The Annie Carter Series Books 1–4. Jessie Keane

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СКАЧАТЬ Dolly had taken over in Limehouse. Dolly had panicked a bit at first, phoning her all the time with questions the daft bint already knew the answers to.

      Annie took her up West shopping for some suitable clothes. Nothing Dolly currently owned fitted the bill. Miniskirts short enough to show her rent book, long tarty PVC boots, low-necked tops, all that had to go. Dolly didn’t like it.

      ‘We all have to do things we don’t like in life, Dolly love,’ said Annie. For instance, I have to have a minder, she thought, as Donny trailed behind them like a bad smell.

      Annie ushered Dolly into posh Knightsbridge boutiques where the salesgirls looked at her like she was something they’d have to scrape off their shoes. No doubt about it, they had a point – Dolly looked like a tart. But when Annie showed them the money it was a different story. Suddenly they were all eager to please, they started acting like they were going to adopt Dolly and take her home.

      ‘Christ,’ she said as she wrestled, sweating, into yet another dress in the changing room. ‘All this fuss over a fucking frock.’

      ‘It’s not just a fucking frock,’ said Annie, pulling the costly thing straight and zipping Dolly up. She grabbed her shoulders from behind her and told her to look in the mirror. The oatmeal shift dress was tasteful, discreet, and it flattered Dolly’s blonde looks. ‘What do you think? You like?’

      Dolly screwed up her face. ‘I dunno.’

      ‘Well I do. And what I say goes. So we’ll take this one, and the navy, and the pale blue. We’ll get your hair sorted too.’

      ‘There’s nothing wrong with my fucking hair,’ said Dolly.

      ‘It needs cutting.’

      Dolly grabbed her flowing curly blonde locks in alarm. ‘You’re not cutting my fucking hair off. No way.’

      ‘A short cut will flatter your small features,’ said Annie decisively. She peered at Dolly’s face in the mirror. ‘Now you’ve packed up the fags your skin’s improving. And you’ve lovely eyes.’

      Dolly stiffened. ‘You’re not a closet lezzer, are you?’

      ‘Don’t be daft. I’ve always thought you could be a very attractive woman, but you’re hiding behind all that sheepdog hair and half a ton of cheap make-up.’

      ‘Christ, this is a nightmare,’ said Dolly, but she trailed around for the rest of the day with Annie, moaning and groaning and throwing out curses like confetti. At the end of it, Annie was pleased to see that Dolly looked halfway decent. Job done.

      Annie was pleased to get back to the apartment. The chap on the door in his neat red uniform nodded politely to her as she entered. God, it was nice, coming back here. It was nice to be treated right, like a real lady. It was nice to leave that fucking po-faced Donny at the door too. She took the lift up and tossed her keys into the little dish on the hall table. Max’s keys were already in there. She kicked off her courts and coat, and wandered through into the drawing room. Max was sprawled out on the couch and she joined him there, curling into him.

      ‘Want a drink?’ he asked.

      ‘No, just a cuddle.’ Annie sighed. ‘I’m knackered. I’ve been out all day with Dolly. That Donny gives me the right hump, always watching me like he does.’

      ‘That’s what he’s paid to do.’ Max kissed the top of her head.

      ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.’

      ‘You’ll have to.’

      ‘Jesus, you’re a hard taskmaster, Max Carter,’ said Annie, but she was smiling as she lifted her lips to his.

      ‘He comes in handy though, doesn’t he?’ Max asked against her mouth. ‘He said one of the Delaneys was bothering you the other day in Harrods.’

      Annie drew back in surprise. ‘No one was bothering me,’ she said. ‘That was Kieron. The painter? He just came up and hugged me. We’re friends, Max. It’s a bit off when a friend can’t come over and say hello.’

      Max smoothed down her dark hair. ‘Do you believe that old fanny? That men and women can just be “friends”?’ he asked seriously.

      ‘Of course I do.’ Annie was frowning at him. ‘Don’t you think they can?’

      Max laughed. ‘Not where I come from. D’you reckon any of my boys would just be “friends” with a woman? The only reason any of the men I know are nice to a woman is to get her on her back.’ Max frowned. ‘That fucker’s getting far too familiar with you, if you ask me.’

      Annie knew he had a point about his macho ‘boys’. Niceness was a weakness as far as they were concerned. Look at them the wrong way and they’d knock your head off. They wouldn’t understand a man like Kieron at all. They were hard men; Kieron was an artist.

      ‘He’s a different sort of man,’ said Annie.

      Now it was Max’s turn to frown. ‘How d’you mean, different? He’s got two legs and a cock, just like the rest of us.’

      ‘He isn’t like that.’

      ‘Darlin’, we’re all like that. So you’re telling me you were laid out in his studio stark naked and he never tried it on?’

      ‘Of course he didn’t.’

      ‘There was absolutely nothing between you?’

      ‘No!’ For God’s sake, she didn’t realize any of this had even entered Max’s head. He couldn’t really think that she and Kieron … could he?

      ‘But you like him. And he’s got a charming way about him, I hear. If he can charm the birds out of the trees, why wouldn’t he charm the knickers off you?’

      ‘I like him. That’s it. I like him, but I love you.’

      Max looked at her closely. Then he shrugged. He was supposed to say he loved her back, but he didn’t. Annie felt a bit disappointed, but she knew that a man like Max would never wear his heart on his sleeve.

      ‘I’ve never developed Jonjo’s knack of taking women lightly,’ said Max, slipping his hands around her neck, lifting her chin with his thumbs. His mouth came down and he kissed her, hard, bruising her lips against her teeth.

      ‘I know,’ she said when he drew back.

      ‘Fidelity’s very important to me.’

      But you’re cheating on your wife, she thought. But she knew what he meant – her fidelity to him. Her total faithfulness. Anything less would disgust him and cause him loss of face among the boys, she knew that. Anything less would be unacceptable. Perhaps punishable. But she didn’t want to think about that. She had no reason to stray, she was in love with this man, she always had been. If he couldn’t trust her, that was his problem.

      Maybe Kieron’s too, Annie wondered. But she brushed the thought aside.

      Dolly phoned again a few days later.

      ‘Fuck me, not СКАЧАТЬ