‘You made it okay, sweetheart,’ he drawled softly, but loud enough for the other couple to hear and speculate at his intimacy. ‘She’s such an independent lady,’ he turned to smile at Henry and Janice. ‘I offered to bring her out here tonight, but she insisted on driving herself.’ His arm moved about her shoulders in easy familiarity. ‘Didn’t I, honey?’ he taunted.
He had too, she knew now that this had been where he was inviting her. How he must have been laughing at her all day, just knowing that her refusal meant nothing, that he was going to see her anyway. She had the feeling that Rick Dalmont was moving in for the kill step by stealthy step—and she was slowly running out of fight!
‘Yes, Rick,’ she agreed dully, and her head started to pound.
‘Don’t feel too bad, honey,’ he grinned down at her as he sensed victory. ‘You can drive me home instead; I came by cab again.’
‘That seems to be a habit of yours,’ she said sharply.
‘Only when I know I have you to drive me home.’
She moved out of the arc of his arm, moving to kiss first Janice and then Henry on the cheek, handing to Janice the flowers that she had bought for her. ‘You forgot to mention that Rick would be here tonight,’ she looked at them both reproachfully.
‘We thought you’d come together,’ Henry dismissed.
She could guess the reason they had thought that only too well, Rick’s handiwork again. ‘Is anyone else coming?’ she asked brightly.
‘No, it’s just the four of us,’ Janice smiled. ‘I’ll just go and check on dinner.’
‘Are Peter and Susan asleep yet?’ Shanna asked.
‘If they are it will be the first time they ever have been before eight-thirty in the evening,’ her sister-in-law laughed softly. ‘I put them to bed at seven-thirty every night and they never go to sleep until at least nine o’clock,’ she explained to Rick.
‘They’re great kids,’ the doting father told him. ‘But I don’t know where they get their energy from.’
‘Certainly not from you,’ Shanna mocked her brother as he slouched in a chair.
‘Could I go with you to see them?’ Rick requested softly.
She turned to him in surprise. ‘Wouldn’t you rather stay and talk to Henry? I’m only going in to say goodnight to them.’
‘Would it disturb them if I came with you?’
‘Janice?’ she looked questioningly at the other woman.
Her sister-in-law shrugged. ‘They’ll probably welcome the diversion. No offence to you, Rick,’ she laughed, ‘but my children welcome any excuse to evade going to sleep.’
‘No offence taken,’ he grinned, suddenly looking boyish. ‘I used to do the same thing when I was a kid.’
‘It’s hardly the same thing,’ Shanna dismissed derisively.
He quirked dark brows. ‘Oh?’
‘I’m sure your nanny always gave in to you. Janice takes care of her children herself.’
‘My mother took care of me too,’ he said tautly.
‘Really?’
‘Yes—really,’ he bit out. ‘She grew up in a strict Spanish household, where the children were brought up by the family and not by strangers.’
‘Why don’t you take Rick upstairs with you?’ Henry broke the tension. ‘Otherwise dinner will be ready, and they’ll both be asleep afterwards.’
‘Would you like to come this way?’ Shanna invited stiffly, and the two of them walked up the stairs together in silence. ‘I’m sorry,’ she sighed as they reached Susan’s bedroom door, ‘I had no right to be rude about the way you were brought up.’ She put a hand to her temple. ‘I just didn’t expect to see you here tonight.’
‘I know,’ he said softly, moving her hand to replace it with his own, gently massaging her tension away. ‘And I didn’t tell you because I thought you would cancel.’
‘I probably would have done,’ she acknowledged wearily.
Rick sighed at the admission. ‘Does your head ache?’
‘Not really. I’m just tired.’
‘Again?’
‘It’s been another long day,’ she stiffened.
‘Mm,’ he nodded. ‘I had no idea being an editor of a magazine like Fashion Lady was so time-consuming. Do you usually eat lunch at your desk?’
‘Usually,’ she acknowledged abruptly.
