Page 36 of Kiss Heaven Goodbye

She held the base of his shaft, then ran her tongue slowly, so slowly, along the sensitive underside of his cock.

‘Oh God,’ he moaned. ‘Yes, yes.’

Closing her eyes, she took him whole in her mouth. He tasted sour. She thought of her small bedroom in Esher, then thought of herself on television. On the cover of Vogue. Life was full of choices, and she was making one now.

‘Jesus, yes,’ he groaned, pulling her head towards him until the tip of his cock hit the back of her throat. She tried not to gag.

‘Yesssss . . .’

He slumped against the cubicle wall and Sasha pulled a wad of tissue from the dispenser to wipe a small white stain that had made its way on to her Ozbek top.

‘Oh yes,’ panted Martin. ‘You can definitely do sexy.’

Sasha got up off her knees, looked at him, and then unlocked the door. ‘I look forward to hearing from you on Monday,’ she said and walked out into the party.

She immediately spotted Caroline draped over a rugby-player type in a badly fitting suit.

‘Come on,’ she said, peeling her off the protesting beefcake.‘We’re going.’

‘What’s happened?’ asked her friend.

‘Mission accomplished,’ said Sasha, forcing a smile.

Sasha woke up on the camp bed cold and stiff as usual; but this morning, there was a spring in her step and a new sense of purpose. Caroline and her flatmates had already left for work, so she jumped in the shower, then towelled herself dry as she walked through to the kitchen. She smiled to herself as she opened the fridge and took out a carton of orange juice labelled Jennifer. She was looking forward to living here, and when she did, the fridge would be full of oysters and champagne.

Dressing quickly but carefully, she ran out into the street and – throwing caution to the wind – flagged down a cab, giving the driver the address of her agency in Covent Garden. What the hell, she thought happily, I’ll be able to afford it soon.

She strode into the reception area. ‘Hi, Sasha Sinclair to see Hilary.’

‘Are you going to come in every day?’ Hilary Covington, Sasha’s booker, smiled as she walked in. ‘You can just call. And you know I’ll ring you if anything comes up.’

‘I had to come in today. I have news,’ said Sasha boldly. ‘I saw Martin Newsome for D&D at a party last night. He said I was fantastic and that they were going to send me to see the client, although he seemed pretty confident I was the only one they were interested in.’

Hilary flicked through her call sheet. ‘Well I haven’t heard from him,’ she replied. ‘What was the name again?’

‘Martin Newsome,’ replied Sasha. ‘He works with Kim on the Benson account.’

Hilary looked puzzled. ‘He works with Kim? Hang on, is he the junior account executive they’ve just taken on?’

‘Junior account executive?’

‘In fact I spoke to Kim twenty minutes ago about the Elan girls we sent over. But it looks like they’re going with an actress. Someone older.’

Sasha could feel the blood draining away from her face. Oh God, she thought, that can’t be true, can it?

Hilary saw the look of dismay on her face. ‘Sasha, you didn’t sleep with him, did you?’

‘No! Of course not!’

‘Good,’ said Hilary. ‘I know you’re too smart for that. But this is modelling and you’re going to get asked. Most of the time it’s not even worth thinking about.’

‘I know,’ said Sasha. ‘I’m not stupid.’

Hilary fixed her with a long stare. ‘Look, Sasha, it’s good that you came in, because we need to have a talk.’

Sasha felt her stomach turn over. She had been expecting ‘the talk’, but not quite so soon.

‘We’re not really getting anywhere with the jobs, are we?’ said Hilary. ‘Maybe we need to start considering a few options.’