The Promise Read online

She’d even done some housework today. Nothing too miraculous. Just a few dishes, and sprayed a bit of air freshener around the place, but even so, she was definitely making more of an effort than usual.

  ‘You won’t like them; they’ve got mushrooms in,’ Josie said as she watched Georgie screw her face up in distaste just as she knew she would.

  ‘And they’re for you and Trevor?’ Georgie said, raising her eyebrows as she exchanged a knowing look with her younger sister.

  ‘Yes, actually, they are,’ Josie said as she leant in towards the mirror, carefully applying another coat of mascara to her upper eyelashes. ‘Only, whatever you do, don’t bleeding tell him that his dinner has come out of a packet, will you? I want him to think that I made it all myself. In fact, you two don’t bleeding tell him anything. I want you both out of the way tonight. Stay in your rooms.’

  Georgie shrugged. She didn’t care for any of the men her mother brought back here, so why her mum thought she’d suddenly have an interest in this one, Georgie had no idea.

  Josie turned her attention back to her reflection in the mirror. Wincing, as she spotted yet another newly formed line stretching out across her forehead, she shook her head.

  ‘Thank Christ for make-up and candlelight, eh! Jesus. Look at the state of me.’ Staring at her tired-looking face, Josie felt suddenly depressed. She looked like shit tonight.

  She’d like to blame motherhood for accelerating her ageing skin, but she knew that it was years of drink and drugs that had done it to her.

  Her addictions had sucked the life out of her. Drained her. Even now, it was all she could think about.

  She wasn’t really in the mood for seeing Trevor tonight.

  The man was hard work; he wasn’t like her other punters.

  She suspected that he’d had a bit of a thing for her. Of course, he always tried to play it down, but Josie could tell that he really liked her. She’d seen him when she was out, following her around like a love-struck puppy. For a while she had almost convinced herself that he was some kind of stalker, but as she had got to know him better she knew that he was harmless enough really.

  He just had a few odd ways about him.

  Even stranger, the man didn’t want to have sex with her.

  Josie had thought it was beyond weird, at first. How he’d booked his appointments in every Tuesday like clockwork and then insisted that all they did was lie on the bed together. Fully clothed. He’d never laid a finger on her.

  It was all very odd, but what did Josie care? She did fuck all with the man and still got paid.

  He was probably just shy; a fifty-year-old virgin or something.

  Still, he seemed very keen about coming around tonight. He hadn’t sounded very happy when Josie had told him about having to cancel her clients.

  She’d found herself telling him the truth: that a couple of nights ago Delray had told her she wasn’t allowed to work anymore.

  Trevor had sounded as gutted as she felt about the whole thing. Ten minutes later he’d phoned her back and said that he had something he wanted to discuss with her.

  Staring up at the clock now, Josie contemplated cancelling on the man, but she knew that it was too late. Besides, she needed the money.

  Smothering a thick layer of tanned foundation all over her face, she took her time applying her favourite lipstick. Pillar-box red: her trusty old faithful. Pouting now, it did the trick. The vibrant colour seemed to take the emphasis away from her drawn, tired face.

  ‘That will have to do.’ She sighed.

  Behind her, the girls burst into fits of laughter.

  ‘What’s so bleeding funny?’ Josie asked, suddenly paranoid that they were taking the piss out of the state of her face.

  ‘Georgie said—’ Marnie started to repeat what her older sister had said, but was stopped mid-sentence as Georgie pinched her arm hard to quieten her.

  ‘Oww!’ Marnie squealed, her face contorting with pain.

  ‘Georgie, get off her now,’ Josie berated her, trying to restore normality before she set her sister off on one of her epic tantrums.

  Georgie let go of Marnie’s arm.

  ‘Georgie said that you’re going to sex Trevor so you can buy us some Weetabix.’

  The girls squealed with laughter again.

  Josie, however, didn’t.

  Biting her lip, she stared over towards Georgie.

