Free Sexy Beast by Georgia le Carre Page A

turned out so bad. She knows right from wrong. She’s never ever mean to anyone. She’s generous to a fault. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s not stubborn or selfish or bossy or bitchy. Quite frankly, she makes me proud of her.’
    ‘And she knows how to catch flying peas in her mouth,’ Shane adds with a grin.
    Everybody laughs. Even my mother smiles.
    I gaze around the table at all their faces, even the latest addition, Lily, and my heart brims over with love. At that moment I think I am the most blessed person in the entire world
    ‘How’s the job search coming along, Bear?’ Jake asks.
    ‘I’ve got an interview on Wednesday. Fingers crossed,’ I say and stuff a chunk of roasted potato into my mouth so that he can’t ask where it is. Jake is such a control freak, he actually paid the people living in the flat next to me in Milan to keep an eye on me and make sure I was all right! God knows what he will do if I tell him where my interview is.
    ‘Mmmm … delicious, Ma,’ I say around my food.
    My mother makes the best roasted potatoes ever. Her secret is twofold. She strains the potatoes and gives them a good hard shake in a closed lid pot after they have been cooked to break up their edges. Then she drops them on a baking tray of very hot goose fat. Hot enough to make the potatoes sizzle. The result: crispy on the outside, billowy on the inside.
    After lunch Jake and Lily offer me a lift back to London, a suggestion I quickly accept.

FOURTEEN

    Layla
    T he journey is pleasant. The conversation is light and easy and it is only when Jake and Lily start talking about attending a wedding of a family friend that I kind of put my foot in it.
    ‘Do you want to go, Bear?’ my brother asks.
    ‘Will BJ be there?’ I reply.
    Jake meets my eyes in the rearview mirror. He is frowning. ‘Why do you want to know?’
    I shrug. ‘Just curious.’
    ‘Stay away from BJ, Layla,’ he warns in a steely voice.
    I am immediately curious. ‘Why? I thought the feud is over and we are best friends with the Pilkingtons now.’
    ‘We’re not best friends. We’re friends,’ he corrects.
    ‘Ma said he saved your life.’
    ‘Yes, he did and I’ll be forever grateful for that, but I don’t want him anywhere near my sister. He’s a junkyard dog. He’ll fuck anything in a skirt.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Lily says. ‘I think BJ can be tamed. He is a bit of a beast, but a very seductive beast,’ she says and flashes a wink in my direction.
    The car suddenly stops.
    ‘Out of the car, you,’ Jake tells Lily. His voice is deadly quiet.
    She raises her eyebrows at him, then flicks her eyes in my direction, as if asking, You want to do this with you sister here?
    ‘I’m waiting,’ he says.
    ‘Are you serious?’ she asks incredulously.
    I look from one to the other curiously.
    Jake doesn’t reply. Instead he gets out of the car. As I watch totally bemused, he comes around to her side, opens Lily’s door, and takes her hand to pull her out and lead her around the back of the car. For a few moments I don’t turn around to look but then, oh fuck it, I have to know. I glance back, and my mouth drops open.
    Whoa, Jake!
    Lily is being crushed in Jake’s arms. He is kissing the shit out of her. The domination and forcefulness of his embrace is astonishing. I didn’t know he had it in him to be so intensely jealous and possessive. I swivel my head back quickly, not wanting to be caught staring like a half-wit at my brother eating his wife’s face by the roadside. I needn’t have worried though. It’s a good few minutes before he settles Lily back in the passenger seat. Her cheeks are bright red. And no wonder.
    He gets into his seat and turns around to face me.
    ‘You’ve been warned. BJ saved my life. So I owe him big time, but if he hurts even a hair on your head I’ll have to break his fucking legs, and I really don’t want to do that. We’ve just made up with the Pilkingtons after centuries of pointless