Forbidden Pleasures (NSC Industries #11) Read online

  Forbidden Pleasures

  A NSC Novel

  Jay and Beatrice’s story

  By

  D H Sidebottom

  Forbidden Pleasures

  Copyright © 2015

  By D H Sidebottom

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual places, incidents and persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 D H Sidebottom. Please do not copy, alter or redistribute this book.

  Table of Contents

  Pre-note:

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Out Now

  Coming Soon

  ‘There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature.

  A scar means that the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.’

  ~ Harry Crews, American novelist

  Pre-note:

  Jay and Beatrice’s story takes place during the same time as Fortitude did, hence the story including Ava and Mason before they moved to Portugal.

  Prologue

  Jay, aged 6

  I covered my ears with my hands as I pulled Timmy, my teddy bear, to my body with my knees and climbed deeper under my duvet. Mummy’s screams made my chest hurt. My throat was sore every time I swallowed and my tummy ached.

  Mummy’s screams grew quieter, James’ shouts muted and less angry now he had finished. Erin was crying in her cot but I was too scared to go and fetch her. If James caught me then mummy would pay for my bad behaviour.

  Timmy looked at me with his sad glass eyes as we both heard mummy’s whimpers, her cries soft as she tried to hide them from me. I heard her though. I always heard her.

  I shuffled back into my headboard when I heard James move across the landing, his plods on the carpet heavy and soothing to my tummy now I knew he had definitely finished hurting Mummy.

  When the front door slammed, I scurried out of bed and ran to the bathroom, grabbing the brown towels and not the white ones. Mummy was always cross with me when I used the white ones.

  Her puffy eyes opened when I quietly crept in. She smiled, the pain to her bruised face showing when she winced. “Hey, honey,” she whispered.

  I didn’t talk, I just touched her chin with the towel and started to clean her up, as was our usual routine.

  “What did you do in art today?”

  I hated it when she tried to talk. She always did and it always made her poorlies more unbearable for her.

  When I didn’t answer she placed her hand over mine, stopping me from dabbing her bleeding mouth. “Jay, please honey. I’m okay.”

  I shook my head as I stared at the huge bruise coming on her chest. She tried to move but cried out in pain and curled back up into bed. I could tell she was trying to hide her crying from me but that made me even sadder.

  “Honey?” she said again, pulling my hand away from her face.

  I looked at her, angry that she could let James hurt her so much. I wanted to hit him, I wanted to stop him but I knew I was too little and that he would make mummy hurt more for my bad behaviour.

  Mummy needed someone to help her.

  “Do you want me to find daddy?”

  Her eyes widened on me, my question one that I had never asked before. She swallowed and her eyes filled with so many tears I was sure her eyeballs were going to drown. She screwed up her face and squeezed my hand tighter. “Daddy wouldn’t ever want to see me hurt, honey. And besides,” she smiled but I knew it wasn’t a real one, her eyes didn’t twinkle like they did when she was happy. “Why would I need a big man when I have my own little man who takes care of me so well?”

  I knew she was telling fibs. My daddy was big and strong. He would take care of her.

  I nodded and placed the towel beside her then went to get her a glass of water from the tap in the bathroom. “Thank you,” she smiled real this time. My mummy was beautiful when she smiled. I wanted to make her smile more. I liked it when she laughed, it made my tummy do silly things.

  I kissed her gently on the cheek so I didn’t hurt her mouth. “Goodnight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

  She laughed but flinched, her laughter turning to a painful groan that made my heart hurt more. “Night, night sweetheart.”

  Closing mummy’s door, I opened Erin’s. She had settled back down, her dummy moving up and down as she sucked hard on it. I kissed her forehead then went back to my room and hunted for the camera that mummy hid in the bottom of my toy box. Placing it on my table, I pressed record and jumped on to my bed. “Hi Daddy. It’s…” I couldn’t remember what the day was. “Uhh, it’s Saturday I think.” I hadn’t been to school so figured it was the weekend. “I hope you’re okay… wherever you are. James hurt mummy again.” I started to cry. “It’s all my fault, Daddy. I forgot to empty the kitchen bin. Mummy told James it was her fault.”

  I grabbed hold of Timmy’s paw. He always made me feel better.

  “She needs your help Daddy. You need to come home so James will go and then he can’t make mummy cry anymore.”

  I lowered my eyes, knowing daddy would get cross with me.

  “I’m coming to find you, Daddy,” I told him, whispering so mummy wouldn’t hear. “I’m going to find you so you can come home with me and help mummy.”

  Reaching over the bed I pressed the stop button on the camera, then lay on the floor and pulled out the bag I had been filling with food for a long time. Stuffing Timmy inside too, I pulled on my shoes and quietly crept down the stairs. Mummy was still sniffing so I hoped she didn’t hear me.

  Pulling the chair across the floor, I climbed onto it and pulled my coat from the hook where it hung beside the front door. Then I slipped out and went to look for daddy.

  I never found him.

  He never found me.

