I’m not one of them,’ Kate said firmly, hoping to make her escape.
‘You’re an unexpected bonus. And I mean to take advantage of it.’
‘But not of me,’ she told him vehemently.
‘That could be arranged. I’ll be leaving in about an hour’s time, be ready to go with me. Bring something with you to wear to the party, you can change at my apartment.’
‘No, I can’t, because I’m not even leaving the house with you, let alone going to your apartment.’ How dare he suggest such a thing to her!
He stood up in one lithe movement. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I should talk to James first before you say a definite no, he wants this part in my film pretty badly. The party tonight is being held by Matt Strange, he wants that part too.’
‘But I—– That’s—blackmail!’ she glared at him.
‘All I did was invite you to a party. Be at the front of the house in an hour, I don’t want to have to come looking for you.’ He left her to join a group of people on the other side of the pool, instantly becoming the centre of attention.
James touched her shoulder with one wet hand. ‘Why so deep in thought?’ He picked up a towel and began to dry his bronzed body. ‘Have you fallen for our enigmatic director too?’
‘No, I haven’t. I think he’s awful. Conceited and arrogant! He had the nerve to order me to go to a party with him tonight—I say ordered because he certainly didn’t give me any choice in the matter.’
‘Tonight?’ James frowned. ‘He isn’t staying here?.’
‘I would have thought that was obvious when he’s invited me to a party.’
‘All right, Kate,’ he sighed. ‘Just calm down. The man’s a damned nuisance. I expected to get him slightly inebriated, introduce him to a couple of nice girls, and then get his agreement to my playing the lead in his next film.’
Kate looked at him closely. ‘I thought the part was already yours?’
James slipped on a knitted blue top. ‘Matt Strange is after it too. But I want this part, Kate, I want it badly.’
‘I thought you said the script wasn’t bad. That doesn’t sound like the part of a lifetime to me.’
‘All an act, Kate. The part is brilliant. And I’d be good in it, I know I would. And I need this part, Damien never fails.’
‘I gathered that,’ she said dryly.
He grinned. ‘You’re in the minority as far as women go, they usually go down like ninepins. So where is he taking you?’
Kate’s eyes widened. ‘He isn’t taking me anywhere. I told him I wasn’t going.’
He bit his lip. ‘I wish you hadn’t done that.’
‘You can’t be serious, James. I don’t want to go to Matt Strange’s party. I don’t like him any more than I do Damien Savage,’ and she looked at him anxiously.
‘Look, Kate, I’m at the top of my profession now, as far as I can go without starring in a Damien Savage film. Most of his films are for an unlimited budget, he can do what he damn well pleases. And no matter what he does it’s always a smash hit. Anything new he tries and all the other film companies take it up too. I’m not getting any younger, and there won’t be too many more opportunities for me to play a part like this one.’
‘Thirty-eight isn’t old,’ she put in disgustedly.
‘It is to still be playing the hero. There’s too much young competition appearing on the scene, Matt Strange is only twenty-seven. Pretty soon I’ll start having character roles offered to me. Oh, I won’t mind, at least I’ll still be working. But they aren’t leading roles.’
She couldn’t miss the look of pleading in his eyes. She had never thought of his career in this light before, he always seemed to have so much money and be constantly surrounded by other television and film stars. The money could be easily explained, the St Justs had their own family fortune, and the so-called friends would fade away as fame did.
‘But he wants me to go to his apartment with him first,’ she told him desperately, seeing her chances of getting out of this becoming slimmer and slimmer. She loved her half-brother, and if her going to a party with the hated Damien Savage was going to help him in any way, then she would go, no matter what her own feelings were in the matter.
James pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘That can easily be got around,’ he said carelessly. ‘You can go to our apartment and meet him later.’
‘But I don’t like the man!’ Her plea was only half-hearted now, as she realised that James was really serious about her going out with Damien Savage. She wished she didn’t feel quite so much as if she were selling herself to further her brother’s career.
He smiled. ‘You’re only going to a party with him, you don’t have to like him for that.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘And how does the evening usually end for you and your date on these occasions?’ She saw his face flush knowingly. ‘Exactly,’ she told him dryly.
‘He won’t expect that of you on your first date. He won’t expect that of you at all, I won’t allow it!’
Kate had to laugh at his determined expression. ‘You can’t very well stop it a hundred miles away.’ All humour left her face. ‘But I think I should warn you that even though I may love you and want to help you, I am not prepared to go to bed with the arrogant Mr Savage to do it.’
‘You haven’t been asked yet,’ came the dry comment from behind them. ‘And there’s every chance you never will be.’
Kate blushingly turned to face Damien Savage, wondering just how much of the conversation he had heard, and what construction he had put on it. ‘This seems to be becoming a habit,’ she said shortly.
‘That’s right,’ he agreed unconcernedly. ‘And now that you’ve both declared your love for each other perhaps you would like to get some things together. I plan to be on my way in about fifteen minutes.’
Kate looked appealingly at James. ‘I—I haven’t said I’ll go with you.’
He looked at her brother too, arrogance in every line of his superb body. ‘Do you have any objections to my taking your—to my taking Miss Darwood to a party this evening?’
James evaded Kate’s pleading eyes. ‘Not if she wants to go.’
‘I—–’
‘She does,’ Damien Savage interrupted coolly. ‘I’ll return her to you some time tomorrow. I’ll also let you know about the part.’
That was a veiled threat if ever she had heard one, a threat that meant she had no choice but to go to her room and get the requested clothes. She did so with ill-grace, slamming about her bedroom throwing clothes uncaringly into the open suitcase on her bed. Why should she have to go out with someone she disliked? More to the point, why did he want to go out with her?
