by Anne Styles
'You realize Charlie is trying to lure you into his bed?' he snapped. 'Are you sure he didn't try anything in New York?'
'No, he damn well didn't! And I would've said no if he had! Stop being silly, Nick. I'll take them off if they upset you so much.'
'No, leave them,' he relented. 'They do go beautifully with that dress.' He had to admit, reluctantly, that Charles had very good taste, even though he resented it. 'It's important that you look your best for Seth,' he added placatingly.
'Between you and Charles I feel like a dressed up doll!' she complained. 'All you ever want to do is show me off!' Nick seized her by her shoulders and shook her. 'I want you to meet Seth, amongst others, looking as beautiful as you do now.'
'I'm sorry. Nick.' She leant against him. 'I'm used to doing my own thing, I'm not used to all this dressing up and social stuff.' 'Well, you had better get used to it! This is going to be your life from now on.' He kissed her gently. 'I love you, Sarah. I want the best for you.' Sarah felt trapped. Painted and unreal. But her body stirred at his touch, then, and her qualms were put aside.
'I won't let you down, darling, I promise,' she said con-tritely. She finished her hair as Nick tied his bow tie and slipped into his dinner jacket.
'In that dress,' he commented as she stood up, 'I think you'd better be careful how you sit down!' The white silk dress was only held together at the sides with thin lacing. They had bought it that afternoon in Monte Carlo. On anyone else it could have looked tacky; on Sarah's beautiful body it was sensational. Nick was jealously aware of all the men's eyes on her as they had a drink in the bar. It made him want her all the more, and he drove up to Cap Ferrat with his hand on her thigh most of the time, feeling like schoolboy with his first date.
Seth's villa was the grand, electronic-gates type, with security guards prowling the grounds with very fierce dogs. Nick casually announced his identity, with the ease of a frequent visitor, and zoomed through the gates.
Their host seemed delighted to see him, and studied Sarah carefully as he greeted her. 'You're very welcome, honey,' he replied to her greeting. 'Now come and meet everyone.' 'Everyone' included a world-famous Hollywood star and his wife, who lived next door, an archduke and duchess and a Parisian dress-designer with his boy-friend. The designer eyed Sarah's dress and smiled. 'You have very good taste, Mademoiselle. That's from my new range!'
'And you are very clever, Monsieur.' Sarah smiled back at him and, despite his glaring boyfriend, he was hers for the night.
With a casual confidence Nick left her to it, and she charmed them all. It was Charles's New York party all over again - except this time she had Nick to turn to, and his smiling eyes on her when she needed reassurance, where Charles had calmly left her to cope while he talked endless business.
They dined on the terrace overlooking the sea, shaded by the tall cypress trees. The banks of candles flattered the women's faces as music from a string quartet floated over the still, warm summer evening. It was so over the top that Sarah, from the safe haven of her youth, wanted to laugh. But she concentrated on not letting Nick down and on flattering Seth, knowing, as she did so, that the men's eyes were on her body all evening. Nick was putting her on display, she knew, and though she hated it she knew it had to be done if her ambitions were to be realized.
'Come and join us on the yacht tomorrow,' Seth invited as they made their farewells. 'Eleven at the quay in Monte?'
'Love to,' said Nick, his hand flexing in Sarah's, warning her.
'Damn!' he said as he drove back to Beaulieu. 'Last thing I wanted!'
'Hush - remember it's be nice to Seth week,' Sarah laughed. 'I'll wear my new bikini!'
'I want you to myself, not displayed to that randy lot for a second occasion,' he grumbled.
'You have me every night. Make the most of it!' she told him. 'I intend to.' This time she didn't suffer the frustrations she'd had in New York. Nick was with her, loving her, fulfilling every last craving her body had for him.
He lay beside her later, watching her sleep, arms thrown above her head, her hair spread on the pillow a warm gleam in the moonlight, and wondered again what the hell he was doing. Their legs were still entangled after their lovemaking, and he was loath to move, though it made sleep impossible for him. When he touched her, she moved towards him, and he responded just as quickly to her. Even asleep, she was able to rouse him. Her power over him was beginning to frighten him, yet he knew there was little now that would persuade him to give her up.
