Hot Revenge Box Set 4

“Is good, Senhor?” Rheumy eyes crinkle in a face like a Roman mosaic.

“Yes, very good,” I cough into a napkin. “Just… surprised me, that’s all.”

The crinkles deepen. “Americano?”

For a moment, my mind blanks out…

Who the hell am I supposed to be?

… then the information surfaces. “No. English.”

“Ahhh…” The brows rise, then, “Senhor, Você quer nosso vinho local?” He stares into air for a second. “Our wine locale… You try?”

“Yes, please.” I cough again into the napkin, clearing a final fiery fragment from my throat. “Your local wine would be good.”

He offers up a bottle: the contents pale, a plain white label and a heavy-duty waxed cork. “Is of the … wine garden…” He gives me a questioning look…

“Vinyard.”

“… The vinyard of my brother. Is good. You want? Yes, no?”

“Yes. Yes.”

The wine is indeed good: nominally a sparkling white but in fact the palest of primrose yellows when held up to the sunshine. Medium-dry and lightly fragranced, it’s perhaps a little light to go with the volcanic salsa, but works well with the bread. By the time I’ve worked through all of the meal and most of the bottle, I’m feeling well-fed, slightly tipsy and brimming with bon ami.

“Você quer café, senhor?”

“Yes, coffee would be good, thank you.”

The sunshine warms my face as I sip at the excellent coffee. This place is everything I ever enjoyed about travel and I’m developing a kind of holiday mood. Perhaps it’s inappropriate, but you can’t keep your guard up all the time.

No-one knows I’m here…

What’s to worry about?

with myself, I’ve learned to chill

… and with Jenny…

… and her family…

James too?

I know it wasn’t really

Was it?

?

a friend. Who else have

make it right with

When I get back…

a friend. He seemed to thaw out after Jenny’s rescue. I couldn’t have handled Jenny’s rescue without

Haswell gave

buddy Stanton,

have

… locked me up.

He didn’t.

It feels good.

the scientists write: the psychologists and the anthropologists and brain-men. Humans are social

never meant a fucking thing to me. I could have been reading about Alice in her Wonderland

But now, it’s different.

Mitch…

wearing

…

eyes outshining any gem

cloud of

love to you… hilting myself… burying myself ball-deep

me, displaying yourself with your broad, bright smile as I let you take

the coffee

to me, what I have to do. I have a situation

After that…

Is it possible?

A normal life.