Keep Me (Beggar's Choice #3) Read Free Page A

utterly
distracts me with its beauty.
    It’s massive and looks like a room from a magazine spread
with plain white walls and a huge, light oak sleigh bed made up with white and
pale green striped bed linen topped with a squashy, pale green comforter. Over
the bed is a large painting of a stormy beach with lowering clouds and a
windswept sea, and on the right is another door flanked by light oak doors
which look like wardrobes.
    Opening the door I peer in and sigh at the sight of a
standalone bath large enough to fit three people. There’s a large, glass
enclosed shower and enough counter space to fit all of my toiletries. There’s
even a flat screen TV set into the wall over the bath and fluffy, expensive
looking, pale green towels.
    Going back out I drift to the real feature of the room which
is the floor to ceiling windows which look out onto the most beautiful view of
the River Thames. It’s high tide at the moment and the water sails sluggishly
by with little white tops whipped by the stiff breeze and gleaming in the
sudden shafts of sunlight fighting through the clouds. I sink into a squashy,
cream armchair positioned to look at that view.
    This is the most beautiful room that I’ve ever been in, not
that there’s much competition. Growing up we never had much with it being just
me and my mum and when she died leaving me with Richard my stepfather, home had
become a cold place and I’d even been grateful when he’d announced that he
couldn’t look after a deaf kid and put me into social care.
    I’d slipped through several homes, some good, some bad
before ending up at one run by the church which had been better than most.
Needless to say this existence hadn’t led to much luxury and I’ve never seen
anything like the richness that is Bram’s home. I’m equally certain that my
halls of residence at university wouldn’t look like this.
    However, I remind myself firmly that this is Bram’s home not
mine. He’s been very generous to have me here and I can’t ever outstay my
welcome so I must remember not to get too comfy. I always remind myself of
this. A lifetime of drifting around not being at home anywhere has left me with
no roots and glad of it.
    I’m uneasily aware that it would be easy to fall for Bram.
Ten minutes in his company is enough to tell me that. He’s easy on the eye
after all but it’s not just that. He’s talented and funny with a very
self-deprecating air about him but he can’t fool me. I’d noticed that gleam of
restless intelligence in his eyes as soon as he’d met me, and he’d quickly
adapted to my deafness ensuring that he was looking at me when he spoke to me
without any prompting, telling me that he’s kind. The hint of stubbornness
about those full lips also can’t be hidden, and all together he’s a very appealing
package and I can see why so many women fall for him. I won’t be one though.
    I’ve come to London for a fresh start. No one knows me here
so I won’t have any of the pity that normally wafts my way, or the unease in
how to handle me and what slot to put me in. Here, I’m unknown and I can make
my future. Tangling with a hot rock star who knows my background isn’t in my
game plan.
    Thinking about his smile though I chuckle. Maybe being
friends with him won’t hurt.

Chapter Two
    Alys
    A few hour’s later I wake up with a start. I hadn’t intended
to go to sleep but after unpacking my suitcase tiredness from the travel had
overtaken me. Now I’m tangled in the duvet and wonderfully comfortable but I’ve
got too much to do over the next few days to waste time sleeping.
    I roll to the side admiring the sun coming in through the
tall windows. For a moment I wonder idly about who Bram gets to clean the
windows this high up in a penthouse flat, but then I dismiss it as a problem
that I’m not ever likely to have and get to my feet and stretch.
    I screw in my hearing aid, adjusting it so that it sits
comfortably, and then I pad into the bathroom to