Winner Takes It All by Karen Mason Read Free Book Online Page A

and
jeans that were far too big for her. He hoped that was Lisa,
because the girl next to her was a far more pleasing prospect. She
was just the sort of girl Tom liked. - pale and interesting. Her
shoulder length, middle parted dark auburn hair complemented her
big eyes that were accentuated with lots of black eye make up. Her
mean, pouting mouth that was painted blood red completed the look
and she might as well have had ‘bitch’ written across her forehead.
Tom had always been a sucker for girls like this and had to stop
himself from drooling over her.
    ‘ Hi Lisa,’
Jackson said and he kissed the blonde upon the cheek. Tom breathed
a sigh of relief, the sexy one was Sadie. Jackson introduced
them all, and Sadie looked Tom over with an expression of
disapproval.
    ‘ What do you
do Tom?’ she asked, her voice clipped and as mean as her
mouth.
    ‘ I’m a
playwright,’ he replied. ‘I’ve just finished a run of my own play
based on Venus in Furs .’
    ‘ The Velvet
Underground song?’
    ‘ The book by
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch,’ he replied, rather too sardonically. He
hoped she didn’t realise he was mocking her ignorance.
    ‘ Interesting,’
she nodded and he suddenly realised he could see a flicker in her
eyes. She wasn’t so dumb after all. The book’s subject meant
something to her and by the little smirk on those ruby lips, had
sparked her curiosity.
    ‘ What Tom also
forgets to mention is that he also works for my company,’ Jackson
interjected, wrapping his arm around Tom’s shoulder. ‘We’ve got big
things planned for young Thomas.’
    They found a booth and
ordered their drinks. Jackson and Lisa sat together, talking in
hushed voices, leaving Tom and Sadie together. Tom wasn’t even sure
if he particularly liked Sadie. She was the typical rich little
brat who’d had everything handed to her on a plate. She wasn’t even
particularly pretty but daddy had managed to get her a modelling
contract and she’d already appeared on the cover of ID magazine. Her other job consisted of ‘doing a bit of PR’ and that
was it. Tom could only fantasise about having this sort of wealth.
Fiona had stopped giving him any sort of financial support the
moment he’d left school at sixteen.
    Somehow, finding Sadie’s
personality repellent just made him fancy her more. He’d always
found it easier in life to have sex with girls he wasn’t keen on.
He knew this was quite warped, but whenever he did meet a girl he
liked a lot, he found himself scared to touch her, frightened of
spoiling the illusion of her and also failing in himself. There
wasn’t much about Sadie to like, but physically she ticked all his
boxes. Especially when she got back onto the subject of Venus in
Furs , obviously fascinated by it.
    ‘ So what
prompted you to write about such a thing?’ she asked, leaning her
body closer to him. ‘It’s hardly a typical subject.’
    ‘ It came to me
when I was stoned one night,’ he confessed. ‘A mate and me had
smoked some really strong skunk and we were listening to the Velvet
Underground and I just thought Venus in Furs was the sexiest
song ever. I didn’t even know what it was about, so I asked my mate
and he explained that it’s based on the book about
Sado-Maschiocism. So next day, I rushed out and brought it and just
thought what a great, alternative musical it would
make.’
    ‘ You must be
very clever,’ she purred. ‘What school did you go to?’
    Tom had to pause before
he replied. He knew what girls like her expected. They had a mental
list of all the top public schools and ranked boys in accordance to
where they went. What would she think of him when she discovered
he’d spent his formative years at Camden High?
    ‘ I went to a
High School in Camden,’ he replied quietly. ‘My mother was a hippy
and didn’t believe in private education.’
    ‘ Even though
she was a Lady?’
    ‘ Yes.’ Not
by then she wasn’t Tom thought.
    ‘ So are you
the heir then?’
    ‘ No,