Rumors on the Red Carpet

by Carole Mortimer

  She bristled. ‘I don’t think I like the accusation in your tone.’

  ‘Well, that’s just too bad,’ he bit out harshly. ‘Because my tone isn’t going to change until I know exactly why you went to bed with me earlier this evening!’

  Her cheeks blazed with colour. ‘I thought I was making love with a man whom I desired and who also desired me!’

  His jaw tightened. ‘Not good enough, Thia—’

  ‘Well, it’s the only explanation I have. And stop calling me that!’ Tears stung her eyes.

  ‘It’s your name,’ he dismissed curtly.

  ‘But you’ve never called me by it.’ She blinked back those heated tears. ‘And I—I liked it that only you had ever called me Cyn,’ she admitted huskily, realising it was the truth. She had found Lucien’s unique name for her irritating at first, but had very quickly come to like that uniqueness.

  His nostrils flared in his impatience. ‘Answer the damned question, Thia!’

  ‘Which one?’ she came back just as angrily. He’d called her that name again. ‘Why did I decide to have dinner alone with you in your apartment this evening? Or why did I choose you as the man to whom I wanted to lose my virginity? Or perhaps to you they’re one and the same question?’ she challenged scornfully. ‘You obviously think that I had pre-planned going to bed with you this evening! That I was attempting to—to entrap you into—into what, exactly?’ Thia looked at him sharply.

  Lucien was still too stunned at the knowledge of Cyn’s virginity—at the thought of her never having been with anyone else—to be able to reason this situation out with his usually controlled logic. As a consequence he was talking without thinking about what he was saying, uncharacteristically shooting straight from the hip. But, damn it, if his mobile had rung even a few seconds later—!

  ‘Damned if I know,’ he muttered exasperatedly.

  ‘Oh, I think you do know, Lucien.’ Cyn’s voice shook with anger. ‘I think you’ve decided—that you believe—I deliberately set out to seduce you this evening.’

  ‘I believe I was the one who did the seducing—’

  ‘Ah, but what if I’m clever enough to let you think you did the seducing?’ she taunted, eyes glittering darkly.

  He gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘You aren’t—’

  ‘It’s a pity you asked about birth control, really,’ she continued without pause. ‘Otherwise I might even have discovered I was pregnant in a few weeks’ time. And wouldn’t that have been wonderful? I can see the headlines in the newspapers now—I had Lucien Steele’s love-child! Except we aren’t in love with each other, and there isn’t ever going to be a child—’

  ‘Stop it, Cyn!’ he rasped sharply, reaching up to grasp her by the shoulders before shaking her. ‘Just stop it!’

  ‘Let me go, Lucien,’ she choked. ‘I don’t like you very much at the moment.’ Tears fell unchecked down the paleness of her cheeks, her eyes dark blue pools of misery.

  Lucien didn’t like himself very much at the moment either. And it was really no excuse that he was still in shock from Miller’s ‘Virgin Queen’ comment. His knee-jerk angry comments had now made Cyn think—believe—that he was angry about her virginity. When in actual fact he felt like getting down on his knees and worshipping at her beautiful feet. A woman’s virginity was a gift. A gift Cyn had been about to give to him this evening. The truth was he was in total awe at the measure of that gift.

  And he had made her cry. That was just unacceptable.

  He released her shoulders before pulling her into his arms—a move she instantly fought against as she tried to push him away, before beating her fists against his chest when she failed to release herself.

  ‘I said, let me go, Lucien!’ She glared up at him as he still held her tightly against his chest.

  ‘Let me explain, Cyn—’

  ‘I have questions I want answered too, Lucien. And so far you’ve refused to answer any of them. Including explaining about this woman Jonathan reputedly stole from you—’

  ‘I don’t consider Miller’s fantasies as being relevant to our present conversation!’ He scowled darkly.

  ‘And I disagree with that opinion. Jonathan said that the two of us making love together this evening was deliberate on your part—that you seduced me to get back at him—’

  ‘Does that really sound like something I would do?’ he grated, jaw clenched.

