Jessie Keane - Scarlet Women

‘Like what?’ asked Annie, although she knew.

Her blood was fizzing with desire; she’d wanted this for far too long. But her desire was tainted with unease now. What if he was lying, what if he’d already got into bed—in the business sense—with the Delaneys? What if he was her enemy, even while he appeared to be her friend?

‘Like this,’ said Constantine, and bent his head and kissed her. Her head reeled and pulse accelerated. After a couple of seconds, Annie pulled back, bunching her fists against his chest.

‘Wait,’ she said.

‘ Wait? ’ Constantine’s expression was amused disbelief.

‘You said something and I want to know what you meant.’

‘When did I say something?’

‘Outside the hotel. You said if you could find the guts to face this thing, then so could I. What did you mean?’

‘Right.’ His eyes lost their spark of humour. He looked at her, smoothed his hands over her back. ‘Listen to me. Five years ago I lost my wife Maria in a hit organized by a rogue soldier from one of the other New York families. He was aiming for me. He got her.’

‘I know that,’ said Annie.

‘Yeah, but maybe you don’t know what it’s like to have that sort of guilt on your shoulders, uh? Anyway, what I’m telling you is, bad things can happen to people who come close to me.’ His eyes were intense as they stared into hers. ‘You know what I am. You know I’m telling you the truth.’

Maybe I don’t even want to get close to you , she thought. Maybe I don’t dare.

‘I’m not afraid,’ said Annie.

‘There have been bad things done between the families. Terrible things. Thirty members of one family, wiped out in a vendetta. A boy of twelve killed, his body dissolved in acid. Getting scared yet?’

She was scared all right—scared of loving him, and discovering too late that he was a treacherous bastard.

‘You’re quiet,’ he said when she didn’t answer.

‘I think you’re on my side.’ Annie was staring at him. ‘So I’ve nothing to fear, have I?’

‘You think ?’ He was looking at her curiously.

He was warning her of the dangers of involvement—but she wasn’t even sure she wanted to get in any deeper. ‘And I’ve got the boys. Max’s boys,’ she said. It was safer, better, to rely on them.

‘I’m glad you said Max’s,’ said Constantine. ‘Because they’re still his, you know, not yours.’

Annie shook her head. ‘No, that’s—’

‘Don’t tell me it’s not true, because it is. It’s a tough world out there: men run it and you’re a woman. Max’s people will think you should remain loyal to him. To his memory, anyway. So if you’re not—if you start something with me, for instance—although you know you’re free to do so, they won’t ever accept it. And trust me, they’ll be annoyed. They’ll see it as a betrayal.’

Annie said nothing. She knew he was right. She’d been thinking much the same herself.

‘I’m going to be honest with you,’ said Constantine. ‘After we parted last time, I thought…no. I didn’t want to go there. I’d already lost people I loved. I didn’t want to risk that sort of pain again.’

Annie opened her mouth to speak.

‘No, let me finish. But I kept thinking about you. And I realized that it was already too late, I was already involved. So I knew I had to go for it. And I hoped it wasn’t too late, that I hadn’t kept you waiting too long, that you had the balls to go ahead with this even though there could be dangers involved, there could be risks. You know what I really didn’t want to happen?’

Annie shook her head.

‘That you should feel grateful to me for anything I’ve done in the past. I didn’t want your gratitude, and I didn’t want you on the fucking rebound from Max either.’

He pulled her in and kissed her again, harder.

Annie melted. But again she pushed him away.

‘And the problem this time is…?’ asked Constantine.

‘Is Lucco going to walk in on us?’ Annie remembered Constantine’s oily dark-haired son sneering at her, warning her off, bursting in on them at every opportunity.

‘Lucco’s in New York,’ said Constantine, pushing her back a step. He took her hand, looked at the ring on her thumb. Max’s ring, with the Egyptian cartouches carved into the gold, the solid slab of lapis lazuli a gleaming pure blue. Looked at his own ring, gold with small diamonds scattered like stars. ‘Listen, if I kiss your hand, will you kiss mine?’

Annie started to smile. He could always charm her. His charm was her weakness. ‘Did you seriously think I’d kiss it?’

‘Wanted to see how you’d react.’

‘That’s cruel.’

He shrugged, his eyes playing with hers. ‘Hey, I can do cruel. If it turns you on.’

Annie was aware of her heart beating fast. Her cheeks felt hot, her nipples hard. They looked at each other and there was a hot crackle of sheer sexual need between them.

‘Let’s take this upstairs,’ he said.

‘No,’ said Annie, digging her heels in. She wasn’t sure about him. No way was she going to be rushed. She was determined to take things at her own speed.

He gazed steadily at her face. ‘Okay. I’ll wait. I’ll do the whole courtship thing, if you want. Why not come to lunch on Tuesday, meet the family properly?’

‘Oh shit, Constantine…’

‘They don’t bite.’

‘Are you sure ?’

He laughed. ‘I’m not going to let this go,’ he warned her. ‘And this courtship thing? I won’t be patient for too long.’

She knew it. He knew it.

‘You need me,’ he murmured, trailing his lips lightly over her mouth. ‘You need me like a drug. And one day soon you’re going to admit it to me—and to yourself.’

‘You know what? You’re an arrogant swine,’ said Annie, but he was right, damn it.

‘Yeah, and you like that,’ he said with a smile. ‘So let’s get this thing rolling. Come to lunch.’

‘Okay,’ she said at last, and wondered what the hell she was getting herself into.

They’d been so happy together, so very happy—two survivors clinging on to the wreckage of life; but to the outside world they were winners—a glossy, polished couple so wrapped up in each other, so much in love. Or so Mira had thought.

They were voracious in their appetites. Redmond had a taste for the high life and he also had a taste for excess, and she matched him in that. They ate at the finest places, mixed with TV stars and peers of the realm…and then there was the sex: they gorged themselves on stupendous sex.

And then suddenly one day she realized she was late. She was overjoyed. She knew he would be, too.

‘What do you mean, late?’ Redmond asked her when she told him, smiling happily.

‘Late.’ Mira threw her arms wide, let out a laugh. ‘As in, I could be pregnant.’

‘Pregnant?’ He stared at her. ‘But you’re on the Pill.’

‘It’s not one hundred per cent reliable,’ she said. ‘You know that.’

He did know it. She’d told him, but he’d said they’d chance it anyway. He hated to use condoms, he liked to be naked inside her: wearing a condom was like trying to scratch your toes with your boots on; he hated the things. He’d known this could happen. So why was he standing there, saying nothing, looking at her as if she was a stranger?

‘It…doesn’t have to be a disaster though, does it?’ Mira said hesitantly, the smile dying on her face.

Redmond ran a hand through his hair. He was still looking at her in that peculiar way, like he was wondering what the fuck she was talking about.