mean, if you’re doing it for the kicks then fine, I suppose. But you’re really doing it to piss off your dad and Carol, aren’t you?” She paused. “Aren’t you?”
“Can we drop the lecture? I’ve got a bad enough headache as it is.”
Ella sighed. “Fine. So, why did you leave so early?”
“That dick from the restaurant was hassling me, and I was tired.”
“The city wanker?”
“That’s the one. I wish I’d just poured the contents of the ice bucket over him after he’d paid the bill, they were just so pissed up and loud I’m sure all the other customers would have thanked me.”
“At least a guy like that wouldn’t use you.”
“Just fuck me you mean?”
“You know what I mean, at least you’d know he wanted your body and not your money.”
“Ella, I can’t believe you just said that. He was a complete slime-ball.” She shuddered. “Can you imagine him slobbering and pawing all over you?”
“No, I can’t believe I said it really.” Ella sighed. “But those down and out guys you keep flirting with just screw you around.”
“I like being screwed.”
She laughed. “You know what I mean. You pay for everything, they get the high life, then—”
“Then I dump them, if they really try it on.” The only time she’d really got burned was with the guy who’d managed to nick her credit card and run up a mega bill before it had even occurred to her that it could be him. And she wasn’t falling for that one again. She had thought there was something a bit shifty about him, but the way he’d pinned her to the bed and made her do exactly what he wanted had turned her on something rotten. He’d been rough and he’d talked dirty, telling her just what he was going to do to her. Her body started to liquefy just at the thought. Nice. Well, it had been for a while. Until the novelty had worn off and he’d stuck his grubby fingers in her purse.
“But don’t you want a nice guy, one you’re not looking for an excuse to dump?”
“No, Ella. Now stop sounding like grumpy old Alfie. When I’m ready to give up on life and settle down with some rich namby-pamby mummy’s boy and breed, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Really?”
“Don’t hold your breath though, it could be a one way trip to asphyxiation.”
Ella shook her head. “I give up. Are we supposed to be working?”
“Yeah.” Georgie picked up the sheet of paper that was on the sofa at the side of her. “Finding a location for this shoot, and a list of models. I mean, what is it about the great outdoors, what’s wrong with a nice city shoot?”
“For country stuff?” Ella giggled.
“But it isn’t proper country stuff is it? It’s country stuff for city people so they can pretend they’re having a relaxing time. Not that the country is relaxing. Latte and shoe shopping sounds a much better deal to me.”
“Says the country girl.”
“Reformed.” She stared blankly at the sheet of paper. “And can you honestly think of a male model we’ve used recently who looks rugged? He’s even put ‘modern day John Wayne’ in brackets after it. Good job it’s in fucking pencil then I can rub it out, I mean, what the hell does that mean?”
“Rugged.” Ella wriggled and settled deeper into the cushions. “A real man, with abs and muscles and… how about your biker boy?”
“Jake? Piss off, I am not asking Jake. Stop looking at me like that. No. No way, and he’s not a model.”
“But Toby doesn’t want a model, he wants a real man. A bad boy, and he knows you’re the expert.”
“Will you stop keeping saying real like you’re saying alien.”
“It would give you a chance to see him again, you know you want to.”
“No, I don’t. You can’t even look me in the face when you say it, wimp.”
“Where does he live? Have you got his number?”
“How should I know where he lives? You’re sounding like catty Carol now.”
Ella didn’t rise to the bait. “You’ve got a pic? We can flash it around town, we’ll soon root him out.”
“He’s not a fox gone to earth.”
“People will know him if he’s half as sexy as you say, well the girls will anyway.”
“You’re beginning to sound like a stalker, and no I haven’t got a photo. Was I supposed to shout ‘smile’ while he was shagging my brains out on a motorbike?” Georgie closed her eyes. Let’s face it, he was exactly what Toby was after. A dark, brooding figure in the background. A guy who’d look sexy in torn dirty jeans and a T-shirt in a way that none of the models they could afford would look. She didn’t want to see him again. He’d given her the orgasm of a lifetime, but hey, how much of that was down to a few drinks and the thrum of the engine? No, she definitely didn’t want to see him again. But, if they used him on the shoot he would just be a hired hand. He wouldn’t get a chance to wind her up and be rude to her. Not that he’d been outright rude, just courteous in a rude way that got under her skin.
“So, what is it with you and this Jake? Did you snog behind the bike sheds at school or something?”
“No.” More’s the pity, except I was a dull little mouse back then. “We were at the same school but we might as well have been on different planets.” For all the notice he took, except he did remember me, which is a weird one. “He was one of the bad boys and I was one of the good girls.”
“Yeah.” Ella laughed. “Sure you were.”
But she had been. She’d worked hard, been happy. Until her parents had split up, and she’d been shipped off to a crappy boarding school in the back of beyond.
“Okay, maybe I wasn’t that good.” She forced a grin onto her stiff face. Ella didn’t know what her life had been like. Ella only knew the person she’d turned herself into. The girl who knew what she wanted and went out and got it. On her own. With as many thrills and spills crammed in along the way as she could manage. “But Jake was definitely bad. I didn’t recognise him at first, it was a long time ago. And he definitely didn’t have a big beast like that ready to be unleashed when we were at school.”
“You are so rude. So?”
“So, what?”
“Is he the real deal? Are you going to go dig him out so we can all have a look?”
“I don’t know.” She nibbled the side of her nail.
“I’m sure Toby will sort something out if
