was who she was. Comparisons might hurt her feelings, but they wouldn’t actually damage her physically. She just needed to get on with her life and hope the fuss eventually died down. Maybe she could take a sleeping bag to the theatre and camp there until this all blew over. The security guys had always been really kind to her.
Through the open door she could hear Nathaniel’s cultured drawl as he issued a string of commands down the phone.
He found her sexy.
Gripped by a fit of shivering, Katie rubbed her hands up her arms.
‘Nathaniel Wolfe, screen god and global sex symbol.’
Did he really find her sexy? She’d convinced herself that the chemistry was all wishful thinking on her part….
‘Have you got your passport?’ He was standing in the doorway, and the way he watched her with those slanting blue eyes made it impossible to think of anything but sex. Wild, crazy, animal sex—the sort she’d read about but never experienced.
Seriously unsettled, Katie turned away. ‘I don’t need my passport. I’m going to go straight to the theatre and lock myself in the wardrobe department. They have security there, and—’
‘You’re not going back to the theatre.’
‘Of course I’m going back to the theatre. I have a job to do.’
‘I walked out on the opening night. The play has closed.’ He delivered the news bluntly and she felt her knees wobble.
Not her job.
No.
She had a plan. She had a dream.
‘You’re s-saying I’ve lost my job?’
‘Yes, and that’s my fault,’ Nathaniel growled, ‘and if you could try not to look as though I’ve just killed your favourite pet, I’d appreciate it because right now we have to get out of here and it isn’t going to help to be weighed down with guilt and recrimination.’
‘I—I’ve really lost my job?’
‘Yes.’ The word hissed through his teeth. ‘But I’ll fix it.’
‘How? Are you going to go back on that stage?’
‘No.’
‘Then you can’t fix it.’ The implications thudded home. ‘This play was an important part of my career plan. I was going to get noticed. It was the first rung of the ladder …’
‘There are other plays—’
‘Do you know how many people applied for that job?’ Panic drove her voice up an octave. ‘Eight hundred! And it’s the same for every job. You have no idea what it’s like—’
‘I’ll give you access to my address book.’
‘I don’t want to make it because of who I know.’
‘Then you’re being naïve,’ he said coldly, ‘because that’s what success in this business is all about.’
Trying to think straight, Katie shook her head stub bornly. ‘Apart from the fact I don’t have any money, I have a really important meeting today with a costume designer. It’s even more important now I’m jobless.’
Jobless. The word made her want to hyperventilate. She couldn’t afford to be jobless.
Nathaniel sighed. ‘What’s her name?’
‘Meredith Beynon.’
‘Never heard of her. She’ll do nothing for your career.’
‘But—’
‘What you need is an apprenticeship with one of the top costume designers. Have you heard of Alicia Brent?’
‘Of course. Everyone has. But she’s not going to talk to someone like me.’
‘She will if I tell her to. Good. That’s settled. Now, fetch your passport. We have to get out of here.’
Katie’s head was spinning. ‘You know Alicia Brent?’
‘Yes. And if it doesn’t work out with her, there are others.’ His voice had an edge to it. ‘Passport!’
Suddenly her future was hazy and terrifyingly unclear. A meeting with Alicia Brent wasn’t going to pay off her debts, was it? She needed work. ‘Where are you planning to go?’
‘A journalist-free zone. I need to lie low until the Sapphire ceremony. A deserted island. Sun, sea and se—’
‘I am not having sex with you.’
A ghost of a smile touched his mouth. ‘I was going to say seclusion, but sex sounds good to me. You talk when you’re awake and you talk in your sleep. It remains to be seen whether you talk during sex.’
CHAPTER FOUR
WHY the hell had he brought her with him?
At the time it had seemed the only way to make sure she didn’t talk to the press, but he was only now realising what her presence meant. He had company at a time when he wanted it least.
Not just company. He had Katie—a girl who believed that all would be right with the world providing you had someone with whom to share your problems. A girl who believed talking solved everything.
It was probably just punishment for dragging her into this mess.
She was furious with him.
He glanced at her tense profile, careful to reveal nothing of his own emotions.
‘You don’t have to look as though your world has come to an end,’ he ground out. ‘It was a small-time costume drama with second-rate actors. It would have been provincial and boring.’
‘It was another step up the ladder.’
‘How many steps does this ladder of yours have? You might want to think about taking two at a time or you’re never going to reach the top.’
‘Do you have to be sarcastic about everything?’
‘That play would not have progressed your career.’
‘I had some really original ideas for the costumes. My name would have been on the credits.’
‘Which three people would have seen. Anyway, you’d never have got the job.’
‘Thanks. So not only did you stop me going, but now you’re telling me I’m rubbish at my job.’ She turned her head deliberately and looked out of the window. ‘Just because I don’t work in Hollywood doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. I think you’re incredibly mean.’
‘Mean?’
