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She also had a tennis racquet with her.
“Mum found my business cards,” Rani explained. “I’ve had to take up tennis.”
“I have an appointment in two hours,” Georgy said, crossing one leg over the other, silver boots flashing. “What’s up, boss?”
Lia leaned back against the fireplace mantel and took a deep breath. Not even a swagger stick would make this conversation any easier.
“I’ll make it quick. We have a problem.”
“Another one?” Rani asked as she bounced her tennis racquet off her white trainer.
“Another one,” Lia said. “A worse one. We have a security breach.”
“What?” Jane’s eyes were wide and scared behind her glasses. Georgy, perpetual slouch, sat up straight in Lia’s armchair, and Rani stopped making a racket with her racquet.
“It’s all right.” Lia held up her hands to calm them all down. “I have it under control. I think. Someone I was involved with a long time ago has a bit of a grudge against me. He somehow figured out our gardening and tennis club...isn’t. He threatened to go to the police and the papers unless I paid him off.”
“Bastard,” Rani said. “Who is he? We’ll gut him.”
“Nobody is gutting anyone,” Lia said. “I have the money. The end. I’m only telling you this so you’ll keep a low profile for the time being.”
“What does that mean?” Georgy asked.
“It means get your arse in the garden,” Rani said. “Or play some tennis with me.”
“Admittedly,” Lia said, “we might have chosen a better name for the company, considering none of us play tennis or garden. But that’s not the point. The point is I have everything under control. Just be careful and call me if anything happens. And no slipping strangers our business cards this week, please and thank you, even if he does look DTFMEL...” She looked at Georgy. “They might be someone working for my old friend, trying to get more dirt on us.”
“Dirt like...” Jane began, “our boss lady is sleeping with August Bowman, the sexiest male escort in London?”
Rani laughed behind her racquet strings. Georgy stared at her in shock, horror, envy and joy, which made for quite an expression.
“Is that true, boss?” Georgy asked. “He was supposed to play tennis with me.”
Lia blushed, cleared her throat and smiled.
“This meeting of the Young Ladies’ Gardening & Tennis Club of Wingthorn Hall is now adjourned.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
After warning the tennis club about David, Lia felt better. It would all be over soon enough and she could get on with her life. Until then, she had a date.
Lia arrived at August’s house at nine sharp. He buzzed her in and called her up to his office/bedroom. In his office, she encountered a strange sight. August was nearly fully clothed—well, for him, anyway. He had on his jeans and nothing else. But that wasn’t the strange part. He seemed to be placing steel chains and locks around the black iron posts of his weird space-age bed.
“Do I want to know?” she asked from the doorway.
“I had a brainstorm on the way home today,” he said, dropping a few feet of chain onto his bed. He waved her over and, before she could ask what his brainstorm was, he kissed her.
“What was that for?” she asked when he pulled back from the kiss.
“For me,” he said. “I like kissing you.”
“Hmm. We are pleased. Now what about the chains?”
“I want to prove to you that the Rose Kylix has true supernatural powers.”
“You do, do you?”
“Do I? I do.”
