Summer Girl, Winter Boy Read online

  Summer Girl, Winter Boy

  Barbara Elsborg

  Jai Winter is trying to do the right thing, even though he knows it’s wrong. Forced to participate in kinky sex games, the renowned model spends his spare moments creating an impressive list of suicide options. Until a snowy day provides a bit of Summer…a pink-haired burst of sunshine with a ready smile. What begins as the hottest sex of his life turns into a ray of hope.

  Summer Dey has baggage of her own—literally. Having spent eighteen months in South America trying to escape a shocking accident, Summer finds an illegal nightmare hidden in her suitcase. She doesn’t want to put Jai in danger, but his gorgeous face and killer bod prove hard to resist.

  Boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, and everything would be perfect if it wasn’t for blackmail, drug dealers and tragic events in both their pasts. Staying together could be their salvation—or their ultimate undoing.

  Inside Scoop: This book contains a forced-sex scene that includes M/M.

  A Romantica® erotic romantic suspense from Ellora’s Cave

  Summer Girl, Winter Boy

  Barbara Elsborg

  Chapter One

  Jai leaned against the stone wall of the bedroom balcony and stared down into an azalea bush. If he’d thought the four-foot drop would kill him, he might have thrown himself over. But with his luck, he’d break his neck on a hidden rock, end up sipping drinks through a straw and employing some poor sod to wipe his backside. Wanking himself into a brief stay in oblivion wouldn’t even be an option.

  Not that he could be arsed to do that, these days. He lacked energy and inclination. His cock didn’t belong to him anymore. Nor did the rest of his body. The only time he felt at peace was when his mind was numb, and he didn’t much care how he made that happen, whatever drugs or alcohol he could lay his pathetic hands on.

  I am such a fucking mess.

  When he heard the creak of the bedroom door opening behind him, he made sure he didn’t react, but disgust with both himself and the person approaching coiled in his belly like a fat black mamba. He’d toyed with wedging a chair under the door handle, but what could only be a brief act of defiance wasn’t worth the consequences.

  A slender hand slid onto his hip and dark-red nails pressed into the skin above his square-cut swim trunks. If he’d been on the seventh floor, would he have jumped? Taken the bitch with him? She danced her fingers ’round to sweep over his cock and his hands tightened on the stone wall. Yes, I fucking would.

  “Don’t you look and feel delicious, darling,” Marta whispered. She kept her hand outside his trunks and ran her thumb back and forth over the head of his shaft then down to the root, where she traced the shape of the ring trapping his cock. “Good boy, you put it on.”

  Because he’d known what would happen if he didn’t. Everything was about consequences. She’d ordered boxes of different sizes and types over the internet until she’d found the perfect fit. Once he was erect, the presence of a discreet flexible ring around the base of his cock kept him that way whether he liked it or not.

  “You’re such a good boy,” she purred into his ear.

  Jai imagined himself wagging his tail like a pampered dog. If she patted him on the head he’d bite her, except the cow would probably love it.

  “I knew you’d look gorgeous in these trunks.” She pulled him ’round to face her and Jai blanked his grimace, though she wasn’t looking into his eyes but at the length of his shaft, clearly visible under the skin-tight, slinky gray fabric. If his cock hadn’t been caught up in the netting it would have escaped.

  “But you’ve kept us waiting. I told you to come straight to the pool.” Marta squeezed his balls hard enough to make him wince.

  “I was on the way,” he lied.

  Her fingers dipped into the back of his trunks and she scratched a nail down the seam of his butt. Jai tensed.

  “Such lovely glutes. All tight and—”

  “I need to use the bathroom and I’ll be right there,” he said.

  She withdrew her hand and smacked him on the backside. “Don’t keep us waiting any longer.”

  Jai walked across the room, aware she was watching. Once he’d closed the bathroom door, he leaned against it, listening for the sounds of her leaving. She gave a short laugh and he heard the clip-clop of her heels as she crossed the marble floor, then finally the thud of the door closing.

