Intimate Relations, Rebecca Forster [best ereader for manga .txt] 📗

Because Geoffrey had too many wives in Trinidad —and an equal number of unruly children —he took himself off to Los Angeles to start anew. The move was as much to get away from the havoc he created among the women he loved as to find a way to provide for them all.  Geoffrey, after all, was an honorable man.

His skin was dark, his smile bright, and his dreads long. He had so many knit beanies that Finn never saw the same one twice. Today's was orange and green with a bit of blue thrown in for good measure. Geoffrey Baptiste, friend to Finn, had the best people radar in the city. The minute Finn and Cori walked in he saw things were off. A quick heads up from Cori on her way to the ladies room, and he was up to date on what went down at The Brewery. Now he had his two cents, and he was going to put it on the table whether Finn wanted to hear it or not.

"O'Brien. O'Brien. I know'd you bein' sad about your lady, but you listen here to Geoffrey now. I got me many ladies. They all be wantin' sometin'. Sometime Geoffrey give dem what dey want; sometime Geoffrey try hard, but don' give what dey want. Here's de trick, O'Brien. O'Brien," Geoffrey said. "You be listenin', O'Brien?"

Geoffrey's long finger tapped the table and Finn gave him a quick look. He didn't crack a smile knowing it would ruin Geoffrey's fun to do so. The man loved nothing more than an audience hanging on his every word. Finn went back to his eggs; Geoffrey to his counsel.

"So, what it be my beauties need?" Geoffrey threw out one finger after another as he made his list. "Money. De love. De space. Oh, yeah, I give 'dem space so dey can be happy, too. And sometimes de ladies want sometin' Geoffrey know he cannot give, so he don' be tryin'. See what I'm sayin', O'Brien? Do ya see, mon? You only do what you can do, O'Brien. We all be happy wit dat."

Finn's lips twitched. He raised a brow. Cori's giggle was drowned out as she drank her coffee.

"And did Cori leave anything out when she told you about the ex-missus, Geoffrey?"

"I don' be tinking so, O'Brien." Geoffrey's brows pulled together and Finn almost lost it. The man was so sweet of soul that he never knew when his leg was being pulled.

Cori's elbows were on the table, and she held her cup in both hands. Her blue eyes twinkled as she pursed her lips and blew a waft of steam into the space between the men. Finn thought her lipstick was fetching. It was a tangerine color that would leave a kiss for Geoffrey to wash off her cup after they were long gone.

"Come on, O'Brien. If your friends can't try to cheer you up, whose going to do it?"  Cori put her cup back on the saucer and Finn smiled.

"I'm not in bits you two," Finn said. "I've been in this country since I was seventeen. Now and again my language is a throwback, but I gave up wandering the moors and drinking myself into a stupor over a lost love long ago."

"Liar." Cori snagged a piece of bacon from Finn's plate.

"He be lookin' sad to me." A piece of salted fish was the period at the end of that statement. Cori shivered as she watched him go in for another forkful.

"I'm not sad. I'm not angry. 'Tis confused I am, as my mother would say."

"And you'll cop to the fact that your jaw dropped when you saw Bev's party clothes," Cori said. "And this Asylum thing? A sex party? That would have knocked my knickers off."

"Perhaps I was lacking in the bedroom and drove the poor woman to Asylum," Finn said.

Geoffrey howled and slapped Finn on the back.

"You be doin' fine in der, O'Brien. I know'd. You be like Geoffrey. We quiet, but we be good men in de bed."

Cori and Finn accepted his pronouncements about the bedroom, but not that the two men were alike or that Geoffrey was quiet. Geoffrey waved his fork at his friends. A piece of fish flaked off, and he swiped it up without missing a beat.

"It be dress up, dat's all. Puttin' de masks on de faces? Crawlin' on the floor wit no clothes on? It weren't Carnivale. It weren't bein' all sexy, dat I know. Seems your old woman be mad 'bout sometin', O'Brien. Dat's not what you be doin' when de lovin' be good."

"Agreed." Cori polished off the hijacked bacon.

"Agreed here, too. And both of you can forget one minute’s worry about my feelings," Finn said. "The matchmaker in my Irish village once told me that people who are quick to walk away are the ones that never intended to stay. She was right, and my heart is mended. I count myself lucky. Sure, I couldn't afford that woman now."

Cori leaned back in her chair. She put her hands together, applauding and smiling. She was convinced that her partner, her friend, wasn't protesting too much. Finn took a slight bow. Geoffrey beamed and then became serious.

"So what do you 'tink was goin' on in dat place wit de sex and de dead lady?"

"Same old, same old in L.A. It was all about power. Those who have it, and those who want it." Cori sighed and raised a brow.

"I'm thinking you're off base, Cori." Finn pushed his plate away and sat back. "The men in that room weren't as interested in the ladies as they were in whatever business brought them there. I'm betting it was about the power of money. The women were window dressing."

"And do you think Bev is protecting one of those people because she wanted in on the payday?" Cori said. "Or maybe she was just protecting her territory. Nobody but the criminally insane kill without a reason."

"True," Finn said. "Those people were