“Yes, her lips are perfect, Miles. But mine aren’t,” Yasmin declared and linked an arm through Belle’s, forcibly moving her away from Miles before she continued. “Now, as you men know, we ladies have to visit the little girl’s room in pairs so I’m claiming Belle as my second. We’ll be back.”
Before anyone could say a word, Yasmin led Belle from the room.
Belle, Jack noted, didn’t look back.
Both Miles and Jack watched them leave.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” Miles asked Jack, his eyes still on the door the women had walked through.
Jack clenched his teeth as anger surged inside him.
In a low, displeased voice, Jack demanded, “Give it up, Miles.”
Slowly, Miles’s head turned and he looked at his brother.
Jack saw a sly look in Miles’s eyes, a look that Jack also knew very well as he’d seen it countless times. It was the look Miles assumed when he knew he was going to lose (which was frequently) and decided to do whatever he had to do to win no matter how devious or underhanded it needed to be.
“Give it up?” Miles repeated, his face changing to false innocence.
“Yes, give it up,” Jack returned. “Play your games on the pitch, in the board room and with women who know the score. Belle Abbot clearly doesn’t know the score. Fucking with that woman’s head, Miles, is lower than you’ve ever sunk. And you’ve sunk pretty damned low.”
Jack watched the red creep up his brother’s neck, signalling his anger.
He leaned toward Jack and clipped, “I saw the way you were with her. You’re not asking me to give it up for Belle’s sake. You’re asking me to step aside because you want a crack at her.”
Jack’s first response to his brother referring to anyone having “a crack” at Belle was the nearly overwhelming desire to put his fist in his face.
With effort, he quelled this desire and realised what Miles said was both right and wrong.
Jack Bennett did, indeed, want “a crack” at Belle Abbot.
Actually, when it came to Belle Abbot, Jack found he wanted a number of things.
He wanted to see if he could break through her obvious, nearly crippling shyness and get her to respond to him. He wanted to hear her soft, sweet voice utter more than a few words. He wanted to teach her to look in his eyes not at his ear. He wanted to see what would happen to her timidity when he kissed her. He wanted to know if what he read behind her stormy eyes and if the promise of her tempting body proved true when he had her na**d underneath him.
And he decided instantly he was going to do all of those things.
Every last one.
What he would not do was break her in order to do it.
Something which Miles would not hesitate to do.
Therefore, he had no other choice really.
Thinking of Belle’s lips parting on her soft “oh”, Jack wouldn’t have even considered another choice.
But knowing his brother, he definitely had no choice.
And, his decision made, his eyes focussed on Miles, Miles read what was in Jack’s eyes and then Jack watched his brother smile.
Then Miles’s eyes began to burn with an unhealthy fire that made Jack’s gut get tight and his brother whispered hungrily, “You’re on.”
Chapter Two
James’s Tour
Belle