Best of Virgins Bundle

by Cathy Williams

  But Gary, of necessity, did have her home telephone number; it just hadn’t occurred to her that he might be the one actually ringing her.

  ‘What I want is for you to get yourself back in here now,’ her director rasped impatiently. ‘We have a change of guest for tomorrow evening, and a hell of a lot of work to get through before then!’

  Abby straightened. ‘What do you mean, we have a change of guest? Everything is set for Cameron Harper—’

  ‘He’s been bumped to next week,’ Gary interrupted. ‘It would seem that you’ve succeeded in working your charm, after all, Abby,’ he added scathingly. ‘Pat called me a couple of hours ago and told me that Max Harding has agreed to come on your show. Tomorrow night—not for the last show, as you originally suggested he might.’

  Abby’s hand tightened so hard about the receiver that her knuckles showed white.

  Max was going to appear on tomorrow evening’s show?

  No, that wasn’t the question. The question was, why had Max, after all he had said and done, agreed—no, requested!—to appear on her show after all?

  CHAPTER TEN

  ‘I STILL don’t understand what this meeting is about.’ Abby shook her head slightly dazedly as she sat across the table from Gary in the conference room where they were all to meet.

  Gary gave her a sneering smile. ‘Sounds pretty simple to me.’ He raised a sarcastic eyebrow. ‘You practised your seduction on Max Harding. He fell for it. And now we’re sitting here, waiting for the great man to arrive so that he can tell us what he’s going to say tomorrow night.’

  It was the last bit she didn’t understand. Well, she didn’t understand any of this, actually—least of all Max’s volte face—but she really had no idea why Max wanted a meeting with Pat, Gary and herself at nine o’clock at night. It was going to be hard enough seeing Max again at all, let alone in Gary’s presence.

  ‘Hey, don’t blame me.’ Gary held up defensive hands. ‘The great man dictates and we all jump!’

  She didn’t jump. Had no intention of jumping again. Ever.

  And this was her show, and no one had even bothered to consult her on a change of guest for tomorrow evening. Not a good basis from which she should interview any of her guests.

  All thought fled as the door opened suddenly and the energetic figure of Pat Connelly preceded Max into the room. The small, rotund woman, in her usual sweatshirt and joggers, her grey hair short and slightly ruffled, looked slightly incongruous next to the tall, brooding Max, who was wearing a dinner suit and snowy white shirt.

  Abby’s gaze instantly swung back to Pat as she swept forcefully down the room to sit at the head of the long table. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t wholly aware of Max, as he strolled over at a more leisurely pace to take a seat beside the older woman.

  ‘Obviously Max needs no introduction,’ Pat began with irony, her homely face and less than sartorial elegance belying the fact that she was one of the most dynamic producers in television today.

  ‘Obviously not,’ Gary echoed dryly, his gaze, when Abby glanced across at him, fixed challengingly on the other man. ‘What’s this all about? Abby is all set to go with Cameron Harper tomorrow—’

  ‘I’ve already spoken to Cameron; he’s more than happy to appear on the next show rather than tomorrow—’

  ‘What’s the rush?’ Gary interrupted his producer. ‘Abby always had Max in mind for the last show anyway, so—’

  ‘Max has offered to appear tomorrow, Gary, not any other time,’ Pat told him harshly. ‘And, it may have escaped your notice, but it would be in our interest to pursue this while Max’s recent—predicament is still so fresh in people’s minds.’

  Abby was deeply aware that she and Max weren’t taking any part in the conversation. Not that it was too much of a hardship for her; she would rather listen at the moment anyway. But she had never known Max to be less than verbally expansive. Especially when he was the subject under discussion!

  She chanced a look down the table to where he sat, feeling a jolt of awareness as she found him staring straight back at her, those grey eyes hooded and unreadable, his expression grimly remote.

  And as she continued to look at him—like a rabbit eyeing a fox—he raised one dark brow in silent challenge.

  He knew about her meeting earlier today with Kate Mayhew!

  Without his having to say a word, Abby knew that the other woman had kept to her intention not to keep any secrets from Max.

