Authors: Angela Verdenius
Tags: #Romance, #Love, #Sex, #Humour, #sensual, #kitten, #steamy, #vet, #plussized heroine
Tim’s nostrils
were flaring and the heat wasn’t just coming from his body, his
eyes fairly burned with fire. “Do tell.”
“Because I
don’t need a bloke to make my life complete. I make my own choices,
and listen up sunshine, here’s a bloody big tip for you. Tonight
I’ll have sex with whomever I please, just like you will, and I’ll
damned well like it because it’s my choice. Raise a flag for the
revolution, Tim, because a woman’s world doesn’t revolve around
you!”
Chapter
Six
One hard shove
and she stalked past him, ripping open the French door with enough
furious power to send it slamming into Tim as he came after her.
The bang of him hitting the glass was balm to her ears, and his
cursing followed her into the room. A yank of the curtains and she
was inside, moving through the dancers with dexterity and speed, a
smile on her face, head held high, and calmness in every step.
Inside, her
temper roiled. Goddamn Tim for being such a bloody egotistical
jerk. And damn her for wanting to cry about it. She was so mad she
wanted to hit someone - preferably Tim.
Half expecting
him to chase after her, she glanced back over her shoulder to find
him bent over Nancy, his sixty year old, outrageous-mannered date
he brought to all his mother’s parties to annoy her.
Nancy was
speaking seriously to him, smiling outwardly, but her gaze fastened
on his face. Tim was listening, but his own gaze was on Cindy, his
brown eyes sparking with temper and -
no, with temper only,
don’t think of anything else
.
“Cindy.” Mr
Lawson stepped into her path. “This is - are you all right?”
“Absolutely
fine,” she replied smoothly, smiling up at the man by his side.
Knowing the
signs of his daughter in a temper, Mr Lawson looked at her with
concern.
Cindy gave him
a smile and a nod. “Were you going to introduce me to…?”
“Yes, of
course.” With a last hard look at her, Mr Lawson gestured to the
man. “Robert Dunsbrough. We’re in talks to buy his chain of home
ware shops.”
“Pleasure to
meet you.” Slipping smoothly into her role of dutiful daughter and
cool assessor of the opposition, Cindy shook Robert’s hand. “I’m
Cindy.”
Robert smiled
and she didn’t miss the cold glint in his eyes. She’d seen it many
times since accompanying her father or brothers to meet new
clients. One of her roles was to meet and greet, play the dutiful
daughter, and assess the competition or potential seller of a
business while doing so. Her insight into the seller or buyer was a
boon to her family.
Cindy played
her role well.
Satisfied that
all was done according to their personal plans, Mr Lawson greeted
someone else and left them alone on the excuse of needing to talk
to an acquaintance.
“I didn’t know
the family had such a charming daughter.” Robert held out his arm.
“Dance?”
Like hell he
didn’t know. Smiling, Cindy accepted, and immediately he slid his
arm around her waist and swung her onto the dance floor.
It didn’t take
Cindy long to find out what Robert was like. The man was a sleaze.
He tried to charm her, flowering her with compliments, showering
her family with compliments, practically eating her up in his
efforts to win her over. After all, win over daddy’s weighty little
girl and he might be halfway to making a huge sale.
For her part,
Cindy pretended to lap up his compliments, while asking leading
questions, probing deeper, and without him even being aware of it,
Robert spilled more than he meant to, right into her shrewd,
listening ear.
It was a shame
she couldn’t ignore Tim’s words as easily as she ignored Robert’s,
she thought, catching a glimpse of Tim swinging Nancy through a
waltz. The man danced like an expert and she could just imagine how
much fun it would be to dance in his arms instead of Robert’s.
Forcing herself
to concentrate, Cindy remained by Robert’s side, just as he’d
obviously planned, going by the way he tried to ply her with
champagne and more verbal crap.
He was so
confident, in fact, that by the time Cindy was ready to leave
Robert had offered to take her home. About to refuse, she saw Tim
watching her and with a glare in his direction, she turned and
smiled up at Robert. “How sweet of you.”
As he led her
away, her hand on his forearm, Cindy passed her father. Stopping
before him, she gave him a hug. “See you later, Dad.” And right
before she removed her arms, she whispered, “Don’t touch his
business with a ten foot pole.”
