by Liz Fielding
And he hadn’t been in the boardroom five minutes before he was trying to make her look like a rapacious, money-grabber who would use her position as a trustee to feather her own nest.
Well she wasn’t going to make his day by staying to make polite small talk while he smiled at her, emphasizing his triumph, relishing her discomfort and she found it increasingly difficult to breathe.
She would have preferred not to be in the same building as the man. In the same town. She staggered from the board room and took refuge in the ladies loo. At least she was safe from him in there. But not from Susie, who found her sitting in the old basket chair that had been unearthed in the basement and staring into space.
‘Well, that was the most entertaining meeting we’ve had since Ellie Stockley broke her false teeth on a ginger nut. Why aren’t you knocking back the sherry with the rest of the gang?’
‘I’m not in the mood to fawn at the feet of genius.’
‘Oh. I see. You’re hiding from the delicious Mr Devlin.’
‘Delicious?’ she enquired. ‘Have you been licking-’
‘Fizz Beaumont!’
‘- his boots?’
Susie, tidying her hair, gave her a sideways look out of the mirror and changed the subject. ‘Pity about the hot dog stall. John will be disappointed. Are you going to put in a tender for it?’ she asked, cheekily.
‘One of these days you’ll go too far, Susie.’
‘One of these days I’ll apply for your job. I get plenty of practise. I’ve been doing it all day.’
‘Go ahead. You’re welcome to it. But it’s not all smiling over the boardroom table at Luke Devlin,’ she snapped.
‘Oh, come on, Fizz, lighten up. Luke Devlin spoiled your plan to make some quick money, so what? It was a chance in a million it would slip through unchallenged. Most of your fellow trustees have an axe of their own to grind.’ Then she looked at Fizz more closely. ‘Oh, I see. That isn’t it. So what’s the matter?’
‘What could possibly be the matter?’ Susie simply waited and Fizz sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t take my troubles out on you. I haven’t been sleeping very well, that’s all.’ Susie’s look suggested it was far from all, but Fizz ignored it. ‘Was there some reason for you to come hunting me down?’
‘Oh, yes. Someone called Julian says he has to speak to you and that if you were in the building I was to find you and get you to ring him straight back. He may just be an over-eager admirer who you’re avoiding like the plague, but I thought I’d better find you and pass on the message.’
‘Oh, heavens ...’ She made a grab for her bag, fumbled and it fell over, spewing its contents all over the floor. She bent to gather up her scattered belongings and Susie joined her on the floor, retrieving a lipstick, which had rolled beneath the table, then picking up an unopened envelope.
She held it out, slightly crumpled, faintly stained with some green stuff and the unmistakable touch of a teabag.
‘Tell me, Fizz. Is the postman using the dustbin instead of the letterbox for your mail these days?’
Fizz almost snatched the letter from her and stuffed it out of sight in her bag. She didn’t know why she’d bothered the rescue the thing from the bin. She hadn’t opened it. Had no intention of reading it. Ever.
‘Actually, Susie, since you’re obviously not busy…’ - she ignored a “humph” - ‘…there is something I meant to ask you to start on when I came in this morning. Dad thought it would be a good idea to have a small party of some kind at the restaurant. A sort of launch. A buffet, I thought. Do you think two weeks on Friday is too soon?’
‘What’s the rush?’ Susie held open the loo door for her. ‘I mean I can take a hint. If you don’t want to talk about your letter just tell me to mind my own business. It is from Luke Devlin, isn’t it? His handwriting is unmistakable.’
‘Mind your own business,’ Fizz responded, leading the way up the stairs.
‘And he delivered it by hand. Are you going to read it, or just carry it about as a trophy?’
‘I knew you wouldn’t take any notice.’
‘Even so, planning a party simply to avoid giving me a straight answer is a bit over the top, even for you. Why don’t you give the poor guy a chance?’
‘He isn’t poor and he doesn’t wait to be given chances, he takes them. Remember that next time you’re grinning at him over the boardroom table. And after you’ve organised the party, Susie, remind me to sack you.’