‘Does Jane help you enough? It seems to me—’
‘I didn’t come here tonight to talk about work, Rick, but to forget about it for a few hours,’ she cut in firmly. ‘But just for the record, Jane does more than her fair share of the work. Now let’s go and see Peter and Susan before Janice calls us down for dinner.’
As Janice had predicted, both children welcomed this diversion to going to sleep, looking angelic with their newly washed golden hair and matching blue pyjamas. Rick was surprisingly good with them, not talking down to them as some adults did, but treating them as equals. He was even prevailed upon to read them another fairy-story before they tucked them up in bed.
Shanna bent over to kiss both children goodnight, not at all surprised when Susan and Peter demanded a kiss from Rick too. He accepted this as the privilege it was, wishing them a softly spoken goodnight before joining Shanna in the hallway.
‘They liked you,’ she told him on the way back to the lounge.
‘I liked them too,’ he said gruffly. ‘They’re beautiful children.’
‘Yes.’ She smiled, feeling more relaxed with him after spending time with the children.
He frowned down at her. ‘You never had children with Perry?’
She stiffened with the unexpectedness of the question. ‘There never seemed to be the time.’
‘Didn’t he like children?’
‘Very much,’ she frowned. ‘He always got on very well with Peter and Susan.’
‘Did you plan to have children with him?’
‘Yes,’ she said abruptly. ‘We discussed having them several times. It just—never happened.’
‘I’m glad.’
She gasped. ‘Why?’ she breathed.
‘Because I’m not sure I’m selfless enough to cope with your having another man’s child,’ he admitted reluctantly.
Shanna drew in a ragged breath. ‘You don’t have to cope with anything, not me or my non-existent child.’
‘Don’t I?’ Rick looked down at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. ‘I think I’ve underestimated you, Shanna Logan.’
She had no chance to answer him, as Janice announced dinner at that moment, and the four of them enjoyed a leisurely meal together. Rick was his usual charming self, and yet as the evening progressed she noticed he was quieter than usual, his conversation lacking the usual innuendoes for her, the easy familiarity with which he normally treated her now replaced by cool politeness; even the discussion about the changes in Fashion Lady was conducted in a businesslike way.
‘So Shanna finally got her way about that,’ said Henry when Rick told him of the introduction of a problem page.
‘Did she?’ Rick returned noncommittally, his gaze narrowed on her flushed and guilty face.
‘She suggested it herself at the beginning of the year,’ her brother explained guilelessly. ‘But I thought that Fashion Lady didn’t need one, that it—’
‘Got along okay without it,’ Rick finished in a slow drawl.
‘Exactly,’ Henry nodded, warming to his subject, not noticing the way Shanna was cringing as he progressed. ‘Shanna even had a survey taken, to see how the public felt about it.’
‘Really?’ Rick drawled, looking at Shanna with enigmatic eyes. ‘Where did you do your survey, Shanna?’
She looked back at him in stubborn silence, wishing she could have foreseen this conversation and averted it. It was true, she had put forward the idea of a problem page to Henry several months ago, and had done the same research on it then that Rick seemed to have done now—and Henry had turned it down without thought. It hadn’t been part of his policy.
‘Shanna?’ he
prompted now. ‘Rick was talking to you.’
‘Sorry,’ she blinked. ‘What was the question?’ she delayed.
‘Where did you do your survey?’ Rick answered her this time.
‘Central London,’ she murmured.
‘Sorry?’ he quirked dark brows.
‘Central London,’ she said more strongly. ‘It showed that the majority of the women we asked turn to the problem page first,’ she told him before he asked.
‘I see,’ he nodded.
Shanna was relieved when Henry changed the subject, although she doubted she had heard the last of it from Rick. Strangely enough he was silent on the drive back to his hotel, so she decided to tackle the problem herself.
‘The arguments I used today against the problem page were Henry’s,’ she told him quietly, driving him this time, with no protest from him, something she was sure he hadn’t noticed, since he seemed preoccupied with thoughts of his own. ‘The ones he used against me, I mean,’ she added.