  He imagined Marta had been born dissatisfied, protesting about being forced out of her mother’s body down a too-narrow passage, a whining baby always hungry for something other than what she’d been given, a spoiled child who continually wanted more. She’d likely been doted on by her parents and been given everything she asked for—dolls, pony, car. He husband Saul had continued worshipping her where her parents left off. She hadn’t married the bastard for his sunny personality and good looks—neither of which he had—but his money and influence, and while she could buy almost everything she wanted, she always demanded more because she was never content, never happy enough.

  Although Jai was her puppet, he refused to respond to every string she pulled, at least not without a minor protest for the sake of his self-esteem.

  Being careful not to look in the mirror, because he couldn’t stand the sight of himself, he opened his wash bag, pulled a blister pack from a zipped compartment and pressed out two tablets. He thought about what awaited him downstairs and pressed out another two from a different pack, swallowing them with a few gulps from a water bottle he’d filled with vodka. Mixing drugs and alcohol should help him not much care what anyone did to him.

  The first doctor he’d seen had told him it wasn’t his fault he was depressed. How right he was. Obliterate two wankers from the face of the planet and Jai’s smile would be permanent. But he hadn’t opened up to the doctor about why he was so miserable. His pride made him lie and say it was pressure at work.

  The truth was that the depression was his fault in a way because he’d let himself get trapped in this mess in the first place. No matter how often he told himself that he’d had no choice, would he have done the same if he could turn back time? Yes, I would. As for that crap about what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger—well, it was a fucking lie, it makes you weaker. He was a pathetic, disgusting mess. The world would be a better place without me. The thought that kept driving him to the brink.

  Before he left the room, he grabbed his sunglasses and slipped them on. A few more hours. His plane to Philadelphia left after lunch, giving him plenty of time to make the subsequent transatlantic flight, and he’d be back in London tomorrow morning, four thousand miles away from that cunt Marta and her bastard of a husband.

  Though not for long, sang the voice in his head.

  Shut the fuck up.

  Make me.

  A wave of impotent fury washed over him, cementing the scowl on his face. As he walked down the rear steps of the villa and out into the sun shining in a cloudless sky, he felt the gazes of those lounging around the pool settle on him and strip him of the little he wore.

  “Ah, here he is. The face and body of Fixx.” Marta tucked her arm through his and pulled him forward. “Isn’t he the most gorgeous guy you’ve ever seen?”

  She’d taken off the filmy dress to reveal a pink bikini that hardly covered anything. Her enhanced breasts strained to burst free of tiny cups. She was forty-two, he’d seen her passport, but claimed to be a decade younger. She walked him around the pool and introduced him to a couple who’d arrived at the villa late last night after he’d crashed. He made no attempt to remember their names. Apart from Marta and her husband Saul, there were two women and five men lounging around the pool. All but Marta were American.

  Jai knew he’d be expected to
fuck or be fucked by each of them. Fucking twats.

  “Told you he was even better in the flesh.” Marta laid her hand over the outline of his cock and stroked it. His butt cheeks clenched. He couldn’t help it and he knew she’d noticed.

  “Isn’t he the most handsome guy you’ve ever seen?” she asked. “Much more attractive than those prepubescent catwalk models. Jai’s grown better-looking every year I’ve known him.” She squeezed his cock.

  “Marta, stop fondling Jai,” her husband called across the pool.

  “I can’t help it.” The bitch giggled.

  “Going for a swim,” Jai mumbled.

  He tossed his sunglasses onto a lounger and dived into the water, heading straight for the bottom. Not a forceful enough dive to crack his head on the concrete and drown, though the idea had occurred to him and was on his bucket-list-with-a-difference. Not things to do before he died, rather ways to die. But some fucker would jump in and save him. He was worth too much to Saul for the guy to let him die. In any case, Jai wasn’t sure he could drown himself even if there was no one around. The instinct to swim was too strong. He’d already tried.

  Jai stayed under as long as he could, propelling himself in slow, lazy strokes to the far end before he surfaced.

