‘Sorry I’m a little late, ladies!’ The object of her anger strolled unhurriedly into the room, the air immediately filled with that charge of electricity he took around with him, his dark brows raised as he took in the fact that Madison was standing, her stance aggressive, obviously preparing to leave. ‘Your contract.’ He held up some of the papers he had in his hand. ‘It took a little longer to—prepare than I had anticipated.’
Her contract… She had begun to wonder, with his lack of appearance, whether Gideon Byrne wasn’t playing some elaborately cruel hoax on her by asking her to come here today.
She hadn’t wanted to come here at all; she was sure she and Gideon could never work together. But, as Uncle Edgar had pointed out, opportunities like this one didn’t happen every day. In fact, if she refused this one, it might never happen again! And so she had gritted her teeth, chosen carefully the conservative emerald-coloured suit she was wearing matched with a cream blouse, brushed her hair until it shone like molten gold, and arrived here promptly at twelve o’clock.
Only to be kept waiting by Gideon Byrne for forty minutes!
‘Did you book the table for lunch?’ he asked Claire, obviously having felt no pressure to dress smartly himself for their appointment. He was wearing a pair of black denims similar to the ones he had been wearing the first time she’d met him, this time with a black silk shirt. There was no doubting his rugged attractiveness, but he was hardly dressed for the formal business meeting Madison had been expecting.
And now he seemed more concerned about his lunch than he did about their meeting! Perhaps this was all a joke after all!
Madison straightened, the two-inch heels of her black shoes adding height to her five feet eight inches, her chin tilted, giving her a regal appearance as she looked at Gideon through narrowed lids. ‘Please don’t let me keep you,’ she drawled coldly. ‘I’m sure—’
‘Of course you’re invited for lunch, Madison,’ Gideon cut in dismissively, before turning to Claire once again. ‘Did you order the taxi?’
By ‘invited to lunch’ Madison supposed he had to mean she was going to join them for lunch!
It would have been nice to have been asked if she was free to join them, but the more she came to know of Gideon, the more she realised this man didn’t ask anything; he ordered or he took! Maybe his mother had overcompensated for the break-up between his father and herself, and given the young Gideon whatever he wanted so that he didn’t feel his father’s loss; whatever the reason, he was an incredibly arrogant man!
And as for his treatment of Claire…! The other woman might be his personal assistant, and so paid to work for him—she would need to be very highly paid, Madison would have thought!—but surely he could say please and thank you occasionally…?
‘Waiting outside,’ Claire confirmed dryly, obviously used to Gideon’s manner, although she shot Madison a rueful smile as she seemed to guess what she was thinking.
‘Let’s go,’ Gideon muttered grimly, placing a hand under Madison’s elbow as he guided her out of the sitting-room and down the corridor towards the entrance.
Madison glanced back to give Claire a rueful smile of her own, only to find the other woman wasn’t following them, that she was actually nowhere in sight. Did that mean she was having lunch with Gideon alone?
‘What is it?’ He glanced down at her, having obviously felt her increased tension at that realisation, but not altering the speed of his own lengthy stride towards the double glass doors that led outside, still taking Madison along with him.
How did she even try to explain to this man that she had come to England for a relaxing holiday with her uncle Edgar after a rather traumatic time both emotionally and professionally, and that since her arrival, and meeting Gideon Byrne, she had felt as if she was on an express train? And she wasn’t sure of its destination! What she did know, and found extremely unnerving, was that Gideon himself seemed to be at the controls!
‘Nothing,’ she said wearily. What was the point of explaining anything to this man? His interest in her was purely professional. She would be even more agitated if it were anything else!
There was no doubting that Gideon was a physically attractive man, or that a lot of women would find his arrogance added to that attraction, but as far as Madison was concerned she preferred someone a little more gentle, with more consideration, someone who—
Someone like Gerry? She mocked her own gullibility over that particular relationship. She’d been completely taken in by his supposed gentleness and consideration—right up until the time he dumped her for a clinging redhead, who was coincidentally the sister of the director of his next play. At least with someone like Gideon, what you saw was what you got!
