Chapter Thirteen
‘And now he’s sleeping his hangover off and probably going to have a banging headache in the morning,’ Winnie finished, having regaled the afternoon’s events to The Fonz, who regarded her benignly as he and Chachi ate the apples she’d quartered for them.
‘Sounds like someone’s had a good time.’
Winnie didn’t instantly turn around. She hadn’t seen Jesse at all since he’d left the villa so abruptly after hanging their new sign on Monday, even though she’d made the time to come and spend a little time with The Fonz every day and it was now Friday evening.
One large G this is how it goes on small islands like this. We barter, we help each other out.’
‘So I should say yes if Panos asks to draw me naked, then?’
Thunderclouds rolled across his dark, expressive eyes. ‘He better fucking not.’
They stared at each other, having backed themselves into their respective corners. Jesse cracked first.
‘Forget I even suggested it,’ he said, short and blunt, then turned and walked out of the room.
‘Jesse,’ she said, rounding the desk to the doorway, feeling ungrateful. ‘I’m sorry …’
He moved to the deep butler’s sink and threw his brushes in without turning around. ‘Don’t be. It’s just a room.’
Winnie studied the stiff set of his shoulders, and the deep tan on the back of his neck from working in the olive grove.
How could someone who went out of their way to keep their life as simple as possible be so stubbornly difficult to understand?
She backed into the room again and closed the door with a soft click.
Shit. He’d handled that like a prize cock.
Jesse chucked the brushes in the sink, furious with himself for not seeing how his behaviour was just more of the same old bollocks on repeat.
He couldn’t help himself, or so it would seem.
Show him an artistic blonde, and he’d impose his will on her to the point where she cracked.
Hot shame washed through his body at the idea that history could repeat itself, even after a dormant decade of kidding himself that he was past it.
Had it been lying in the shadows waiting to catch him out all of that time?
When he heard the door click open again a few minutes later, he didn’t turn her way.
‘Hey, Jesse.’
‘Uh-huh?’