hardest. I never was one for aiming for failure.
“There’s a car waiting for us beyond those dunes, but I want to talk to you. I want, Wren, to make this last. Me rolling over the top of you is only going to get me so far. I know that. Even if right now I have you so turned on I could get you to hand me the keys to the Bank of England. You’re rich, studying to be a veterinarian, and have probably never gotten worse than a parking ticket. I’ve shot a lot of people for money or my country, and I’ve got more illegal activities under my belt than a monkey has eaten bananas. I’m a bad man for you to be around.”
“Ah.” She paused and her reply came out in a hard focused tone. “I’m not all good, far from it. I could tell you stories. I don’t care about your past, Glass. Really. There are reasons, but I hate labelling people. Hate it.” She shifted my hand, from where I had rested it on her hip to her lap, and toyed with my fingers. “And I don’t have a key to the Bank of England.”
“Damn. I was betting on that.”
I waited to see if she’d address the core of my statement.
Another wriggle before she plunged in. “I would like to keep this, us, going. I think I would.”
Think? That was a good beginning. I could work with that.
“Then tell me more about you. Let’s begin somewhere cute. You must like puppies. You’re going to be a vet.”
“Puppies! Of all the things.” Wren giggled. “I do, though I’m as interested in other animals. Like I know this time of day is bad for croc attacks and that over there is a mark in the sand that might be a crocodile drag mark.”
“Fuck.” I sat forward. “Where? I missed it.”
“Got you. Made it up. Told you I was bad.”
“If we weren’t in chat mode... I’ll save that one up for later punishment.”
“It was a joke!”
“A bad one. Now. Puppies? Or would you rather I flip-flop you again?”
I was going to get to know her, even if I had to extract it by torture.
“Pfft. Won’t work. ’Sides, You don’t hit that hard.”
“Yeah?” I gave a short rendition of an evil laugh. “Next time, I won’t hold back.”
“Then I shall rephrase that. You’re a fantastic flip-flop wielder.”
The next few days were going to be fun.
My one niggling problem was that I was the man responsible for killing her father, and here I was supposedly helping her investigate his death. I was lying to her, bigtime. If I put a foot wrong, I would lose her. If I told her that her father’s last act before he died had been to force his cock into Jazmine’s mouth and to order Pieter mutilated, would that have altered things for the better or for the worse? Her father had been methodically torturing Jazmine. Hard to see any of him in Wren. Thank god.
She might simply think I was lying. We were on the edge of making something good from this relationship. Shocking her might make her turn away from me. Now wasn’t the time to tell her anyway.
Those thoughts made me sit there cuddling her for way too long. I couldn’t see a simple solution, though I turned my dilemma this way and that. A darker air shrouded the day despite the brightness of the sun.We were both sunburnt by the time we drove off in the rust-bucket Subaru toward Cairns. My old army mate wanted the car in Cairns, within three days.
I clunked through the gears as we bumped over the road leading out to the Bruce highway.
“I’ll take you to a restaurant once we get to our final destination. There’s one on the water, looking out over the strand. The Red Gecko. Unless it’s shut down.
As long as no rivers flooded on the way down the coast, we could make it easily. The weather at this time of year was often erratic.
Chapter 10
Moghul
I pulled over to the curb on my bike to check the text that’d come in, propping my foot on the pedal to steady the bike. I had an offer for the Magnetic Island house from a Chinese buyer. The man would be over in two days to see it in person.
“There’s a car waiting for us beyond those dunes, but I want to talk to you. I want, Wren, to make this last. Me rolling over the top of you is only going to get me so far. I know that. Even if right now I have you so turned on I could get you to hand me the keys to the Bank of England. You’re rich, studying to be a veterinarian, and have probably never gotten worse than a parking ticket. I’ve shot a lot of people for money or my country, and I’ve got more illegal activities under my belt than a monkey has eaten bananas. I’m a bad man for you to be around.”
“Ah.” She paused and her reply came out in a hard focused tone. “I’m not all good, far from it. I could tell you stories. I don’t care about your past, Glass. Really. There are reasons, but I hate labelling people. Hate it.” She shifted my hand, from where I had rested it on her hip to her lap, and toyed with my fingers. “And I don’t have a key to the Bank of England.”
“Damn. I was betting on that.”
I waited to see if she’d address the core of my statement.
Another wriggle before she plunged in. “I would like to keep this, us, going. I think I would.”
Think? That was a good beginning. I could work with that.
“Then tell me more about you. Let’s begin somewhere cute. You must like puppies. You’re going to be a vet.”
“Puppies! Of all the things.” Wren giggled. “I do, though I’m as interested in other animals. Like I know this time of day is bad for croc attacks and that over there is a mark in the sand that might be a crocodile drag mark.”
“Fuck.” I sat forward. “Where? I missed it.”
“Got you. Made it up. Told you I was bad.”
“If we weren’t in chat mode... I’ll save that one up for later punishment.”
“It was a joke!”
“A bad one. Now. Puppies? Or would you rather I flip-flop you again?”
I was going to get to know her, even if I had to extract it by torture.
“Pfft. Won’t work. ’Sides, You don’t hit that hard.”
“Yeah?” I gave a short rendition of an evil laugh. “Next time, I won’t hold back.”
“Then I shall rephrase that. You’re a fantastic flip-flop wielder.”
The next few days were going to be fun.
My one niggling problem was that I was the man responsible for killing her father, and here I was supposedly helping her investigate his death. I was lying to her, bigtime. If I put a foot wrong, I would lose her. If I told her that her father’s last act before he died had been to force his cock into Jazmine’s mouth and to order Pieter mutilated, would that have altered things for the better or for the worse? Her father had been methodically torturing Jazmine. Hard to see any of him in Wren. Thank god.
She might simply think I was lying. We were on the edge of making something good from this relationship. Shocking her might make her turn away from me. Now wasn’t the time to tell her anyway.
Those thoughts made me sit there cuddling her for way too long. I couldn’t see a simple solution, though I turned my dilemma this way and that. A darker air shrouded the day despite the brightness of the sun.We were both sunburnt by the time we drove off in the rust-bucket Subaru toward Cairns. My old army mate wanted the car in Cairns, within three days.
I clunked through the gears as we bumped over the road leading out to the Bruce highway.
“I’ll take you to a restaurant once we get to our final destination. There’s one on the water, looking out over the strand. The Red Gecko. Unless it’s shut down.
As long as no rivers flooded on the way down the coast, we could make it easily. The weather at this time of year was often erratic.
Chapter 10
Moghul
I pulled over to the curb on my bike to check the text that’d come in, propping my foot on the pedal to steady the bike. I had an offer for the Magnetic Island house from a Chinese buyer. The man would be over in two days to see it in person.
Similar Books
