“What’s got you into a huff?” I asked.
In her annoyance Caroline was eager to off-load. “James is thinking of leaving Wimpress & Wimpress before he makes partner. He wants to buy a hotel in Spain of all places. Can you imagine?”
Not really, but it sounded a hell of a lot better than working a nine-to-five in dreary England. I grinned at the thought of Caroline giving up her corporate dreams to go bohemian on the Costa del Whatever.
“Don’t knock it, Caro. You’d look great in an apron and flip flops, handing out plates of baked beans on toast. And think of all the stag party drunks you’d meet.”
Caroline looked even more alarmed than when I’d taunted her about virgin sex. I puckered up to an imaginary lover, wiggling my bottom and moulding my hands to my breasts, lowering them to my crotch and undulating like a belly dancer.
“I told you already. Give the man some pussy and he’ll forget about Spain.”
I laughed at her expression, pivoted on my heels and smacked straight into James. The sudden contact with his hard chest made my nipples tingle and my breath hitch. His hands came out to steady me and he looked down. Instead of moving away, I wrapped my arms around his neck and tilted my face up.
“You should give him some tonight. I can tell he needs it,” I said, caught by a force I couldn’t put words to, something urging me to get closer. My eyes dared him to kiss me, blatantly showing him my desire. Hell, I was dizzy. Dizzy from the contact with his tall, muscular body and dizzy from my little spin with the upper.
James looked at my lips and I felt him shiver before he set me firmly away.
His voice was flat and condescending. “Only a woman lacking in intelligence gives a man pussy to get what she wants and only men who think with their cocks take it.” He looked at me disparagingly. “Caroline is certainly not the former and I’m not the latter. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of everyone.”
Anger at his insult left me grasping for the comeback that was hovering right at the tip of my tongue. Damn it, I knew I’d think of something when it was too late. Not that James would stick around to hear it. He’d cleared the space between him and Caroline and was bending down to give her a gentle, apologetic kiss for his language.
I thought I might puke.
Dry chicken breast, chips and salad.
I stared at the unappetising food on my plate and let the inane conversation waft over me. Would it have hurt my parents to wish me a happy birthday? I was desperate to go upstairs and take a few slurps of liquid celebration but I couldn’t, not with our guest of honour forcing me to pretend I was part of our family.#p#分页标题#e#
I watched Caroline’s French-manicured fingers lift her glass to pale pink lips. No wine for rehab girl, no siree. I got juice or H2O at home. Self-pity threatened to topple my polite social mask so I straightened my back and jammed a piece of chicken into my mouth.
My mother was eager for stories to tell after church. “Do you have any celebrity clients, James?”
He headed her off with a smile. “My firm is draconian in its confidentiality policy.”
She didn’t know what draconian meant but she got the message and sat back, disappointed.
My father took a long swig of Heineken. “What kind of lawyerin’ do you do again?”
Caroline sighed. “Corporate law and taxation, Daddy. Remember?”
I had looked it up. “James helps companies and really rich people avoid paying their taxes,” I clarified.
James gave me a steady look. “We minimise the tax liability for our clients, yes, but we do not facilitate tax evasion.”
I rolled my eyes at his mumbo jumbo. “You help your clients screw the government out of money while people like us pay everything we owe because we’re poor. That must be so fulfilling.”
“It’s fulfilling to give good advice,” he said levelly.
“It’s a lucrative branch of the law,” Caroline interjected, her face full of pride—and the desire to work in taxation once she’d paid her dues at Legal Aid. “James excels at it and should make partner before long. It’s perfectly legal—that’s the beauty of it.”
I turned on her. “So whatever is legal is right? I thought you trained to be a lawyer to help people defend themselves or fight injustice, not help the rich get richer.”
“Nothing wrong with being rich,” my mother said, smiling at James.
My father nodded and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Damn right, there in’t. Caroline will be set for life when she marries you, mate. Posh like she’s always dreamed. You said you’d only marry a high-class bloke, remember darlin’?”