‘You did that last week,’ Susie reminded her, with a grin. ‘If you do it more than twice in one month I’ll be forced to take you seriously.’
‘Some hopes. The next time anyone in this office takes me seriously will be the first time,’ she said, pushing open her office door.
‘I take you seriously. In fact I’m beginning to take you very seriously indeed.’ The smile died from her lips as she turned from Susie to be confronted with Luke’s broad back silhouetted against the window. ‘Come in, Fizz,’ he said, without bothering to turn around. ‘And close the door behind you. I want to talk to you.’
‘Susie…’ But Susie, like a rat deserting a sinking ship, had disappeared.
For a long moment Fizz was unable to speak, unable to move. Then Luke turned round to look at her and the flare of passion that he hadn’t quite managed to quench, jerked a nervous, involuntary response from her.
‘What do you want, Luke? I’m very busy.’
‘Now is that really any way to speak to your major sponsor?’ he enquired, softly. ‘After Saturday night’s little demonstration of how far you’re prepared to go to keep me happy.’ His shoulders lifted in an expressive little shrug that suggested he had every right to expect a warmer welcome, clearly trying to goad her into some unwise response.
She declined the invitation, took a shaky breath and wondered as she stretched her lips in an attempt at a smile whether the effect was more like a grimace. It certainly felt like it.
‘If you would like to discuss sponsorship details then naturally I’m happy to see you, although it is wiser to telephone first and make an appointment.’ The grimace stretched a little further. ‘However, since you’re here, please do sit down,’ she invited, pointedly polite. ‘Would you like some coffee?’
He ignored the chair she indicated. ‘And if I wanted something else?’ He regarded her from beneath heavy-lidded eyes with a look that suggested far more than his words.
The fixed smile disappeared as she flushed painfully, but she remained on her feet, her head high. ‘If you’d prefer tea, Luke, you only have to say.’ She made a move to pick up the telephone and summon Susie, but Luke’s hand clamped down hard over hers.
‘Don’t play games with me, Fizz. You can’t win.’ Her heart jolted at the velvet threat of his voice.
‘I’m not the one playing games. Why are you here, Luke?’ she demanded.
‘I came here to talk to Jim Ryan and to take up your invitation to join the Pier Trust. I do hope your bad temper is not because I spoiled your plan to recoup your fortunes with a hot dog stand.’
‘It would take more than hot dogs to do that,’ she replied. ‘It would take hamburgers, ice cream and possibly candy floss as well.’ A glint of amusement lit the depths of his eyes. ‘And I am not in a temper of any kind. But I am busy. So, why are you here? In my office? Now?’ she added, just to make sure he understood. ‘If this is personal I believe we covered everything there was to say last night.’
‘Did we?’ He paused briefly, as if considering something and she noticed the faint mark of a bruise on his cheekbone. He saw her look and with a tightening of the lines about his mouth that might have suggested a smile, or might not, he lifted her hand from the telephone and turned it over, lightly touching her finger, swollen and painful where the vein had been bruised when she struck him. ‘Some things are better dealt with in an entirely business-like way.’
‘What things?’ He didn’t answer immediately. ‘Well?’ she demanded, furious that he was playing with her.
‘Well?’ He repeated, mimicking her with a cruel precision that should have been comic. But she wasn’t laughing, and when he continued, she knew she was right not to be amused. ‘Aren’t you just a little concerned that I might want to forget all about sponsoring you?’
Of course the thought had crossed her mind, but it wasn’t what had kept her awake most of the night. Luke Devlin had been responsible in one way and another for a considerable shortfall in her sleep during the last few days. ‘You’re not sponsoring me, Luke. You’re sponsoring a number of programmes on my radio station. We have an agreement,’ she reminded him.
‘Pavilion Radio has an agreement with me,’ he corrected her, ‘although you do seem to take it extremely personally.’