And she, for one, didn’t want it!
Neither did she want to be bundled into the taxi, completely ignored on the short drive to the Chinese restaurant—and, as he hadn’t consulted her on his choice of restaurant, he obviously didn’t give a damn whether or not she actually liked Chinese food! Then she found herself seated next to Gideon in a secluded booth at the back of the room, a screen covered in Chinese art placed in front of their table and so blocking out the rest of the busy restaurant, leaving Madison with only Gideon to look at. Wonderful!
‘The Chinese understand more than most the need for privacy,’ Gideon drawled as he easily read her thoughts. ‘Read this.’ He dropped the contract on to the table in front of her. ‘I’ll order the food.’ He picked up the menu.
There appeared to be pages and pages of ‘this’, and Madison had no intention of going through all of the contract—especially the small print!—while she ate her lunch. She wasn’t that naive; she intended letting her godfather look through it before she signed anything.
Besides, she was quite capable of ordering her own food!
She picked up the contract and carefully placed it on the table in front of Gideon. ‘You tell me what it says,’ she told him with saccharine sweetness. ‘And I’ll order our food!’ She met his gaze challengingly and he frowned at her.
Gideon continued to look at her wordlessly for several long seconds, and then he slowly began to smile, that smile that transformed him from austerely attractive to devilishly handsome, before shrugging his shoulders. ‘Nothing with ginger in it for me,’ he murmured dryly, that dark grey gaze appreciative as he seemed to take in her appearance for the first time today.
Madison looked quickly down at the menu, but she could feel the heat in her cheeks from that suddenly appreciative gaze. Damn him; most of the time he gave the impression he was nothing but a machine, with about as much emotion, and then suddenly he became sensually male, making her very aware of him as a man, but also making her very aware of her own femininity.
She could feel the sudden hardening of her nipples now, against the silk of her blouse, in response to his maleness. Her only consolation was that because she still wore her jacket he couldn’t possibly be aware of that response.
Although she didn’t feel so confident of that when she glanced up seconds later and found his gaze on that betraying part of her anatomy, a lazy smile curving those sensual lips now!
She closed the menu with a decisive snap. This man was still playing with her, and—
‘Decided already?’ he drawled huskily.
She opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she had decided, only to find the waiter hovering beside their table waiting to take their order. Okay, he had said no ginger, but he had said nothing about the hot dishes on the menu, and she deliberately ordered half a dozen of them. Let’s see if he’s still smiling after that lot, she decided angrily.
‘Exactly what I would have ordered myself.’ He nodded in approval of her choices. ‘With lots of mineral water,’ he told the waiter lightly before he left to process their order.
Of course, he didn’t drink alcohol. Madison wasn’t a great lover of it herself, but right now she could have done with a stiff whisky—or two!
‘Now to get down to the contract.’ G
ideon was suddenly all cold efficiency once again. ‘I’ll read through it, and then you can tell me if you have any comments, okay?’
She nodded her agreement. But she still intended letting Edgar look at it before she signed anything. Besides, she hadn’t even seen the whole film script yet, as Gideon had only given her two precious pages of it for her screen-test the day before. As if he didn’t trust anyone with all of it…!
Although she had a feeling the thick envelope he’d carried with him from the studio and placed carefully on the bench-seat beside him when he’d sat down a few minutes ago might just be that script, so maybe he was going to part with it, after all… And she was sure Edgar, as her protective godfather, wouldn’t have let her go this far if he didn’t approve of the script himself…?
Half an hour later Gideon was still reading through the contract. Their food had been delivered, and was being duly eaten—with not a sign of discomfort at the hot spices on Gideon’s part, Madison noticed with regret.
Because there was certainly a lot of discomfort on her part as regards the contract; she didn’t need Edgar to look at it to know there were several paragraphs in it she didn’t like in the least!
