So, Tina was thinking, he was watching me, was he? There was something a little disquieting about that.
Justin was continuing, ‘I suppose you know lots of people here.’ He cast a quick glance round the room in which they were standing—the conference hall of one of London’s top hotels that was currently playing host to a big press reception. ‘After all, you’re someone pretty important these days. No less than the features editor of Scope.’
‘Oh, not so important. Not nearly as important as yourself.’
One perfectly shaped eyebrow lifted over one porcelain-blue eye. Did he think he could mock her and get away with it? Tina wondered. Well, he was wrong if he did. No one did that any more. In the three years since their parting she had grown a little more worldly, a little more sophisticated, a little more smart. These days, with perfect poise, she could hold her own with anyone. And she could certainly hold her own with a skunk like Justin Marlowe.
Tina continued, a light, mocking smile on her lips, ‘You, after all, are the owner of JM Publishing. You must own or be on the point of taking over most of the newspapers and magazines represented in this room.’
‘Not quite.’ Justin smiled sardonically. ‘Only forty per cent. But don’t worry, I’m working on the others.’
Tina did not smile back. He hasn’t changed, she reflected. Still the same old overbearing self-assurance. Once, she had found that side of him exciting. She’d been stimulated and charmed by his unstoppable dynamism. But in the end she’d discovered it was really just pure selfishness. Justin Marlowe cared for no one but himself.
He hadn’t changed much in the looks department either. Now that that moment of foolish turmoil had receded and she was able to look him straight in the face, Tina could see that he was just the same as ever. Perhaps there were a few more lines around the long-lashed dark grey eyes and in the corners of the passionate, well-shaped mouth—as one would expect of a man of thirty-six. But his features were still as arrestingly handsome as ever and the hair that he wore casually swept back from his forehead was still as glossily black as a raven’s wing.
Still beautiful on the outside, she thought, and rotten to the core underneath.
Tina finished drying her hand and held out the handkerchief to him. ‘So, is that why you’re here?’ Her tone was disapproving. ‘On a kind of window-shopping expedition? To see what you’re going to buy up next?’
Justin smiled. ‘I already know what I’m going to buy up next.’
‘You mean Berry’s—the company I work for?’
That was the rumour that was going around. In fact, that was the very subject that Tina and her friends had been discussing with some concern just a few minutes ago, while Justin had been secretly observing them.
And talk about coincidence....! Someone ‘up there’ must have been listening. For Tina had been proposing that it might be a good idea if one of them were to pay a visit to JM Publishing and have a word with Justin Marlowe. For, in fact, there were a number of rumours going around and some of them were deeply disturbing. It seemed there was more than just a simple take-over in the air. And Tina was all for getting to the bottom of it.
Well, here’s your chance, she told herself now. This totally unplanned confrontation wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind, but all the same it was too good an opportunity to miss.
‘So, is that right?’ she pressed him now. ‘Is Berry’s next on your shopping list?’
To her surprise, he shook his head. ‘Actually, I wasn’t referring to Berry’s...’
As he paused, just for an instant a spark of hope touched Tina’s heart. Were these rumours they were all so concerned about just rumours, after all? But the hope was barely formed when Justin shattered it.
‘Berry’s I consider to be already in the bag.’
He took the handkerchief, but did not return it to his pocket.
Tina felt herself blanch. ‘So, the stories are true, then? You really are about to take over Berry’s?’
‘There are still a couple of papers to be signed, but the answer is yes. I am indeed about to take over Berry’s.’ At her sudden pallor he smiled the sadistic smile of a tiger. ‘You may congratulate me. And yourself, of course. You’re about to have a new boss.’
‘How unfortunate.’
Suddenly, there was a lead weight in Tina’s stomach. It grew heavier as he elaborated. ‘Just like old times, eh?’
Old times. Bad times. Tina glared at him. ‘To be frank, I can’t think of anything worse.’ For she had worked for him in the past. That was how they’d . first met. And it was an experience she had no desire to repeat.
But Justin was still smiling his sadistic tiger’s smile. The smile of a tiger lazily sharpening its claws. ‘I was just thinking, as I was watching you chatting to your friends there, how much I’m going to enjoy having you back under my wing.’
‘Under your wing? You mean in your claws!’
And suddenly, as she glared at him, Tina felt another shiver as a new suspicion occurred to her. She hadn’t bumped into him. More likely, he’d bumped into her. He’d deliberately orchestrated this encounter so that he could tell her this bad news to her face and gloat.
She fixed him with a flinty look. ‘I suppose you’re feeling pretty pleased?’
‘Immensely pleased. However, I must say I’m saddened——’ He broke off to smile a smile that was rather more triumphant than sad. ‘Saddened that you unfortunately don’t appear to share my pleasure.’
‘No, I don’t and I’m afraid neither will anyone else at Berry’s. Frankly, this is the worst news you could possibly have given me. Everyone at Berry’s is going to be devastated. Nobody wants you to take over the company.’
‘Really?’ Justin arched one caustic black eyebrow. He regarded her narrowly for a moment. ‘That’s extremely team-spirited of you, I must say, to care about the feelings of your colleagues.’ The eyebrow lifted a little higher. ‘Quite out of character.’
Tina felt a twist inside her as she remembered the episode that had given him that low, and totally unjust, opinion of her. It had been their last bitter encounter, when all she had cared about was paying back some small measure of the huge hurt he’d inflicted on her. She’d been totally out of her mind that day.
But she would never take back the things she had said to him. She knew they’d done no more than slightly bruise his ego, but even that was a source of some satisfaction. And she didn’t give a damn what he thought of her anyway.
She tilted her chin at him and totally ignored his comment. ‘Everyone, on all the magazines at Berry’s, is very much against you,’ she repeated.
‘Are they?’ He looked as concerned as an elephant with a fleabite. ‘Don’t worry, they’ll learn to love me. Everybody does.’
He said it so flippantly, yet looking straight at her, as though he had meant it as a callous reminder of the overpowering love he had once aroused in her.
Tina felt herself recoil. Her heart thudded inside her. ‘If they do, they soon get over it,’ she shot back at him in a harsh tone. ‘It’s not the kind of love that runs very deep.’
That was what she had wanted him to believe of her three years ago. It was why she’d said the things she’d said at their last meeting. She’d had too much pride to let him see her bruised, bleeding heart.
And it seemed she’d done a good job. He flicked a look back at her now. ‘But some people are only capable of the shallowest emotions. They just take what they can get and then cynically