  ‘Any more than entrapment sounds like something I would do?’ she came back tauntingly. ‘I don’t really know you, Lucien...’

  ‘Oh, you know me, Cyn,’ Lucien assured her softly. ‘In just a few short days I’ve allowed you to know me better than anyone else ever has. And the conversation we need to have is about what happened between the two of us this evening.’

  ‘I think we—you, certainly—have already said more than enough on that subject!’ she assured him firmly.

  ‘Because I was understandably stunned at learning of your—your innocence?’

  ‘Was that you being stunned? It looked more like shock to me!’

  ‘You’re being unreasonable, Cyn—’

  ‘Probably because I feel unreasonable!’ Cyn gave another push against his chest with her bent elbows, those tears still dampening her cheeks. ‘So much has happened this evening that I—Lucien, if you don’t release me I’m going to start screaming, and I think the other guests staying at the hotel have already witnessed enough of a scene for one evening!’

  ‘You’re upset—’

  ‘Of course I’m upset!’ Cyn stilled to look up at him incredulously. ‘I’ve just learnt that the friend I came to New York to visit has not only become involved in taking drugs, but has also been using me to hide his affair with another woman. Add to that the fact that the man I had dinner with and made love with earlier this evening also seems to have been involved with that woman—’

  ‘I’m not involved with anyone but you.’

  ‘I think that gives me the right to be upset, don’t you?’ she continued determinedly.

  Lucien frowned his own frustration with the situation as he released her, before allowing his arms to drop slowly back to his sides, knowing he had handled this situation badly, that his first instinct—to kneel and worship at Cyn’s feet—was the one he should have taken.

  ‘I apologise. It— I— It isn’t every day a man learns that the woman he has just made love with is a virgin.’

  ‘No, I believe we’re becoming something of an endangered species.’ She nodded abruptly. ‘Thank you for the fun of cooking dinner together this evening, Lucien. I enjoyed it. The sex too. The rest of the evening... Not quite so much.’ She stepped back. ‘I’ll make sure I have your T-shirt laundered and returned to you before I leave on Saturday—’

  ‘Do you think I give a damn about my T-shirt?’ he bit out in his frustration with her determination to leave him.

  ‘Probably not.’ She grimaced. ‘I’m sure you have dozens of others just like it. Or you could buy another dozen like it! I would just feel better if I had this one laundered and returned to you.’

  So that she didn’t even have that as a reminder of him once she had returned to her life in London, Lucien guessed heavily.

  Lucien wouldn’t need anything to remind him of Cyn once she had gone.

  He had spoken the truth when he’d told her that he had been more open, more relaxed in her company, than he ever had with any other woman.

  As for the sex...!

  He’d had good sex in his life, pleasurable sex, and very occasionally mechanical sex, when mutual sexual release had been the only objective, but he’d never had such mind-blowing and compatible sex as he’d enjoyed tonight with Cyn, where the slightest touch, every caress, gave them both unimagined pleasure.

  He had always believed that sort of sex had to be worked at, with th
e two people involved having a rapport that went beyond the physical to the emotional.

  He and Cyn had something between them beyond the physical. Lucien had known Cyn a matter of days, and yet the two of them had instinctively found that rapport. In and out of bed. Only to have it all come crashing down about their heads the moment Dex rang to tell them of Miller’s presence downstairs in the hotel reception area.

  Not only that, but Cyn was a virgin, and now that Lucien knew that he realised that her shyness earlier was an indication that she was an inexperienced virgin. A very inexperienced virgin, who had climaxed half a dozen times in his arms. Which was surely unusual—and perhaps an indication that she felt more for him than just physical attraction?

  Or was that just wishful thinking on his part...?

  Lucien didn’t know any more. Had somehow lost his perspective. On everything. A loss that necessitated in him needing time and space in which to consider exactly what he felt for Cyn. Time the mutinously angry expression on Cyn’s face now told him he simply didn’t have!

