me in return?’
A tremor ran through her. Warning bells were ringing somewhere deep inside her mind. ‘If it’s a success you could make a pretty good profit.’
‘A big if.’
Shannon couldn’t dispute that. But she guessed Devin would make certain that if anyone gained financially from the venture, he did.
She tilted her head at a defiant angle. ‘I can do it,’ she reiterated, trying to infuse all her certainty into the words.
‘You have great faith in yourself.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I do.’
Something complicated flickered across his face. ‘I remember those words,’ he said softly. ‘But it didn’t take you long to forget them.’
For a moment she was lost. Then she flushed. ‘That isn’t true! And it has nothing to do with this. We’re talking about a deal here, a business deal.’
‘You wouldn’t have come to me if we hadn’t had a personal relationship.’
She said fervently, ‘Believe me, if I’d known anyone else who could afford to help me I’d have gone to them first.’
A gleam entered the dark eyes. ‘So I’m a last resort.’
Had she offended him? Bad tactics. Trying to sound humble, she said, ‘Put that way, it sounds like an insult. I didn’t mean it to be. I just don’t like asking favours…of anyone.’
‘Especially me.’ His face as usual revealed little of what he was thinking.
‘I know we parted in anger, but after three years surely we can behave like civilised adults.’
Devin smiled, a slight, contained movement of his beautiful masculine mouth. ‘If you can, I can.’
‘Then will you think about this?’ Shannon hoped she didn’t sound as if she were begging. Trying for a more businesslike manner, she offered, ‘I can draw up a formal proposal if you like, draft a contract.’
‘I’d prefer my own lawyer to do that, I think.’
‘Then you will think about it?’ What the hell if she was begging? She would get down on her knees if necessary.
‘I don’t suppose you have any collateral to offer,’ he asked, ‘or guarantees?’
Shannon chewed on her lower lip. ‘No. I have a car, but my flat’s rented. I spent everything I had getting the script pulled together and hustling for grants or commercial backing.’
‘I see.’ He was looking at her in a speculative way that made her uneasy. Maybe he enjoyed watching her squirm.
‘Look,’ she said, ‘if you’re stringing me along I wish you’d just tell me it’s no go. I’ll find someone else…somehow.’
‘Don’t be so hasty. I haven’t said no.’
‘But you’re not saying yes!’
‘I need a little time to consider your…proposition. And maybe,’ he added slowly, ‘I have one of my own.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘How badly do you want this money?’
‘You know I’m desperate. You said so yourself.’
He seemed to be looking through her rather than at her. She wished she knew what he was thinking, but Devin had never been easy to read. His emotions were hidden behind his classic, slightly austere features.
At last he spoke. ‘I’ll give you the money, but there’s a condition.’
About to say, Anything! Shannon curbed the rash impulse. ‘As long as it’s not creative control over the project I can probably meet it.’
‘Oh, you can meet it all right. All you need to do is say yes.’
‘Yes to what? If you want your name in the credits I can bill you as co-producer if you like.’
A strange, unsettling smile lurked on his mouth. ‘Not that.’
Shannon shook her head. ‘Then what do you want?’
For a second or so he kept her on tenterhooks. Then he said, without any change in inflection, ‘I want you, Shannon.’
CHAPTER THREE
SHANNON stared, the significance of the words sinking in. ‘You don’t mean…’
Surely he wasn’t suggesting what she thought he was.
Devin said, in that same level, apparently reasonable tone, ‘I mean exactly what I said. Do you have a problem?’
It was a moment before her voice would work, and when it did it was higher and shriller than she’d intended it to be.
‘Damn right I have a problem! You can’t ask me to agree to that!’
‘I can ask you to do anything I please.’ He thrust both hands into his pockets and rocked back slightly on his heels, his eyes focused on her face. ‘I can’t compel you to agree, of course. The choice is entirely yours.’
She stood up, her knees shaking. ‘If this is a joke, you know what you can do with it.’
‘You surely know me better than that.’
She gathered up her bag, straightened and stared at him with angry, indignant eyes. ‘You can’t possibly expect me to treat this seriously.’
Devin shrugged. ‘Take it or leave it.’
Of course she couldn’t take it. Nobody in their right mind would accept such a barbarous bargain. ‘You know I won’t!’ she snapped.
‘What’s to stop you?’ His voice turning low and coaxing, he said, ‘I’ve missed you, Shannon. I’ve missed…this.’
He reached for her, in almost leisurely fashion, and to her later shame and despair she scarcely resisted when he drew her into his arms. One hand still clutching her purse, she instinctively raised her arms, checking herself before they went around him.
But when his mouth found hers, with a remembered confident persuasion, her heart tumbled over, and within moments her lips opened beneath his.
It was a kiss of surprising gentleness, seductive and slow but very thorough. Her eyes fluttered closed, the dancing harbour lights seeming imprinted on her lids, and she could have sworn the room was revolving in a sensuous waltz.
When Devin relinquished her mouth and she opened her eyes in a dazed stare, she saw him looking back at her with a questioning and grave expression. His eyes glittered and there was colour in his lean cheeks, the underlying bones appearing more prominent. ‘Looks like I’m not the only one.’
He
