stared down at her frustratedly, his hands clenched at his sides. ‘Fine,’ he bit out tersely, turning away abruptly, breathing deeply in an effort to calm down. Almost an impossibility when around this woman. ‘I will call you later, though,’ he added determinedly even as he left the study and strode forcefully down the hallway to the front door.
‘Don’t hold your breath on getting a reply,’ Jinx called after him.
Nik came to a halt as he reached the door, forcing himself not to retaliate, to just open the door and leave. But it wasn’t easy.
In fact, as he was quickly learning, nothing was easy when it came to Jinx Nixon…
CHAPTER TEN
‘HELLO…?’ Jinx at once berated herself for sounding so hesitant as she answered the telephone call later that evening. After what he had said earlier, Nik Prince was sure to be the caller, and being hesitant around that man could only lead to him attempting to walk all over her—only attempting, of course, because he wouldn’t succeed!
But he had been right about the reporter and photographer; the two of them were still waiting outside. In fact, the photographer had left for a brief time and returned with a car, in which the two of them now sat. It looked as if they were even eating hamburgers and drinking cola now, too. And waiting. And they appeared to be able to carry on doing just that for as long as it took for Jinx to have to finally leave the house, if only in order to buy food.
‘Juliet?’ a female voice answered. ‘Juliet Nixon?’
Jinx’s wariness increased at hearing this unfamiliar voice. ‘Yes…’
‘This is Stazy Hunter,’ the woman responded. ‘We met briefly at Susan and Leo’s the other weekend.’
As if Jinx needed any reminding of who the other woman was! And where they had met wasn’t the relevant point at the moment—the fact that this woman was Nik Prince’s sister was!
She straightened defensively, unsure yet as to whether the other woman had got her telephone number from her brother or from Susan. ‘What can I do for you, Mrs Hunter?’
‘Please call me Stazy,’ the other woman invited, her American accent softer and less pronounced than her brother’s. ‘And I believe your friends call you Jinx…?’
Yes, they did—but she very much doubted this woman was ever going to become her friend. ‘I don’t wish to sound rude, but exactly why have you telephoned me, Mrs—Stazy?’ she corrected awkwardly; she would so much rather have kept things formal between the two of them, but at the same time Stazy Hunter sounded a genuinely warm and friendly person. So unlike her eldest brother!
The other woman gave a husky laugh. ‘Don’t worry, I don’t have Nik breathing down my neck listening in on the conversation!’
That was something, at least! ‘But he did ask you to telephone me?’ Jinx said sharply.
‘Yes, he—he’s concerned about you…’ Stazy Hunter told her ruefully.
‘Then he has no right to be,’ Jinx snapped. ‘Something I have already told him once today!’
‘So I believe,’ Stazy chuckled appreciatively.
How much had Nik told his sister about the two of them? Not that there was a ‘two of them’, but she didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of Nik discussing her with his sister at all.
‘Is the reporter still there?’ Stazy asked.
Jinx thought briefly of lying to the other woman, but what would be the point of doing that? Nik, when told of the conversation by his sister—as Jinx was sure he would be, even if he wasn’t breathing down Stazy’s neck right now!—would be sure to know that she was lying.
‘Before you answer that,’ Stazy Hunter continued warmly, ‘may I just say how much I enjoyed your book. It made me cry as well as laugh,’ she added sincerely.
Nik really had been confiding in his sister, hadn’t he? Although it would probably have been a little difficult explaining his ‘concern’ for Jinx without telling the other woman of her connection to J. I. Watson.
Nevertheless, Jinx felt a warm glow at the other woman’s praise for No Ordinary Boy. The books, five of them in all, had been written from the heart, and had made Jinx ‘cry as well as laugh’ too.
‘Thank you,’ she accepted huskily. ‘And, yes, the reporter is still here, but it really isn’t a problem.’ At the moment…!
If the pair outside were set in for the duration, then it could definitely become a problem. And Jinx had a feeling that was exactly what they were going to do.
‘Are you sure?’ The frown could be heard in Stazy’s voice. ‘I know how intrusive the press can be.’
Well, she would, wouldn’t she? Jinx acknowledged; Damien Prince, the legendary Hollywood actor, although dead for some time now, had been Stazy’s father as well as Nik’s, which meant the other woman had probably grown up surrounded by that intrusive press.
‘They really aren’t a problem,’ Jinx repeated. ‘It’s very kind of you to have called in this way, Stazy,’ she added briskly, ‘but—’
‘Kindness has little to do with it,’ the other woman assured her. ‘But I didn’t just telephone to check up on the reporter. Nik thinks, and I have to agree with him, that it would be a good idea if you came here and stayed with me for a few days. You and your father, of course.’
Jinx frowned, totally speechless just at the idea of Nik putting forward the idea of inviting her to stay at the home of his sister.
‘Then he has no right to think any such thing!’ she finally answered incredulously. ‘For one thing, I wouldn’t dream of intruding on you and your family in that way—’
‘Oh, you wouldn’t be intruding,’ Stazy Hunter assured her. ‘In fact, Jordan is away on business for a few days, so I would quite enjoy having some female company.’
‘For another, it’s totally unnecessary,’ Jinx added firmly. ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, Stazy, it’s just that—I’m well aware of whose idea this actually was! But please assure Nik that I don’t need his help, that I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’ She hoped she didn’t sound too rude to the other woman; she just wanted to make sure that Nik got the message she wanted him to receive—which was, ‘Leave me alone!’
‘Okay,’ Stazy accepted, obviously not in the least offended. ‘But I’ll leave you my telephone number, anyway, shall I? Just in case.’
In case of what, Jinx had no idea, but she wrote the other woman’s telephone number down anyway before saying goodbye.
She continued to sit by the telephone for several minutes after ending the call, a frown marring her creamy brow. Nik just couldn’t stop interfering in her life, could he? Well, hopefully, that last message, relayed to him via his sister, might make him falter a little in his tracks. Although, knowing Nik, Jinx wouldn’t count on it.
And did she really want him to just disappear completely from her life? She could be honest with herself,
