by Maya Blake
She sensed him prowling behind her for a full minute before he spoke. ‘The money wasn’t supposed to be taken the way you took it.’
What her laughter lacked in humour it more than made up for in scorn. ‘Right. And I was born yesterday.’
‘Dios...’
She heard his deep inhalation.
‘I’m good at reading people, Goldie. Reading between the lines. Deny it all you want, but you’re in a fix. Otherwise you wouldn’t have fought for dear life to hang on to that tattered bag last night. And you wouldn’t have chosen not to call a cab to take you home if you’d been able to afford it. Unemployment means different things to different people. I suspect in your case it means near destitution.’
Shame dredged her, sending prickles of tears to her eyes. She blinked it away rapidly. ‘Bravo for that incisive dissection of my life.’
He sighed. ‘Hate me all you want for pointing out the obvious. But you also mentioned that you needed a job quickly. The money was my gesture of assistance—’
Pride and anger made her whirl around. He was standing a few feet behind her. Tall and imposing and altogether too much for her roiling senses. ‘I’m not a charity case!’
‘No, you’re not. And I didn’t think you were.’
He paced a few steps before shoving his hands in his pockets. She was beginning to notice it was his self-calming gesture.
She supposed he needed calming after her calling him out and making a spectacle of him at his meeting.
‘Are we done?’
He shook his head in a decisive movement. ‘No, we’re not done. You’ll accept my apologies if I didn’t make it clear that the money had nothing to do with what happened between us last night. It was a gesture of generosity, not payment for services rendered.’
A large dose of the hurt that lingered in her chest abated, but she wasn’t about to show her relief. ‘Fine, apology accepted, but you can keep your money.’
She started to walk past him. One hand shot out of his pocket and slid over her hip. Goldie jerked out of the way, in no way wanting to be reminded of what it felt like to be in his arms.
‘Please don’t touch me.’
His jaw tightened but his hand balled and dropped back to his side. ‘As you wish. But before you walk out the door and demolish the chance you’ve created for yourself, stop and think for a moment.’
‘What do you mean, the chance I’ve created?’
One sardonic eyebrow went up. ‘Are you really so blind that you can’t see the bigger picture?’ He stabbed a thumb in the direction of the adjacent conference room. ‘In your burning need to make a point you’ve turned an unfortunate event into an opportunity. Are you going to cut off your nose to spite your face by walking away now?’ He was almost taunting her.
She folded her arms. ‘Whatever was going on in there is none of my business. If they’ve mistaken me for the actress you wanted to cast then you can explain their error to them. I’m leaving.’
He laughed. ‘After going to all this effort to create a buzz for yourself?’
‘Careful, there, or that apology you uttered a few minutes ago will seem like something out of a past lifetime and I’ll resume detesting you.’
He shrugged. ‘I state things as I see them. You came here to make a point. You’ve made it. Don’t let the effort you’ve put in go to waste.’
‘Are you seriously trying to tell me to capitalise on you treating me like a prostitute?’
A look crossed his face. ‘Don’t make this emotional, Goldie.’
‘Wow. I’m sorry if I’m not as cut-throat as you.’ She shook her head. ‘Why are you even pursuing this? Your note was quite clear. You woke up this morning and decided you didn’t want me after all.’ She thought it best to ignore the telling gleam that reflected briefly in his eyes. ‘So what’s changed?’
The jaw already clenched tight hardened. Silence ticked by until she was sure he wouldn’t answer.
Leave, her hammering heart urged. Before things get any weirder.
‘Are you going to answer me, Gael?’ she blurted.
Eyes raked her from head to toe before meeting hers full-on. ‘You were a virgin. And you didn’t think to tell me.’
Goldie swallowed. Fought the heat and trembling that had begun in her lower limbs. Suddenly she wished she’d stayed by the window, not been standing on her own two legs for this unexpected turn in the conversation. Thankfully, her legs held her up. And her chin rose when she commanded.
‘I don’t remember any instance during the night when we were obliged to exchange sexual histories. Perhaps you thought we’d be there all night while you recounted yours?’
The barb struck home, made his nostrils flare in pure Latin temper before he reined it in. ‘Are you saying being divested of your innocence meant nothing to you?’
The harsh, condemning tone was back. But she wasn’t about to stand for it any longer.
‘What I choose to do with my virginity is my business. Tell me the experience was ruined for you because of it and I’ll apologise.’
His eyes gleamed with pure carnal memory before he blinked, but that look singed her very skin.
‘It wasn’t ruined. Far from it,’ he returned gutturally.
That blush she was fighting won the round. Heat surged into her face and she averted her gaze for a second. ‘So what was the problem?’
‘The problem is why me? Why now? Innocence at your age is rare. I can’t help but draw certain conclusions.’
She stared at him, her brain firing wildly at her. It took a heartbeat or three for her to realise where he was coming from. Horror made her hand fly to her mouth. ‘You think I hung on to my virgin status just in case a guy like you came along so I could hawk it for a huge payday?’ Shock made her voice squeak.
