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“Nice wheels,” she told him.
“Thanks, but they aren’t mine. Hired driver so we can drink without worrying about driving.”
“Sounds like fun,” she said, wondering what, exactly, he had in mind.
The night went forward as before, with them all over one another at the club as if they couldn’t get enough of one another. They were the most passionate non-couple she could name. In order to loosen up and not feel so uptight about pretending, she had a considerable amount of wine, giggling playfully and being incredibly forward with him as they put themselves up on display for anyone who watched.
“Man, that girl is hot,” she overheard one of his boys tell him.
“Yeah. I could get used to her. Definitely different, a lady on the street and a minx in the sheets.”
Oh, you have no idea, Jo thought to herself as she sat at their table sipping on her wine. If only he was interested in her showing him, she’d make him forget every other woman on the planet. She chuckled at how forward she was when she had been drinking.
“What’s funny?” he asked when he returned.
“Nothing, lover,” she purred drunkenly.
The following morning, she woke up with sunlight streaming through the window. It was painful against her eyes and her head was pounding in protest. It took a moment to become oriented, as she looked around her and finally realized she was back at his cabin and in his bed, naked.
“What did I do?” she said aloud.
“Nothing,” he replied from just outside the doorway.
“Were you standing there waiting for me to wake up?” she asked
“Don’t be silly. I heard you tossing around. My bed creaks. Here, have some aspirin and water. You’ll feel better.”
“Did we?” she began to say.
“No. We did not. I don’t take advantage of drunk women.”
“Then why am I naked?”
“Because you threw up on your clothes. I washed them, and they are in the dryer. You can wrap the sheet around you and they should be ready in a few more minutes.”
Jo breathed a sigh of relieve, despite her embarrassment and took the drugs, chasing them down with water.
“Lie back down and let your head ease up. I’ll wake you in a bit to shower and dress, so I can take you home.”
“Okay,” she replied.CHAPTER FOURTEENThe following day, Jo called Saul Turner. She wanted to get the encounter over with as soon as possible and before King changed his mind. They had to be convincing.
When she called him, Turner had reverted to his usual chilly self. But at least he seemed to know who she was, and why she was calling. He made no attempt to brush her off; on the contrary, he appeared eager to hold the meeting. They made an appointment for that Tuesday and she called King to make sure he could make it.
King agreed to meet at the houseboat a half hour before the appointment. Jo paced nervously up and down while waiting for him to arrive. He arrived in a casual blue suit, looking the part of a businessman rather than a biker kingpin. She was grateful for it.
Turner was wearing a grey pinstripe suit with a pale yellow shirt. Jo was anxious. This was never going to work. But he greeted them politely, looked King over, and announced he was glad to meet him.
"I hope you don't mind me asking for this meeting."
"Of course not," King purred. "It gives me the chance to see my future home."
Turner looked at him sharply. He smiled back at him. If a person could be threatening while seemingly polite, this was the textbook example for it.
"So, this is the house, huh? How impressive! You've outdone yourself, Jo!"
"Shall we take a look inside?" Turner replied.
The shutter was rolled up already. They all tromped in.
King stopped dead on the threshold. Jo looked at him anxiously. She had warned him what to expect but, judging by his face, her description had not done justice to the reality.
"Oh my God," he said.
She steered him hastily down to the far end of the room and began to explain about the kitchen and the winter garden and reversing the slope of the roof. He peered abstractedly upward. She wasn't sure if he was listening. But Turner was. He had wandered after us and was drinking in every word. She turned her back to him and kept talking.
After she had been through every architectural permutation she had discussed with Trey, she asked King brightly, "So, what do you think?"
There was a pause of several seconds. Then King said, "You know, we should think about putting a real garden out in the back here. A kind of patio, open to the air. That glass roof of yours is going to be expensive."
She stared at him wordlessly. This was not in the script.
"And if we did that, it would make more sense to put the sitting room down this end of the room, opening onto the garden, with the kitchen and dining room on the impasse side instead."
