It is my great pleasure to welcome Amelia Thorne back onto my blog today, to share a tantalising peek at her new release,
Tied Up With Love, which is out on Valentine's Day.
That's THIS Saturday, folks!
If you haven't yet discovered this warm, witty, and downright funny author, then what are you waiting for?
‘We’re from KMW. Do exactly as you’re told and you won’t get hurt...'
Being grabbed off the street, blind folded, tied up and thrown into a van was not what Izzy expected to happen when she stepped out the door that morning. But when an accidental kidnapping at the hands of the sexy Ethan Chase and his 'Kidnap My Wife' sexual fantasy business leads to just that, Izzy seizes the chance to turn her misfortune into a brilliant new job opportunity…
Since then, life has been one big tangle of new client meetings, fake kidnapping pick-ups, and handling the temperamental, but drop dead gorgeous 'bad boy' Mr Chase. But, as liberating as being tied up in Ethan's life is, Izzy knows the time is fast approaching when she must make some decisions and take charge of her future. The only question is: will Ethan allow himself to be a part of it?
Chapter One
Izzy watched as the grey van skidded round
the corner and tore down the street towards her. The driver definitely seemed
to be in a rush. The van had blacked out windows, a foreign plate and was being
driven really badly. It careened across the empty road, mounted the pavement right
in front of her and stopped just before hitting a lamppost.
She was standing outside a recording
studio and for one deliciously exciting moment, Izzy thought someone famous
might step out, with mirrored shades and a huge entourage. Admittedly, the
recording studio was generally used for making advertising jingles, but
allegedly Chesney Hawkes had once been there.
Izzy inched closer. Nothing exciting ever
happened in her sleepy little town of Greater Chessingburyford. Maybe today…
The van doors were suddenly thrown open
and out stepped the biggest man she had ever seen in her entire life. His elf
ears were huge and stuck out into comical points, his enormous eyes were
magnified behind thick rimmed glasses. He looked friendly, kind of sweet, like
a big puppy. So it came as the biggest shock in the world when he yanked a
cotton bag over her head, threw her over his shoulder and bundled her into the
van.
Izzy heard the van door close, plunging
her into darkness. As the van took off, Izzy’s brain finally caught up with
what had just happened. She had been kidnapped.
She was lying on the floor of the van – it was dusty and she could see a pair of
black boots out the bottom of the bag. The legs attached to them knelt by her
side.
‘We’re from KMW. Do exactly as you’re told
and you won’t get hurt. Put your hands in front of you.’
Izzy obeyed, suddenly feeling a sick wave
of panic consume her.
Rope was tied around her wrists, and
although it wasn’t tight it immediately chafed her skin.
KMW? Who the bloody hell were they? Like
KGB or FBI? What did they want with her? More importantly, what were they going
to do with her? Would she be beaten and tortured? Would they kill her once they
were finished?
Her throat was dry but she managed to find
her voice. ‘What do you want?’
‘Someone wants to see you. We’re taking
you to Oakwood House now. It’s in the middle of nowhere so no one will hear you
scream,’ Black Boots said.
Izzy heard herself take a deep shuddering
breath.
‘I don’t have any money.’
‘I don’t think it’s your money he’s
after.’ Another male voice, which somehow Izzy associated with the huge man who
had abducted her. He laughed and the lewdness of it sent shivers down her
spine.
‘Leave it out Gizmo,’ Black Boots said.
Strong hands were suddenly around her arms
and she was pulled up and sat in a chair. ‘When we get to the house, we’ll take
you in and down to the basement. It’s been requested that you’re tied to the
bed. After that you’ll be left alone.’
Izzy felt physically sick, her heart was
racing in her ears, cold sweat prickled down her back.
‘She’s shaking,’ Gizmo said.
‘I know,’ Black Boots said, with a note of
worry in his voice. ‘Look we’ll be there in a minute. We need to gag you.’
The bag was pulled from her head and she
blinked in the muted light, getting her first glimpse of Black Boots. He was
young, maybe early twenties. He was good looking and had brown eyes and warm
skin of Mediterranean colouring. He proffered the bandana and she flinched away
from him. Gizmo, she noted, was calmly reading the paper.
