The Agent

by Ellen Lane

  “We went out a few times,” She answered bluntly, “And he’s not for me. Too uncertain of himself. And I’ve heard from more than a few people that he’s not the type to commit.”

  At that, Michael’s eyes widened in surprise. “So, you’re looking for commitment?”

  She was really going to have to curb all the violent tendencies she’d developed as of late. If she didn’t Alice was fairly sure she was going to end up offing a fair few people. Exhaling a noisy breath, she poured herself yet another cup of tea, despite the fact that she knew her bladder would regret it later.

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “But you implied that you didn’t like that he wouldn’t commit. Which means that you like him.”

  She couldn’t take it anymore. Though Alice knew that it was terribly unseemly, she snapped on her brother, irritated by her own lack of wherewithal and her feelings for a man she was beginning to suspect had no feelings.

  “Why must you always be so interested in my romantic affairs, Michael? Is it because you expect me to fail? You’re waiting for me to mess up again so you can swoop in like my knight in shining armor? I know I’m not the best judge of character when it comes to myself, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be happy! It doesn’t mean that I can’t find the right man for me. I will, do you understand me?”

  For a long moment, both men just stared at her, obviously surprised by her outburst. Alice reddened, embarrassed that she’d let her emotions get the best of her. Then again, perhaps she should applaud herself. After all, she’d managed to keep her cool in front of Russell this long. And she would need to continue keeping her cool if she were ever to move past him.

  Which meant opening up to her brother.

  “I…I’m sorry Michael…. I didn’t mean to blow up like that.” Elias merely arched a brow when his friend looked to him, bouncing his babbling son on his knee.

  “Sounds like someone has something they’d like to get off their chest.” For once, there were no snide remarks on his part. No mockery or ridicule. In fact, it almost sounded as if he felt sorry for her.

  Alice must have sunk pitifully low to reach this point.

  Michael merely ran a hand through his hair. “Well, you know I’m always here to talk.”

  And he was. Of that there was no doubt. He had confided in her whenever he needed her. Why couldn’t she do the same with him?

  Taking a deep breath, Alice prepared herself for a split second before her story spilled from her lips. Everything from when she’d left Britain two months ago, the dates she’d been on and renting an apartment from him to the way he’d brushed off her travel together and come to the airport with another woman.

  With each leg of her tale, Michael’s expression grew more and more grim. He didn’t need to speak a single word for Alice to know that he didn’t approve of Russell’s behavior. And why should he? His behavior had gone from questionably gentlemanly to obviously avoidant. Even if he didn’t want to hurt her, why didn’t he just break things off properly? That’s what a gentleman would have done.

  For a long while after she finished, both Elias and Michael looked contemplative. Even little Liam had screwed up his minute face – but that could be because he had to take a poo.

  “He sounds like a bloody idiot.” Elias finally declared, shifting his son to his opposite knee. “An impressive idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. He’s being a rake…in his own special way.”

  Alice winced at that particular assessment. “But the woman he’s traveling with isn’t someone he’s romantically involved with. She was just a client.”

  “As far as you know.” Michael rebutted gently, his gaze not unkind. When Alice sighed, he reached out to clasp her shoulder in solidarity. “I’m just trying to lay everything on the table, Alice. It’s obvious that you like the man, but he has no right to insult you. You deserve a man who can care for you properly. Who will worship you. Nothing less.”

  At that, Alice allowed herself a small smile. Michael seemed to have pretty grandiose ideas of love himself. Nothing like the man he was just two short years ago.

  “Well, let me just go and start a religion then.” Elias snorted, prompting a laugh from the child on his lap. “I’m sure a horde of fashionistas would follow it.” It was the closest thing to a compliment the architect had ever paid her and Alice found she was oddly thankful for it. When had she become so bloody soft?