  ‘Fine.’ He tersely accepted her suggestion about returning the T-shirt. ‘But I’ll see you again before you leave—’

  ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ She backed up another step, putting even more distance between the two of them.

  Lucien scowled darkly across that distance. ‘You’re being unreasonable—’

  ‘Outraged virgin unreasonable? Or just normal female unreasonable?’ she taunted with insincere sweetness.

  ‘Just unreasonable,’ he grated between clenched teeth, not wanting to lose his temper and say something else he would have cause to regret. The fact that he was in danger of losing his temper at all was troubling. He never lost his control—let alone his temper. Tonight, with Cyn, he had certainly lost his control, and his temper was now seriously in danger of following it. ‘You’re putting words into my mouth now, Cyn,’ he continued evenly. ‘And we will see each other again before you leave. I’ll make sure of it.’

  She raised midnight brows. ‘I’d be interested to know how.’

  Lucien gave a humourless smile. ‘I believe, ironically, that you’re travelling back to London on Saturday on the Steele Atlantic Airline.’

  ‘How on earth did you know that?’ She stared at him incredulously.

  ‘I checked.’ He shrugged. ‘I thought it would be a nice gesture to bump your seat up to First Class. Miller was a cheapskate for not booking you into First Class in the first place!’

  ‘He did,’ she snapped. ‘I’m the one who insisted he change it to Economy.’

  ‘No doubt because you have every intention of paying the money back to him.’ Lucien sighed, only too well aware of Cyn’s fierce independence. It was a knowledge that made his earlier comments—accusations!—even more ridiculous. And unforgivable.

  ‘Of course.’ She tilted her chin proudly.

  Lucien nodded. ‘Nevertheless, if you avoid seeing me again before you leave for the airport on Saturday, one telephone call from me and the flight gets delayed...or cancelled altogether.’

  Cyn gasped. ‘You wouldn’t seriously do that?’

  He raised a mocking brow. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’re way way out of line on this—that is what I think!’ she hissed forcefully.

  He shrugged. ‘Your choice.’

  ‘You—you egomaniac!’ Thia glared at him. Arrogant, manipulative, impossible ego-maniac!

  Lucien gave a hard, humourless smile. ‘As I said, it’s up to you. We either talk again before you leave or you don’t leave.’

  ‘There are other airlines.’

  He shrugged. ‘I will ensure that none are available to you.’

  She gasped. ‘You can’t do that—’

  ‘Oh, but I can.’

  Her eyes widened. ‘You would really stop me from leaving New York until we’ve spoken again...?’

  His mouth thinned. ‘You aren’t giving me any alternative.’

  ‘We all have choices, Lucien.’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘And your overbearing behaviour now is leaving me with no choice but to dislike you intensely.’

  He sighed. ‘Well, at least it’s intensely; I would hate it to be anything so insipid as just mediocre dislike! Look, I’m not enjoying backing you into a corner, Cyn,’ he reasoned grimly as she glared at him. ‘All I’m asking for is that we both sleep on this situation and then have a conversation tomorrow. Is that too much to ask?’

  Was it? Could Thia even bear to be alone with him again after all that had been said?

  Oh, she accepted that Lucien had been shocked at the way Jonathan had just blurted out her physical innocence. But Lucien’s response to that knowledge had been—damned painful. That was what it had been!

  ‘Okay, we’ll talk again tomorrow.’ She spoke in measured tones. ‘But in a public place. With the agreement that I can get up and leave any time I want to.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘I’m not sure I like your implication...’

  ‘And my answer to that is pretty much the same as the one you gave me a few minutes ago—that’s just too bad!’ She looked at him challengingly.

  Lucien gave a slow shake of his head. ‘How the hell did we get into this situation, Cyn? One minute I have my mouth and my hands all over you, and the next—’

  ‘You don’t,’ she snapped, the finality of her tone implying he never would again.

  Except...it was impossible for Lucien not to see the outline of her nipples pouting hard as berries against the soft material of his T-shirt. Or not to note the way an aroused flush now coloured her throat and up into her cheeks. Or see the feverish glitter in the deep blue of her eyes.

