Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes #3)(29)

He pauses and takes a sip of wine.

‘Then one day for no reason, Dom turned over a new leaf and that made my mother a bit happier, but things really turned for the better when Jake was nineteen. That was when he fought back and took over the organization. Once he had done that he streamlined everything, moved away from all the illegal aspects of the business, and concentrated all his attention on gambling dens and strip clubs. He started to make a lot of money, and I mean really a lot.’ He pauses and smiles, a clean, gorgeous, heart-throbbing smile. ‘That’s when he got both Dom and me in to act.’

‘So you got into strip clubs and gambling dens too?’

‘Not gambling dens. Not even Jake does that anymore. Our family invests mostly in property and aspects of the entertainment sector: restaurants, gentlemen’s clubs, and normal clubs.’

‘Hmmm … so you must meet a lot of beautiful girls.’

‘Yes, I do,’ he says with a cheeky grin. ‘But when you own a candy store you don’t actually eat all the sweets in it.’

‘This reminds me of a joke,’ I say so lightly, it trips off my tongue.

‘Yeah?’

‘A woman treats her husband to a strip club on his birthday. At the club the doorman says, “Hey, Jim. How are you?” The wife looks at Jim and asks, “How does he know you?” “I play football with him,” he tells her. Inside the bartender asks, “The usual, Jim?” Jim turns to his wife, “Before you say anything, dear, he’s on the darts team.” Next a stripper comes up to them and touching herself sexily says, “Hi, Jim. Do you want your special again?” In a fit of rage the wife storms out dragging Jim with her and jumps into a taxi. And the taxi driver says, “What’s up with you, Jimmy Boy? You picked up an ugly one this time.” Jim’s wife gave him a very nice funeral though.

Shane throws his head back and laughs and I do too, a little, but when the laughter dies down, he looks at me teasingly. ‘You won’t have to give a nice funeral, Snow.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m not holding it against you, but I could tell the moment I laid eyes on you that you’re a playboy.’

He fixes his gaze on me. ‘I’m not going to pretend I’m some saint. I’m a man and I have needs, and sure, there are always women willing to satisfy them, but I happen to want you.’

‘So that’s what I’ve become. Part of the horde of women always willing to satisfy your needs.’

He stares at me curiously. ‘Don’t you think we’d be real good together?’

‘I have not thought about it,’ I lie.

‘I think we’d be earth-shatteringly good together,’ he says softly.

My heart thumps in my chest.

‘You know you want me too.’

I open my mouth to protest and he raises his hand. ‘There’s no reason to be ashamed of your body’s urges, Snow. When you’re ninety you’re never going to think oh hell, I wish I hadn’t slept with that Shane guy. You’re going to regret every opportunity you didn’t take.’

‘So sex with you has become an opportunity, has it?’ I scoff.

‘Don’t knock it until you try it, sweetheart.’

‘Just because you’re handsome—’

‘First I’m sexy, now I’m handsome too …’ he says, a playful glint in his eye.

‘In an obvious playboy sort of way, of course,’ I say.

‘Of course. What other way is there?’ he drawls.

Before I can respond, Madam Chaumbond appears at the door, her demeanor, formal. ‘Etait-il bon?’ she asks, her voice carrying over the vast space.

Shane turns to me. Madam would like to know if you enjoyed your food.

‘It was incredible,’ I say sincerely.

He turns to her and translates.

And in the small smile of satisfaction that she permits herself, I realize that Shane is right. She does have a soft spot for him. It was there all along in the big portions, the care with which she served him, the details she lavished on the food.

‘Bon,’ she says with a dignified nod, and withdraws, her black clothes swallowed by the shadows that have lengthened around and inside Saumur.


Shane picks up his wine glass and turns to me, his eyes glittering. ‘Are you ready to go into the forest with the big, bad wolf, Snow?’

‘You’ve got your fairy tales mixed up, but yeah, I’m ready.’





Fifteen


SNOW

The air is fragrant with the smell of flowers. Carrying torchlights we set off for the dark forest. It feels cooler under the canopy of leaves.

‘It will rain later tonight,’ Shane says.

‘How do you know?’

He glances at me. ‘The weather forecast.’

‘Right,’ I say embarrassed. I got caught up in the idea that we were in a magical place far away from civilization. Besides, there are, after all, people who can tell it is going to rain by the ‘feel’ of the air or by looking at animal behavior or observing the sky.

We take a path that is so narrow it will only accept one person at a time. I follow Shane’s broad back until we come upon a clearing with a spooky log cabin. It’s exactly how I had imagined the witch’s hut that Hansel and Gretel found in the forest would look.