Jail Bird

that. But old habits died hard. So she’d let him in, and now he was standing there, giving her the big apologetic grin, laying on the famous Jase charm with a trowel.

All forgotten, right?

Wrong.

‘Only the best,’ he said, pushing forward into the kitchen so that Oli had to step back, ‘for my best girl.’

He held out the bouquet, the most gorgeous thing. All reds and purples, her favourite colours. Roses and lilies, it was exquisite. Lots of acid-green fern, a lavish length of scarlet satin ribbon, and a card with two linked hearts on the front of it.

Reluctantly, Oli took the peace offering.

She went over to the sink, put in the plug, ran in cold water, and plunged the stems into it. She didn’t look at the card.

Jase was closing the door behind him, coming to her, smiling, holding out something else. Oli looked at it. It was a large heart-shaped box of Godiva chocolates.

‘You like these, I know you do. The violet things.’

‘Violet creams,’ said Oli dully.

‘That’s the ones.’

And now he was coming closer, pulling her into his arms, nuzzling at her neck.

Oli stood there like wood.

Jesus, this was going to be tricky, thought Jase. He drew back, smiling down into her eyes, trying to work the old magic. He could see the yellowing bruise around her mouth. Shit, he shouldn’t have done that, what had he been thinking? But it would be okay. He was going to work this out, get everything back on track again.

‘You smell good,’ he said huskily.

‘Just had a bath,’ said Oli.

‘I should have come earlier, I could have scrubbed your back.’ He kissed her. ‘And other things.’

‘Jase…’ said Oli. She half turned in his grip, put the chocolates on the worktop.

‘Hush,’ he said, and kissed her. She felt his tongue pushing into her mouth. But it hurt. She pulled back, turned her head away.

‘What is it?’ asked Jase and, despite himself, he heard the anger in his own voice, felt it building up inside.

All right, he knew he shouldn’t have hit her. His old man had whacked his mum a few times, and it was bad, he knew it was bad. But Oli had been giving it all that, yacking on and on, and he had cracked and whopped her one, so it was more her fault than his really, wasn’t it? But he didn’t say that, he wouldn’t say that. It was time to be magnanimous, take the blame, grovel – which he hated to do; but he’d do it, he had to do it to make things right again.

‘Jase, I want to talk to you,’ said Oli, easing herself out of his arms.

‘Oh?’ Oh crap, now with the talking again. Why did women insist on talking all the time? But he had to humour her. Taking a breath and calming down a bit he said: ‘Okay, let’s talk then.’

Oli folded her arms over her body and stared at him. Not warmly, he noted. Her eyes were cold. This was not a good sign.

‘I could have just told you this over the intercom, but I don’t think that would be fair,’ she said, then paused and bit her lip. ‘I don’t want to see you any more, Jase. I’m sorry. It’s over.’

Jase nearly rocked back on his heels, so great was the shock of what he was hearing. Over? But for fuck’s sake, he’d apologized. He’d crawled. He’d brought her flowers and shit. And now she was saying it was over?

‘Oh come on,’ he said, and laughed, and gave her the hundred-megawatt grin that always made the girls drop their drawers. ‘You don’t mean that.’

‘Yeah, I do,’ said Oli. ‘It’s over, Jase. Finished.’

‘No.’

‘Yes, Jase. I just don’t feel the same way about you any more.’

‘Is this…’ He turned away from her, feeling angry, thwarted, fucking furious. ‘…Is this about that little tap I gave you?’

It was Oli’s turn to laugh. ‘You what? Don’t call it that, as if it was nothing. It was something all right. You hit me, Jase. And I don’t find that acceptable behaviour. And it’s done, okay? It’s finished.’

‘Listen,’ said Jase, stabbing at her with an accusing finger. ‘If you hadn’t been so fucking mouthy, I wouldn’t have been forced to do it.’

‘Forced?’ Oli’s eyes widened. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He had lost control. He had hit her. And he was trying to make out it was all her fault?

‘You just kept on and on at me, Oli,’ he said, and she couldn’t believe it but he was now standing there looking pissed off, even hurt. ‘What was I supposed to do, just take it?’

Oli took a calming breath. She could see he was getting steamed up, and she didn’t like that. She remembered all too vividly what had happened the last time. But inside she felt sore, and sad. She’d thought it was love. She had adored him. And he’d killed it, stone-dead.

‘Maybe you should have just walked away,’ she said, turning from him with a shrug and a sigh. ‘Cooled down a bit.’

‘Yeah?’ Suddenly his hand was on her shoulder, spinning her around. His fingers dug into her flesh, hurting her, and she winced. ‘And maybe you should have just shut your fat mouth for once, Oli. How about that?’

There was rage in his eyes. The instant he released her, Oli backed away from him, feeling a chill of fear creep up her spine. Her shoulder stung; there’d be bruises. She swallowed. She should have done this the easy way. She could have dumped him by text. She could have told him over the intercom. But she had wanted to do this the right way, the civilized way, because there would have to be at the very least civility between them, seeing as they were certain to come into contact with each other. They went to the same places, moved in the same circles; there were things that they would have to address. She had wanted to do this right.

Now she saw that it was a mistake.

Jase raised his hands and clutched at his head and stared at her. ‘You silly bitch, this is a big deal for me,’ he spat out. ‘I…’ he seemed about to say something, then he changed his mind and thought again. ‘…I love you, Oli. Honest to God.’

‘No,’ said Oli quickly. ‘I don’t think you love me. I think you love the idea of me. Of getting in good with Uncle Si, and I’m a major part of that, ain’t that right? Get in with me, and Uncle Si will sweeten towards you. I know you’ve been having troubles, Jase, I hear the rumours, do you think I don’t? You’ve fallen out with Uncle Si, and Freddy’s mad at you over something.’

‘No. No! We sorted that,’ said Jase hurriedly, wondering what the hell was happening here, wondering why it was all falling apart in front of him, when he’d had it all planned out, all neat and tidy.

‘Yeah? Only what I’m thinking is, I’m your ticket back into the inner circle.’

‘No.’

‘Yeah, Jase. At least be honest with me.’

‘I’m being honest. I’m telling you, Oli, you’re breaking my damned heart here. I love you.’

‘You hit me.’

Jase let out a roar and turned away from her, closing his eyes. The dumb bitchl ‘I explained that. It was a lapse. A silly mistake.’

‘Yeah,’ said Oli coldly. ‘It was that all right. And how would you excuse the next time, Jase?’

He rushed towards her, exasperated. ‘There won’t be a next time,’ he yelled full in her face.

‘What’s going on here?’ asked a voice from the hall doorway.

They both turned. Lily was standing there. Oli felt her stomach unclench with relief. Jase just stared blankly at Lily for a moment, then turned back to Oli.

‘Ols…’ he murmured. The rage had dropped from him like a cloak. He’d gone from ballistic to normal in the