Her heart was beating wildly out of control. The hand that had been clamping hers to the telephone receiver was now grasping her fingers in a gesture far too intimate for comfort, but to pull away would show that it mattered. That she cared.
‘Yes,’ she agreed, quickly. ‘Pavilion Radio. Of course that’s what I meant.’
‘Is it? I’m not entirely convinced that it is. You never discussed the details with your father, did you?’
She swallowed. He obviously hadn’t wasted his time in those few minutes when he had spoken to her father at the party. ‘He was very busy.’
‘He seems to take a very relaxed attitude to his business affairs. Or maybe it’s only the radio station. In all other respects I found him very astute.’
Fizz gave a little shrug. ‘He leaves the day-to-day running of the radio station to me,’ she confessed.
‘Sponsorship?’
‘Sponsorship,’ she agreed.
‘Finance?’ he nodded. ‘Staff?’
‘Luke -’
‘And the inclusion of Melanie in the cast?’
‘I told him about it.’
‘But you didn’t seek his consent?’ She didn’t enjoy being found out in a blatant lie, but she didn’t duck it.
‘No.’
‘So all the time this has just between the two of us?’ He was staring at her long delicate fingers in a way that utterly unnerved her.
‘Luke?’ she prompted, gently tugging at her fingers.
He stiffened, released her hand. ‘And since I’ve only given you the first month’s payment -’
‘I don’t believe you would back out now,’ she said.
‘Your faith in my integrity touches me deeply, Fizz. Of course it does surprise me, just a little. Last night I received the very strong impression that there was nothing of which you thought me incapable.’
‘Last night, in the heat of the moment, we both said things we have reason to regret. I made a mistake about your relationship with Melanie, it was an honest mistake, but I am prepared to apologise. I’m sure on reflection you would wish to withdraw your own remarks.’
‘And if I don’t?’
‘Then I’m afraid I won’t be able to accept any further sponsorship from you, or any company with which you are associated.’
She had shaken him. Not that there had been any outward indication, but his eyes betrayed him. ‘You’ll go to the wall,’ he said.
‘If I can live with that, I’m sure you can. I’m sorry about Melanie, of course. She was so excited about working on “Holiday Bay”.’ From somewhere she found a careless little shrug. ‘She’ll be terribly disappointed.’
‘No she won’t. You are bluffing, Fizz, so I’m going to do you a favour forget what you just said. But before I do, I’ll offer you a few simple words of advice. I suggest you have them framed and hung where you can see them every moment of your working life.’ He regarded her darkly. ‘Never, ever, make a threat you’re not prepared to carry out.’
‘Who said I’m not?’ she flared up at him.
‘You’ve been running the promos all weekend, getting everyone excited. I think you should be the one worrying about whether I pull Melanie out, don’t you?’
‘You wouldn’t do that, Luke.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it would be self-defeating. You see I know what you’re up to.’ She opened her desk drawer and produced the newspaper cutting, pushing it towards him. ‘That is what this is all about, isn’t it? Getting back at Claudia.’
He glanced at it. ‘How long have you known about this?’
‘Unfortunately I didn’t see it until after I had signed your agreement. When were you going to release that press cutting to the tabloids, Luke?’ She waited but he didn’t pretend not to understand.
‘To coincide with Melanie’s first broadcast, I thought.’
‘Yes, I would have chosen that moment. Let us hope that after so much trouble and expense, it doesn’t turn out to be a damp squib.’
‘The tabloids will love it.’
‘I’m counting on that, Luke, because the advertisers will love it too. There’s nothing like a cat-fight between two actresses to raise the interest. Hollywood publicists have been manufacturing them for years.’
‘And you think that you’ll be able to get by without my help?’
‘I’m sure of it.’
‘Are you? Then answer this. Did one of your major advertisers recently decide against renewing a contract with you?’
Fizz felt a cold, clammy hand clutch at her heart. ‘It happens,’ she said.
‘Well, it could get to be a regular occurrence.’
‘I see.’ And she did. She would never distrust a gut-reaction again.