  “Alice, a man who gives into any woman who asks for his attention can’t be faithful.” Michael went on, firmly. “I can’t imagine Darwell will do a sudden three sixty if it’s not in his personality – especially if he let that blonde bimbo talk to you the way she did. Perhaps it’s time to move on.”

  At that, Alice arched an incredulous brow. “The king of commitment is telling me to move on? I don’t believe it.”

  Michael merely rolled his eyes. “I’m not telling you to go back to your old ways. You just need to find a man on your level and give it a chance. Really give it a chance, Alice.”

  At the chiding note in his voice, she frowned churlishly, almost like a child who had been reprimanded. She was reluctant to enter the dating pool in earnest again, especially considering how busy she was going to be over the next year. Then, there was, of course, the fact that she was still going to be living in a building that Russell owned. She’d still be seeing him at the studio every day and she’d have to be civil to him if she didn’t want to lose one of the most high-profile jobs of her career.

  Which meant that perhaps a new man was in order. But how on earth was she to find someone who impressed her as much as Russell, without the emotional hang-ups? She couldn’t even begin to imagine.

  “I’m perfectly open to giving someone a chance, Michael.” Alice said it just as much for her brother as she did for herself. She had no problem coming to terms with the fact that she hadn’t always been the most open person when it came to dating, but actually buckling down and making an effort to dispel Russell from her psyche?

  It sounded easier said than done.

  “Are you really?” Elias rose from the bench in front of the piano, shifting his son to his hip with surprising dexterity.

  Alice looked up at him skeptically. If she confirmed that she was, part of her was worried about what exactly Elias would say next. Despite the fact that he seemed to be trying to help, she didn’t know how much faith she had in a plan Elias had concocted – and it looked like the cogs in his head were working.

  “What…did you have in mind?” She ventured carefully.

  Elias looked to Michael as if asking his friend for approval and Michael merely arched a brow in inquiry. Elias scowled, stalking over to the couch where Alice sat and extending Liam to her. Alice couldn’t help the smile that turned the corners of her lips upward as she took the child into her arms, cradling him tenderly. Liam was a wonderful baby, and immediately reached for a loose strand of her hair to finger with a wet grin.

  “I’m going to set you up with a friend of mine.”

  It took everything Alice had not to protest strongly and immediately. She hadn’t come back to the UK to date. Quite the contrary, in fact. She had precious few days here as it was, and couldn’t picture any man wanting to go out with her knowing she’d be gone for months afterward.

  Did Elias know something she didn’t?

  “And who is this friend?” She demanded lowly. She couldn’t imagine being truly interested in anyone who Elias considered a friend. She still didn’t understand why he and her brother were thick as thieves. Something about the man having a heart of gold or some such bullocks…though she supposed he had, somehow, managed to win the love of Cat, one of the sweetest women alive.

  So, he couldn’t be all bad.

  “Someone I think could handle you.”

  Alice merely scowled at his implication.

  “I’d prefer being pampered over handled.” Michael chuckled at that particular protest.

  “How about I meet him first. If he’s no
t Elias twin, I suppose there can’t really be any harm done.”

  Somehow, Alice seriously doubted that. Elias could use any leverage he thought he currently had to torture her –in fact, she wouldn’t put it past him. To his merit, however, the man looked relatively serious.

  “That’s fine with me. As long as your sister promises not to hang him out to dry just because I suggested him.”

  He didn’t know how tempting the idea was. Instead of answering him, Alice merely bounced a laughing Liam on her knee. She told herself she was doing this for him, not for his father and certainly not for her brother’s over-inflated sense of duty.

  For Liam, and, most notably, for herself.

  Somehow, she needed to get Russell out of her system, come hell or high water.

  Chapter 5: Closer

  Russell wasn’t a man prone to using foul language. His mother and father had raised him to be a gentleman and he was ever tied to those parameters. He liked to think that in all his dealings – both with women and business – that he was as polite as it was humanly possible to be.

  Or, at least, he had before meeting Alice Tate.