  Cyn was angry with him right now—and justifiably so after his own train-wreck of a conversation just now—but that hadn’t stopped her from remembering the fierceness of the desire that had flared between them earlier, or prevented the reaction of her body to those memories.

  ‘Tomorrow, Cyn?’ he encouraged huskily. ‘Let’s both just take a night to calm down.’

  She frowned. ‘It’s my last day and I’d planned on taking a boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty. Don’t tell me!’ She grimaced as she obviously saw his expression. ‘You’ve never been there, either!’

  He smiled slightly. ‘You live in London—have you ever been to the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace?’

  ‘The Palace, yes. The Tower, no.’ She shrugged. ‘Okay, point taken. But tomorrow really is my last chance to take that boat trip...’

  ‘Then we’ll arrange to meet up in the evening.’ Lucien shrugged.

  Cyn eyed him warily. ‘You’re being very obliging all of a sudden.’

  He grimaced. ‘Maybe I’m trying to score points in the hope of making up for behaving like such a jackass earlier?’

  ‘And maybe you just like having your own way,’ she said knowingly. ‘Okay, Lucien, we’ll meet again tomorrow evening. But I’ll be out most of the day, so leave a message for me at the front desk as to where we’re supposed to meet up.’

  He grimaced. ‘Not the most gracious acceptance of an invitation I’ve ever received, but considering the jackass circumstances I’ll happily take it.’

  ‘This isn’t a date, Lucien.’ Cyn snapped her impatience.

  She was doing it again—making him want to laugh when the situation, the strain that now existed between the two of them, should have meant he didn’t find any of this in the least amusing! Besides which, Lucien had no doubt that if he did dare to laugh Cyn would be the one throwing potted plants around the hotel’s reception—in an attempt to hit him with one of them!

  Just thinking of Miller’s behaviour earlier tonight was enough to dampen Lucien’s amusement. ‘I want your word. I would like your word,’ he amended impatiently, bearing in mind Cyn’s scathing comment e
arlier about his always wanting to have his own way, ‘that you will stay away from Miller’s apartment tomorrow.’

  ‘I thought I might just—’

  ‘I would really rather you didn’t,’ Lucien said frustratedly. ‘You saw what he was like this evening, Cyn. His behaviour is currently unpredictable at best, violent at worst. You could get hurt. Far worse than just those bruises on your arm,’ he added grimly.

  She looked pained as she shook her head. ‘Jonathan’s life is in such a mess right now—’

  ‘And it’s a self-inflicted mess. Damn it, Cyn.’ He scowled. ‘He’s already admitted he was only using you as a shield for his affair with another woman when he invited you to stay with him in New York!’

  ‘Even so, it doesn’t seem right—my just leaving without seeing him again.’ She gave a sad shake of her head. ‘I would feel as if I were abandoning him... Not everyone is as capable of handling sudden fame and fortune as you were,’ she defended, when Lucien looked unimpressed.

  ‘Damn it, Cyn.’ He rasped his impatience with her continued concern for a man who didn’t deserve it. ‘Okay, if I see what can be done about getting Miller to accept help, maybe even going to a rehab facility, will you give me your promise not to go to his apartment tomorrow?’

  ‘And you’ll reconsider firing him from Network?’

  ‘Don’t push your luck, Cyn,’ Lucien warned softly.

  To his surprise, she gave a rueful grin. ‘Okay, but it was worth a try, don’t you think, as you’re in such an amenable mood?’

  Some of the tension eased from Lucien’s shoulders as he looked at her admiringly. ‘You are one gutsy lady, Cynthia Hammond!’

  * * *

  Thia was feeling far from gutsy at the moment. In fact reaction seemed to be setting in and she suddenly felt very tired, her legs less than steady. A reaction no doubt due to that fierceness of passion between herself and Lucien earlier as much as Jonathan’s erratic, and...yes, she admitted dangerously unbalanced behaviour.

  She was willing to concede that Lucien was right about that, at least; she had hardly recognised Jonathan this evening as the man she had known for two years.