‘I’ve failed my father’s trust in me. I want to make things right for the future of the company and for myself I want peace of mind,’ she told him slowly.
He looked at her long and hard before replying smoothly, ‘I wonder if you know what you do want, Jade? I’m also beginning to wonder if your requesting my services has anything remotely to do with the business.’
Jade’s mouth dropped open in astonishment and a fire scorched her spine at his veiled suggestion. Had she given something away—a look, a thought, a misplaced word? He couldn’t think this was personal, surely? No, that was impossible—but then he did have some ego to nurture, she reminded herself. She forced a smile to cover her acute embarrassment.
‘I wouldn’t have you back if you came with a knighthood,’ she told him disparagingly. ‘You think you were the only one hurt that night, Mel. Your bigoted attitude damaged my love for you more than you could ever know.’ Her eyes narrowed with anger. ‘You gave me no space to explain. You wanted to believe it all because it was an easy way out for you. After all, your womanising ways weren’t cultivated after we split up. You were born with them!’
‘We were an excellent match, then, weren’t we?’ he grazed back at her sarcastically.
Her shoulders slumped in an unguarded second of defeat. How could she even begin to think that she could ever have any effect on him? He could hurt her so easily but her poisoned arrows hit an unyielding force, and because of that hostile defence of his she knew this could never work out. It was impossible for them to bury the past and channel their energies into getting her agency back on line.
‘Yes, we were,’ she agreed because it was the only way to be rid of him. Let them both think the worst of each other. ‘And it’s why this won’t work. I thank you for your interest but it’s not on.’
‘My God, you’re fickle,’ he grated cynically. ‘Is this why things have gone wrong here—because of your indecisiveness ? You want my help, then you don’t. Your back is against the wall, Jade. I’m your only saviour and you know it,’ he informed her tightly.
‘Yes, you are,’ she acknowledged, inwardly agreeing that he had a point about indecisiveness. With him drawing the air from the room with his magnetism she couldn’t stick to any firm decision. She couldn’t think clearly any more. She had to, though. She had to force herself to think. Her dark eyes narrowed. ‘But I might decide none of this is worth saving. I might decide bankruptcy has a nice ring to it as opposed to the ring of your insults in my ears!’
He smiled cynically. ‘Bankruptcy is a painful state, sweetheart. Loss of kudos, status and very probably your home, your car and your valuables. I wonder if you could bear that?’
‘You don’t frighten me,’ she returned, though her in-sides coiled tightly at the thought that he could think such things of her. ‘But your arguments are a fair indication of what is important in your life: everything that pertains to materialism and ego,’ she said bitingly. ‘I wanted your help to save my employees more than my valuables, and, yes, my pride where my father is concerned.’ She lifted her small chin. ‘As an Anglo-Italian that might strike a chord with you. I’ve failed and I’m not afraid to admit it to you but my father is something else. He had faith in me and I failed him and…and I can’t bear to face him.’
Oh, no, she could feel the tears flaming at the backs of her eyes. Damn him for exposing her vulnerability with such ease. She tossed the pen down on the desk, turned away from him and made for the door. She held it open, composed now, and defiant too. She’d cope, and without any help from him. She’d remortgage her flat, pawn her wretched valuables if it came to it. What she wouldn’t do was humble herself to him any more!
‘Actually, Mel Biaggio,’ she said stoically,’I owe you an enormous debt, but one I’m not going to offer any payment for. I’ll take it as a freebie. Your insults and put-downs have served me very well. I’ll fight this on my own if it’s the last thing I do, just to prove to you I’m not that rich, spoilt child you keep insisting I am.’
She rapped her nails on the door to indicate that her patience was running thin and she would like him to leave. He made no movement, simply held her gaze with steely eyes as if wondering if she had it in her to struggle along on her own. Jade read the look and was more determined than ever. She’d do it, and on her own, too. Her fingers tightened round the edge of the door, willing him to hurry up and pass through it.
She smiled sweetly. ‘Do let me know your wedding day, Mel, so I can send your intended my very best wishes…and sympathies,’ she added meaningfully. If that didn’t shift him nothing would, she thought.
Success. Slowly he moved towards her, without his coat. She parted her lips to remind him but he was upon her before she could utter a word. He took her arm and propelled her through the door. His grip on her was iron-hard and determined.
‘You’ll be the last to know my wedding date, sweetheart,’ he breathed, keeping his voice low because Diane was in the outer office. ‘And now that I know you are determined to get this agency bouncing its merry little way along the road to success we’ll get started,’
Once they were out in the corridor she breathlessly pulled her arm from his grip. Her cheeks were flaming as she swung to face him. He could talk of indecisiveness! He was the one who was up and down. So he was going to help, was he? If so, she wanted a promise from him to cool it, forget the past and get the job done. This was business and it needed to be separated from emotions. Emotions were draining.
She took a deep breath. ‘There are conditions—’
The laughter that cut her off wasn’t fired by humour. ‘I make the conditions , sweet one, and you just do as you’re told.’
Gritting her teeth, without another word Jade turned away from him and led the way to the stairwell, her stomach churning. Grit and bear it, not even grin and bear it, was going to be her motto from now on. It was all quite unbearable but she had no choice but to put up with it. Halfway up the stairs to the next floor, in control again, her emotions buried deep inside her, she spoke.
‘Administration’s on my floor, the studio above,’ she told him without looking at him.
‘Just the two floors?’
‘This is Soho, not the Sahara,’ she told him flintily. “The rents are astronomical around here.’
‘Perhaps that’s where you’re failing—not thinking big enough,’ Mel parried.
‘Perhaps I know my capabilities and live within them,’ she retorted sharply.
He made no comment but held the swing door open for her. Her arm brushed his as she passed through. Both were adequately clothed, Jade in a cherry-red suit, the jacket cut in sharply to accentuate her tiny waist, and Mel in a Savile Row creation in silver-grey, but she felt the contact as acutely as if they had both been naked. Her eyes flicking up to his, she wondered if he had been as aware of the contact as she had. His leaden eyes gave nothing away and she despised herself for her own recollection of times long gone when any touch, however slight, had sparked thrillingly between them.
She paused in the tiny foyer outside the studio before entering. Nodding towards the glass doors through which you could see the whole layout of the floor, she told him, ‘As you can see, some of the boards are vacant. I’ve got three key staff off with a flu bug.’
‘Let’s hope you don’t go down with it, then. It only takes a kiss for these things to spread like the plague.’
His eyes were gleaming with mockery as he said it and he was standing close enough for an infectious kiss. Jade didn’t know why that thought had even occurred to her when she was still wondering if that was another stab at her supposed loose morals of four years back. Whatever, she warded him off with her own preventative remedy-biting sarcasm.