‘So I gathered,’ Rick said dryly. ‘But you’re really in favour of the idea?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then maybe you wouldn’t mind interviewing some applicants for that job too? I was going to ask Cindy, but…’ he shrugged dismissively.
‘Would you like to be present?’ she mocked.
‘Not this time,’ he shook his head. ‘Just make sure she has the qualifications to deal with any letters that might come her way. Some of the answers I’ve read in other magazines—in the course of my research, of course—’
‘Of course,’ she drawled.
‘Well, you don’t think I read them through choice?’ he scorned. ‘The mess people seem to make of their lives…! Still, they seem to help some people, and that’s what matters. But some of the replies I’ve read in other magazines have been enough to make the person concerned go out and throw themselves off the nearest bridge!’
‘I’ll make sure that she—or he—is highly qualified,’ she nodded agreement. ‘It wouldn’t do the magazine’s reputation any good if someone sued us.’
‘It wouldn’t do the person any good either if they were dead!’
‘No,’ she sighed.
Rick lapsed into silence again, resting his head back against the leather upholstery.
‘Tired?’ Shanna prompted softly.
‘No.’ He didn’t even open his eyes.
‘Would you like to come to my apartment for a nightcap?’ she heard herself offer, then her breath constricted in her throat as she realised what she had said. She didn’t want Rick in her home, so why on earth had she invited him there? What on earth was wrong with her! ‘A—a coffee or something?’ she added awkwardly.
Cool black eyes stared at her in the gloom of the car; Rick’s thoughts were as enigmatic as his expression. ‘Coffee last thing at night keeps me awake—or do you want that?’
She gasped. ‘I—’
‘Forget it, Shanna,’ he rasped. ‘I didn’t mean to say that. And I’ll take a rain-check on the coffee. Thanks anyway.’
It wasn’t the answer she had been expecting, she had thought Rick would jump at the chance to spend a little more time with her, especially alone at her home. What game was he playing now? Because his behaviour had to be part of the game, his game. What was it, the ‘play uninterested’ routine to irk her interest in him? Because if that was the case he was going to be out of luck once again; nothing would irk her interest in the playboy he was.
She dropped him off at his hotel, acknowledging his terse goodnight with a cheery one of her own. If he thought to disconcert her with his sudden coldness he was going to be disappointed!
* * *
Rick didn’t act as if he were trying to do anything to her the rest of the week, ignoring her existence most of the time, almost snapping her head off at others. When the two women came for the interviews for her job on Friday she had no idea what to expect from him; his mood was volcanic.
‘The first one was too young,’ he dismissed. ‘The second one was too involved in her marriage.’
‘Too involved in her marriage?’ Shanna echoed incredulously. ‘How can anyone be too involved in a marriage?’
‘She was,’ he stated flatly. ‘The editor of Fashion Lady has to put the magazine first.’
‘Then why wasn’t Stephanie Simms suitable?’ she frowned. ‘I know she was a little young, but I was only twenty-four when I took over.’
‘You had inside help.’
Her mouth tightened at the insult. ‘Henry wouldn’t have given me the job if he didn’t consider me capable. And as for Leslie Adams, I was married, and it didn’t affect my efficiency.’
‘You can’t give the job to both of them.’ Rick sat behind his own desk, and the room was filled with smoke from his cheroots; he had been smoking a lot of them lately, she noticed.
‘I don’t want to do that,’ she said impatiently. ‘I’m just pointing out that your reasons for turning them down are invalid, as both of them were applicable to me a year ago. The magazine hasn’t suffered at my hands.’
‘Granted,’ he nodded. ‘But I stand by my opinion of Leslie Adams. Did you see the way she hesitated when I asked if she intended having children?’
‘Well, it was a personal question—’
‘It was a valid one from any prospective employer. I believe Mrs Adams does intend having children, no matter what she said to the contrary, and I think she intends having them soon.’
‘Then why bother to try for this job?’ Shanna derided.
‘Why not?’ he shrugged. ‘It would be something to tell her children when they’re grown up.’