  Well, that was just fine for the two of them. Abby just hoped that the other woman had also told him that she’d had no part in setting up the meeting—also that she had refused to discuss him, or their own brief relationship.

  ‘It’s done, Gary,’ Pat was telling the director when Abby determinedly turned her attention and her gaze back to the two of them. ‘So live with it.’

  Gary scowled his resentment. ‘I was under the impression this was my show—’

  ‘And everyone else was under the impression that it was Abby’s.’ Max spoke at last, coldly, abruptly, making no effort to hide his contempt for the other man.

  ‘It is,’ Abby answered firmly. ‘But I don’t understand this any more than Gary does. You told me quite adamantly that you wouldn’t appear on the show—’

  ‘And now I’ve changed my mind,’ Max bit out harshly.

  Her mouth tightened at his sheer arrogance. ‘And now we’re all supposed to get down on our knees and say thanks at the shrine of Max Harding?’

  ‘Abby!’ Pat gasped her surprise at the attack.

  Abby ignored her, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on Max; there was more going on here than Pat could possibly know, and Abby didn’t like the feeling of being simply a pawn in a game. Especially when she didn’t know what the game was—only that Max was the one making the rules.

  Max was looking at her with rueful respect now. ‘It’s okay, Pat,’ he assured the other woman, without looking at her. ‘Are you saying that you don’t want me to appear on your show after all, Abby?’

  He had her, and he knew it—knew that after what had happened to him in the last two weeks she would be committing professional suicide in not accepting the interview he was offering her. Especially if she wanted her contract renewed for another year. It wasn’t that she was questioning, only his motives for doing this.

  Why had he changed his mind now? The only thing that had happened since the two of them had last spoken on the subject that she could see was her meeting earlier today with Kate Mayhew. The other woman in his life…

  A meeting, no matter what Max might think to the contrary, that had not been of her choosing…

  Although she had no guarantee that Kate Mayhew had told him that when she’d confided that particular secret to him—any more than she had any idea what the other woman had told him about their meeting. If the coldness of his gaze was anything to go by, then it probably hadn’t been anything good…

  ‘…go over the list of questions Max has agreed to answer.’

  She tuned back into the conversation as Pat put her briefcase on the tabletop and opened it.

  ‘Now, just a minute!’ Abby gasped, standing up. ‘The list of questions Max has agreed to answer?’ she repeated forcefully. ‘Where is my involvement in that?’ She was no longer looking at Max but concentrating on Pat instead. ‘I’ll end up as merely a mouthpiece—a bystander on The Max Harding Show!’

  ‘Do you have a problem with that?’ Max asked quietly, before Pat could speak.

  Abby’s eyes flashed deeply blue as she glared at him. ‘I won’t do it!’ she said determinedly.

  ‘Even at the risk of losing an exclusive?’ he challenged softly.

  Goading, baiting her. Which only made her all the more adamant. If Max had known her better—if he had known her at all!—then he would have realised she wouldn’t be pushed about and bullied in this way.

  ‘Even at the risk of that—yes,’ she bit out tautly, her gaze unwavering on his.

  The two of them contin
ued their visual battle for several seconds. Max determined and unreadable, Abby stubbornly unyielding.

  ‘Pat.’ He finally spoke softly, his gaze remaining unwaveringly on Abby’s. ‘Would you and Gary mind leaving Abby and me alone for a few minutes?’

  Every particle of Abby inwardly protested at such an idea. She didn’t want to be alone with him, had nothing to say to him. But then, that wasn’t the idea, was it? Max had something he wanted to say to her! And it wasn’t too difficult to guess what that something was.

  ‘Won’t you sit down, Abby?’ Max invited softly seconds later, when the others had left the room—Pat happily, Gary protestingly.

  For once, Abby had found herself agreeing with Gary!

  ‘I won’t, thanks,’ she refused abruptly, her palms feeling damp, her whole body aching from the tension she felt. ‘If this is because of Kate Mayhew—’

  ‘Let’s leave Kate out of this.’

