Page 64 of Cold Hard Kisses (London Mafia Kings)

“I’m not asking you to choose between me and your family. I wouldn’t do that, just like I expect you to not do the same, but I’m sorry, I won’t suddenly become a friend of all Wynters.”

It hurt, of course it did, but this wasn’t Tam’s fault.

“Okay. Whatever you want.”

He pulled me into his arms and kissed my mouth. “I think you and I need to have a little fun.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s go out. I’ll take you to one of my clubs. You can get dressed up, and we’ll drink and dance and have a good time. What do you say?”

I smiled and stood on tiptoes to kiss him again. “I say that sounds good.”

I appreciated that he was trying to make me feel better, despite how things had gone down this evening. It wasn’t unusual to have people clashing in families, was it? Even in ordinary families, people still fought, and our family could hardly be considered run of the mill.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hallie

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IT WAS GONE TEN P.M. by the time we got to Tam’s club, and though it was far from at its maximum capacity, it was still busy. Paid dancers in barely there outfits worked their stuff around poles on podiums, while others hung from huge metal circles that hung from the ceiling. They weren’t strippers, despite their perfect bodies and tiny items of clothing, but were dancers and even gymnasts, there to give the club a taste of the exotic.

Tam had his own office and private booth that was on the third floor of the club. Each of the floors ran in a doughnut shape around the dance floor, giving a view over the partygoers.

We went up to the private lounge, where he ordered champagne and we took a seat together on one of the comfortable sofas facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, giving us an uninterrupted view of the dancers. I wanted to apologise again for how my father had behaved, but I also didn’t want to make Tam angry. I felt responsible for being the one to invite my father in the first place. It had been a stupid idea. Making an arrangement for a business deal was something quite different to behaving like a family. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I made a promise to myself to simply keep my family and Tam separate. It didn’t mean that I couldn’t see them, but next time I’d do so on my own.

Tam leaned in and swept the hair from my neck and planted a few kisses down the side of my throat, before murmuring in my ear.

“Spread your legs.”

“What?”

“Do it.”

“But...but everyone can see.”

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