  It galled her that the girls thought this was funny. That her having to make a living was seen as nothing but a joke. Everyone around her seemed to be looking down their noses at her lately; apparently, even her kids.

  ‘That mouth of yours is going to land you in some serious trouble one day, Georgie,’ Josie warned her eldest daughter. Then turning to her youngest, she added: ‘ignore her, Marnie, your sister doesn’t know shit.’

  ‘I know all about Trevor, though,’ Georgie said, glaring at her mother, her words loaded.

  ‘Oh, is that so? And what is it exactly that you think you know then, huh?’ Josie challenged.

  Georgie pursed her lips.

  She wanted to say that she knew everything. About the parties that her mother and Mandy had when Georgie and Marnie were supposed to be asleep. About the men she brought home most nights. About the sexing that they could hear through the thin bedroom walls.

  Georgie could feel the words lingering on the tip of her tongue, but she wasn’t brave enough to say them.

  Marnie did though.

  ‘Georgie says that Trevor is a weirdo… ’ Marnie chimed in, unaware of the building tension in the room between mother and daughter. ‘We don’t like him, do we, Georgie?’

  ‘Georgie! You need to stop teaching your sister bad manners. Trevor’s not weird; he just has his own ways of doing things ’s all.’

  Exasperated, Josie didn’t have the energy for another argument with the child, not tonight.

  She barely had the energy for Trevor, if she was honest.

  ‘Enough with your bleeding comments. You want to get me in trouble do you, Georgie? Going around saying shit like that. If the police hear those lies, you know what they’ll do? They’ll take me away.’ Josie glared at Georgie: Georgie thought she knew everything. ‘You know what will happen if they take me away, don’t you? They’ll take you away too. You’ll end up in one of those horrible children’s homes,’ she threatened.

  ‘Well, at least they’ll have food there,’ Georgie quipped, not letting her mother’s empty threats scare her.

  Josie was starting to lose her rag, fast. She felt like she’d spent the past few days doing nothing but justify herself.

  She was a good mum.

  It might not seem like it at times, but everything she’d ever done she’d done for them. Now though, she had everyone throwing her efforts back in her face.

  She’d already had Mandy screaming down the phone at her. Fuming that Delray had decided to cut them both loose – all because of Josie’s actions. She didn’t need the kids chipping in too.

  She’d had enough.

  ‘I’ve worked my arse off to try and keep this roof over our heads.’ Josie was on one now. Though she’d lost count of the amount of times she’d had this argument with Georgie. ‘To put food on the table, to pay all the bills,’ she said, unable to keep the hurt from her voice as she spoke.

  ‘Well, you clearly ain’t trying hard enough, are you, Mum? We haven’t got no food, and the electricity is always running out.’

  ‘You cheeky little cow,’ Josie screeched, gobsmacked. She didn’t know what had got into Georgie lately but the girl seemed determined to push her over the edge.

  Well, she wasn’t having it. Georgie needed to learn some manners: have some respect. Josie had done nothing but try and provide for the girls, and this was all that she got back in return.

  Standing up, Josie grabbed hold of Georgie by her arm and then, for good measure she grabbed hold of Marnie too.

  ‘Right, that’s it. Both of you can have an early night.’ Grabbing the two girls by t
heir arms, Josie marched them both out of her room, and towards their own bedroom. Flinging open their bedroom door, she shoved the pair of them inside.

  ‘Get your arses into bed.’

  They realised that they’d pushed their mother too far this time; Josie was screeching at them like a banshee now. Georgie and Marnie didn’t dare answer back. Instead, they both nodded obediently.

  ‘I don’t want to hear another peep from either of you again tonight, do you hear me!’

  Without waiting for their reply, Josie pulled the door shut behind her as she left the room. She leant up against the door frame, exasperated.

  Shutting her eyes, she took a slow deep breath just as she heard the doorbell chime.

  Trevor was here.

