Safe for Summer

it would have started the ball rolling on a whole catalogue of situations he didn’t even want to think about. So he was stuck. Stuck with this prissy, skinny, uptight diva who thought staying at a budget hotel was going to kill her. If she counted all night he might just put her out of her misery himself. Or he could always go into hiding. He’d done that before.
He leaned across his seat, reached into the back, and grabbed hold of Autumn’s purse. He brought it over onto his lap and opened and closed it.
‘Five, there, are we done?’ he asked, looking at her.
‘I hate you,’ she hissed, glaring back.
‘That’s better. Real emotion, real venom. That’s good. Now that we both know where we are, things will get easier.’ Nathan restarted the car.
He unceremoniously dumped her purse back on her lap and pulled the car out onto the road.

Four
Whatever place this was he’d brought her to, it was a grade below the Premier Inn. She’d seen there was a coffee cup mark on the complimentary writing pad then closed her eyes to the rest of it, too scared of what she might find. He’d made her stay locked in the car while he checked them in, then he’d escorted her around the back of the building and in through the fire door he’d somehow deactivated from the alarm system and left ajar. Now, having ensured the windows were locked and the curtains closed, he was lying on the bed, flicking through TV channels. He’d taken his jacket off and hung it over the one chair in the room. It looked even worse hugging the seat than it had hugging his body. It was made of such terribly inferior quality cloth, she couldn’t bear to look at it. She looked at him instead. The view wasn’t that much better. He’d pulled his shirt out of his trousers and unfastened two of the buttons. He looked so untidy. Juan wouldn’t believe any of this when she told him.
Juan. She actually ached for him right now. They talked about important things, like who they thought would be on the guestlist of the next party they’d been invited to and what they’d be wearing. Juan was a rapper—stage name Rockweiler. He talked about collaborations and remixes, cool clubs and performances. He spoke her language. She would make a point of listening to his demo as Janey seemed to think it was important. She’d been a bit wrapped up in her own stuff lately, but he would understand. He knew the industry pressures.
‘So, when do I get to go to my room?’ Autumn asked, still hugging her purse, unmoved from her position by the door.
He didn’t respond. He didn’t even move his eyes away from the television. It was like she hadn’t even spoken. She wasn’t accustomed to being ignored when she demanded something. She hated being ignored.
‘I said, when do I get to go to my room?’
‘How long are you going to keep this up?’ Nathan asked, his eyes still trained on the TV.
‘Keep what up?’
‘I thought I’d made myself clear earlier. You don’t go anywhere without me from now on.’
‘That’s going to make peeing difficult.’
‘I’ll be right outside the door.’
Autumn let out a high-pitched scream and launched her purse at him. It landed on the bed, and he didn’t even flinch.
‘You can’t do this! You can’t treat me like some sort of prisoner. I have places to be, people to see. My PA will be wondering where I am. If I don’t check in with her, she’ll call the police. What happens then?’ she asked, stalking over to the bed and glaring at him.
The truth was, unless the record company called Janey to tell her she hadn’t turned up for the meeting, she wouldn’t know Autumn wasn’t there. And as for the police, well, Autumn had spent six long, lonely hours cruising up and down the Thames in a boat she’d flagged down when a photographer had suggested a semi-nude shoot Janey had neglected to mention. The police hadn’t been called, and in those six hours, there hadn’t even been a single text.
‘The police know as much as they need to,’ Nathan said, still unmoving.
‘I can’t stay here with you, I can’t! It’s too dirty. It’s too small. There’s one bed! One!’
‘There’s a chair. I’ve already counted the dots on it. It’s an even number.’ Nathan flicked over the channel on the television.
‘You patronizing bastard! How dare you do this! How dare you!’
She flew at him, grabbed her purse, and hit him in the chest with it. The next thing she knew, she was lying on her back on the bed, her wrists forcefully gripped by two firm hands. Nathan leaned over her, his teeth locked together, his expression rage-ridden.
‘Listen to me, Lady fucking Gaga. You’re really starting to piss me off. I told you, I don’t want this job, but there’s someone I owe, and this is me paying them back. Fuck me, if I thought it was going to be this annoying I would have begged them for another get-out.’
‘You make me sick!’ Autumn hissed into his face.
‘Likewise! Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way, hopefully no one gets hurt. Try it the hard way and you might not make it to the music awards, not because of this terrorist organization who wants you as bait, but because of me.’
‘I want Juan!’ Tears formed at the rim of her eyes.
He laughed and let go of her wrists, rising up and putting his hands to his head.
‘Juan fucking Staffordshire Bull, or whatever he calls himself,’ Nathan said. He shook his head at Autumn and picked up a broken pack of complimentary biscuits from the tea tray.
‘It’s Rockweiler, and yes, Juan! My boyfriend! He takes me to nice places and he buys me things. He listens when I talk and he’s interested in me. He’s smart and attractive, and he wears custom-made clothes.’