  I hate her.

  I hate him.

  I hate this.

  I hate myself.

  The words repeated like a reassuring mantra. He’d tried pretending he loved it, and fooled no one. He wasn’t sure if that was because he was a terrible actor or guests had been promised a guy who really didn’t want them. He’d settled for sullen acceptance only to find his moody sulks turned the wankers on as easily as a smile. More, in some cases. He couldn’t win. He never would.

  He’d forgotten who he was. He had a face to fit all occasions but it was never his own.

  Knowing what awaited him when he climbed out, he launched into a fluid crawl in the cool water. Whenever they flew him to this prison…oh yeah…tropical paradise, he spent as much time as he could in the pool, swimming to the point of exhaustion. Either there or in the sea. Swimming out into the Atlantic and allowing tiredness to override survival instincts was also on his list and had been crossed out. In any case, if he was going to end his life, he wanted to do it himself and not get eaten by something. The final result might be the same but it wasn’t the way he wanted to go.

  Jai allowed himself a brief smile. That sort of proved he didn’t really want to die, didn’t it? Instead of coming up with a hundred ways to kill himself—currently he had thirty-seven on his list, thirty crossed out—he ought to think of a hundred ways to kill the DeVrieses. He wasn’t sure whom he detested more, Marta or Saul. They were both Oscar-worthy, amoral, bloodsucking cunts.

  Aware that Saul had flopped into the water and begun to swim next to him, Jai slowed. Making the wanker look bad would be a mistake. Making the wanker’s wife look bad, an even worse one. Jai hauled himself out of the pool, shook his head to clear his ears and looked for her. She walked toward him holding a blue towel and he smiled his thanks, knowing it would please her. I’m so pathetic.

  “That’s better, gorgeous boy. Why don’t you lie in the sun and I’ll rub some lotion on you.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “Duke, put a towel out,” she called.

  One of Saul’s minions, built like a tank with a neck as thick as his head, and who treated Jai like something stuck to his shoe, tossed a fresh blue towel over a cushion. Jai closed his eyes and lay facedown. When he felt the sun on his back, the heat sinking into his skin and warming his body, he was able to whisk himself away to a different place and ignore the ache in his cock.

  For less than a minute.

  The accidental-on-purpose scratches by Marta’s nails as she dragged a towel over his back pulled him right back to hell.

  He should have taken the tablets sooner. Drunk the vodka sooner. Found a way to kill himself sooner.

  “Your skin’s like silk,” she murmured.

  The sudden squirt of cold lotion onto his back made him jump and sent goose bumps racing down his spine.

  Marta laughed. “Looks like someone’s come all over your back, sexy boy.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said one of the guys.

  “I’d love to see that, Darren.” Marta purred the words. She was like a cat you couldn’t trust. “Your spunk all over him. Anyone else want to join in?”

  Someone grabbed hold of Jai’s hair and jerked up his head. He opened his eyes and saw a guy he assumed was Darren. He didn’t look much older than Jai and he had his other hand stuffed in his trunks, rubbing his cock as he stared into Jai’s eyes.

  Jai willed the beta blockers to kick in and quell his anxiety, stop his heart pounding so fast, settle the buzzing in his head. The antidepressants should level his mood and the alcohol take the edge off everything. Theoretically. But these days it seemed as though it never worked.

  Marta smoothed the cream over Jai’s shoulders, running her hands down the sides of his body before dragging her thumbs up his backbone. Darren let Jai’s head fall and Jai closed his eyes again. Despite his pessimism, the drugs and alcohol tumbling round his bloodstream combined with the heat of the sun and her fucking insistent fingers began to drive the tension from his body. Too many tablets? Just the right number? Though he could always feel his anxiety bubbling under the surface, waiting for some crack to appear so it could creep though and overwhelm him.

  When other hands joined Marta’s, he didn’t react, but his calm façade wavered. If running their hands over his back had been all they were going to do, he might have been able to relax enough to actually enjoy it, but it wouldn’t stop there because it never did. Fingers slid under the waistband of his trunks onto his backside.

