Chapter three

Mia!" Ava said brightly, laughing nervously "I didn't know you'd still be hanging around here."

"Because I was looking for you, dammit." Mia said, her eyes still on the very naked Lewis behind her, who seemed to be less concerned about his physical state and was staring at both of them with a bemused smile on his face. 

"Give me a minute, Mia. I'll put my clothes on and meet you outside." Ava said and closed the door on her cousin without waiting for a reply. She turned back into the room and began picking up her clothes, suddenly ashamed of herself. She wanted nothing more than to leave the room immediately, as she could feel Lewis' stare on her as she bent over.

"Who was that?" Lewis asked, hands akimbo.

"My cousin." Ava muttered, her hands full of her clothing. She avoided his eyes and walked to the bathroom door with the duvet trailing on the floor, hoping to get a moment of alone-time, away from this man and his very distracting body. She needed to think.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"To the bathroom, obviously. I need to dress and think."

"Well, you can dress here, can't you? Don't tell me you're suddenly too shy to show me your naked body." He walked towards her and laid a hand on her bare back. She flinched and looked at him with all the contempt she could muster "I'd rather dress alone." She said and walked into the bathroom, closing the door securely behind her.

Once there Ava dropped her clothes on the bathroom vanity and crossed over to the sink. She opened the tap and splashed a couple of handfuls of water on her face, hoping to get some clarity. Last night had been eventful, for sure, but she couldn't keep dwelling on the mind-blowing sex she'd had. And to think that this man had actually disvirgined her!

She groaned and picked up a towel, burying her face in it. It smelled of him: aftershave and an expensive cologne. She flinged the towel in anger and dressed up, silently berating herself for her conflicting emotions.

Stepping back into the room, she went straight to her bag and shoes and picked them up, avoiding Lewis. He was sitting on the bed, already fully dressed. When he saw her he stood up and walked over, blocking her way to the door. "Can we talk, please?" He asked.

"There's literally nothing to talk about, Lewis. I know we had some good sex, but I'd like to go home now." She said tiredly.

"Fuck, Ava! Listen to me!" Lewis said, but Ava evaded him and walked out of the room, her emotions in shambles. 

Her cousin was waiting on the other side of the door. Together they walked towards a bank of elevators and Mia pressed the open button. Thankfully the elevator was empty, and they rode down in relative silence, Mia not saying a word to Ava.

Their drive home was very quiet, until Mia spoke up "I shouldn't have let you have so many drinks. You are not old enough to drink, I knew and I still forced you. I'm sorry. All of this is my fault."

"Mia, I think those drinks were drugged." Ava said suddenly. Mia's expression did not change. She stared ahead with her hands on the steering wheel. "Do you think so?"

"Yes." Ava said, closing her eyes. Vivid images of Lewis' naked body flashed behind her eyelids and she felt a jolt of desire run through her body. She opened her eyes and frowned, cursing under her breath. What was wrong with her?

Soon they got to their family mansion: a handsome white building set in the middle of lush green grounds. They drove slowly inside and met Ava's step mother and step sister standing on the front steps, their expressions grim and forbidding.

Mia came down from the car, Ava closely behind, and walked towards them. "Did something happen, Susan?" Mia asked, noticing their less-than-welcome faces.

Susan looked from Mia to Ava, ler lips set in one unforgiving line "You have disgraced this family, Ava. What have you done?"

Ava looked at Mia, then back at her stepmother, her brows furrowed "What have I done? What do you mean?"

"It's all over the news, sisterl. The pictures." Jessica her stepsister spoke from her mother's side. "Your very... interesting pictures." She added and giggled wickedly.

When Ava still looked bewildered, Susan threw a magazine at her. She caught it in the air and peered at it. She didn't need to flip through its pages: the pictures in question were splattered all over the front page, with the headline "TOP MODEL AVA JONES CAUGHT IN BED WITH BILLIONAIRE LEWIS MARTINEZ" in vivid print, herself and the man she'd slept with laying on the bed fast asleep and naked, their bodies blurred out save for their faces.

She felt her world crashing behind her ears as she read the story. They'd made it as controversial and as juicy as any gossip, clearly written to spite Lewis and herself. She shook her head, disbelieving, and looked up to see the smug faces of her stepmother and stepsister. God, how had she allowed this to happen?!

"How did they get pictures?" She heard Mia say, but her voice sounded distant and vague. She fell to the floor in tears, her head in her hands sorrowfully.

Susan looked at the girl on the foot of the stairs with a cold, calculating stare, her steely gray eyes narrowed in hatred. "You know what this means." The older woman said. "This... scandal has cast a dark shadow over every member of this household and we cannot allow it. What you did is absolutely vile. You would have to cut all claims to the Jones assets and bear all consequences of this... event by yourself."

Ava tensed "What?" She whispered.

"You won't lay any demand of ownership for any 

"You cannot do that. You just can't!" Ava wailed "I have more claims to the assets than either of you. This is all a minor scandal that would be forgotten soon. You can't kick me out of the family just because of this! It's entirely unfair."

Susan shook her head. ‘‘We expected better of you. We expected better than the behavior of a...a whore."

Ava blanched at the words of her stepmother. Although there wasn't any form of love lost between them, they'd lived in relative peace ever since her father had died. She knew that her stepmother had an evil streak and had tried to avoid it, only tolerating her presence. However, to hear her say such hurtful words was heartbreaking.

"I am not," She said through gritted teeth "A whore."

"The pictures say otherwise, sister!" Jessica said with a smug look. They both looked at her with victorious stares. "I'll speak to them." Mia whispered to her but Ava didn't reply. She stared forward listlessly, her heart shattered into a million pieces.

Ava didn't know how long she sat there, but by the time she looked around Mia, Susan and Jessica were gone. She'd exhausted the tears in her eyes, but her heart was still full of unshed ones. She knew she would get a call from her modeling agency, most probably to have her fired. Clients would start pulling out their contracts with her, she'd stop getting modeling jobs. She could feel her whole world slipping through her fingers, and there was absolutely nothing she could do.

The sky was rumbling ominously. It was cloudy, low grey pregnant clouds that spoke of rain. A few droplets fell on her cheek but she made no move to wipe them off, immobile with sadness.

She heard the rev of a car and looked up. It was a black Audi, parked directly in front of her. Her boyfriend stepped out of the car and walked towards her, flinging a copy of the magazine at her feet.

Her boyfriend.

In the sexual heat of her one-night stand, she'd forgotten that she had a boyfriend. She looked up slowly, her cheeks stained with tears. Nothing about her boyfriend's face was friendly.

"Steve." She pleaded "I can explain."

"What is there to explain?" Steve asked "What is there to explain that the media has not told me already?"

"It was a one-time thing." She stood up from the stairs in an attempt to explain herself "I was..."

"Save it, Ava. I am more than disappointed." Steve said, shaking his head.

"I was drunk, Steve! Listen to me!"

"I am not asking for any explanation, Ava. I'm heartbroken and disappointed. You told me you would keep your virginity, that you wouldn't have sex, that you didn't want to have sex! And to find out that you broke your promise in this way, it's the height of betrayal for me." He said and walked back to his car, slid in and drove away.

The clouds released their content and Ava stood there, bereft and soaked to the bone, her tears mixing with the rain, feeling like nothing would ever be right with her world again.