‘Please, let me go. I’m rubbish in bed,
your boss or client will be very disappointed.’
Black Boots narrowed his eyes as he looked
at her. ‘You don’t know what this is about, do you?’
Izzy shook her head.
‘Crap, he’s supposed to tell you. We say
it time and time again, they have to tell them.’
‘We’re here,’ called the driver and she
looked over to see the back of a shaved head in the driver’s seat. Izzy felt
the van come to a halt.
Black Boots pushed his hair from his face
and sighed. ‘Dave asked us to bring you here, you don’t need to worry.’
‘Dave?’ Izzy asked and Black Boots nodded.
Who the bloody hell was Dave?
The door to the back of the van was
suddenly thrown open, bright sunlight temporarily blinding her. As she opened
her mouth to speak, Black Boots slipped the bandana in her mouth and tied it
round the back of her neck.
Gizmo stood up and ducked to get out the
van, then turned round and in an easy movement lifted her carefully back over
his shoulder again.
She had never been as scared in her life
as she was right then. She had read about this sort of thing in the papers, but
never thought for one moment it would ever happen to her.
They were quickly inside and she had a
chance to see dark wood flooring before Gizmo was carrying her down some stone
stairs. He walked into a dimly lit room and laid her on the bed. Black Boots
knelt on the bed next to her and lifted her arms above her head to tie them to
the headboard.
Something snapped inside of her, there was
no way she was going to let this happen. She lashed out with her feet, kicking
Gizmo in the side of the face. He leapt back with a wail, she elbowed Black
Boots in the nose and blood spurted from it satisfyingly. She leapt up and ran
but only managed to get two feet before Gizmo had grabbed her and dragged her,
kicking and wriggling back to the bed. Black Boots quickly held her feet down
while Gizmo tied her hands proficiently to the headboard.
‘Jesus,’ Gizmo rubbed his head. ‘Anyone
would think she doesn’t want to get shagged.’
Black Boots touched his nose. ‘This is
exactly why she should have been told. I don’t get paid enough for this.’
Izzy wriggled against her restraints,
pulling on the rope so hard it made her wrists sore.
‘Good luck to her husband, that’s all I
can say, she’s going to skin him alive,’ Gizmo said.
There were footsteps on the stairs and
Black Boots looked towards them. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell her? That’s part
of our agreement. She’s petrified.’
‘I did,’ said a voice, veiled in the
darkness.
Izzy strained her eyes to look at her
kidnapper and slowly he emerged into the light. A thin, scrawny looking man
with glasses peered at her.
‘Who the hell is that?’
‘Your wife,’ Gizmo said.
‘No she bloody isn’t.’
Black Boots looked back at her, his tanned
cheeks suddenly going pale. ‘That’s not your wife?’
Scrawny Man shook his head. ‘I’ve never
seen her before in my life.’
They all stared at her. Maybe there was
some little ray of hope. They’d clearly kidnapped the wrong person and now she
would be set free.
‘Hang on a minute,’ Scrawny Man said. ‘If
she’s here, who the hell has got my wife?’
‘No one, there are no other teams. Your
wife is probably still standing at the pick-up point. Or gone home, bored of
waiting.’
‘Bloody hell, I’ve paid four hundred
pounds for this and you can’t even pick up the right woman. I bought Viagra and
everything.’
‘Look, Ethan will be in touch with you. We’ll
arrange a full refund or an alternative date but right now we have the very
small matter of abducting a complete stranger off the street to deal with.’
Black Boots gestured to Izzy in exasperation and Scrawny Man nodded.
‘Right, of course. If the press get hold
of this I want full anonymity.’
‘The press won’t get hold of this – besides, you’re not actually doing
anything wrong.’
Scrawny Man nodded again. ‘I better call
my wife.’
Izzy watched as he retreated back up the
stairs. Gizmo and Black Boots continued to stare at her.
‘What are we going to do now?’ Gizmo
asked.
‘I can’t believe you grabbed the wrong
woman.’
‘Me? You told me it was her.’
‘The boss is going to kill us,’ Black
Boots said.
‘We could not tell him.’
‘How do you suppose that’s going to work?