He had the grace to look momentarily confused before his inscrutable expression returned. ‘That scenario isn’t a foreign concept and I’m sure you’re aware of that.’
‘I’m aware of no such thing! I’m not sure what circles you move in... Wait—scratch that. After my run-in with your conscience-free ex I can hazard a guess as to the depths your ilk are prepared to sink to for your sick pleasures. But think about this for a second. If I were that avaricious, don’t you think I’d have negotiated my price before I slept with you?’ she demanded.
He levelled a hard gaze at her, in no way swayed by her argument. ‘That sort of innocence isn’t always easy to prove before the event.’
Her mouth dropped open for several heartbeats before she managed to shake her head. ‘My God, why...? How did you get like this?’ she whispered, sheets of ice dredging her stomach at his blatant accusation.
His face closed completely and his every feature was devoid of emotion. ‘I’m a bastard, literally—and, I’m told, figuratively. I’ve learned to accept that nothing that feels that good comes without a price.’
Goldie held her breath, unwilling to admit in any way that the newest emotion which had risen to join the riot of feelings inside her was sympathy for him. He was the bad guy here. He was the one causing her pain.
‘Please take it from me that what I gave last night had no strings attached whatsoever. And then please let me go.’
Again a touch of confusion clouded his forehead. ‘I don’t think you understand why I brought you in here. Regardless of what I thought last night—and I’m prepared to concede that I may have got the wrong end of the stick with you—your performance in there has guaranteed you the part.’
There was zero pleasure in hearing that. She shook her head again. ‘Why?’
‘Because, believe it or not, that scene you just enacted is uncannily similar to one from the script. You weren’t acting, but they thought you were. And you’ve won them over—especially my director.’
‘Right.
And you?’
He cast her an inscrutable look before he shrugged. ‘What I think is no longer relevant. The only question now is, do you want the part or not?’
CHAPTER SEVEN
GOLDIE EYED HERSELF in the mirror as the make-up artist applied the final touches to her make-up. Her character, Elena Milton, was the same age as her, so there wasn’t much to be done in the way of make-up for the early scenes—especially since the scene they were about to shoot was one that required her to be makeup-less.
The director, Ethan Ryland, was waiting for the sun to begin setting on the plains of the KwaZulu-Natal game park, where the next scene of Soul’s Triumph was being shot.
In her hand she clutched the script, which she always kept close by even though she knew her part by heart and could recite every other part in the script too.
When the make-up artist pronounced her ready, Goldie jumped off the stool and headed outside. While most of the cast and crew chose to stay in the cool confines of their air-conditioned trailers and chalet when they weren’t shooting, she preferred to absorb the stunning beauty of South Africa’s south-eastern province every chance she got.
Probably because she still couldn’t believe she was there.
The experience so far had been surreal, and Goldie couldn’t believe they were already halfway to being done with the movie. She had certainly learned a lot in the last five weeks. And to think she’d never imagined she would be here at all...
After Gael had thrown his gauntlet at her feet that morning, just over a month ago, she’d spent a torn, frantic twenty-four hours weighing the pros and cons of accepting the less than wholesome opportunity he had dangled once again within reach.
At her mother’s urging to do as much research as possible, she’d succumbed and looked up the man she’d given her virginity to on the internet. She’d come away stunned, albeit with a half-hearted understanding of why Gael Aguilar reacted with suspicion to everyone around him. The trait wasn’t admirable by any stretch, and nor was it forgivable when it pertained to her. But it was clear that the sheer prestige and power he wielded along with his half-brother, Alejandro Aguilar, through their company, was enough to draw an army of sycophants and other unsavoury characters.
Even those who sacrificed their virginities in the hope of a pot of gold...
Whatever.
Had she believed in that sort of thing, Goldie would have toyed with the notion that destiny was hell-bent on giving her this role. Even after Ethan’s repeated assurances that he was going to stop auditioning because he believed he’d found his actress she hadn’t been convinced.
She didn’t doubt for a second that Gael’s involvement in the project was what had made her initially reticent about taking the part. Gael might have accepted that he’d got her motives wrong, but the hurt hadn’t quite gone away. Probably because neither had the cynicism she glimpsed in his eyes whenever he looked at her.
It had only been after her second meeting with Ethan and his team—minus Gael—two days later that Goldie had started to entertain the idea that the opportunity was one she could grasp and launch a career out of.
Before that, though, there’d been her mother to contend with.
Gloria Beckett had been beyond ecstatic that her daughter had landed the plum role in a big production movie. But even as they’d celebrated with a trip to her mother’s favourite restaurant, at Gloria’s insistence, she’d worried about being absent from home for the long weeks shooting the movie would take.
She’d eventually divulged her worry to Ethan, only to find out Gael had lined up a list of sober companions for her to interview for her mother. Her mother had resisted at first, but once Goldie had made it a condition of her acceptance or rejection of the role Gloria had relented and let her hire Patience, the middle-aged companion.
In the week before she’d flown to Vancouver, where the other half of the film had been shot, Goldie had been able to rest easy when she’d seen how well Patience and Gloria got along.