‘Will I be allowed to breathe without your say-so?’ she taunted when Gideon finally got to the end of it.
‘As long as it’s only shallowly,’ he returned dryly.
‘That’s what I thought.’ She nodded. ‘Gideon, you can’t seriously expect me to sign something like that—’
‘I’m very serious, Madison,’ he cut in harshly. ‘I have deliberately chosen an unknown for this film—you! And I don’t wish that unknown—’
‘Me,’ she put in derisively.
‘You,’ he agreed coldly. ‘I don’t want you giving unauthorised interviews—in fact talking to the press for any reason, and certainly providing no opportunity for them to take photographs. The fact that you are unknown adds to the mystery of the film.’ His eyes were metallic in his seriousness.
She shook her head. ‘I understand that bit—I think. But—and correct me if I’m wrong—it also says in there that I’m not to talk to anyone about the film. Anyone at all. Gideon, I have a family—’
‘A mother, father and brother,’ he remembered correctly.
‘Exactly,’ Madison confirmed impatiently, not in the least impressed with his power of recall. ‘Do you seriously expect that I can get away with not telling them what I’m doing for the next—eight months, isn’t it?’ She referred back to the contract.
‘Longer if we overrun our schedule.’ He nodded grimly.
‘Whatever.’ She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘My brother would be over here with a shotgun if I disappeared off the face of the earth for that length of time!’
Gideon’s mouth twisted mockingly. ‘I wouldn’t call going to the Isle of Man disappearing off the face of the earth!’ He named the intended location for shooting the majority of the film.
Her eyes flashed deeply green at that mockery. ‘I doubt my brother has ever heard of it!’ She hadn’t herself until Gideon had explained it was a picturesque island situated in the Irish Sea, halfway between England and Ireland!
‘He’s your older brother?’ Gideon asked derisively.
‘My only brother,’ she corrected him impatiently. ‘And he—’
‘And your father is Malcolm McGuire,’ he continued thoughtfully. ‘Compliments of Edgar,’ he shrugged at her sharp look. ‘What’s your mother called?’
‘Mrs McGuire!’ she snapped angrily; he was being deliberately irritating!
Gideon gave one of those chuckles that made him look almost warmly human. Almost. Because Madison knew that within seconds that could easily change…!
‘Just natural curiosity, Madison.’ He shrugged dismissively. ‘You’re close to your family?’
She thought of her tall, strong father, her petite, beautiful mother, her handsome older brother. ‘Very,’ she murmured softly. She missed them all already, indeed, it felt as if it was weeks rather than days since she had last seen them all!
‘Hmm.’ Gideon nodded. ‘Then you’re right; that could obviously pose a problem…’
A problem! It was ridiculous to ask anyone to—‘Does anyone else with a part in the film have a clause like that one in their contract?’ She looked at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Do you?’
‘It doesn’t apply to me,’ he bit out harshly. ‘For one thing, I’m the director. And for another—I don’t have any family to be close to!’
None at all? She knew his father had died years ago, but was his mother dead too…? How sad; Gideon was only in his late thirties, and yet he was already alone in the world…
Good heavens; sympathy was the last thing this man wanted, from her or anyone else!
She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry about that. But I believe that clause to be unreasonable—’
‘So unreasonable you aren’t willing to sign the contract?’ Gideon looked at her through narrowed eyes.
Was this a trap? Did Gideon not want her to sign the contract, and so not be in the film, either…?
He was certainly objectionable enough, was constantly rude to her, seemed to be grudgingly offering her the part of Rosemary—
Edgar…!
She was American, Rosemary was English. She had been in only one other film, and that a very minor part, and, even though Gideon claimed he wanted an unknown, wasn’t she just a little too much of an unknown? Added to all that, her godfather was the owner of the company that was producing the film…
She straightened in her chair, picking up her handbag. ‘I believe we are wasting each other’s time, Gideon,’ she told him stiltedly. ‘And we both know how valuable your time is!’ she added bitterly, standing up to leave.
