Reversing Over Liberace (33 page)

Luke wouldn't look up. “Do me a favour.”

“So it was lies? When you called me ‘gentle soul'? You were making it up?”

“And when you said that you'd treated my mother, and she'd talked about me before she died?”

“You
gave
me the money, all of you. I never asked, made a point of never asking, you
wanted
me to have it!”

The women exchanged a glance. I half-expected them to join hands and start chanting, and Luke's head to explode.

“So you don't feel guilty?” This was one of the pinch-faced women. I saw that she wasn't as old as I'd at first thought, just drawn and miserable-looking. “Not even a bit?”

Luke snorted. “You could afford it. You don't know what it's like…”

Without another word, the women left the room. Luke looked astonished. “Where've they gone, then?”

“To leave you to your fate.” Cal said. “You don't realise who that lady is, do you? Maybe you never knew.”

“Jemima Horton,” Luke answered smartly. “I never forget an heiress.” He twisted sideways to conceal his groin from Cal's frankly amused stare.

“She's also the sister of the guy who owns most of Fleet Street. If you'd lied just then, told her that you'd loved them really, in your own way, that they'd been special to you, then she could have put in a word for you. Maybe stopped your picture being spread over the tabloids by Monday morning. As it is, I reckon you'll be lucky if they've stopped dragging up your exploits by this time next year.”

“You're shitting me.”

Cal's stare turned cold. “No.” Then he turned to me. “Let's get out of here. It's beginning to smell bad.” Everyone started to filter out, Nadine leaving after a long, long final gaze at Luke's naked body.

“Hey, Willow. You can't leave me here!” Luke writhed on the bed. “At least unlock the cuffs, eh, babe? Come on, for old time's sake?”

I hesitated. Tried to think of a pithy leaving statement, but settled for “fuck off, Luke” before following Cal out of the door and into the corridor, where I leaned on the wall and panted with relief.

Cal held my hand until I calmed down. “You were incredible there, Will,” he said. “Just incredible.”

“I didn't do anything, it was the others. How the hell did the boys manage to find them?”

“Give Dix anyone's email address and he can find their phone number. Don't ask how, best not to know. We got hold of most of the women that Luke had done the bad thing with, these five were the only ones keen enough to stand up and be counted. Oh and Nadine, of course.”

I shook my head. “Poor Nadine.”

Cal smiled. “Oh, I don't know. She was getting on quite well with Clive while we were waiting for you to give the nod. I don't think she'll be alone for too long.”

Katie and Jazz bounced up alongside us. “Way to go, Will.” Jazz high-fived me. “That'll show men that they can't fuck you for money.”

A momentary silence. “I don't think that's
quite
what you mean.” Katie pulled a face. “But we understand.”

“I think,” I added.

“Right.” Cal rubbed his hands together. “I've got this shockingly good recipe for Lamb Passanda that I'm really keen to try out on people who aren't likely to die of it, so, all back to our place?” And he closed his arm around my shoulders, leaning on me slightly to keep his balance.

Ash came alongside me. “So, where've you been then, you dirty stop out?” I asked.

“You are
so
not going to believe it.” Ash leaned down to whisper. “But you know what Clay was saying? About Ganda's inheritance?”

“What, the waders stuffed with tenners were they?”

“Better than that. While I was dumping them this guy came up to me—oh, gods, Will, he was
gorgeous
—and asked if he could have them. Turns out, he's a shoe designer, right. His name's Simon, he lives in Leeds, he wants to work on some designs based on my rubber waders and, I can hardly believe this myself,
he's invited me to help him
.”

“And you know what about shoe design?”

Ash shrugged. “I can learn. Anyway, for Simon I'd learn to slaughter pigs with my teeth. I really think”—and he lowered his voice even further, with a furtive glance at Cal—“that he might be the One.”

Without looking over, Cal squeezed my shoulder, very slightly. “I think that's fantastic, Ash,” I said honestly.

“Fantastic? It's a bloody miracle.” We'd arrived at the cars by now. “Are you really going to leave that guy naked and tied to the bed, Will?”

“Of course. He deserves it. Why?”