* * *
Sarah was as good as her word next day, taking with her the new swimsuits she had bought in New York. 'With my own money!' she pointed out firmly to Nick, and delighted Seth and his friends, when they anchored the yacht in a quiet bay, by diving off the side into the sea.
Seth was worried about his potential investment. 'Is she safe?' he asked as Sarah waved to them.
'With the training she's had, I'd trust her with my life in the water,' Nick assured him. 'Come on, Seth, don't let her show you up!' Seth, only ten years older than Nick, was into the Califomian healthy body regime, but even so climbed down the ladder into the water. Nick laughed, and dived after Sarah.
Of the party on board the yacht only the American actor and four pretty girls stayed on the boat. He preferred to keep his toupee dry, and the girls were definitely not swimmers. Sarah found herself playing water polo with a darkly handsome Italian film idol and three executives from Seth's LA office. Vito almost put Nick's looks in the shade, she thought fleetingly, before Vito manhandled her away from the ball with exploring hands. Quite calmly, she ducked him, and left him spluttering with fury. She was a far better swimmer and evaded him with ease after that.
Seth roared with laughter. 'I see what you mean. Nick!' he commented, cheerfully. Luckily, Vito was an old friend of Nick's.
'I need a few minutes on my hair,' Sarah confided to Nick as they went back on board. 'Especially with those girls around. They're so pretty.' Nick looked at the four girls sunbathing on the deck and shrugged dismissively.
'Don't worry about them, they're nothing - dessert, more than likely!' He turned to Seth. 'We'll be a few minutes, Seth,' he called, and led Sarah along the passageway to the cabin they had changed in.
She gave a shriek of amazement as he opened a door in it. 'It's got a real bathroom!' she cried staring at the marble-faced shower and its gold fittings. On Peter's boat there was one basin, and a loo which needed pumping.
'This is a billionaire's pad,' Nick reminded her, pushing her under the shower. 'You should see the main stateroom - it's all mirrors and concealed cameras! I'll get Seth or Miriam to show it to you.' 'Is Miriam his wife?'
'Good God, no! Well, not yet, but she's working on it!' Nick laughed. 'He calls her his secretary. You'll see her at lunch. He divorced his third wife some time ago.' Sarah dried her hair, and Nick made her leave it loose, as she had worn it up the previous evening and when they had arrived. With hardly any make-up, and a vivid sarong tied round her hips, she was a startling contrast to the other girls. Nick was quite aware that the crotch of Vito's shorts was bulging as he stared at her with unconcealed lust.
'Reminds me of Grace,' Seth said reflectively to Nick as Sarah took a drink.
'Grace who?' asked Sarah, interested.
"There was only ever one Grace in this area, honey!' Seth told her. 'And don't you ever cut that hair!' It blew gently in the breeze, looking good, but irritating Sarah. To everyone's amusement, she tied it back with a serviette in desperation, until they had finished eating. Lobster, she decided, could become her favourite meal.
Nick and Seth talked business all through the meal, and got up to continue in the saloon afterwards.
'Come and join us, Sarah?' Vito invited, indicating the loungers laid out under the awning where the girls were already spread out. But Nick moved swiftly. He knew what Vito had in mind. Not so long ago he would have happily joined him in taking the girls to a cabin for a pleasant afternoon, now the thought revolted him.
By the time they had finished, and they went back on deck for tea, everyone except Miriam and Rex, the American actor, had disappeared. 'Siesta!' Miriam said smiling at Seth, who laughed knowingly.
'Saved from a fate worse than death.' He winked at Sarah.
'Oh, I'd have made one too many,' Sarah told him innocently.
'That's never worried Vito!' Nick remarked. 'Not since I've known him! I think two at a time is his speciality!' Sarah stared at him for a moment, then wisely left it alone. It was all beyond her. Even Nick seemed different, and rather frightening in this elite company. They were amongst the top people in their field, and all of them respected him for his expertise – even Seth bowed to his demands, she had discovered. Nick was as comfortable with them all as he was in Charles's aristocratic world, but she was still curious about his remarks concerning Vito.