We let her go now, she’ll go straight to the police. The police will come
straight to Ethan with your description, you’re hardly inconspicuous.’
Gizmo paled. ‘I’m not going back to jail,
no way.’
Izzy moaned against her gag and Black
Boots approached her like she was a caged wild animal.
Carefully he removed the bandana from her
mouth.
‘Please, let me go. There’s obviously been
some terrible mistake. I promise, I won’t go to the police. I won’t tell
anyone.’
Black Boots looked back at Gizmo. Gizmo
shook his head, ‘She’s seen our faces. There’s no way I’m letting her go.’
‘Are you insane? We’re not criminals. What
are you going to do with her, kill her and dump her body where no one will ever
find her?’
Izzy’s heart, which had been slowing when
she realised she wasn’t the intended target, started galloping again.
‘Please. Please don’t hurt me.’
‘We’re not going to hurt you.’ Black Boots
leaned over to untie her from the headboard. But as she sat up Gizmo marched
over and pulled the bag back over her head.
‘What are you doing?’ Black Boots said.
‘We’ll take her to the boss, he’ll know
what to do.’
‘Jesus, Gizmo, we’re just making this
situation worse.’
But Gizmo, it seemed, wasn’t to be talked
out of this. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder again. She saw
the stone steps and then the gravel outside, and she was back inside the darkness
of the van a moment later.
*
The van journey was quite short but Gizmo
and Black Boots were silent.
They surely weren’t going to kill her.
But she had seen their faces, she knew the
van’s number plate off by heart. Why would they let her go?
How had it come to this? Her day had
started so normally. Since being fired from her job two weeks before, she
hadn’t had to get up too early, but her beloved cat Pete had woken her up
demanding to be fed. She’d studiously ignored the first trickle of bills that
had arrived on her doorstep. There were bound to be many more to come. She’d
fed the cat, fed herself the remains of the cereal, gone for a run and spent
three hours applying for different jobs. Bar maid, waitress, secretary,
cleaner, bin man – or in her
case, bin lady – sports
coach, carpenter and driver’s mate, she’d applied for them all. She came across
well on the phone, she had good experience and was never sick. She worked hard
and most people seemed interested until they asked the fateful question. ‘Why
did you leave your last job?’ Being fired for breaking her boss’s nose was not
a selling point. Most people rapidly lost interest after that.
She’d wandered down to the college to see
if there were any more free courses she could sign up for but she’d already
done most of them. She’d just been on her way to meet her Aunt Sophie for
coffee when Gizmo and Black Boots had crashed into her life.
The van stopped and she heard them climb
out, leaving her alone in the darkness.
‘WHAT?’ roared a voice nearby as no doubt
their boss, Ethan, was just informed they had kidnapped the wrong person.
‘WHAT?’ roared Ethan even louder as he was
no doubt told she was still tied up in the van with a bag over her head. He
sounded like a man not to mess with and Izzy found herself shaking again.
She heard running footsteps and the van
door was thrown open. The bag was yanked from her head and she looked into the
fierce blue eyes of the most freaking gorgeous man she had ever seen. He was
huge, not quite as big as Gizmo in height but certainly the same broadness. He
had curly dark hair and the same Mediterranean skin tone as Black Boots, which
made the azure blue eyes stand out even more. In fact his eyes didn’t belong in
someone so dark and they made him look interesting and unusual. He stared at
her for a moment. Was he checking her out? Izzy nearly laughed at this crazy
thought – she was
dressed in tatty leggings, an oversized hoodie and battered knee high boots,
there was definitely nothing sexy about her, but the look in his eyes was
undeniably hunger, as if he wanted to eat her.
He moved forward to grab her and Izzy
flinched away from him.
‘I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I’m
Ethan Chase. I’m so sorry about all this. Let me make you a cup of tea and I
will explain everything.’
He took her arms in surprisingly gentle
hands, pulled her to her feet and helped her down from the van.
Her legs were shaking and she wasn’t sure
if she could stand.
‘Are you ok to walk? Here, let me help.’
Before she could answer, Ethan swept her
up into his arms and carried her like a baby into his office. Gizmo and Black
Boots were standing to one side, looking sheepish.