  Georgie had been spot on about Trevor: he was a bit weird. He’d even given her the creeps a bit sometimes but, right now, he was Josie’s only option, and she wasn’t going to let her girls fuck it all up for her.

  Plastering on a fake smile, Josie fixed her hair in the mirror, before making her way to the front door.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘How’s that for you, baby?’ Purring as she straddled her new boyfriend, Javine Turner smiled to herself, basking in the fact that for three whole weeks she had been driving Delray Anderton wild with desire for her.

  She’d been purposely holding out on him. Saving herself until she thought that the time was right, so that Delray would think she was a good wholesome girl that didn’t just give herself to anyone.

  Delray had fallen for it too. Hook, line, and sinker.

  He’d let her move in with him and told her that there was no pressure, though she could tell that his patience was starting to wear thin lately.

  He’d been a bit short-tempered with her. Not his usual attentive self.

  Still, she’d put that down to the strain of running the little empire he had going on here.

  ‘That’s good, baby!’ Delray’s voice was barely audible, face down in the pillow as he enjoyed Javine’s massage techniques.

  Javine smiled, Delray was a beast of a man, but currently surrendered to her between her silky smooth thighs; proving that even beasts could be tamed eventually. By the time Javine had worked her magic on him, Delray would be nothing more than a pussycat, eating out of the palm of her well-manicured hand.

  ‘Is there anything that you can’t do?’

  ‘Well, that’s for me to know and you to find out,’ Javine teased.

  She knew how to play the game.

  Men like Delray needed the chase. Otherwise, what was the point? Delray could have any woman he wanted, especially in the industry that he worked in, and Javine didn’t want to be just any woman.

  She wanted to be so much more than that.

  She wanted Delray to want her, to crave her, physically like a drug.

  Tonight was finally the night.

  It was time for Javine to show Delray exactly what she could offer him.

  Delray Anderton ‒ the catch of the fucking century. Javine smiled to herself now as she leant in and pushed her breasts against Delray’s back. Whispering gently in his ear as she applied more pressure, she teased: ‘do you want me to go a little deeper?’

  ‘You go as deep as you like, girl.’

  She could hear the urgency in his voice, the lust for her.

  Pouring some more essential oil into her hands, Javine slid her palms the length of Delray’s spine, working all the knots out of his muscles as she went.

  She smiled to herself as she recalled the look on his face when he’d come home tonight and found her waiting at his dining table, wearing nothing but her white lacy Agent Provocateur underwear that he’d bought her, and a pair of six inch Louboutin’s. Just a few of the many expensive gifts that he’d constantly plied her with since she’d moved in with him.

  She’d looked a vision, and she’d seen the lust that he had for her reflected in his eyes. How he had wanted to take her right then and there on top of the glass table top.

  She had enjoyed making him wait.

  Though, truth be told she had waited so long that she was actually gagging for Delray to fuck her now more than he was wanting it.

  She felt like one of the luckiest girls in the world. Here, with Delray, in this fancy apartment.

  Delray was one of the most notorious faces in London. The man was at the top of his game. He wasn’t just ruthless when it came to making money, he was smart too. Javine could see the drive in him, the determination. He didn’t give a fuck who he had to trample over to get what he wanted and that’s what Javine liked about him the most.

  They were kindred spirits.

  She wanted this lifestyle as much as he did, and she was determined to get it. Permanently.

  Delray didn’t quite know it yet, but he had finally met his match.

  Glancing out of the large balcony doors spanning the width of Delray’s penthouse apartment, Javine cast her gaze out across the breath-taking panoramic views of the Thames – the warm dazzling lights of the Houses of Parliament. Compared to the shabby little flat that Javine had shared with Ashleen over in Brixton, Delray’s was a completely different world: a world that Javine had spent a lifetime longing to be a part of.

  ‘How about you turn over and let me work the front of you,’ she teased now as Delray turned over onto his back.