‘I think you’re being unfair to her. And Stephanie Simms’ age shouldn’t be a black mark against her either. Someone has to give her her chance.’
‘Maybe when she’s older,’ he dismissed callously.
‘Her qualifications are excellent.’ Shanna had no idea why she was defending the other girl so heatedly. It was true that Stephanie Simms did have excellent qualifications, and equally good references from her last two employers, but she hadn’t really liked the other girl, finding her efforts to flirt with Rick too obvious.
‘I noticed,’ he drawled, his thoughts obviously running along the same lines, his smile mocking. ‘Miss Simms should go far.’
‘But not here?’
‘No.’
‘I’m sure if you called her she would be pleased to convince you otherwise,’ she said waspishly.
‘No doubt.’
Her mouth tightened at his calm acceptance of the other woman’s attraction to him. ‘You don’t sound surprised,’ she snapped.
Rick shrugged his broad shoulders beneath the grey fitted jacket and snowy white shirt. ‘I don’t believe she made any secret of her method of getting to the top.’
‘Then maybe you should give her a call.’
‘Maybe I will,’ he nodded, his eyes narrowed.
‘That should be nice for you!’
‘It probably would be. Now can we get back to the subject of your replacement?’
‘Of course,’ she answered abruptly. ‘Maybe it would be better if you chose her yourself? If the decision had been left to me I would have taken on Leslie Adams.’
‘So might I—if I hadn’t already found someone.’
‘Already found—?’ Shanna stood up angrily and went over to stand in front of his desk, leaning over it as she glared down at him. ‘You already have someone, and yet you still put those two women through a needless interview, acted as it they really had a chance of getting the job?’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.
‘You misunderstood me,’ he told her calmly, lighting yet another cheroot. ‘I didn’t say I had already given the job to someone—’
‘You mean it isn’t a little surprise for one of your women?’ she scorned.
He surveyed her coolly through the smoke. ‘Not many of my “women” would be interested in this sort of work, Shanna.’
‘How nice for them!’
>
‘Perhaps,’ he said without interest. ‘And it wasn’t until I saw our only two qualified applicants that I considered a third alternative.’
‘Yes?’
‘Cindy.’
‘Cindy?’ she echoed in a bewildered voice, her anger fading. Cindy?
‘Yes.’ Rick stood up, moving around the desk to pace the room. ‘The idea has been bouncing around in my head for a week now. She’s capable of it, with training from you, and I think it could be what she needs to take her mind off Jack.’
Shanna had sat down on the edge of the desk in surprise. Cindy? It had never occurred to her to even consider the other woman. Cindy knew the world of business, had a superb sense of fashion herself, had been very interested in the running of the magazine the last week; Shanna had spent hours with the other women explaining different aspects of running the magazine. Yes, she had no doubt Cindy could do the job, that she would be very good at it. But would she want it? She voiced her doubts to Rick.
‘It’s what I think she needs,’ he said arrogantly.
‘Another way of getting her to settle down?’ she scorned.
‘She’s hardly likely to find the right man moving around the world with me,’ he replied seriously. ‘I’m convinced the only reason she got involved with Jack was because he happened to be available at the time. Here in London she might have a chance of finding the right man for her.’
‘Why don’t you marry her, then you can both be happy!’
‘I don’t appreciate your humour, Shanna,’ he bit out grimly.
‘I suppose to you marriage must seem amusing,’ she said bitterly.
He stubbed his cheroot out in the ashtray with vicious movements. ‘It doesn’t seem amusing at all!’ he told her savagely. ‘Not at all!’ He strode across the room and slammed out of the door.
The door opened again a few seconds later, and Petra, one of Rick’s secretaries, looked in at Shanna anxiously. ‘Is everything all right? Rick looked a little—explosive,’ she grimaced; she was a pretty girl in her early twenties, another American, as Shanna had thought she would be.
‘Rick never looks a little explosive,’ Shanna derided shakily. ‘He was very much so. And I’m fine, thanks.’
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