he shrugged. ‘But what makes you think I’m bored?’
‘What makes you think you’re not?’ she instantly returned.
For the first time since she had ever met him he gave a genuinely amused smile. ‘You’re very astute, Danielle,’ he drawled dryly. ‘I am bored. I have competent men to run my businesses for me, that leaves me to the enjoyment of life.’
‘Then it’s a pity you don’t actually enjoy it,’ she told him waspishly. ‘And leave me alone.’
‘Danielle—–’
‘I’m ready to leave now, Nick,’ Audra spoke softly from behind them. ‘If you are,’ she added brittly, seeming aware of the tension between them.
‘Could you come back next Saturday at the same time?’ Danielle requested briskly.
The other woman gave her a look of glittering dislike. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’
It was a warning, Danielle knew that, but she shrugged it off. ‘I believe all our business together is now concluded, Mr Andracas,’ she met his steely gaze steadily. ‘All that remains is for me to send you the bill when I’ve completed my work.’
The hardness in his eyes told her that he knew exactly what she was saying—and that he didn’t like it one little bit. ‘Very well, Miss Smith,’ he acquiesed to her unspoken desire not to see him again. ‘Goodbye!’ he rasped angrily.
She felt drained once she was alone, hadn’t missed the triumphant gleam in Audra McDonald’s eyes when Nick showed his fury with her. Danielle had a feeling the other woman hadn’t believed her non-interest in Nick earlier. Well there could be no doubt that she believed her now!
And so, hopefully, did Nick Andracas. She knew she would only be able to take so much from him, and then she would break under the strain. And if that happened she had no idea what she might do. So far she had managed to keep her hate to a cold dislike, if the coldness ever left her she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control the hate.
‘Mmm, I needed that,’ Danielle drank some of her wine, at once feeling a soothing glow.
‘Rough day?’ Lewis sympathised, the two of them having a quiet dinner together at a popular club and restaurant.
‘Rough week,’ she grimaced, having accepted Lewis’s invitation eagerly this morning when he telephoned, glad to get out for a few hours.
‘It’s only Tuesday,’ he teased.
‘Is it?’ she sighed. ‘It seems like this week has lasted for ever.’ Not hearing from Nick Andracas was worse than his constant telephone calls. It was like waiting for the axe to fall.
‘Some weeks are like that,’ he shrugged. ‘How is the beautiful Audra’s portrait coming along?’
‘Slowly,’ she admitted heavily. ‘She isn’t as easy a subject as you would think.’
‘I warned you she can be difficult. Changed your mind about the fee?’ he mocked.
She shook her head, having had this conversation with him once before. ‘It isn’t hard that way,’ she assured him. ‘Admittedly she isn’t the easiest of people to get along with, but that isn’t what makes this difficult. If I paint her as I see her then she isn’t going to like it.’
‘Flatter her,’ Lewis advised with his usual eye for business first, art later.
‘Then she may be unrecognisable,’ Danielle pulled a face.
He laughed softly at her dilemma. ‘I’m sure you’ll find a compromise that will satisfy everyone.’
She liked his confidence in her capabilities, but she wasn’t altogether sure it was true this time; the portrait was proving to be as difficult to do as she had predicted to herself that it would.
She ran a hand across her nape as she felt a prickly sensation, unconsciously massaging the spot. But the sensation continued, so much so that she was beginning to feel very uncomfortable, wondering if she had been bitten by something.
‘Talk of the devil,’ Lewis muttered.
‘Hm?’
He nodded across the room from them. ‘Andracas and Miss McDonald,’ he murmured.
She turned sharply to find Nick and Audra seated a short distance away from them, the reason for the prickly sensation at her nape obvious now as she saw the narrowed grey eyes levelled on her. She looked away abruptly, realising she was still being stared at, still able to feel his gaze on her. The first time she had been out for weeks, the first time she had ever been out with Lewis on a social level, and this had to happen! She was beginning to get the feeling fate had suddenly turned against her.
‘What bad luck,’ Lewis obviously felt the same way. ‘I suppose we’ll have to ask them to join us.’
‘Why?’ she asked sharply.
He looked puzzled by the question, shrugging lightly. ‘It’s only polite—–’
‘I don’t see why,’ she snapped. ‘They haven’t asked us to join them!’
‘Danielle—–’
‘Well, have they?’ she prompted.
‘They only came in a few minutes ago,’ he explained softly.
She sighed. ‘I’d rather not eat with them, if you don’t mind.’
‘But I can’t just pretend they aren’t there.’ He obviously did mind!
‘Lewis,’ her voice was throatily soft. ‘I thought you wanted to be alone with me tonight?’
He flushed. ‘I do—–’
‘Then let’s just act as if we haven’t seen them, hm?’ she touched his hand across the table.
‘But I can see them as clearly as—–’
‘No, you can’t, Lewis,’ she persuaded, giving him a dazzling smile.
‘I—I can’t?’ he was mesmerised by the warmth of her smile.
‘No—–’
‘Good evening, Danielle, Vaughn,’ a familiar gravelly sounding voice greeted them. ‘Audra and I wondered if you would care to join us for dinner?’
Danielle snatched her hand away from Lewis’s as if he had burnt her, looking up reluctantly at the man who now stood beside their table, her stomach giving a sickening lurch at how similar he looked in the black evening suit and snowy white shirt to the man she had first seen seven years ago. It was almost unnatural, no time seeming to have passed at all.
His eyes narrowed at how pale she had suddenly become. ‘Did I startle you?’ he asked in a puzzled voice, as if he wasn’t used to having this effect on women.
‘No more than usual,’ she answered