‘Get out, both of you.’
They hurried out and Ethan placed her in a
chair. He knelt next to her and started to undo the rope around her hands. The
office was a mess. There was a big desk with a phone that was ringing quietly. Paperwork
was strewn everywhere, in piles on the floor, even on the big comfy sofa in the
corner. There was a very swish looking computer with some kind of diary on the
screen and mouldy coffee cups in various degrees of decay were all over the
floor, windowsills and on top of the filing cabinet.
Sunlight was spilling through the open
door and Izzy looked out at the fields and trees stretching as far as the eye
could see. She tried to pick out landmarks so she knew where she was, but apart
from a distant church, it was a landscape of green.
She would escape. She was a fast runner,
she knew this. When she went jogging, she could run for very long distances and
barely break into a sweat. Gizmo and Black Boots were lurking by the van but
she could run in the other direction, leap over that fence and be down the hill
before they could get anywhere near her. She looked at Ethan. He was very
strong though. The shirt he was wearing did seem to be bulging at the arms. Even
his exposed tanned forearms were muscular. The element of surprise would help
her. With her hands released she put her head in them and pretended to cry.
‘Now, there’s no need to cry, I know it
was scary for you, and I’m really sorry for that…’ he leaned in to comfort her
and she punched him as hard as she could in the face, sending him sprawling on
the floor.
She leapt out of her chair and ran through
the door.
‘Jesus, not again,’ Black Boots said.
‘Gizmo, stop her,’ roared Ethan.
She ran towards the fence, but her legs
were shaky with the adrenaline that was coursing through her and she couldn’t
run as fast as she needed to. Gizmo lumbered towards her, she swung her fist in
his direction but he caught both hands and threw her over his shoulder again. She
fought against him but with one strong arm round her legs she could do very
little to stop him. He plonked her back in the chair again, grabbed the rope
that Ethan had taken from her hands and tied her to the chair.
Ethan had a blue ice pack pressed to his
eye, making him look like an obscure pirate. With his thin lips and his dark
eyebrows slashing downwards across his forehead, he was definitely pissed.
‘Now you will listen to me…’ Ethan started,
his voice sounding like a growl.
‘HELP!’ Izzy screamed. ‘SOMEBODY HELP ME. HELP!’
Ethan rolled his eyes and moved into the
little kitchen. As Izzy continued to scream, she watched him pour two mugs of
tea and put a splash of whisky in one of them, then he came round and sat on
the desk in front of her. He waited patiently for her to stop screaming, but if
she screamed for long enough someone was bound to come.
After yelling for help for a good minute
or two with no sign of anyone coming to her rescue, Izzy flopped back in the
chair, exhausted.
‘Finished?’ Ethan said.
Izzy nodded in defeat. He clearly wasn’t
going to hurt her, and with her not being the intended target she might
actually get to go home tonight with all her fingers still attached.
‘Good. Now you’ll listen to me. We’re a
company called “Kidnap My Wife.” We offer a service to couples who want to
spice up their sex life by staging a kidnapping. We agree a time and place with
the couple for the wife to be waiting at, we turn up in our van, kidnap the
wife and take her to our house down the road where the husband is waiting. What
happens next is a variation on a theme, the wife can be tied to a bed, or a
chair, the husband normally acts out some kind of fantasy for him or her, and
they end up having sex. It’s all above board and legal and hugely popular. We’ve
been operating for about five years now. With the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey our list of clients
has gone through the roof. It seems all women like to be tied up and threatened.
Claire Reynolds was our client today, you look a lot like her I’m afraid and were
in the right place at the right time. She must have been running late. You have
my complete and utter apologies. I can assure you this type of thing has never
happened before.’
Izzy blinked at him. It all sounded very
plausible. She looked around the office for any evidence to this and sure
enough she could see several headed sheets of paper with the ‘Kidnap My Wife’
logo on the top.
‘Now I’m going to untie you, you’re going
to drink this tea and we can talk about some kind of compensation before I take
you home.’
He knelt next to her and untied the rope
with skilful fingers. The bruise on his eye looked painful.
‘I’m sorry I punched you,’ Izzy said,
quietly.
He didn’t say anything as he shoved the
cup of tea into her hand.