'How do you know Vito likes two at a time?' she finally had to ask as he drove back to the hotel.
Nick laughed. 'Your nosey questions will get you into real trouble one of these days! Because I've helped him to try it, Miss, that's why!'
'I bet Diana wasn't there.' Sarah was shocked rigid and trying to cover it up.
'I don't ask for trouble, and it was a few years ago.' He smiled at her effort to appear cool. 'Don't worry, I told you, and Vito. I don't share, not now. You belong to me, and me alone.'
'Oh, yeah?'
'Quite definitely! Now what would you like to do this evening? Gamble at the casino, or go up to that Inn in the hills to eat?'
'The Inn, I'm starving! I can wear jeans and eat snails in garlic butter.'
'I give up1 OK then, I suppose as it's a holiday we might as well both reek of garlic as it's the only time we can.'
* * *
Arriving back at Heathrow on Wednesday afternoon, Sarah walked into a barrage of pressmen, screaming questions at her. Bewildered she looked frantically for Bill, and smiled with relief as he shouldered his way towards her.
Big and burly, he elbowed the photographers away and took her bags, hustling her out of the terminal. He'd left the car on a yellow line deliberately, so he could whisk her away fast.
'What the hell was that all about?' she demanded, panic-stricken as he swung into the chaotic traffic of the airport one-way system.
'Have you not read the papers for a few days?' he asked, and passed her a couple. 'Try the Unicorn. The boss is going to love it!' Sarah opened the paper and stared in horror. 'SEXY SARAH STEPS out!' screamed the banner headline on the inside page, above pictures of her with Charles coming back from New York, and, more worryingly, with Nick. The large picture had been taken on set, presumably during a hot lunch-break, when she had discarded her dress, and they were laughing together as he bent close to her. It looked exactly what it had been, an intimate moment in a fraught day, and she wondered how they had achieved it when Nick had been so adamant that the Press were not to be allowed any-where near them.
To crown it all they had added in a still of her lying naked in the hay kissing James. Luckily it was a close-up, which must have been taken from the film stock, as it had been processed after the scene in the stable. There followed a great deal of lurid prose, insinuating that she had ditched her boyfriend in favour of a variety of older men. Someone on the unit had been at work.
Helena! And she had been good friends with Peter at one time. She knew then that they had to be the source, and her fury boiled to the surface. 'I'll kill him this time!' she swore as Bill finally reached her flat, to find the doorway swarming with reporters. 'Haven't you bastards got anything better to do?' she yelled at them as Bill escorted her inside and the doorman closed the door on them.
To her total relief, George was in her flat waiting for her. With a thankful sigh, Sarah fell into his arms and Bill left her a little more cheerfully.
'We'll go straight home,' he announced. 'For a day or two anyway. You can't stay here. I've packed a bag for you. Leave those.'
'I'll just make a couple of phone calls,' Sarah said quickly, and went into the bedroom to call Oscar.
'Don't worry,' he told her blithely. 'They'll be after someone else tomorrow. Just stay out of sight for a day or two and learn that Secret Agent script. Rehearsals start on Monday. There's no time to worry about the Unicorn. He clearly didn't know the rumours about her and Nick were true, and she didn't enlighten him. Nick's phone was unavailable, and as he was driving back to England he was totally out of touch any other way. Unhappily, she followed George out of the back entrance of the flats to his car.
'So what have you been up to?' he demanded. 'And where have you been? Filming finished a week ago.' Sarah didn't lie to George, at least not completely.
'I went to Monte Carlo with Nick, to meet a producer for a new film, and the rest of it is my business, George!' Gaily she changed the subject as she told him about Seth's dinner party guests and the day on the yacht, which amused him nearly all the way to Guildford. That gossip helped with Maggie too, since she was a very straight lady, and none too thrilled at having her sister-in-law spread in a naked embrace across a newspaper.