My brother gave me a sidelong glance. “Do you think we should scare him a bit more? Just to make sure?”

“What are you planning? Ash?”

“I'm not going to
do
anything.” Ash turned round and headed back inside. “He is
so
not my type. I'll just, you know. Where's your guy with the camera?”

“Neil? He's over there. Ash?”

“We wouldn't want darling Luke to go off and get himself some lucrative TV work now, would we? I reckon a few secret, incriminating photos might make sure that
that
little scenario never comes to pass.” And Ash pulled off his shirt, motioned to Neil to follow him, and disappeared back towards the Honeymoon Suite.

“You've got to admire a mind as devious as that.” Cal gave my shoulder another squeeze as we found the Metro hidden away behind a convertible Mercedes.

“Yep. Not just bent, totally warped,” I said, happily. “Right. To the Lamb Passanda, Jeeves, and don't spare the horses.”

Cal doffed a nonexistent hat and muttered, “Yes, milady.”

Sitting in the front of the Metro, as we led a procession of cars down the hotel drive, I closed my fingers around the matchbox in my bag and heard the slight, distinct rattling of the nose within. I slid open the tray a fraction and smiled inside.

“What are you grinning at?” Cal risked taking his eyes from the road for a second.

“Just my good-luck nose.”

“Hey, don't try to outweird me.”

I closed the box up and let it fall back to the bottom of the bag. “Wouldn't dream of it, Cal.” I rested my head. “Wouldn't dream of it.” But in the back of my mind a tiny thought took wing. Ganda had known what I needed. Somehow. And it wasn't what I thought I
wanted
. Wasn't money, it wasn't Luke—it was this skinny, dark-eyed lunatic currently hunched over his steering wheel, blowing imaginative curses at the traffic and occasionally throwing brilliant glances my way. Ganda had known, and somehow he'd got it for me.

As Katie would have said, I was one lucky, lucky bitch.

 

About the Author

Jane was born some time ago, and has found living to be habit forming. She resides in North Yorkshire in Britain with her partner, Kit, five children, two dogs, four cats, two guinea pigs, a rat and some Giant African Land Snails. At least, that was the count this morning, there's probably a hippo and a couple of anteaters as well, by now. She writes for her own amusement and has become quite used to her children banging on the office door and asking, “What's so funny in there?” She has hobbies, of course, like any well-rounded individual, these include: the search for clean trousers, interrogating trees and laughing manically at passing motorists. She hopes one day to identify her true planet of origin.

To learn more about Jane Lovering, please visit
www.JaneLovering.co.uk
. It's a nice place, and you can wear your slippers. Send an email to
[email protected]
or join her Yahoo! group to get the latest news on Jane's books, win stuff and chat with other readers as well as Jane herself, if she's having one of her lucid moments. Just go to
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.

If you fancy some salacious gossip, a bit of gratuitous blogging and some lovely pictures, go to
www.myspace.com/janelovering
. Your brain will love you for it.

 

Did you ever want to live a different life? Or actually have a life?

 

Ellie's Dream

© 2007 Margaret Wilson

 

The last thing Ellie Newman expected to see was her husband wrapped in the arms of a blonde. Talk about a wake-up call.

With her son almost grown, her job a bore and a husband whose hobbies don't include her, she is ready for a change.

Out of the blue, Ellie gets a chance to live another life when she goes to New York City for the summer to escape her problems. She gets a job of sorts, pet-sitting for her friend's cousin.

She loves New York. The parks, the food, the museums, the clubs all beckon. The only annoyance is Seth, the beast who unexpectedly shares the apartment.

Seth wants her to leave. Women are trouble and he needs to focus on his music. But she is hard to ignore, especially after they discover a mutual love of jazz. Ellie is up for a fling. After all, who can resist such a bad boy?

Ellie's Dream is about finding your heart, finding your passion and letting go.