She went to take a sip but the smell of
whisky was strong and she pulled a face.
‘Drink it.’ Ethan glared at her and she
quickly took a big gulp. The whisky burned the back of her throat but at
another scowl from Ethan she took another big sip.
‘Here.’ He passed her the ice pack. ‘Put
this on the back of your hand, it will be sore tomorrow.’
She obliged and watched him go back round
the other side of his desk. He shifted a big pile of papers from there onto the
floor and sat down watching her.
‘So how much to make you forget about
this?’
Compensation? That hardly seemed fair, yes
she had been terrified but it had been a genuine mistake. All three men were
going to have bruises to show for their accidental brush with her. Surely that
made them even.
‘Shall we say two thousand pounds?’
Izzy choked on her tea and she saw the
small smug smile of satisfaction from Ethan, knowing she had been bought.
Two thousand pounds. Bloody hell. That
would give her spending money for her trip to Australia. If she was careful, it
would pay for her bills and her food too, for the next five weeks until she
left.
Ethan rifled through the papers on his
desk until he found the cheque book. He quickly filled it in and offered it across
the table towards her.
She looked at the three zeros, shining
temptingly with their wet ink. Why shouldn’t she take it, she had been traumatised
after all. But a small business like this, two thousand pounds could be the
make or break of it. What if this money was the difference between paying their
bills and putting food on their table? What if giving her money would bankrupt
them? She wouldn’t take it.
The phone rang incessantly between them
and suddenly an idea formed in her head. It was mean and underhand but right
then she didn’t care.
‘I don’t want your money.’
Ethan looked confused by this.
‘I want a job.’
His eyebrows shot up. ‘Are you kidding?’
‘That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.’
‘I’m not giving you a job.’
‘I’m sure the police would be very
interested in my story. Taking you to court and suing you for traumatisation
would be long and messy. Poor Gizmo out there could end up behind bars again. The
papers get wind of this and it’s all over for your company.’
His eyes flashed. The cheque was crumpled
in his tight fist. He stood up, towering over her. ‘That’s blackmail.’
She stood up too, though this did nothing
to diminish the height difference between them.
‘That’s correct, it is. I’m good though. I
can type a hundred and twenty words per minute, I did events management as part
of my business studies degree, so something like this is perfect for me. I have
years of secretarial experience in various different roles. I work hard, I will
be here nine to five every day to answer your phone. I’ll clear up all this
mess and establish some proper system round here. You’re obviously good at what
you do to run this company for five years and still be standing, but I’m
guessing you’d be better suited in the field. If I’m here dealing with the
paperwork and the phone calls then you can have two teams out doing the
kidnapping. You and Baldy in one van and Gizmo and Black Boots in the other. And
most importantly I can implement procedures that will assure this kind of thing
never happens to anyone else ever again.’
Izzy could see the vein in his neck
pulsing away but he didn’t say anything so she pushed home her trump card.
‘I’ll be going to Australia in just over
five weeks, so even if you hate me being here, in five weeks I’ll be gone.’
‘How long are you gone for?’
‘Six weeks initially, maybe longer. I may
get a job out there so I’m not sure if or when I’d be coming back. I wouldn’t
expect you to hold my job open for me when it could be months before I return.’
‘You’ll need good references.’
Izzy shook her head. ‘No references.’
He narrowed his eyes.
‘You gave Gizmo a job despite his criminal
record, you can give me a job on face value too.’
‘Gizmo is my brother. I don’t know you.’
‘Six weeks.’
‘Three. Then if I’m not happy you leave
without a word.’
‘Fine, but you’ll still pay me for those
three weeks. Six hundred pounds a week.’
‘Three hundred.’
‘Four hundred and fifty or I walk out of
here now and go straight to the police.’
He glared at her, breathing heavily
through his nose. ‘I want you here at eight-thirty tomorrow morning.’
She nodded, barely able to believe her
luck.
‘And you’ll dress a lot smarter than
you’re dressed now.’
She nodded again.
‘Now get out of my sight.’
She hurried out the door into the warm
welcome sunshine and Gizmo straightened from leaning on the van, ready to catch
her again if need be.