  ‘I would be happy to!’ Abby assured him heavily. ‘But that’s actually impossible to do, isn’t it, Max?’ she went on. ‘Because everything you say and do begins and ends with Kate Mayhew! She came to see me today—’

  ‘I know that.’ His mouth was tight. ‘She said that you refused to discuss our relationship.’

  Well, at least Kate had been honest about that.

  ‘Because we don’t have a relationship!’ she snapped, moving to the other end of the table, as far away from Max as she could get in the confines of the conference room, too distracted by his proximity to be able to think straight—except to know she couldn’t allow the fiasco being suggested for tomorrow night’s show to continue. ‘Why don’t the two of you just go public with your relationship, Max?’ She sighed. ‘It’s been two years. The media can be extremely forgiving, and I’m sure with your way with words—’ her mouth twisted scathingly ‘—you could arrange to bring all of this round to a romantic angle they will totally accept!’

  ‘I’m sure I could,’ he drawled. ‘Unfortunately, that isn’t the way it happened—isn’t the way it is.’

  ‘I don’t believe you!’

  ‘No, I know you don’t.’ He sighed too. ‘But you’re just going to have to trust me on this one, Abby.’

  ‘I trusted you once before—I won’t do it again!’ Her eyes blazed, her face pale.

  ‘No,’ he accepted heavily. ‘I can see that. But I will be appearing on your show tomorrow evening, Abby. And I will be answering the questions that Pat and I have already agreed on.’

  ‘Pat had no more had a say in what those questions are than I did!’

  ‘No,’ he acknowledged without apology. ‘However, the difference is she’s enough of a professional to trust in my judgement.’

  ‘And I’m not?’ Abby guessed tartly. ‘Fine, Max. Go ahead and arrange this between the two of you.’ She snatched up her bag. ‘But do it on the understanding that I may or I just may not turn up to ask you those questions on my own show!’

  Max moved swiftly, grasping her upper arms, shaking her slightly in obvious frustrated anger. ‘You are one of the most stubborn women it has ever been my misfortune to meet!’

  She faced him unflinchingly, desperately hanging on to her anger in an effort to fight the weakness she felt just at his touch. A weakness that would leave her totally defenceless if she gave in to it. And at the moment those defences were the only thing keeping her from saying, To hell with all this. She didn’t care what role Kate Mayhew had in his life, that she just wanted him. Here. Now.

  How sad was that?

  She shook back the dark curtain of her hair. ‘More stubborn than Kate?’

  He drew in a sharp breath. ‘I told you—’

  ‘To leave her out of this,’ Abby finished derisively. ‘Maybe I will turn up for the show tomorrow night after all, Max,’ she said slowly. ‘In fact…after some thought, I wouldn’t dream of missing it!’

  His mouth tightened. ‘Abby—’

  ‘Yes?’

  He breathed heavily. ‘I’m not your enemy, Abby,’ he warned softly.

  ‘No?’ She faced him defiantly.

  His mouth tightened. ‘I’m really not.’

  ‘I don’t believe that either,’ she challenged.

  ‘We sound like two opponents facing each other in a boxing ring!’

  ‘That’s probably because it’s exactly what we are.’ She smiled humourlessly. ‘And I should warn you—it isn’t a fight I’m prepared to lose!’

  Max looked down at her for several long seconds before releasing her abruptly. ‘You’re making a terrible mistake, Abby. I’m far from being your enemy, and tomorrow evening I intend proving that to you,’ he assured her.

  ‘Let the battle commence!’ she scorned, before turning on her heel and walking out of the room. ‘He’s all yours,’ she told Pat as she stalked by.

  Because he wasn’t hers.

  And he never would be…

  None of that iron control—thankfully—had faded by the following evening. In fact, it was the only thing that kept her from falling apart completely.

  That and the professionalism that wouldn’t allow her to become simply Max Harding’s mouthpiece.

  A fact he was shortly going to find out, she realized, after a quick glance at her wristwatch told her they would be on the air in only ten minutes. But on her terms, not Max’s.