  “Oh my god,” a woman muttered. “His ass is fantastic.”

  “Take your swimwear off, Jai,” Marta said. “Let Abby and Darren have a proper look.”

  He pushed himself up, registered the wide-eyed expression on the face of the bleached blonde in a black one-piece sitting on the next sun lounger, then pulled his trunks down and stepped out of them.

  Darren reached from behind and fondled Jai’s cock, which stuck out from his body, suffocated by the ring. “Shit, you’re big.”

  “Holy fuck, honey.” The blonde gaped at them. “You look so hot touching him like that.”

  I’m a slab of meat.

  And whose fault is that?

  Not mine.

  Yours.

  Not mine!

  You’re letting it happen aren’t you?

  I don’t have a choice. I don’t. I don’t.

  Walk away. That’s all you have to do.

  And the world would come crashing down.

  Marta caressed his hipbone with her thumb and raised her gaze to Jai’s face. “Lie down again, angel, and let Darren come on your back.”

  Jai did as he was told. Coming on his back meant not coming in his arse. At least for the time being. Marta continued with her massage of his shoulders and Darren moved behind him and slid a slick cock along the crease of Jai’s butt.

  “More lotion,” Marta said and squirted the stuff onto his lower back.

  Darren’s breathing grew heavier, the pressure and pace of his body rubbing against Jai increasing.

  “Ahh, Christ, ahh, yeah,” Darren grunted.

  Then the weight was gone and as Darren gasped, warm spurts of cum landed on Jai.

  “Hmm, a work of art,” Marta said with a laugh. “Rub it into his skin, Abby. Let Jai taste it, Darren.”

  The guy ran a finger over his lower back then stuck it in Jai’s mouth. Jai dutifully sucked. They were all cast members in Marta’s play. Not a good idea to ignore the director.

  Jai wanted to shower but knew better than to move without instruction. He lay there with cum and lotion drying on his back and imagined a swarm of killer bees rushing toward him, attracted by the scent. Unless he had an allergic reaction, there’d have to be a whole lot of them
to kill him. Worth adding to my list? Why not?

  He drifted into a hazy daydream but jerked awake when a torrent of cold water drenched him. He pushed himself into a sitting position and saw Marta holding a jug and laughing.

  “Show Abby the gazebo, darling.”

  The stress on her name was a reminder to Jai to use it, to make fucking her personal.

  “This way, Abby.” He took the blonde’s hand and tugged her toward a shaded enclosure set away from the pool. Underneath was a large mattress on a low iron frame with attachment points at the corners. On a side table sat a basket of condoms, lube and various other pieces of…equipment. The blonde seemed innocent enough. Maybe all he had to do was have some vanilla sex. Maybe she’d be kind. Maybe she was as lonely as he. Maybe she’d save him.

  Yeah, right. Your whole fucking world is a fantasy.

  He lay on his back and wrapped his hand around his cock. He was already erect, but with a bit of twisting and fast jerking, his shaft grew in front of the slack-jawed woman.

  “Fuuuuck,” she exhaled—and pounced.

  Jai jolted as she landed on him, her knee colliding with his hip, her mouth seeking his until he turned his head away and clamped his lips together.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot,” the woman said.

  A concession he’d won. No kissing on the lips. No one had ever done more than peck at him. Considering what else he did with his lips the protest seemed pitiful, but he clung to it. He wrapped his arms around the woman and flicked open her bikini top.

  “You’re very beautiful,” he said automatically and tried to sound more sincere for the next part. “Look at those pretty nipples. So cute.”

  He hoped none of the women ever compared notes on what he said, because he always came out with the same crap.

  “I love your accent. Sexy as hell,” she whispered and pressed her breast against his mouth. “Suck me. Christ, you’re so hot. I can’t believe—”

  “What the hell are you doing?” snapped a male voice.

  Oh shit. Is that the game today?