‘Gizmo,’ Ethan called over her shoulder. ‘Take
her home.’
Gizmo opened the van door for her
chivalrously and she ran towards it before Ethan could change his mind.
‘Wait.’ Ethan appeared in the doorway. ‘What’s
your name?’
‘Isabelle Franklin.’
Ethan nodded and walked back inside,
slamming the door between them.
*
The Frog and Sausage was warm and cosy,
with little booths under turret type roofs and winding stairs that led to
further seating areas. It was one of Izzy’s favourite places in the world. The
food was amazing, the customers friendly and laidback and right now she was
sitting next to a roaring fire listening to the rain howling outside.
It didn’t sit right with her, blackmailing
Ethan into giving her a job. She just wasn’t that sort of person. Being
underhand and conniving was not part of her make-up. She would just have to
prove to Ethan that she was a hard worker and that he hadn’t made a mistake in
hiring her.
The door slammed open and amongst the
leaves and rain that blew in, so did a bedraggled yeti, hair like a bush,
struggling with her umbrella. The yeti forced the door closed, dumped the now
broken umbrella in a stand near the door and planted a wet kiss on Izzy’s cheek
before sitting down at the table and taking a big glug of cider.
Izzy smiled at her. Bex always made a
dramatic entrance. Bex swept the tangle of blonde hair out of her face, ran her
fingers through it and seconds later the effortless beauty that Bex so easily
pulled off had returned. Izzy always thought that Bex could be a supermodel,
being so tall. She had big pouty lips that many women would pay good money to
have, flawless skin, big blue eyes and a great pair of breasts. She was
stunning. Unfortunately the fashion industry didn’t see beauty in size twenty
women, which was their loss, Izzy thought.
‘Good day at the office?’
Bex shrugged. ‘My teeth fell out when I
was with a visitor. It was hardly the professional image I was going for.’
Bex’s job was as far removed from the
glamour of the catwalk as it could be. Working for The London Dungeon as one of
the historical characters meant she spent most of the day wearing filthy
clothes and looking as ugly and hideous as she possibly could be.
‘I’m sure teeth falling out works quite
well with what you do, adds to the gore.’
‘When your fake black teeth fall out
leaving behind a perfect set of white gnashers, it kind of lacks the
authenticity my job requires. I couldn’t find my teeth this morning so I had to
borrow someone else’s and of course they didn’t fit and kept falling out. For
the most part I managed to hide it, but during one big speech they fell out,
straight onto the floor. The visitors all just burst out laughing, I was
gutted. I had to quickly pick them up and put them back in, but they were
already covered in ten tons of fur and dirt. It felt like I was chewing on
fluff for the rest of the day. But I did scare the crap out of a few grown men
and made a few children cry so yes, it was a pretty good day.’
‘You’ll miss it when you leave.’
‘Yes I will. How was your day?’
Izzy felt the smile stretch on her face. ‘I’ve
got a job.’
‘That’s fantastic, well done Iz, doing
what?’
‘Have you heard of a company called, “Kidnap
My Wife?”’
Bex’s face fell. ‘Isabelle Franklin, what
have you got yourself involved in?’
‘It’s nothing dodgy. It’s a fantasy role
play thing. We kidnap men’s wives and take them to some big house and the
husbands tie them up and have sex with them.’
‘How is that not dodgy?’
‘It’s not, the wives know about it. Think Fifty Shades of Grey on a lesser scale.’
‘So people pay to be kidnapped and tied
up?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what’s your job in all of this
sordidness, you better not be the one being tied up.’
‘No – office work, answering calls and all that.’
Bex was clearly still not happy about it. ‘Who
do you work for?’
‘Ethan Chase.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Ethan Chase? Oh god
honey, you don’t half pick them. Couldn’t you get a nice sensible job in a
library or somewhere safe like that, working for some eighty year old man that
loves poetry and bird watching?’
‘What’s wrong with Ethan?’
‘What’s right with him? His family have a
terrible reputation, if you’d grown up round here you would have heard of him. He’s
a total womaniser too, different woman every week. He lays on all the charm,
wines and dines them and they’re putty in his hands. Then he shags them and
never speaks to them again.’
