Damien Savage looked at the two of them impatiently. ‘What’s wrong now?’
James looked uncomfortable. ‘Kate would like you to drop her off at our apartment in town so that she can change.’
‘I’ve already said she can do that at my apartment.’
‘Yes, well—–’ James laughed nervously. ‘She would rather go to ours, and it isn’t that far from your own. You could drop her off and then pick her up on the way back.’
Damien sighed heavily. ‘If that’s what the lady wants.’
She wanted to stay here, but he was making that impossible. ‘I do,’ she told him firmly.
‘Right.’ Damien put out his hand to James, giving the proffered hand a firm shake. ‘Thanks for the hospitality, James. See you tomorrow some time.’
‘Yes—right. Fine. Well, have a nice time this evening.’ James looked at Kate anxiously, trying to find some sign of softening towards him in her rigidly held features, and finding none. ‘Kate?’
She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. ‘Goodbye, James.’ There was no warmth for him in her voice either.
‘Come on,’ Damien Savage said impatiently. ‘I don’t have time to waste.’
‘So you’ve already said,’ she returned tartly.
He frowned his displeasure at her tone before marching through the house and out to his car parked on the forecourt. He didn’t wait to see if Kate followed him, but she knew he expected it, and with a resigned shrug in James’ direction she did so. The car was as impressive as the man, a black Lotus Elan. She knew the make of car because James had thought of buying one last year before finally settling for a Ferrari.
After stowing her small case in the back of the car he climbed in beside her, settling back comfortably in the low seat. ‘I thought we were never going to get away!’
Kate answered less sharply than she would have done normally, all too much aware of how close they were in the compact interior of the car. ‘Why did you come in the first place if you felt that way?’
‘I had to see James. Besides,’ he added tauntingly, ‘I may not have met you if I hadn’t.’
‘And I’m sure you would have been devastated.’ She admired the way he handled the car, going fast but always in complete control of the vehicle, not a movement wasted.
He gave a grin and she was amazed at how much less forbidding it made him, and younger, much younger. But then he couldn’t be all that old, mid thirties at most. ‘I doubt I would have been devastated, a little disappointed, maybe, but nothing so extreme as devastation. I’ve seen you before, of course.’
Her brown eyes widened. ‘You have?’
‘Mm,’ he looked thoughtful, his strong tanned hands manoeuvring the car without need for concentration, almost as if the vehicle were a part of the man himself. ‘Usually on the news, getting on or off a plane with James,’ he continued. ‘It’s amazing we’ve never met before.’
Kate looked uninterestedly out of the window. ‘Amazing isn’t quite the word I would use.’
‘I should think lucky fits in more with your idea of things.’ He glanced sideways at her. ‘James must want this part pretty badly to allow me to walk off with his girl.’
‘I’m not his girl!’ she snapped.
‘You’re hardly more than that. Eighteen years of age!’ he said with disgust.
‘Nearly nineteen,’ she put in resentfully.
‘How nearly nineteen?’
‘Well, I—In eight months’ time!’
‘Like I said, eighteen years of age. And already you have someone like James St Just in love with you. You have me intrigued too, if that’s any consolation to you.’
‘It isn’t,’ she said firmly.
‘Look, kid, the James St Justs of this world will only use you. You’d be better off, with people of your own age, people who don’t want you for what they can get.’
She glared at him angrily. ‘Is that why I’ve been forced to come with you?’
‘I didn’t force you. If there was any forcing done it was by James. I merely requested that you come with me.’
‘Requested!’ she scoffed. ‘You blackmailed me.’
His green eyes narrowed. ‘And how did I do that?’
‘You—you threatened me.’
‘I did no such thing,’ he denied mildly.
‘Well, you threatened James, then,’ she blustered. ‘You more or less said that if I didn’t accompany you to this party you’d give the part to Matt Strange, the part James wants.’
‘My dear girl—–’
‘I’m not your dear anything,’ she interrupted.
‘My dear girl,’ he continued as though she hadn’t rudely interrupted him, ‘if I intended giving Matt Strange that part then believe me he’d get it, no matter what bribe James put in front of me. Even if you are the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in years.’
‘Then you don’t intend giving Matt Strange the part?’
He shook his head. ‘No, James is definitely right for it, he knows it and I know it.’
‘Then why—–’
‘Why the supposed indecision?’ he finished for her. ‘I never believe in letting my actors become too sure of themselves, and a little healthy competition does them no harm at all.’
‘So you’ve already decided to give James the part?’ she demanded, a feeling of indignation beginning to well up inside her.
Damien Savage nodded. ‘That’s right.’
‘So I have no need to be here really?’ Her fiery temper was definitely beginning to take over now.
The look in his eyes could only be described as intimate. ‘I wouldn’t say that.’
‘Well, I would!’ Kate turned fully in her seat to glare at him. ‘You have a damned nerve! You’re like a puppeteer, you pull the strings and everyone moves as you tell them to. I don’t like you, Mr Savage, I don’t like you at all.’
‘I know,’ he admitted calmly. ‘I think that’s half your attraction to me.’
‘I don’t want you to find me attractive. I—–’ She suddenly noticed that he had pulled the car to a halt. She looked about her dazedly. This was an apartment block, but it certainly wasn’t where she and James had their apartment. ‘Where are we?’
He
