Irresistible by Liz Bankes Page B

start to ache as we near the top. Jamie pushes against another heavy wooden door and then holds it open for me.
    I walk through and realize I’m at the top of one of the four towers. The hot days have kept the evenings warm, but there is more of a breeze up here than down in the courtyard.
    The panoramic view is made even more dramatic by the moonlight. It’s dizzying. Black outlines of trees. Blue fields. The sparkling lights from the town.
    “How do you like the view?”
    I look around for Jamie and see him sitting on the edge of the turret, facing outward. My stomach lurches. He could so easily fall.
    “Not bad,” I say, staying by the door.
    He swings his legs back around so that he’s facing me. The breeze is moving through his hair. He grins at me and then grabs a cigarette from a pack lying on the wall and lights it.
    “So whose wife are you after tonight, then?” I cross my arms. “Or will you just be encouraging someone to gamble away all their money?”
    “Not tonight.” He looks at me steadily.
    I watch him expectantly. His expression is almost defiant, like I shouldn’t be able to force an explanation out of him. We face off for a moment, and then he laughs and turns to see the view.
    “I’ve been finding myself less bored lately.” He keeps his eyes turned away.
    I look at him from the side. He’s frowning in thought, but giving nothing away about what those thoughts might be. And there’s something at the edges drawing me in. Making me frustrated because I can’t figure him out. Does he really do all this just because he’s bored?
    There’s the sound of the door thudding shut and the patter of footsteps. Jamie looks over.
    “Desmond.”
    Dezzie is walking over to us. I smile at her and she stares back.
    “What’s she doing here?”
    “Don’t be grumpy, Desmond. Mia’s going to sing you happy birthday.”
    “I’m not,” I say hurriedly.
    “Good. That would be weird,” says Dezzie. She leans forward and plucks a cigarette from Jamie’s pack and runs toward something I hadn’t spotted before—a wooden shelter that’s been propped up in a ramshackle way against the turreted wall. She disappears inside.
    Jamie jumps up with a flash of annoyance on his face. I follow him over to the shelter. We’re on the part of the towernearest to the courtyard, so can hear a hum of chatter from the party below.
    We hear the click of a lighter, and then a small puff of smoke billows out from the shelter. Jamie stoops and looks into the entrance.
    “Desmond, don’t be an idiot,” he says.
    “I learned it from you,” she replies evenly.
    “It’s different,” he says, frowning.
    She pokes her head out and blows smoke in his face and then retreats back inside. He follows her.
    I’m intrigued, despite Dezzie’s hostile glares, and I hover at the entrance.
    “Come in, for God’s sake,” snaps Jamie, still clearly rattled by Dezzie’s smoking. He pats a cushion next to him. This is some sort of den. There are piles of books and comics in the corner, some dusty plastic boxes that look like they contain toys, and a shoebox that, when I peer at it, I see has
Hands off
written on it in Sharpie.
    He sees me looking. “The profits of smuggling. Chocolate, mostly.”
    “So this is a Radleigh secret, then?” Despite really wanting to not think it’s cool, I do.
    “Not anymore,” Dezzie sighs.
    “Pa discovered it a few years ago,” says Jamie through his cigarette. “He knows where to look for us now, so we don’t usually have too long.”
    Dezzie flicks on a flashlight and bathes the whole place into a warm yellow light. I realize that the sloping roof wall is covered in chalk. There are games of hangman, scrawled messages, an unflattering cartoon of a man’s face with
Dick
written under it. A heart with the letters
J
and
C
inside.I suddenly register a detail I saw when I first sat down—empty wine bottles. Next to them, burned-down candles. Jamie must have brought Cleo up here.
    With a