paul tried to explain extremely embarrassed, as Edith signalled to the waiter to pour her some wine.
No one dared deny her the alcohol even though she was only eighteen.
Slowly she sniffed it and took a sip, savouring the wine thoroughly.
'Be careful not to get drunk,' I teased her.
"There is no danger. I can handle alcohol very well and I know when to say enough. I spent entire summers at my grandparents' winery and they taught me to drink wine, savour its nuances and never get drunk,' she replied knowingly.
"My daughter is a very responsible girl and we trust her," Paul exclaimed proudly.
"As long as you don't leave her alone and find out that she has organised a high alcohol party that even attracted the police," growled my father, chomping on the octopus. Apparently, he hadn't forgotten about that bump in the road a year earlier.
"Edith would never do that. She often stayed home alone, but she never did anything like that. I know because our neighbour, she would have warned me right away. Edith prefers to be alone. She is very selective with boys."
"Hard to believe. Paul, your daughter is a rare pearl," my father admitted.
"I know."
"I in your place wouldn't sleep from worry."
"I'm used to it by now. The worst thing happens when kids come onto your property, completely naked and drunk, screaming your daughter's name and how much they love her," Paul chuckled.
"Oh my God! Have you called the police in those cases?"
"Of course."

"Did you also segregate Edith in her room for days on end?", I tried to ask.
"No, I enrolled her in a self-defence course. There won't always be someone there to protect her, especially at school, so Marisa and I opted to make her stronger and prepared in case of harassment."
I stood speechless, admiring Paul's decision.
I looked at Edith. Now I understood that untouchable aura of hers. She never seemed indecisive or insecure.
"I prefer to spend my free time studying instead of having fun. My maximum is one party a month," she said, looking down at me.

"Studying anatomy, I guess," I snickered. I could imagine anything, except that Edith would not be in sweet company playing patient and nurse with someone.
"No, studying law," she corrected, glowering at me.
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Maybe you also want me to believe you've never had a boyfriend?"
"As my father said, I'm very selective unlike someone else who would accept anything for three minutes of pleasure."
"Three minutes?!" Fuck, she was offending me! I used to last longer than that!
"You're right. Chlamydia can stay for weeks," he recoiled, really pissing me off.
"What about you, Jake, do you have a girlfriend?" came Paul's appeasement.
"I haven't found one desperate enough to get with me yet, have I?", I replied, staring at his daughter.
'Becoming aware of your limits is the first step to personal growth,' she whispered next to me, patting me on the back.
Should I kill her now or wait until I was alone with her?
"You obviously didn't get off on the right foot," my furious father intervened, giving me an accusing look. Why did it always have to be my fault? "However, I would advise you both to make up, because soon, you will both be going to Stanford and you should not be recognised because of these childish skirmishes."
That sentence stung her to the core, because Edith suddenly stiffened.
"I still don't understand by what criteria you were awarded a place at Stanford," Edith wanted to understand. She exuded so much annoyance that I realised how much she cared about the university.
She certainly couldn't accept that we were on the same level. No, she felt superior. She was so moral, perfect, diligent and precise. How could she be compared to that drunkard yours truly?
"Don't tell my father, but I fucked the recruiter," I whispered in her ear.
"And she settled for such pittance?" she replied in a low voice, coming so close that I could feel her cheek caressing mine.
I laughed furiously at that umpteenth insult. Fuck, Edith was a hard hit with words!
"I'm going to make you regret every single word you've said about me today," I promised her determined to get my way.
"In what way?"
"You will want me so badly that you will beg me to fuck you. You'll be so desperate that you'll do anything to have me."
She burst out laughing with amusement. "'Is this your closing argument? I have to warn you that you're a lousy lawyer."
"You can always rebuttal."
That challenge excited her so much that her eyes lit up. Yes, as a lawyer, she would have been great. That determination and that jade look would have been enough to send the entire jury and judge into a tailspin.
She leaned towards me. She placed her hand on my knee, then went up to my groin.
She pressed her cheek against mine and her breath warmed my skin.
"You will want me so badly that you will beg me to love you. You'll be so desperate that you'll do anything to forget me when you realise you can never have me."
For a moment I was disturbed by those words, as if they had just been spoken by a clairvoyant after reading my palm, but I recovered quickly.
"Love you? You've seen too many romantic comedies," I burst out laughing.
"So has the jury. That's why I'm going to win the case," she joked.
"Are you going to let us in on your secrets, or should we leave you alone?" my father erupted with some disappointment at our whispers.
"I was just telling Edith that I will be happy to show her that I will be the best law student at Stanford," I said.
'You poor deluded man,' hissed Edith, bitterly biting into a shrimp.

7