Now, as she watched a family of elephants foraging, from the porch of the timber chalet which housed their on-location skeleton crew, she allowed herself a peaceful sigh and a small smile.
Ethan and the crew were a dream to work with. And as for the story...
She glanced down at the script of Soul’s Triumph. The story of Elena Milton and Alfonso Veron was unbelievably powerful, at times disturbingly heartbreaking, but utterly sublime. A tale of triumph against adversity, it charted the lives of two unlikely souls each tied to a different destiny from the moment they met. But while common sense and inevitable heartache dictated they take different paths, they were continually drawn, for better or worse, back to each other, in an often shocking and volatile relationship that spanned decades and brought untold hardship to their families.
Today’s shoot was the first meeting between Elena and Alfonso. Goldie had already met her Spanish lead, an actor in his mid-twenties who spoke very little English. Although he delivered his lines perfectly, conversation off-camera was minimal—a fact for which Goldie was secretly glad.
Even now, weeks later, she was still grappling with the tumultuous twelve hours she’d spent with Gael and wasn’t in the mood to deal with much else, even friendly banter between co-actors. The crew for the most part also left her alone. Sure, they’d invited her along on their free day excursions, and she’d partaken of a few, and for dinner and drinks, of which she’d accepted none. She didn’t think she would be able to accept a social invitation from anyone for a while after the Heidi debacle.
‘Goldie, we’re heading out in five minutes. You ready?’
She nodded and smiled, gave a thumbs-up to Ethan as he joined her on the porch. He returned the gesture with the tip of the crutch he still had to use, then turned to supervise the crew loading equipment into a Jeep in the car park.
Ten minutes later they set off, and Goldie found herself smiling again as the stunning landscape unfolded before her.
Ethan caught her smile. ‘Is this your first time in Africa?’ he asked.
‘No, but it’s my first to this part of Africa, and my first time when I know I’ll keep a vivid recollection of it,’ she answered.
He frowned. ‘You’ve lost me.’
She laughed, although the sound was tinged with a deep-rooted sadness. ‘I’m half-Ghanaian, but my last visit to my father’s homeland was when I was a child. I don’t remember much of it, and I haven’t had a chance to visit since then, for various reasons.’
‘Oh, right...’ There was a note of sympathy in Ethan’s voice but he didn’t probe further, for which she was grateful.
They arrived at the location of the shoot and were greeted by the animal handler who would be keeping an eye on the cheetah needed for this scene. None of the animals in the private game reserve were tame, but one or two had been hand-reared due to injury. One in particular, a gorgeous, graceful cheetah named Asha, had won a part in the movie.
Goldie kept a respectful distance from the animal as she was readied. When she got her cue she made sure her running shoes were laced properly and waited for Ethan’s signal.
Being chased by a semi-tame cheetah was in equal parts terrifying and exhilarating. Doing it three times, until Ethan was happy and before the sun dipped into the horizon, was a touch nerve-racking. But she managed it, and delivered her lines alongside the actor playing Alfonso, then smiled widely when she got a fist-pump of approval from Ethan.
‘Scene Three is officially in the bag. Although I would never recommend getting chased by a wild animal in the savannah as a way to meet the love of your life for the first time.’
Amid the laughter and high fives for a job well done, Goldie looked up. And saw Gael lounging against the hood of the four-wheel drive furthest away from the cluster of crew vehicles.
* * *
Gael
watched her eyes widen as she spotted him. Shock was swiftly replaced by deep wariness as she stared at him. The wide smile on her face from a moment ago faded to nothing.
He ignored the tiny spurt of regret that look elicited and shoved his hands into his pockets. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the cast and crew noted his presence. Gael had wanted a quiet moment before he was interrupted. He’d had his quiet moment, but he’d used it to question why he was here at all.
Sure, Alejandro and the Ishikawa brothers—his partners—had questioned him extensively on how the project was going, and he had promised them an update. But he could easily have video-conferenced with Ethan for a full report, as he’d done in the weeks since the project had got underway. He hadn’t needed to fly for almost a day to inspect proceedings for himself.
But, hell, he was here now. And he didn’t want to examine why, for the first time since he’d reached adulthood, he’d gone for a long stretch without taking a woman to his bed. He didn’t want to examine why the only woman who seemed to stir his senses was the woman he’d shared a stunningly memorable night with. One who wanted nothing to do with him. One he knew deep in his gut he needed to stay away from.
And yet here he was...
He watched Goldie glance around her, as if she was debating whether to acknowledge or ignore his presence. Gael smiled to himself. He’d give himself a wide berth too if he could—especially after the few weeks he’d had.
It had started with his visit to Chicago three weeks ago, and Alejandro asking him to be his best man. It had gone downhill from there.
Every aspect of the Atlas Group’s business was running like a well-oiled machine. And yet he couldn’t focus—couldn’t get past the thought that the past seemed to be on a collision course with his future: namely in the form of the father he’d put out of his life and his mind a very long time ago.
When, at the end of a fraught business meeting, Alejandro had suggested Gael return to his home base in Silicon Valley to get his head straight he’d wholeheartedly agreed, jumped on his plane—and headed to South Africa instead.
