miles and drink filtered urine? ‘Has he seen any of mine?’
Clearly not. The production assistant swept on without comment.
‘OK...well, first up we cover equipment, clothing, that kind of thing. Jack will work through your kit list with you. The camera will be rolling, just crack on as normal and soon you’ll forget it’s even there. You must be used to it anyway on your own show. We’ll edit and cut as necessary, quick turnaround to make the most of the public interest. Should be able to run it in the usual Miss Knightsbridge prime-time slot next week.’
The camera crew assumed positions and a hand signal from the director had the filming kick in.
‘Miss Knightsbridge is much more planned than this,’ Evie said, glancing around the freezing-cold bare brickwork of the draughty room. ‘It’s not exactly scripted but all the locations and events are worked out beforehand. If things get a bit stilted the producer throws in a controversial topic for us all to discuss, to help things get heated. Essentially the producers stir it up.’
Her own life was really miles away from the drama it came across as on TV, not that she’d be giving that fact away. Cup-of-cocoa-quiet-life Evie was hardly likely to be of any more interest to the viewers of this show than those of her own. No way. She intended to stick to the tried and tested brash persona that had won her the prospect of an independent future before she’d stuffed it all up.
‘Is that why you made that comment about me?’ Jack said, walking in. Her stomach gave a slow flip, clearly nerves at what was to come. He was fully kitted out in survival wear. Walking boots, hard-wearing trousers like her own hideous ones, jacket that looked as if it was made from a duvet. He looked as if he were about to shout a gang of squaddies through an assault course. A twist of trepidation worked its way through her stomach at what exactly the next couple of days was likely to involve. ‘Because your show is a tissue of lies you assumed mine is too?’
His very first words on camera and he’d made sure they referenced her faux pas. Not even so much as a ‘welcome to the show’. She watched him sorting through a pile of kit. He barely even glanced in her direction, clearly intending to be true to last night’s word, doing her no favours. She shook her head a little to clear it, feeling the camera on her, annoyed with herself for trying to get him onside the previous evening. Why the hell did she need his help? Lack of encouragement wasn’t exactly new to her—she’d spent half her life self-motivating to counteract her father’s indifference. She’d get through this hideous experience on her own. Chester’s advice flashed through her mind and she latched onto it grimly: grovel, act contrite and come across as a game-for-anything fish out of water, sweetie. The public will lap it up. Here was her chance to redeem herself.
‘I made that comment without thinking about the consequences,’ she said. She spun round to face the camera head-on. Might as well get the apology out of the way upfront. ‘None of it was true,’ she said clearly to the camera. ‘I was stressed. It was taken out of context. I didn’t make it to get at you.’ She stole a look at Jack. He was watching her intently and she knew this was the part where to really regain the upper hand she should be giving a proper explanation but she simply couldn’t. She wasn’t about to discuss her skewed relationship with her father, not with the camera picking up every stupid nuance.
Jack kept watching her as she turned away from the camera, the blonde hair tied back, tendrils escaping and curling around her fine-boned face. His eyes strayed to the softness of her mouth before he could stop them. The full lower lip was delectable and a rush of heat sparked in his veins. He snapped his gaze away and focused hard on the kit list in front of him. He had no time for women in his life and that went double for high-maintenance ones like her. Perhaps if he put a conscious mental effort in, his body might actually get that message instead of being distracted by her.
Last night had been about playing him, about trying to charm him into making her life easier, the way she’d undoubtedly done with everyone throughout her life when things didn’t go her way. He’d lost out to that kind of behaviour in the past. He certainly wouldn’t be putting his trust in a TV personality with their own publicity agenda again any time soon. The way she looked was completely irrelevant.
He strengthened his resolve. After last night’s attempts to manipulate him, he had the measure of her. There would be no making this easy on her, no special concessions. She was just like any other course attendee, she just happened to make a duvet jacket look sexy for once.
The camera continued to roll regardless and from the corner of his eye Jack clocked her rucksack with its gold pattern and pink straps as she hefted it onto the trestle table. She’d never make it through the weekend without walking out. There was absolutely no way.
‘First rule of survival,’ he said, sticking to the remit of the TV show. ‘Blend in. Just how far do you think you’d get in hostile territory with that thing?’ He nodded at the bag. ‘You might as well have a neon flashing arrow pointing at your head.’
‘It’s designer,’ she said, in incredulous tones, as if that gave the wearer the power of invisibility.
He strode across the sparse and draughty room, pulled a sturdy camouflage-green backpack from the stack of kit near the door and threw it to her. She caught it on reflex to stop it hitting her in the chops. It was identical to his own. He could see from the expression on her face that she loathed it on sight.
He waited expectantly until she made an irritated noise and unzipped her bulging designer rucksack. The kit list he’d provided had included no provision whatsoever for personal items. Left to him and she’d barely be allowed a toothbrush, which was really rather the point. Roughing it rather lost its mojo when you let your candidates pack luxury items.
He watched as she proceeded to remove a ludicrous selection of cosmetic items and unsuitable clothing from the rucksack, which had probably cost more than his car. Was she for real?
‘Where did you think you were going?’ he couldn’t help saying. ‘To lie by a pool in the Caribbean? You don’t need a ton of designer stuff. No one does.’
‘This isn’t designer stuff.’ She shrugged. ‘Except for the rucksack. It’s just everyday hygiene stuff. Lip balm, sunblock... You should be wearing Factor twenty-five, you spend so much time outdoors, or you’ll look like a pensioner by the time you’re fifty.’ She pointed at him with the tube to press her point.
He stared at her.
‘You can put it all back in your designer rucksack and hand it over to the team,’ he said. ‘You’ll get it back when you return to base. The standard-issue kit is inside the green backpack.’
She unzipped the standard-issue backpack and peered into it.
‘What the hell is this?’
He winked at her and she tried to ignore the fact that when he smiled his green eyes took on a hint of wicked melt because it made her stomach go soft. Why couldn’t he have looked like some gnarly mountain man, perhaps with a beard big enough for a rodent to live in? It would make concentration on the task at hand much easier without her stomach in knots. Then again, he surely wouldn’t be such a darling of the public if he looked like some hairy hillbilly.
‘Torch, water bottle, purification tablets, matches, basic food rations... This is the kit I issue to all attendees of my survival course. Since you’ve single-handedly sabotaged my very successful business, I thought we’d use this weekend to showcase it and drum up some interest for the special kids’ survival courses I’m about to launch. Essentially, you’re trying out one of my courses and you owe me. So hand over the lip balm and let’s
