‘Nah, not really. You can doss off as much as you like, take it nice and slow and easy. Longer the better, really. Charge by the hour, not the job. Ups the pay.’

Joey went off down the club that night and – sure enough – he got himself a job. He was still signing on the dole, of course. But so what? Big bloody deal.

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‘I can’t believe this,’ said Claire.

She was snuggled in against Josh’s big naked hard-muscled body in the hotel bed and she felt like she must just die of pleasure. He was here. He was back. Then the doubts set in and again she stiffened. He would leave her again. He had to. He had family back there. Kids. And a wife. Christ – Shauna!

‘What?’ asked Josh, his eyes on her face. ‘What is it?’

‘You’re going to leave me.’

‘I’m right here.’

‘Part of you’s always over there, though.’

‘Claire,’ said Josh, stroking a big hand down over her face. ‘I love you. And I meant what I said. I’m getting a divorce.’

Josh lay back with a sigh. His marriage had been one long dry desert but this was an oasis of calm happiness. Shauna was a fucking monster, he could see that now. She’d battened on him like a leech and sucked him dry. He’d never felt this good, not for years. Not since he’d last been with this same woman.

‘God, this is so scary,’ said Claire.

‘What’s scary? We’re happy and we’re together,’ he said. God, his poor girl. She’d had such horrors done to her, and yet here she was, still strong, still coping with life. He admired her so much for that. She was a true Romany. A survivor. And she was whole and well, and with him at last.

Claire was thinking that she’d had a fearsome enemy in Shauna, and she had escaped her by the skin of her teeth. If Shauna ever found out about this, they would suffer. She would suffer. And she had a family of her own to protect. Her mum and dad. Misery-guts Trace her sister, who she loved and missed every day. And now she had Suki, too.

‘What’s up?’ asked Josh, feeling the shiver run through her. Her body, pressed so close against his, was making him grow hard again.

‘Nothing,’ she said, and sighed and pushed the whole thing aside. ‘Kiss me,’ she murmured against his mouth, and he did, and she reminded herself she was happy right now, and that would have to be enough.

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