  Now, at least in his mind, Russell cursed far too bloody often for his own good.

  Had it always been this way, he wondered when he took on a new client? He could swear that Melanie was one of the most difficult women he’d ever dealt with –and he’d certainly dealt with a lot of women.

  In the past few years, he hadn’t taken on many new clients. Russell’s clientele was such that he could make a very good living from those people he was already close to. Amelia, Regina, and stars of their ilk were commonplace for him, and he recently told himself that the headache of adjusting to a new personality was beyond him in his ripe old age.

  Taking Melanie was a favor he owed his half-sister – though he had no idea how Margaret could call someone like the egotistical blonde her friend. Margaret insisted that she could sing like an angel and only needed a chance to be represented by someone with connections.

  And when his sister asked him for something, Russell always inevitably gave in.

  Now, however, he was regretting his soft-heartedness. Melanie had been nothing but trouble from the day he signed her – and every time he looked at her, all he could see was the hurt on Alice’s face at her blustering insults.

  Was he a complete and total cad?

  Perhaps he was, and this was the punishment that was coming to him.

  Russell was currently in a British sound studio listening to Melanie record her first album. He supposed that she wasn’t horrible, but she hardly had the voice of an angel. It was this skepticism that had led him to take her to Britain to record, lest someone hear of her less than stellar performance in the US before her album was released. Russell wondered how on earth he’d gotten himself into this position. He loved his job – even when it came to dealing with difficult clients. He enjoyed knowing that he had the prowess to handle difficult cases.

  He wasn’t enjoying working with Melanie at all – and part of that, he supposed, came from admitting to himself that he’d taken her on as a reason for avoiding travel with Alice.

  He had to be the most indecisive man in the entire cosmos.

  One moment he was allowing himself to go out with her – even imagining what it might be like to have her curvy, decadent form in his arms. When she had insinuated that they might end up in bed together, despite his best intentions, Russell wanted nothing more than to carry her back to his condo and have his wicked way with her. The prospect was enough to make him forget that he was only allowing himself to get to know her, and brought out his basest instincts.

  And so, of course, he’d backtracked. Even knowing she would be staying in his apartment –that he would see her almost every day on set. He had done the cowardly thing and taken a step back.

  He and his bloody guilt.

  Russell couldn’t remember ever being so indecisive concerning a woman…not since the first woman to ever hold his heart.

  And that had been so dreadfully long ago.

  Russell had managed to get through the past few months by pushing the more painful memories to the back of his mind. But here, now, faced with the product of his own avoidance, he couldn’t stop a few of them from seeping to the forefront.

  Of course, being in London didn’t hurt either. Every time he came home, he was forced to recall his past in vivid color. And though many of those memories were lovely – there were a few that, sometimes, he wished he could forget.

  Her hair had been red.

  He could let himself remember that much, couldn’t he? Her hair was red and her eyes were such a deep, vivid blue that they took his breath away the first time he saw her. His first love had been wild and untamed – had moved much too fast and without reserve.

  But it was still love.

  Which meant he was all the more devastated when it was taken from him.

  “Russell?” He was snapped back to the present when he realized that Melanie was calling his name through the mike. He looked up to see her scowling at him. He’d never met a woman who could move so quickly between sweetness and the ultimate evil. It had to be a God-given talent.

  “What’s up, Melanie?” He answered her with his characteristic thousand – kilowatt smile. How could he react any other way?

  “Can you please go get me an organic green smoothie? I need it for my vocal cords.” She made a great show of stroking her pitifully overworked throat. “I’m absolutely parched.”

  Usually, a client asked him if he could get a runner to get them specific items – but it made a bizarre sort of sense that a newbie like Melanie would have no idea how rude she was being. Pressing the button that turned on his own mike, he answered her diplomatically. “Of course. I’ll get a runner to get it for you.”

  From sweet to evil in a flash.