Gideon stood up too. ‘Madison—’
‘Please, Gideon!’ She was very much afraid she was about to cry! And that was the last thing she wanted to do in front of this man. There had been too many disappointments in her life of late, and this latest cruelty felt like the last straw.
But before she could turn to leave she felt her arms taken in a firm grasp, with Gideon shaking her slightly. ‘I have no idea what direction your thoughts are running in—although I could probably make an educated guess!’ he said harshly. ‘Let me assure you, no one tells me what to do!’
Her tears were blinding her now. ‘Edgar—’
‘Least of all Edgar,’ he dismissed scornfully, no longer shaking her, his hands almost gentle on her arms now. ‘Madison…!’
Maybe if she hadn’t been blinded by the tears she would have seen the kiss coming, but as it was she was completely unprepared for the force of Gideon’s mouth coming down on hers.
Unprepared…! There was no way she could have foreseen Gideon kissing her. And in a public restaurant of all places, albeit behind the privacy of a screen.
Nor foreseen her own response to that kiss…!
It was as if she had been waiting for this moment since they’d first met at the pool, electricity fusing them together, mouths moving erotically together, bodies pressed together, in perfect unison. Madison’s senses reeled as she clung to the warm strength of Gideon’s shoulders.
‘What the hell am I doing…?’ Gideon had wrenched his mouth from hers, his fingers biting into her arms now as he held her away from him, his expression grimly contemptuous. ‘Take the damned contract, Madison.’ He thrust it at her. ‘Talk it over with Edgar.’ His mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure you’ll find that he can see nothing wrong with it!’
It was his contempt that stung her the most. After all, he had been the one to instigate the kiss, not her. ‘He isn’t the one signing it!’ she snapped.
Gideon bent to pick up the thick padded envelope. ‘Take this, too,’ he rasped. ‘Maybe it will help you make up your mind! I hardly need say it’s for your eyes only,’ he added with hard derision.
The closely guarded film script… ‘Thank you for lunch—I think,’ she muttered before walking away, the contract and scri
pt clutched in her shaking hands.
Her legs were shaking too, but they did support her all the way outside the restaurant and into a taxi. She leaned back against the seat as she expelled a shaky breath.
Having Gideon Byrne kiss her had been the last thing on her mind today. Her only conclusion was that she was sure it had been the last thing on Gideon’s mind too…
Damn it, he had just kissed Madison McGuire!
And he had enjoyed it too. Madison might be slender, but she was softly curvaceous to hold, and her mouth…! Despite the spicy food they had both eaten, Madison had tasted of peaches and cream, her lips softly responsive, so much so that desire had made him forget briefly exactly where they were.
He shook his head in self-disgust, dropping back down into his chair. A public restaurant, for goodness’ sake.
Hell, it didn’t matter where it had happened; he had kissed an actress he intended working very closely with. And already he knew that brief intimacy was going to cause trouble between the two of them. If Madison should decide to sign the contract…
If.
That was the question that needed answering now. He shouldn’t have let his reluctance to work with Madison show when he was talking to her, but it was very difficult to control his wariness whenever he was around her for any length of time. And, for reasons he didn’t completely understand himself, he was reluctant; even the knowledge that she would make a perfect Rosemary couldn’t dispel that uneasy feeling. And Madison had sensed that…
He was still scowling when he returned to the office a couple of hours later. Claire was busy working, although she looked up when he walked into the room.
She pulled a face at his frown. ‘Oh, dear, Gideon; what have you done to the beautiful Madison now?’ she taunted.
He stiffened resentfully. ‘What makes you think I’ve done anything to her?’
Claire grinned. ‘Could it be the fact that Edgar Remington telephoned here not long ago threatening murder?’
Gideon grimaced. ‘Mine, of course!’
‘Of course.’ Her grin widened. ‘I told him he would have to get in line!’ She shrugged.
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