That was enough
for Mr Lawson and he gave her a fatherly smile and wink.
Robert had a
driver and limousine, and whisked Cindy home in it. Expertly
rebutting his self-invitation to come inside, Cindy begged a
headache - oldest cliché in the book - and headed into the house,
only to stop and swear as the door shut behind her because she’d
forgotten about Al.
Fine mother she
was! How could she forget about Al?
Peeking through
the lounge room curtains, she saw the taillights of the limousine
disappear down the drive. Even though she hadn’t drunk much
champagne and was sober as a church-mouse, Cindy rung for a
taxi.
When the knock
came at her door, it was to find Marty standing there with his
hands in his pockets and lipstick on his cheek and askew
collar.
“Not quite your
shade,” Cindy observed.
“Told you, the
women like a little danger.” The amusement left his eyes. “Damn it,
Cindy, you know you don’t go home with clients.”
“I beg your
pardon?” Her temper, simmering beneath the surface, kicked up a
notch.
Realising what
he’d said, Marty held up a hand. “Sorry. Let me rephrase that.”
“It’d pay
you.”
“Was it wise to
let that total sleaze take you home?”
“He’s trying to
make good with Dad, so he wouldn’t try anything with me.” Cindy
pulled the door shut behind her. “Is that my taxi?”
“No, it’s mine.
We met yours at the gate and I paid him off.” Marty grinned a
little. “Forget someone, did you?”
“I’m a terrible
mother.”
“Aw, you’re not
that bad.” Slinging his arm across her shoulders, he led her down
the steps. “Come on, let’s go get my nephew. Mind you, he’s so
young to have all that hair. Can’t be from our side of the
family.”
Laughing, Cindy
got into the taxi.
~*~
Standing in the
shadows of a veranda pillar with his hands in his pockets, Tim
watched Cindy get into the limousine with Robert. Jesus, didn’t she
have enough sense to know what a sleaze he was? He couldn’t even
fathom why any woman would get into close quarters with the
man.
The limousine
swung out into the drive and he watched the tail lights disappear
towards the road.
“She’s a good
girl.” The frosty tones of his mother sounded beside him.
“The stamp of
approval?” he asked without looking at her.
“No. I’m just
saying that she’s a good girl.”
“Ah. A warning,
then.”
“Cindy Lawson
isn’t stupid, she has good connections though lacks the social
graces necessary for our circles, and she needs to lose
weight.”
“Wow, I am so
impressed. Praise and the tearing down of confidence all in one
shot.” He raised his glass in her direction. “Way to go,
Mother.”
“Don’t be
tiresome, Timothy. I see you brought that ridiculous woman along as
your date again.”
“Nancy. She’s
wild in the sack, by the way.”
“Your constant
attempts to annoy me makes you juvenile.”
“You make my
heart bleed.”
Dr Clarke
sighed. “When will you get your life together?”
“I have a life.
I’m a vet working in a good practice.” He took a sip from the can
of beer.
You work a
low-paying job at a vet clinic owned by your father’s sister.”
“Yes, Aunt
Hannah owns the clinic.” Tim stared towards the road, only half
listening to his mother’s words.
“If you’re
going to lower the tone of our family name by working with animals,
the least you can do is own your own clinic. Bigger and better than
the others in this city, in fact. Make something of yourself. God
knows your father wouldn’t have done so without me pushing
him.”
“And now he’s
pushing up daisies. Good on you, Mother. You hounded him to
death”
Her silence was
so cold that he half expected frostbite to set into his
extremities. When she spoke, her words were positively frigid. “At
least marry according to our status. You can marry well and then
play at being a vet.”
Turning his
head, he gave his mother a look full of loathing. “I don’t play at
being a vet. I am a vet, and a damned good one.”
“Then make more
of yourself. If you applied yourself, you could be a professor at
the university, teaching others. That would be so much more
suitable.”
“I don’t want
to teach. I like working with animals, being hands on.” He gave a
very childish, but impressively loud, burp. “Oops. Sorry. That’s
what happens when you’re a low-life and drink beer from a tin. Must
be Dad’s side of the family coming out in me.”
Dr Clarke gave
him one frosty stare, equally as loathing, before she swung away
and walked indoors.