  Still smarting from his earlier conversation with Josie, Delray had been planning on having a few words with Javine about the fact she’d been running her mouth off around half of London. Though he’d been a little more than pleasantly surprised to come home tonight to find the girl waiting for him with a few plans of her own. He figured, under the circumstances that, for now, he’d let it go; he’d deal with it later.

  Much later, the way tonight was panning out.

  Straddling Delray once more, Javine took her time, relishing the effect she was having on him. Caressing Delray’s bulging arms, she glided her fingers down across his rock hard stomach.

  That wasn’t the only part of him that was rock hard.

  She could feel him pressing into her.

  Something in her stirred now too as she realised that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her.

  Taking him in her hand, she guided him inside of her.

  Delray let a loud groan escape from his mouth.

  Javine grinned. He was hers now.

  Insatiable, he moved into her, hungry, urgent.

  Normally, Javine just moaned and groaned in all the right places, so that she seemed like she was enjoying herself: tonight, she didn’t have to put up any pretence.

  She was enjoying fucking Delray.

  Hooking up with this man had more perks than just the money.

  Reaching his peak now, Javine could feel Delray was quickly on the brink of losing control.

  Panting heavily, her heart raced as she matched his breath.

  ‘Go on, baby!’ she urged, as she ground herself down around him – harder – faster.

  Closing her eyes she threw her head back as they both climaxed together, visualising the beautiful diamond Cartier engagement ring she’d seen in Selfridges earlier that day.

  A huge sparkling rock set in a thick platinum band.

  She’d made a point of sending a picture of it to Delray, letting him know in no uncertain terms what her intentions were.

  She wanted this – to be here with Delray – to be part of this life.

  It would be hers soon, she had no doubt about that and that thought alone made her squeal out loudly with ecstasy.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ‘Well this smells gorgeous, Josie.’ Already digging into his dinner, Trevor Pearson looked across the table to where she sat, her food untouched as she waited for him to take the first mouthful. ‘A proper home-cooked dinner. Lovely! What did you say this is again? Beef what?’

  ‘Beef Stroganoff.’ Josie wished she hadn’t bothered to pass the food off as her own as she secretly prayed that Trevor didn’t ask her for the recipe.
Apart from the obvious ingredient of beef, she hadn’t a clue what else was in it. She’d discarded the packaging as soon as she’d read how many minutes the food needed to be nuked.

  ‘Does it taste all right? Only, I think I might have overdone it with the salt.’

  ‘It tastes more than all right, Josie. You’re a good cook,’ Trevor said as he began greedily shovelling mouthfuls of the steaming hot food into his mouth. Better than the sloppy takeaways he’d been gorging himself with. It wasn’t the same sitting in his flat every night and eating on his tod either. ‘I could get used to this. It makes a nice change.’

  This was exactly what he was after. Being here with Josie and her two girls. He wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject so he just decided to say it outright.

  ‘Which brings me to the little idea I had.’ He put down his knife and fork and looked at Josie seriously.

  She was all ears now. When she’d told him she would no longer be working, Trevor hadn’t taken the news very well. He’d seemed so disappointed, begging her to keep their Tuesday night arrangement, even though Josie had explained that she couldn’t do it. She thought the mention of Delray would be enough to make Trevor see sense, but even that hadn’t put him off. Somehow, she’d let him rope her into making dinner so that they could discuss things properly.

  The least she could do was hear him out, and, of course, she was going to be paid for her time, so bunging a ready meal in the microwave wasn’t a complete hardship.

  ‘I know you say that you can’t work anymore, because of Delray, but what if me and you had some sort of private arrangement going?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Josie shrugged, unsure what Trevor meant about a ‘private arrangement’.

  ‘How about we become an item?’ he said.

  Taking a sip of her drink, Josie almost choked.

  This was the last conversation Josie had ever envisaged when Trevor had said he had something to run by her. She was utterly speechless.

  ‘Sorry, my drink went down the wrong way.’ Seeing the hurt on Trevor’s face at her reaction, she started coughing loudly. ‘Well, as lovely as that offer sounds Trev—’