‘Well that’s ok then, I don’t plan to
sleep with him – just work
for him.’
‘Or under him.’
‘Bex…’
‘Is he fit?’
Izzy shrugged. ‘If you like that sort of
thing.’
‘And what sort of thing is that?’
‘Big, muscular, blue eyes that look inside
you.’
‘So yes then. Just don’t be another notch
on his bedpost. My friend’s sister went out with him. He took her to dinner,
shagged her and she never heard from him again. She did say he was like a god
between the sheets though and if she had the chance to do it all over again she
would in a heartbeat.’
Izzy stared at her glass, not quite sure
what to do with this information.
‘Good with his tongue too, if you know
what I’m saying.’
‘I think everyone in this pub knows what
you’re saying. He’s my boss. I’m not going to sleep with him. How awkward would
that be once it turned sour – which it sounds like it would do. And he would have
to be a complete idiot to sleep with one of his employees. Rule number one,
don’t mix business with pleasure.’
‘So you’re not attracted to him at all?’
‘No.’ That was a lie. She knew it and Bex
knew it.
‘Does he have a nice arse?’
‘I hadn’t noticed.’ Though Izzy knew Bex
had seen her blush. Thankfully she was momentarily saved by the arrival of a
cowboy, wearing jeans over beaten brown boots, a blue shirt rolled at the
sleeves and a black Stetson.
‘Mmm, now that’s a rump I’d like to get my
teeth into,’ Bex said, her eyes suddenly dark with lust.
She stood up and stalked over to the
unknowing cowboy, sank her talons into his behind and nipped at his ear. To his
credit, he only jumped a little bit, then he whirled round and gathered her
close, kissing her so deeply it was almost pornographic.
‘Put her down,’ called Brian the landlord
as he plonked a pint down on the bar. ‘You don’t know where she’s been.’
Bex parted from her conquest and he
whispered into her ear. Bex giggled. ‘Give me half hour.’
He whispered in her ear again and her eyes
widened. ‘Ten minutes then.’
Clearly satisfied with this response, he
dipped his hat in Izzy’s direction and walked back out.
Bex stared after him for a moment, and
then finally recovering herself she re-joined Izzy at their table.
‘I’m in love with my fiancé, did I ever
mention that?’
‘Only a few thousand times. You should
have asked Gabe to join us for a drink.’
‘He’s gone home to sort a few things out.’
Bex ran her tongue across her teeth unconsciously and Izzy tried to block out
from her mind what exactly Gabe had gone to sort out.
Izzy quickly changed the subject. ‘So
apart from the womanising are there any other reasons I shouldn’t work for
Ethan?’
‘Well rumour has it he’s a drug dealer.’
‘Come on, I don’t believe that for a
second.’
‘I’m just saying what I’ve heard. Whenever
things get stolen in this area, everyone points to his family. They’ve never
had any money or real jobs but they all live in nice houses. He’s got a hell of
a temper.’
Izzy had already borne witness to some of
that, she could cope with grumpiness.
‘Quite violent, I hear.’ Bex took another
big gulp of cider.
‘With women?’
‘No, I’ve not heard that, but he’s got
into quite a few punch ups in his time.’
‘Maybe wrong place, wrong time.’
‘Wrong man more like. He hit a policeman
when he was younger.’
Although Izzy was not surprised about
this, she still felt like she needed to defend him. ‘I prefer to judge people
on the type of person they are now, not who they were in the past. We all have
a history, ours is hardly squeaky clean.’
Bex had the good grace to blush, but it
was only fleetingly. ‘A leopard never changes its spots.’
‘You’re so cynical for someone so young.’
‘And you’re so naïve for someone so old.’
‘Eight months Rebecca Dale, eight months
older than you does not make me old.’
‘Look, your decrepitness aside, the whole
Chase family is a bad lot from what I hear, one of them went to prison.’
‘Gizmo. Ethan’s brother. He’s been in
prison.’
‘Sexual assault. I’m sure it was.’
Izzy felt affronted on Gizmo’s behalf. ‘That
definitely wasn’t Gizmo. He’s not the type to do anything like that.’
‘So rapists are all a type are they, tall,
white, brown hair, evil look in their eyes?’