  Melanie’s eyes narrowed as she stared at him through the glass partition, obviously displeased. “But I need you to get it for me, Russell. I don’t trust anyone besides you! What if they don’t get organic? It could damage my vocal chords. You don’t want your investment to go to waste, do you?”

  What an absolute ninny.

  And coming from Russell, that was quite the insult. He loved and respected women of all shapes, sizes and creeds, but he could say, without a doubt, that he disliked Melanie immensely. She was rude, thought entirely too highly of herself, and didn’t consider what other people might think of her behavior. Of course, it wasn’t Russell himself who had endorsed her career. That had been Margaret’s doing – and her brother found himself on the cusp of calling and telling her how useless her investment was. In his opinion, Melanie could sing like a diva and it wouldn’t make her career succeed.

  She was an insufferable brat.

  Nothing at all like Alice.

  Despite this, Russell had every intention of remaining cordial. When he pressed the button to reply to her, however, Mike, the sound mixer, merely gave him an imperious look before answering for him. Russell had worked with Mike many times before, and the man was known for his no-nonsense attitude towards the artists he worked with.

  “Look, Mel. That’s not his job. He’s here to make sure that you get what you need, but Russell’s not your babysitter. Don’t act like a diva before your album even drops, hon. We’ll get your smoothie.”

  The blonde’s face turned bright red, and if looks could kill, Mike would no doubt be flopping around on the floor. Russell could see that, for a split second, Melanie considered rebutting. It would be very unwise of her, but she wasn’t the most intelligent person he’d ever had the pleasure of working with, so that was no surprise.

  But she wasn’t completely stupid. Melanie realized that she risked pissing off the man who was doing the mixing on her album and another who was only representing her out of obligation. Russell supposed there was only so much crazy that could be contained in a single person, as Melanie seemed to force herself to cool down.

  “Fine.” He
hid a smile at her forced grin. “Please and thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Mike barked, before turning to roll his eyes obtrusively at Russell. “She’s a piece of work, this one. Why are you repping her again?”

  Russell sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Favor to Margaret. I owe her several.”

  “Ah.” Mike grunted. He had the pleasure of meeting Russell’s imposing younger half-sister several times in the past, and he could understand the respect she commanded. Margaret was a real gem – even if she was terrifying in her own right. “That explains it.”

  “I suppose that means you don’t think she’ll be very good?”

  Mike snorted. “Miracles happen, I suppose.” With that, Russell rose, off to find a runner who somehow knew of an organic smoothie shop somewhere nearby.

  No matter how much he disliked her, he couldn’t have his newest client bad-mouthing him when he had a stellar reputation to uphold.

  Thankfully, stepping outside the studio gave him a much-needed break from the woman in question. After sending a runner for her smoothie, Russell settled in a plush armchair, waiting for the news errantly on one of the many TV screens in the lobby.

  Well, he wasn’t watching the news, per say. Rather, it was playing in the background as Russell fought to keep from remembering that Alice Tate was in the same city as him, somewhere, doing God knew what.

  He should have travelled with her when she asked. Christ, he should have taken her to bed before she could change her mind. Instead, he was sure he had ruined things for good. He was surprised Alice hadn’t contacted him asking to break her lease. He deserved no less.

  But was it really his fault that the young woman so consumed him? When Russell was around Alice, he had no idea what to do. She got under his skin in a way few women did, and even when he wasn’t with her, her memory lingered.

  Particularly how much he’d bollocksed things up with her when they’d seen one another a week ago.

  By this point, he knew, Alice’s holiday was almost over. He himself had spent the last seven days trying to get as many people to like Melanie as he could – and failing on most fronts. Meanwhile, the tabloids couldn’t get enough of the Tate-Lithgall family. Though there weren’t many pictures of Lord Michael Tate’s newborn baby, there was tons of speculation. Of course, it wasn’t helped by numerous images of both the child’s mother and Alice, her aunt, out shopping for her. It seemed that all the media could talk about was the newest member of British high society.