 

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Ellie's Dream:

 

Seth and Marshall pushed their way through the crowd to the edge of the dance floor. They looked around for Ellie and Jamie. Marshall spotted them and pointed them out to Seth. Their bright red heads made them stand out in the crowd. As the couples moved, Seth caught glimpses of Ellie's milky white thighs playing peek-a-boo with that ridiculous excuse for a dress. Then he noticed Jamie's hands firmly gripped her sweet little bottom. And worse, Ellie hung on to his ass for dear life. Their hips moved together like a well-oiled machine.

“I had no idea Ellie danced so well,” Marshall shouted in Seth's ear. “They look amazing together.”

Just then the song ended and Jamie dipped Ellie back, her long white arm arched over her head as one shapely leg wrapped itself around Jamie's hip. Jamie ran his lips down Ellie's neck, over her chest and stopped at her waist. Seth's hands clenched. Jamie righted Ellie and caressed the leg still wrapped around his hip.

“What's the matter?” Marshall shook Seth's arm. “You look like you're ready to explode.”

“It's hot in here,” Seth said through clenched teeth. Jesus, Jamie still had his hand on Ellie's ass. Seth wanted to punch him out, gay or not. He was hot and hard. All he wanted to do was throw Ellie over his shoulder and get her out of here. Get her alone, rip that dress off and see what lay underneath. He shook his head to clear it and took a deep breath.

 

As they returned to the table, Ellie saw Marshall at the edge of the dance floor. She pointed him out to Jamie. “I think he came to see you.” Then she noticed Seth behind Marshall. “Do you think they're checking up on us?”

“Looks like it. Seth seems quite smitten.” Jamie steered her toward the two men. “This could be our lucky night.”

“Maybe for you. I've been talking you up to Marshall.” Ellie clutched Jamie's arm. “He really likes you.”

“He doesn't even know me,” Jamie shot back.

Ellie whispered in his ear. “He could get to know you.”

“What's up?” Ellie asked. They stopped in front of Marshall and Seth.

“We wanted to get out of the apartment, get a drink.” Marshall held up a bottle of water.

“I love Latin music,” Seth added.

“But it's not live,” Ellie protested. She pointed to the DJ. “I thought you'd prefer live music?”

“Did you see us dance?” Jamie put his arm around Ellie. “Ellie is a terrific partner.” He placed his hands on her hips. “She really moves these.”

Ellie wiggled her hips. “I need to find the ladies room. Get me some water, Jamie?”

“Sure, I'll meet you back here.” Jamie kissed Ellie's cheek.

When Ellie left the ladies room a few minutes later, Seth was standing outside the door with a bottle of water in his hand.

“Thanks.” Ellie took the water. “Where is everybody?”

“They seemed to have a lot to say to each other, so I left them alone.” Seth pointed to a dark corner where Ellie could barely see her friends. They were huddled together, heads close.

“It looks like I've been dumped,” Ellie said with a smile.

They made their way to the edge of the dance floor. Ellie sipped her water and looked around. The club was getting very crowded. A tall man with dark hair appeared at Ellie's side and asked her to dance.

“My wife is taking a break right now.” Seth drew Ellie to his side. “Thanks for asking.”

The man held up his hands and moved away.

“Wife,” Ellie sputtered. She shook off Seth's arm. “I don't need a chaperone.”

“He's a creep and that dress of yours is bound to give him the wrong idea.” Seth drew her close again. “It's giving me a lot of ideas.” His fingers brushed her thighs.

“It's the perfect dress for salsa.” Ellie pushed his hands away.

“So let's dance.” Seth held out his arms.

“You can dance?” Ellie looked at him uncertainly.

“I was raised by a gay Hispanic musician who hung out with drag queens.” He looked her up and down. “You may not be able to keep up with me.”

“I bet I can.” Ellie put her empty bottle on a table and grabbed his hands. “Ready?”

Dancing with Seth was very different than dancing with Jamie or even Sergio. It was sexual, very physical, with Seth completely in command. After a minor test of wills, Ellie gave in and let Seth take charge. His body was strong and fluid and he stared into her eyes as they moved to the frenetic beat. Ellie had the time of her life. After two energetic mambos, the DJ slowed the tempo down to a samba. Seth pulled Ellie close.

“Maybe we should sit this one out,” Ellie whispered.