  He didn’t come and rescue us for many years.

  I swore with every breath I took that I would never allow someone to rule me like James did my mummy. I would never let anyone inside me that could hurt me and make me suffer just like my mummy suffered for so long.

  But, unbeknown to me at the time, James’ torture on my mother had a profound effect on my adult life.

  The echo of her cries in my head fed something inside me that became uncontrollable. Something I couldn’t move away from.

  Until her. Until Beatrice Vine.

  Chapter 1

  Bea, 22 years later

  “You just gonna eye fuck all night, or you gonna hit the guy and actually fuck him?” Mia posed as she poked me in a rib and I spluttered at the throat full of the blue balls cocktail I had just sipped at. God, this stuff resembled antifreeze and was bloody lethal. I advise you not to down a few dozen in the space of two hours like I had d
one.

  “Excuse me, I’m sucking blue balls at the moment.” I told her with a blasé expression as I removed my eyes from Mr Dripping Sex over the other side of the room and focused, somewhat problematically, on one of my best friend’s.

  “You’re giving him a case of blue balls Bea, go relieve the poor guy.” Leo, my very gay best friend now offered and I scowled at him.

  “Why is sex always so easy for you all?” I shifted my eyes from Mia to Leo to Emma. They all shrugged in a singular motion and I giggled drunkenly at their synchronisation. We had all been friends since primary school, each of us growing up with each other’s families, in each other’s houses with each other’s trials and tribulations through school, college, university and finally into adult life. They were my support group, my shoulders to lean on and my ultimate fun and giggle guys. I loved each of them and each of their unique characteristics.

  “Hot guy overload, ten o’clock! Good God, look at those damn thighs. They’d hold you tight, Bea.” Leo grinned at me with a waggle of his eyebrows and I drunkenly squinted at him. What the hell was he getting excited for? He was getting married next week.

  Mr Dripping Sex stalked across the room, his long solid legs closing the distance between us swiftly but gracefully as he approached like a panther stalking its prey, dark and dangerous reflected in his eyes. His blond curls were plastered to his forehead in the heat of the room but he remained cool and confident, his bright blazing blue eyes fixed on me as he stepped right in front of me.

  “You wanna talk or should we continue to flirt from across the room?” he asked huskily as he leaned into me.

  Now, I’ve never been a cool girl, never been the most popular or with-it person but I’ve never been a klutz or a catastrophe either, not until the Adonis that was now in my personal space was soon to witness.

  I just needed to get this straight before I told you the next part. I don’t want you rolling your eyes and thinking ‘here we go again, another whingey, clumsy heroine in a book’.

  I shuffled back on my stool and my arse gracefully and elegantly dropped off the edge. I swiftly dropped my glass between my legs, its blue liquid seeping through my white dress and straight into my knickers. My hands made a desperate snatch at Mr Sex’s biceps and I flung my legs around his thighs, locking my ankles over his arse, his very firm arse I might add, very inelegantly and improperly as I urgently tried to remain on the stool and look chic and classy.

  I needed the floor to open up and swallow me whole, either that or a couple of rampantly hungry piranhas would have done.

  Mr Sex sank his teeth into his lower lip in a bid to contain his laughter as he grasped my upper arms and pulled me back onto the stool.

  “Sugar, you don’t need to take me here, I have a great bed in my apartment where you can wrap that delicious body around me.” His bright eyes twinkled with humour.

  I briskly pulled my hands away as I dropped my legs back down, my face red and flush as I cleared my throat. “I was just testing the firmness of your arse to see if it was worth a go over.”

  “Uh-huh, and?” he smirked with a quirk of a brow.

  Damn, he was sex on a stick and I wanted to lick every bloody inch of him. His body looked firm and hard through his light blue shirt; his entrancing bright blue eyes held me hostage as did his soft pink lips but the pièce de résistance was the bad boy scar running the length of his face, from his right eye to his jaw … completely hot!

  I wrinkled my nose. “Nah, sorry, honey but it needs a bit of work. My cane wouldn’t bounce enough.”

  One edge of his mouth lifted into a sly grin and I could see the delight reflected in his pupils. “Maybe I should slip it backwards off a stool or two to make it as delightful as yours.”

  I snorted loudly and eyed him. “Seriously? Is that how you usually hook a girl, insult her?”

  The deep blue of his eyes sparkled mischievously and my stomach fluttered at the naughtiness in them. “I think you just hooked me sugar - with your legs, in a desperate attempt to remain vertical in my presence.”

  My eyes rolled at his cockiness. I’d met plenty of guys like him, thinking they can smile their pearly whites at you and your knickers hop off and wave ta-ta. Well mine were glued and stapled on tight, even if they were now blue and stank of paint stripper.

  “I don’t think I’ll be horizontal at any point in your presence. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m trying to have a night with my friends.”

  His eyes held my face as he tipped his head and regarded me. “I bet I can kiss you without touching you,” he stated confidently.

  Yeah, like anyone could do that!

  “Really?” I mocked with a self-confident swagger.

