The Taming of the Bastard Read Online Free Page A

Sam, but I’m busy. It’s girls’ night and I don’t get to go
out often on a Friday. We’re going to Lux Bar .” I nodded
towards my colleagues. “Maybe another time.”
    Then I filled a
glass with cool water and offered it to Alex. She was hovering
between incomprehension and a faint.
    Sam nodded and
said it was fine. We’d do it another time. Then he went back to
whatever it was Bob had employed him to do.
    Alex removed
the glass from her lips. She blinked in confusion. “Are we going on
a girls’ night? Why wasn’t I invited?”
    “She made that
up, Alex.” Chantelle replied.
    “Why?”
    “So she could
turn him down.”
    “I don’t
understand.”
    “Oh, for God’s
sake. Go and fold a serviette or something. She’s trying to play
him at his own game.”
    I was? Wow.
    Chantelle
turned back to me. “Do you realise what you’ve done?”
    I nodded,
congratulating myself for seeing sense and possibly being the first
woman in history to have turned Sam down.
    “That man is
the sexiest thing alive. Why in God’s name did you knock him
back?”
    I took a dirty
plate and began to scrape it into the bin. I knew what I’d done and
despite what anyone thought, I was not going to put myself in line
to be the next statistic on his ‘Shag your way around Australia’
tour. “He’s smug. I don’t go for smug.”
    Chantelle shook
her head. “You’re such a princess, Millie. That man is a god. Every
girl here’s been after him for weeks and when he finally takes his
pick, you knock him back.”
    I turned on the
taps, pushing my hands into the water. It wasn’t a case of being a
princess; I simply couldn’t go out with a man who was more
beautiful than me. If couldn’t even speak when he was around, how
would I cope if he kissed me? Besides, just because I thought he
was hot didn’t mean I had to participate in his ridiculous flirting
game. It wouldn’t lead to anything and I had goals.
    Chantelle
picked up a dry tea towel. “Well, I wouldn’t say ‘no’ if he offered
to put his shoes under my bed.”
    “Yes, but
you’re a tart, Chan’. You’d probably install a shoe rack so he’d
feel more at home.”
    *****
     
    Sam’s
invitation forgotten, I arrived home two hours later to find Paige
still awake. She was snuggled up in the corner of my bed with
Pookie, her stuffed kitten, under one arm and my computer nestled
between her knees and lap. She glanced up as I entered, her face
unapologetic about the fact that she was in my room again and at a
time when she was meant to be asleep.
    “Why aren’t you
in bed? I know it’s a Boarders Long Weekend but little girls should
be asleep by ten o’clock,” I chastised, flipping off my shoes and
flopping onto the side of the bed next to her.
    Paige
straightened. She turned the computer screen to face me, deflecting
my question as she had seen her mother do so skilfully, so many
times. “Mummy will have a fit when she finds out about this.”
    I peered at the
screen. Once again, Paige had been reading my emails. I had to
remember to put a password on my laptop, though knowing her; she’d
find a way to hack it.
    “You haven’t
told her, have you?” Paige asked.
    I took the
computer from her and began to read. The message was from the
agent, the one I’d contacted about the house. He’d sent a whole
folder of extra photos. Pictures designed to entice, seduce and
delight. Oh dear. That was my house and until this minute it had
been my secret. Of course, everyone knew I had the dream, but I
hadn’t divulged the amount of recent progress I’d made with anyone.
Now, I was sharing it with a precocious primary schooler.
    “Do you like
it?” I asked, deciding to play her at her own ignoring game.
    “No.”
    I frowned and
nestled in next to her. Her hair smelled of Johnson’s baby shampoo
and her little body leant warmly into mine. Giving her a squeeze, I
opened the slideshow of photos. “But look… it has a swimming pool
and views,” I pointed out,