‘I’m calling your bluff, Fizz. And I’m raising the stakes. You see, I have this strange feeling that you would do anything to save this radio station from bankruptcy and I intend to prove it.’
She was trembling. She couldn’t take much more of this intense battering of her senses. ‘What do you want, Luke?’ she asked.
There was a long, painful moment while his eyes traversed the length of her body in a lingering survey of its curves. Then he took the heavy hank of her long chestnut hair and in swift gesture that wrapped it around his fist, he tied her to him, drawing her closer until her face was inches from his.
‘You know what I want,’ he said, with a quiet menace that struck her to the bone. ‘I want you, Felicity Beaumont.’
Her heart, already pounding from his insolent inspection, now flared in alarm. ‘I… I don’t know what you mean.’ At least she hoped she didn’t know what he meant. The hope was short-lived as he wasted no time in removing any vestige of doubt as to his very precise meaning.
‘Of course you do. The unspoken part of our agreement?’ he reminded her.
‘There is no -’
‘You will discover for yourself whether the four-poster is too small. Shall we say the second Thursday of every month?’ She started under his hand. ‘I really can’t bring myself to participate in ritual sacrifice more frequently than that.’
She swore at him then, one single word to tell him what she thought of him. He didn’t flinch, didn’t appear to hear her.
‘And on the Friday morning I will send the sponsorship cheque to your father just in time to keep the bailiffs out. Would you like me to include a report on your performance? Do you earn a bonus for extra effort?’
‘No!’
The desperate plea wrenched from her lips made no impression on him. ‘No, you don’t earn a bonus? Or does that cry from the heart mean he has no idea just what kind of sacrifice you’re prepared to make in order to protect his investment? How interesting.’ His eyes gleamed thoughtfully as he considered her pale face.
‘Luke, please!’
‘Luke, please.’ He repeated, grimly. ‘You do that so nicely. So convincingly. How can a man resist?’ And without warning, his mouth descended fiercely upon hers.
She could not pull away, though she tried, but his hand clasping her hair to the nape of her neck held her fast. And as she began to beat against his chest with her arms, he simply caught her round the waist and jerked her tight against him, pinning them against his chest so that she was utterly help
less and had to endure that punishing kiss.
Except that held against his vibrant body, his mouth doing impossible, exciting things to her, evoking a shimmering response that obliterated any desire to resist him, endurance was not the word that sprang to her mind.
‘Luke.’ She murmured his name as he finally he lifted his head to gaze deep into her eyes and boneless she leaned weakly against him. Then with an angry little hiss, he jerked away from her. ‘I’ll consider that a deposit on account, Fizz. And of course, being such a thorough young woman, you won’t need me to remind you that you’re still one payment behind. I’ll give you a call shall I, when I have an evening free?’
She looked at him, her eyes pleading with his, unable to believe that he could do this to her. She met a blank wall. Obsidian, bottle glass black eyes that held no expression. ‘Yes, do give me a call, Luke,’ she said. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’
The trouble was, Fizz, thought miserably, she’d brought the whole thing crashing down upon herself. In the quiet peace of the dark harbour, she wrapped her thick fleece lined jacket around her, stuffed her hands into her pockets and stared down at the sea sucking at the ancient stone wall.
Given the right circumstances she would have surrendered all too willingly to Luke Devlin’s embrace and thought herself redeemed by him. But not like this.
On Saturday night, wrapped in his arms, she might have temporarily confused the hunger pangs of desire with love to the point where nothing else mattered. Not even Melanie. And afterwards, when she knew the truth of that relationship, she might so easily have been convinced that he felt something in return.
Why else would he be so angry with her?
But not now.
Now he had left her in no doubt where his feelings lay. Desire was far too eloquent a word for what was, after all, nothing but a business transaction.
Her career or her honour. It was an extraordinary choice to have to make even once in a lifetime. It was a road she had travelled before, but this time it was different. She was older, stronger and she had invested too much of herself in the radio station to let some man take it from her without a fight.
