The Claim by Billy London Read Free Book Online Page A

one large hand, and his eyes lightened deviously on Imogen, with baby in tow.
    “Imogen Barnes,” he said. “Look at you, rearing the innocent.”
    Anna was shocked. Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t that.
    “I’ll wait for the next one. Anna, I’ll talk to you when you get your senses back.” The lift doors closed just as the baby started to wail again. Rocco leaned against the closed elevator doors. “So you’re still friends. Really?”
    Anna glanced at him edgily. “Sometimes, yes.”
    “Forgive me if I find that absurd.”
    “She’s made up for it. It was a mistake.”
    He snorted a laugh. “It was a fabrication.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I said, it was a fabrication. You tell me what on this planet would induce me to fuck that ?”
    “I don’t know, maybe simple availability!” Anna raged. “Oh, look, there’s a pussy, why don’t I stick my dick into it?”
    Rocco suddenly crowded her space, and she found herself pressed to the wall of the lift, clutching the support bars. “You knew every single inch of my body. Ask her. Compare notes.”
    “Why would she lie about that? Why would she completely ruin our friendship over a lie?”
    He shrugged. “Why does anyone do something that makes them infamous in a person’s life? What else does she have going for her? Ask her where my tattoos are. If she slept with me like she said she did, she’ll know.”
    “That’s crap, what if I’d told her?”
    “Did you?”
    Course not, the wonders of his body were all for her and for everyone else’s imagination. “It won’t prove anything.”
    He smiled sadly. “My learned friend, I beg to differ. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
     

     
    Mimi, the sleek and normally patient Amelia Johnson, looked unimpressed when Anna saw her tapping the rim of a half-empty wineglass. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”
    Mimi accepted the kiss on the cheek. “You are taking the blind arse mick with me.”
    “I said sorry!”
    “Imogen?” she asked warily.
    “Funny story,” Anna replied, removing her coat and sitting her bag on the nearest chair. “Imogen came asking for me to babysit.”
    “Nothing new.”
    “She saw Rocco and called me mad, asking me what the hell I was doing after everything he did to me.”
    Mimi’s bottom lip nearly hit the table. “She said what?”
    “Oh wait, there’s more. So I’m in the lift with Rocco—”
    “Really?”
    “Shut up. And he tells me that Imogen made it up.”
    “Why?”
    “He made out like she’s obsessed with me and she’s trying to make herself an important person in my life. He then said I should ask Imogen where his tattoos are, like that will make any difference.”
    “Do you know where my piercings are?” Mimi asked dryly.
    “Eww no!”
    “That’s because you and I haven’t had sex. Trust me, you wouldn’t forget.”
    Anna winced, and then curiosity prompted her. “Tits or kitty?”
    “None of your business, but it’s a fair point. Did you compare notes?”
    “No. I wanted to forget he and Imogen ever exchanged bodily fluids. Maybe they did it in the dark and he fucked her from behind. Doesn’t mean jack.”
    Mimi watched her carefully. “Where are his tattoos, for the sake of argument?”
    Anna closed her eyes for a brief moment, and the image of Rocco’s body flashed behind her lids. “He’s got a crucifix over his heart, with In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti written beside it. Then he’s got a gun just over his left hip. And then...right on his...”
    “Say it!” Mimi pressed. “Is it on it?”
    “No! It’s just above the pubes ,” she whispered. “It says chase the storm .”
    Mimi grinned over the rim of her wineglass. “When did he get that? Before or after he met you?”
    “After,” Anna admitted. Rocco said that she’d known his body. She could have picked out that man’s body by touch and taste alone. When he showed her the new tattoo, she went all hot with pleasure and decided it was her job to make sure it