  As usual she had arrived at the studio two hours ago. As usual she had allowed Make-Up to do their work. Unusually, she hadn’t spent any time talking to her guest, putting him at ease before they appeared live in front of the cameras.

  She knew Max was at the studio too—had been informed the moment he arrived, an hour ago—but she had made no effort to go through her normal practice of chatting to her guests beforehand, establishing an ease, a rapport, before the show went on air.

  What was the point? There was no ease or rapport between herself and Max. And there never would be.

  ‘All set, Abby?’ Gary appeared in the doorway of her room.

  As set as she was going to be! ‘I’m fine,’ she said shortly, not particularly liking the feral grin on Gary’s face, but knowing there wasn’t a lot she could do about it. He knew she was angry about this interview, and he was loving all the tension in the studio.

  ‘You’re looking very—professional this evening.’ He nodded his satisfaction with her appearance.

  Deliberately so. This wasn’t going to be like any of her previous shows. It hadn’t been hyped as such by the television station throughout the day when they’d announced the change of guest, and Abby had dressed accordingly. The black tailored suit and white blouse were businesslike, her hair was swept up on top of her head, and her make-up was subdued—no lipgloss, only a peach-coloured lipstick, and blusher adding colour to the white of her cheeks.

  ‘I have to go, Gary,’ she told him woodenly as she received the signal for going on the air in five minutes.

  ‘I hope you’re going out there to get him, Abby,’ he encouraged, blue eyes glittering with malice.

  It gave Abby her first feelings of misgiving concerning what she was about to do. Anything that Gary could smile on so approvingly had to be suspect, she realized, with a belated flash of uncertainty.

  Was it so obvious what she intended doing? That she had drawn up her own list of questions, and intended replacing Max’s with them?

  Was she doing the right thing? she wondered as she hurried to take her place in the studio.

  Did she have any choice? came the second, heartbreaking question.

  No, she didn’t, she decided with fresh resolve. Max had his own reasons for agreeing to appear on her show, but they weren’t her reasons. And her personal life might be in ruins, but that didn’t mean her professional one had to be too. Max was playing with her—probably in order to continue protecting Kate Mayhew. He had made love to her for the same reason. And, while she didn’t want to hurt the other woman, she didn’t feel the same compunction where Max was concerned.

  Her resolve was shaken even furt
her when she saw Max waiting for her as she walked on to the set, and the colour—so expertly applied earlier—faded from her cheeks.

  Max’s eyes were hard, his expression grim. ‘What are you up to, Abby?’ he ground out suspiciously.

  She gave him a startled look. How did he know? What did he know?

  Her new set of questions had been prepared in absolute secrecy. How could Max possibly—? He couldn’t, she decided determinedly. He was just guessing. As Gary had. The fact that both men had guessed correctly was more fluke than certainty. And bad luck for her.

  She shook her head. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Max,’ she told him. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go,’ she added firmly, as the theme for her programme began to play.

  ‘Abby!’ He reached out and grasped her arm in a vice-like grip, his expression intent. ‘Abby, I love you!’ he told her forcefully.

  ‘How dare you?’ she gasped, sudden tears blinding her.

  Did he really think she was so stupid, so naïve, that she would fall for a ploy like—?

  ‘I love you,’ he repeated grimly. ‘It’s because I love you that I’ve agreed to come on this show at all. But there’s much more at stake here than your pride or mine, and if you do this, Abby, then I’ll have no choice but to fight back!’

  She wrenched out of his grasp, drawing inside herself, her eyes no longer glittering with tears but with a fury she had no control over. ‘I’ll be waiting for you in the arena, Max.’

  Pure professionalism took over as she stepped in front of the cameras, smilingly welcoming her audience before she had to introduce her guest for the evening.

  The studio audience was buzzing, seemingly aware that something momentous was about to happen.

  Just how momentous neither they nor Abby could possibly have guessed!

  The interview began exactly as it should have done: Abby and Max were all smiles as they shook hands before taking their seats, and the first four questions were as originally planned, touching on the events of the last two weeks, with Max’s replies relaxed and assured as he talked of the ordeal.