“Are you saying
your Dad’s side of the family is uncouth?” Aunt Hannah peered up
from near the shrubs that lined the house.
“Oh damn. No,
of course not. I’m sorry, Aunt Hannah.” Groaning, Tim pinched the
bridge of his nose. “And I beg your pardon for that very rude and
un-gentlemanly expelling of air.”
With a light
laugh, Hannah leaned her arms on the rail of the steps. “I was
impressed by it, actually.” Reaching out, she took Tim’s can and
swallowed a good mouthful. She also swallowed some air, thought
about it, concentrated and managed a teeny burp. “Rats.”
Tim laughed.
“You need some practice.”
“Obviously.”
Resting her chin on her arms, she gazed up at him.
Tim took a
couple of steps down and sat, putting him on eye level with her.
“Why do I come here?” He sighed.
“Because you
got the summons from Hell?”
“Why don’t I
just stop coming?”
“Why don’t
you?”
“I don’t know.
Sadomasochism, perhaps?”
“A family
trait.”
“Really?”
“Yes. On your
mother’s side.”
They both
snickered.
“Okay,” Hannah
finally said after a few minutes. “Time to be the responsible
adult.”
“Me?”
“No, me. Well,
both of us, really. Your Mum is a bitch. I know it, you know it,
the whole world knows it. But honey, it’s time you moved on.”
“I’ve never
been good enough for her, Aunt Hannah.” Heart heavy, Tim turned the
tin around in his hands. “Never.”
“Sweetie, you
could do everything she asked and you’d never be good enough.”
“That’s
comforting. Why did she have me, then?”
“You’re the
heir.”
“Jesus, she
couldn’t manage the spare?”
“No, she didn’t
want to spoil her figure with any more kids.”
“I’m surprised
she didn’t use a surrogate.”
“God forbid,
no. She had to make sure you came directly from her.” Hannah
shrugged. “She only needed one and she got one. You.”
“You’re not
being very comforting.”
“It’s nothing
you don’t already know, Timmy.” Reaching out, she brushed a stray
lock of hair back from his forehead. “And what I’m going to tell
you, you already know as well. You’re a top vet, the best in the
city. Probably in the whole damned state. Probably not the best in
Australia, though.”
He grinned
crookedly at her.
“You mean the
world to me. You’re the son I never had.”
“Thanks.” His
heart got a little lighter.
“You mean
everything to your clients, to your patients, to your friends.”
“To the women I
date.”
“No, not to
them.”
Tim looked at
her.
Hannah shook
her head. “You’re nothing but a deep pocket to them. A money maker.
The heir to the Clarke fortune.”
“Thanks again.”
This time there was a bit of sarcasm in his words.
“Don’t give me
that tone, boy.” She arched one fine brow. “You know as well as I
do that you date those cold-hearted, money-grabbing bitches because
you can dismiss them as easily as your mother dismisses you.”
Blowing out a
breath, he stared into the darkness. Behind him sounded music and
laughter.
He definitely
wasn’t laughing.
“You’ve got a
great life, Tim, if only you’d take control of it a little
more.”
Surprised, he
stared at her. “What?”
“I’m talking
about your dating habits.”
“Look, that’s
my business-”
“Sure. And I’m
tramping all over it.” Completely unrepentant, she wagged her
finger inches from his nose. “You’d have a perfect life if you
addressed that part of it. That’s the part that sucks. Let your
issues with your mother go, let your resentment go, and get on with
your life.”
Anger started
to simmer inside him. “When did this get to be my fault?”
“It’s not your
fault. Never was your fault. Your mother carries a lot of the
blame, and your father, God rest his push-over soul, also carries
part of the blame. He should have stuck up for you more often.”
Tim glared at
her. “He left me the money in a trust fund so that I could attend
uni. He knew I wanted to be a vet.”
“He was a fine
man, but he didn’t speak his mind often enough when Margaret kept
hounding you. He should have spoken up more.” Hannah looked him
directly in the eyes.
Damn it, she
spoke the truth. But he didn’t like to think of his dad that way.
His memories were always of his dad being warm and loving and
just…Dad.
“Now, honey.”
Hannah rubbed his arm. “I have to go in. But you think about what I
said.”