Free Brando by J.D. Hawkins Page B

they just need a moment alone.
    “I’m
gonna go to the bathroom,” I
say. “Be right
back.”
    “Sure.”
     
    I
take a little longer in the bathroom than I need to, standing in
front of the mirror, teasing out my curls and checking my teeth for
remnants of the pasta Brando and I shared before coming to the club.
    I
hear a latch close, except it doesn’t
come from the cubicles, it comes from the entrance. I feel a cold
chill down my spine, as if something – or
someone – just
sucked out all of the atmosphere from the room. I know it’s
her before I even turn my head.
    Lexi
Dark.
    She
stands in front of the door, one hand on her hip. Her red lips
projecting a dark control. She looks like a moving magazine cover,
every inch of her body always in perfect alignment. I stare at her
and wonder why people bother traveling halfway around the world to
see breathtaking sights.
    Frozen
solid, all I can do is watch her. She steps forward, slow but
confident, a supermodel sashay to a beat of heels on tile.
    I’ve
bitched about singers like Lexi a million times. About their fake
appearance, plastic assembly-line songs, meaningless lyrics. But
standing here, in her presence, her intensity has never seemed
realer.
    “Well
well well, aren’t
you a cute little thing?” she
says, reaching out elegant fingers, tipped with multi-colored nails,
toward my shoulder. She trails her hand across my back to the other
shoulder as she steps around me, sending lightning bolts of tension
throughout my body. “Brando’s
new toy.”
    The
words are out of my mouth before I have time to think about what I’m
saying. “Maybe he
got tired of playing with dolls.”
    Lexi
opens her mouth in excited pleasure. She leans back on the sink, the
arch of her back pornographic.
    “Good.
There’s some fight
in you. Brando likes that. Not too much, though,” she
leans in toward my ear, so close her cherry breath tickles the hairs
on my neck, “ he’s
a big guy, but he breaks easy .”
    She
keeps her face close to mine, close and dangerous. I glare at her in
the mirror, her lips glistening in the bright fluorescent lights.
    “Has
he fucked you yet?” Lexi
says, pulling her head back and stretching out her slender neck.
“What am I saying?
Of course he has; a pretty thing like you. I’ll
bet he can’t keep
his hands off you.” Lexi
brushes the back of her hand against my cheek. My brain screams for
my body to move, but I just watch her in the mirror, encased in the
iciness of her touch, trapped in her aura. “I’ll
bet he has you right where he wants you: not sure if it’s
your body or your career that he really wants.”
    Something
snaps me out of my cage and I grab her wrist.
    “Maybe
that dress is too tight,” I
say, looking right into her emerald eyes, “your
bitterness is showing.”
    Lexi
jerks her hand away and twists her lips into a semi-menacing,
semi-sweet smile. She turns to face the mirror, gently touching the
already-immaculate strands of hair that fall lovingly around her
striking face. Rolling her hands down from tiny waist to lurid hips.
She does it all as if I’ve
disappeared, and she’s
on her own.
    “Just
a little friendly advice from someone who knows.”
    I
watch her study herself intently, like an engineer ensuring her
well-oiled machine is tuned to perfection, before turning to leave.
She glances at me for a second as she turns, a dark flash in her
eyes, then strides toward the door, animal grace and clicking heels.
She grabs the handle before pausing.
    “Try
saying his name when you come,” she
says, looking back at me over her shoulder, another cover girl pose,
“he really loves that.”
    I
hear her laughing even after the door closes.

 

Chapter 9
     
    Brando
     
    “Settling
down has made you soft, Jax,” I
say, as we carry our boards from the ocean to our towels, panting
with the exertion of another ultra-competitive surf.
    “What’s
your excuse then?”
    We
dig our boards into the sand and stand for a