'Wait till you see the film, Maggie,' sighed Sarah. 'There'll be a damn sight more of me than that on display!' She produced the pretty dresses she had bought for their daughter Becky in New York and Monte Carlo, which appeased Maggie slightly, then settled down to an evening of playing with Becky and keeping the peace.
* * *
Nick went straight to his office from Dover and got in just after Jane arrived. Having driven overnight, with just a couple of hours' snatched sleep, he was not in the best of moods, and Jane wisely kept quiet and made coffee while he changed and shaved.
'Diana's not going to like this,' she warned him then, as she put the coffee in front of him along with the newspaper cuttings. 'And neither are you!' She was right.
His language was fairly ripe when he had read them. They were getting at him through Sarah, he could see that, and he was furious.
'If we'd known where you were, it would have helped.' Jane rebuked. 'David and Julia did their best, but we couldn't find you or Sarah - or James come to that. They wanted shots of the nude scenes, but obviously we said no.'
'That's the last thing those beggars are getting!' Nick roared, and picked up the phone. 'Sandy, get me Max Moreton!'
'Nicholas, dear, how nice to hear from you,' Max oozed down the phone. 'We've been looking for you for days. Where were you?' Nick ignored the false pleasantries.
'What the hell are you trying to do to Sarah Campbell?'
'Your little girlfriend?'
'Max, let's get one thing straight - she is not my girlfriend. When that photograph was taken we were on the set surrounded by dozens of people, which you conveniently don't show.'
'Oh, just a little journalistic licence old boy,' Max said, and laughed. 'You should know that by now! It was unfortunate, though, that we didn't get pictures in the garden at Hastings Court that night.' Nick went white.
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'A couple of months ago? Surely you remember. Nick?' Max chuckled. 'One of my lads watched you. . . how can I put it delicately? . . . getting your leg over the lovely Miss Campbell? Dear me, Nicholas, what would all those little boys and girls think about their heroine then?'
'Print that and I'll sue you for every penny!' Nick gasped furiously. It was two against one and he knew it. If they'd had any proof they would have published weeks ago.
'I won't print anything - yet,' Max said. 'But I'll get you in the end. Grey,' he warned. 'This is just for starters. It's only a pity that pretty little girl will have to go down with you!' To come from the bliss of France into this was about all Nick needed, and his promised weekend at home with
Charlotte was going to be hell! He sat for long frantic minutes as his predicament sank in, and then he wearily reached for the phone again, to find Sarah.
Finally he located her in Guildford, and practically ordered her to stay where she was. He decided not to tell her about his conversation with Max. 'Oscar's right,' he comforted. 'Something else will distract them in a day or two, but it's a pity you can't tell them about the beating Peter gave you.' 'Why can't I?' she demanded.
'Because it will stir up a slanging match, and we can't afford that,' he sighed. 'They were right about one thing, though.' He was on his private line and there was no chance of being overheard. 'You're definitely one hell of a sexy lady!'
'Not frigid, then?'
'Certainly not frigid!' he laughed. 'And I'm going to hang onto you, never fear. Just keep your head down for a few days and refer any reporters to Jane or Julia in the office. I'm going to Oxford tonight, for the weekend, but I'll see you on Monday, I promise. Can you bear to eat in for a night or two?' The reminder that he was going home to Diana only added to her feeling of being let down with a bump, but she knew he was desperate to see Charlotte. Everything had been so perfect in France, and now suddenly reality was catching up with her.
For a day or so the reporters besieged George's home, and her, until she was on the point of hysteria as they dogged her footsteps everywhere she went. Then, as Oscar had predicted, a new scandal broke, and they all high-tailed it back to London.
CHAPTER 14
It was not easy going into rehearsals on Monday morning. At least the rehearsal block was in North Acton, and as Do or Dare did not rehearse Sarah was spared from bumping into Peter. Her problem became Patrick Lythgoe, the star of Secret Agent and a popular, somewhat conceited actor, whom she knew from way back at RADA. He greeted her with a leering 'Hi, sexy!' and it deteriorated from there.
Sarah could have tolerated him normally, but he was very jealous of her publicity, and lost no opportunity to let her know it.