with a sense of anti-climax, although she had to admit to a certain amount of relief too. The meeting had been as much of a strain as she had thought it would be, although at least she had been spared the humiliation of recognition. Nick had seen her only as Danielle Smith, although there could be no doubt that he found her attractive in that capacity. He was a dangerous man for any woman to find attractive, had been lethal for her all those years ago.
When the telephone rang half an hour later she felt sure that this time it had to be Lewis. It was not.
‘Danielle, will you have dinner with me this evening?’
There was no need for him to identify himself, she recognised his voice immediately. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Andracas, I already have an appointment this evening,’ she refused frostily, a telephone call from him so soon after he had left the last thing she had been expecting.
‘So I heard,’ he bit out. ‘I want you to break it.’
Now she knew the reason for his abruptness before he left. She had thought he had been annoyed that she had taken the telephone call while he was here, instead he had been eager to drop off his mistress so that he could ask her for a date! The cold-blooded arrogance of the man. ‘I’m afraid that’s out of the question.’ She thought back on the conversation he had overheard, realising that not once had she identified her caller as her father. ‘I really couldn’t let my friend down at such short notice,’ she added with throaty insinuation.
For a moment there was angry silence on the other end of the telephone. ‘Tomorrow?’ he finally rasped.
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘You’re seeing the same man again then?’
‘Possibly,’ she evaded lying.
‘In other words you don’t wish to go out with me?’ he said dryly.
‘That’s right,’ she acknowledged coldly.
He gave a throaty laugh at her honesty. ‘But I always get what I want, Danielle. And I wanted you the moment I set eyes on you.’
‘Wouldn’t Miss McDonald have something to say about this?’ she taunted with sarcasm.
‘No,’ he answered abruptly. ‘She wouldn’t. She doesn’t own me, no woman does.’
‘I’m really very sorry, Mr Andracas,’ she snapped. ‘But I really have no desire to go out with you, either now or in the forseeable future.’
‘I can be very persistent when I want something,’ he warned throatily.
‘And I can be just as determined myself. Goodbye, Mr Andracas,’ she rang off before he could say any more, sitting down abruptly. He hadn’t changed at all, was still the arrogant bastard who had once paid her to go to bed with him.
She moved dazedly into her bedroom, going straight to the green onyx jewellery box that stood on her dressing-table, lifting the lid with shaking fingers. The twenty pound notes inside instantly unfolded, as crisply new as the day she had received them. Danielle had no need to count them, she already knew exactly how much money there was there.
After Nick had gone into the shower that night she had dressed in a daze before leaving, not realising until she reached home and the sanctuary of her bedroom that she had stuffed the ten twenty pound notes which Nick had so contemptuously tossed at her in her handbag. At first she had wanted to take it straight back, but the thought of facing his mocking derision for a second time that night hadn’t appealed to her at all in her still shocked state. She decided to post it back to him. By morning she had changed her mind about that, deciding to keep the money as a reminder of the man who had paid her two hundred pounds for her virginity. And she had never forgotten him, hated him now as she had hated him then.
THE telephone calls persisted over the next three days, every couple of hours or so, and each time Nick asked her to go out with him. When she switched her answering machine on permanently so as to avoid talking to him the flowers started to arrive, dozens and dozens of them. She sent them straight to a local hospital, telling the florist to tell Mr Andracas what she had done with them. No more flowers arrived. She was waiting for his next move now. She was not expecting it to be quite the one he did make, although she had a feeling he could be unpredictable. He was standing on the doorstep with Audra McDonald when she opened the door Saturday afternoon!
‘Don’t worry, Miss Smith,’ he drawled at her suddenly wary look. ‘I’m not staying. I only came to discuss a few details with you that we overlooked the other day.’
She could imagine what ‘details’ they were, although with Audra McDonald listening to their every word she could hardly refuse to let him in. Much as she would like to! Mocking grey eyes seemed to know exactly how she felt, her voice waspish as she invited the couple inside.
‘If you would just like to go somewhere and change, Audra,’ Nick suggested smoothly. ‘I just want to talk to Miss Smith for a few minutes.’
‘I can change once you’ve gone,’ she actress dismissed.
‘It would save time if you do it now,’ he arched dark brows in challenge.
With a dark flash of resentment she turned to Danielle with furious eyes. ‘Do you have somewhere I might change?’
She frowned at the request. ‘What you’re wearing is perfectly suitable—–’
‘I have to be wearing a gown from the play,’ the other woman snapped her impatience.
‘Oh.’ She hadn’t realised that. ‘Well, there’s my studio. Or my bedroom,’ she added with a certain amount of reluctance.
Audra chose the bedroom, as Danielle had known she would, leaving her alone in there while she came back to face Nick Andracas.
‘You wanted to talk to me?’ she looked up at him with cool enquiry as he seemed in no hurry to speak, merely staring at her with open interest.
His mouth twisted, his hands thrust into the pockets of his black fitted trousers, his shirt the same steel grey as his eyes. ‘I’ve been trying to talk to you all week, you know that.’
‘I thought this conversation was going to be business, Mr Andracas,’ she turned away.
‘It is,’ he bit out. ‘Vaughn tells me you’ve remained adamant about your fee?’
She stiffened. ‘That’s right.’
He eyed her curiously. ‘I’ve never known anyone turn down money before.’
‘Really?’ she bit out between taut lips, knowing her own behaviour in the past had added to his disillusionment.
‘Really,’ he nodded.
‘Then this must be a pleasant change for you, mustn’t it,’ her voice was brittle.
‘It might be if I understood the reason for it.’
Her