  He nodded and grinned at the dare before his hands suddenly cupped my face and his lips were on mine, moving so softly and smoothly I melted instantly into him. Good God, Mr Sex could kiss. He could snog the face off a sober nun and she’d hold on for dear life, just like I was currently doing.

  His hands slid into my hair as mine grasped his arms tightly and a deep husky moan rumbled through his chest whilst his teeth nibbled across my bottom lip encouraging me to trail my tongue across his own. A forbidden moan erupted up my throat and he swallowed it whole, completely devoured it as his hands dropped to my back and he pulled me deeper into him. His tongue was exploring the inside of my mouth so thoroughly I could feel the little taste buds on the surface of it against my cheek, against the roof of my mouth, against my own tongue and even across my teeth.

  “Holy fuck!” he breathed as he finally pulled back. He rested his forehead on mine as his tongue swept across his bottom lip like he could still taste me on it.

  I swallowed and blinked at him as I tried to distinguish the sensations running through me. Christ, I was on fire. I wanted to ride him to Australia and back and then take him to hell over and over again. The devil could watch, I wasn’t too fussy.

  “Oops, I lost.” He winked before he pulled back and frowned at me as though confused by something then walked away. Just like that, his fine rear displayed to me as he retreated across the room and exited through the main doors.

  “Oh my god. I think I just witnessed God.” Emma swooned.

  I stared at her wide eyed and stunned as my heart beat wildly in my chest and my knickers were no longer wet with just turps.

  Chapter 2

  Jay, 2 weeks later

  Ava winked at me and I rolled my eyes, shaking my head in amusement. “Mummy’s gonna smack your backside. Yes she is,” she finished with a singsong voice, her tongue in her cheek as she danced to the music playing through the iPod she wasn’t actually allowed to listen to in my dad’s reception area – not that Ava ever bothered to do as my dad said.

  Mason chuckled, wrapping his arm around his wife’s shoulders but smirking at me. “Oops-a-daisy,” he mocked, his tongue also in his cheek. “This I gotta watch,” he laughed when my dad’s office door flung open and my mother narrowed her eyes on me.

  “Get – in – here, Jay Carter!” she growled.

  “Something pissed you off, Liv?” Ava croaked between episodes of hidden laughter, her eyes watering as they laughed at me.

  Mum just growled something incomprehensible and gave me another stern look. “In – now!” God, I loved my mother but at times she drove me in-fucking-sane.

  Following her in, I closed the door behind me. “Don’t stress, Mum. It’s all rosy and sunny.”

  “Oh,” she mimicked, “It’s all rosy is it?” I swallowed when she stepped closer. “TELL THAT TO THE NEXT RECEPTIONIST YOU BLOODY RUIN!”

  “Mother,” I tried with a sigh as my dad sat silently in his chair behind his desk, his eyes holding as much amusement as Ava’s and Mason’s had. “I warned her before I bedded her that I…”

  “That you fuck them then fuck them off?”

  “Uh-huh.” I affirmed with a nod. “It’s not my fault they can’t handle just the once.”

  “Jesus – bloody – Christ!” she snarl
ed. “This is your fault!” she spun around and barked at my dad.

  Dad’s jaw dropped as he stared at my mum. “What the… How is it my fault?”

  “Because,” she muttered, “Because.”

  “Oh well, if it’s ‘because’ then I apologise.”

  I sighed, blowing out a bored breath. “Are we done? Lucas needs me to go through the new human resources software.”

  “No!” Mum sighed and shook her head. “But you’re not going to listen so I won’t waste my breath.”

  I smiled at her, giving her the grin I knew always worked. “I always listen to you.” Kissing her forehead she melted against me. “You’re more important to me than anyone. You know it.”

  Dad stared at me when I winked at him over Mum’s shoulder, shaking his head as he chuckled silently. Pointing a finger at him as I left the room, I shouted. “See how easy it is for some of us!” I laughed when the door closed and the thud from him throwing something at me ricocheted off the wood.

  Ava glared at me. “You’re still in one piece.”

  I gawped at her. “And why do you seem disappointed?”

  “Because she loves to see people in pain,” Mason answered for his wife.

  She slapped him playfully. “I do not!” she protested. “Only men, Mason, only men in pain!”

  Mason thought for a moment then nodded. “Yeah, just men.”

  Laughing, I left them arguing as I made my way down a few flights to the IT floor. “Morning Mr Carter,” Valerie, Lucas’s receptionist beamed at me, thrusting her tits out. Been there, did that. So never again.

  “Morning Val.” I smiled politely as I walked straight past her and towards Lucas’s office, leaving her staring after me in a stunned silence.

  Not waiting for an invite I pushed open Lucas’s door and stepped inside his office. He was bent over his desk looking at something written on some paper, his head nodding as a woman beside him explained a few points. Her back was to me, her arse giving me quite a nice view. I pursed my lips appreciatively, tipping my head slightly, the tightness of her skirt making my dick twitch. I hoped she was a new girl. I was looking for something new.