‘No, but Gizmo is … kind of innocent.’
Izzy had chatted to him when he had driven
her home earlier and it had become obvious very quickly that he had a sweet
childlike naivety. He loved Ethan with a fierce loyalty that was incredibly
endearing. He loved his job, loved the frost on the trees that clung to the
bare branches like fur. He loved his dog Sampson so much that there were
fifteen photos in
Gizmo’s wallet that Izzy had seen. After ten minutes in the van with his
exuberant enthusiasm Izzy had fallen a little bit in love with him too. There
was no way he could be a rapist.
‘Of Mice and Men, that’s all I’m saying,’
Bex said.
‘He’s not stupid Bex, nor is he violent.’
‘You always like to see the best in
people.’
‘And you always like to see the worst.’
‘I’m a realist.’
‘I’m an optimist.’
Bex smiled. ‘And that’s why I love you. Just
be wary of him, both of them, and if they lay one finger on you – you tell me and Gabe, we’ll sort them
out.’
Izzy decided, then and there, that she
wouldn’t tell Bex how she had met Ethan and Gizmo in the first place.
Bex fished around in her bag and pulled
out a pot of green cream. She stuck her fingers in and scooped out a dollop
which she rubbed into her hands. It stank of a peculiar combination of
coriander and green tea. Bex was always carrying these homemade concoctions
around with her, but her skin always looked radiant and blemish free so it must
have some benefits. Bex had made cures for dry skin, spots, scars, burns and
chapped lips to name but a few. Izzy was sure she probably had a truth telling
ointment and one for eternal life somewhere up her sleeve. Five hundred years
before, Bex would have been burned at the stake.
‘Do you have anything for sweat spots?’
Izzy sniffed at the green gloop.
‘Where are the spots?’
‘On my bum. I bought some new jogging
pants and I wore them once and they made me sweat so much I came out in spots. Most
of them have gone but one little bugger remains.’
‘You’re such a classy bird, I do wonder
why you’re still single. Please tell me you’ve done something about your scary
bikini line. Last time I saw it, it was like some kind of terrifying swamp
monster was trying to escape from your pants.’
Izzy blushed. ‘Admittedly I have let
things lapse a bit lately. It’s hard to find the motivation when the only
person that sees it is me.’
‘And me. And to be honest darling, that’s
not something I ever want to see again. Come on then, show us your spot.’
‘I’m not pulling my jeans down in the pub
for all and sundry to see.’
Bex stood up and frogmarched Izzy into the
nearest toilet. ‘Drop them.’
Izzy rolled her eyes. She had known Bex
since before she could walk. There were no secrets between them. Izzy unzipped
her jeans and slipped them down a bit so Bex could inspect the spot.
‘Bloody hell, Iz, that’s huge. It’s got a
life of its own that one. It probably has its own brain cells, its own
thoughts. We should give it a name. Bert.’ Bex prodded it and Izzy winced. ‘Hello
Bert.’
Just then the toilet door swung open and a
very glamorous women walked in. The Frog and Sausage had a very strict dress
code. Jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, trainers, wellies and the occasional cowboy hat
were all welcome. This lady looked like she’d come straight from Ascot with her
tailored suit jacket and matching silk dress.
She took one look at Izzy with her bum out
and Bex bent over to inspect the spot up close and hurried back out again.
Bex burst out laughing and Izzy groaned.
‘I’m going to the loo whilst I’m in here,
get another round in will you?’ Bex handed Izzy a tenner.
Izzy walked out into the pub and saw Ethan
with the Ascot Lady. His eyes caught hers and Izzy felt something shift inside
her.
‘I just walked in on two lesbians about to
have sex.’ Ascot Lady was saying, pulling her jacket tighter around her as she
looked around The Frog with disgust. ‘It’s obviously some kind of sordid gay
bar. I’d like to leave.’
Ethan still didn’t take his eyes off Izzy
and Ascot Lady turned round to see what he was looking at. ‘That’s one of
them,’ she hissed.
Great. Just great.
Ethan put his arm round Ascot Lady’s
shoulders and ushered her out. He glanced back over at Izzy as he walked out
and she was sure there was a smirk on his lips.
*
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