Caddy cut her off at the door. ‘If you think for one moment I’m going to allow you to wear those flat boats with my divine new dress you are absolutely wrong, Kate Mulhoon. You’re my manager, remember? You’ve got to dress the part now.’
Kate frowned as Caddy retreated into the bedroom leaving the tempting articles behind her. She had been outmanoeuvred for once.
Dressing quickly, Kate glanced at her watch. It was still too early to call Francesca, which she badly wanted to do. She called for a cab instead to take Caddy and herself to the studio. She’d call home later, the first chance she got …
The moment she put the phone down Kate overheard Caddy chatting away to Meredith on her mobile. She couldn’t hear the words, only that Caddy sounded concerned and then excited …
She shouldn’t be listening, Kate told herself firmly, collecting up her things. Meredith was Caddy’s mother, and they were entitled to a private conversation.
‘Caddy, come on,’ Kate called the moment she heard Caddy walking across the room. ‘The cab rank’s only across the street and the taxi driver will be waiting for us. We don’t want to be late …’
Kate had some free time on her hands when she arrived at the film studios. While Caddy was in Make-up she took the bull by the horns and had her hair trimmed. She felt a little unsure at first about the new modern style, but the hairdresser soon reassured her, and Kate had to admit she was quite pleased with her new look.
‘Why don’t you let Marie have a go at your face next?’ Caddy suggested after approving the finished result.
‘It’s that bad?’ Kate grinned.
‘Worse.’ Caddy laughed as she pulled a mock grimace.
By the time Kate walked onto the set she was transformed. Wearing the smart outfit, and with her hair trimmed into a face-framing bob, she was attracting more attention than she had ever done. It felt strange to begin with, but then it felt great. She felt great. Until the moment Santino appeared on set and strode straight up to her.
‘What on earth have you done to your hair?’
His obvious disapproval shocked Kate and stabbed into her newfound self-esteem. But the last thing she intended was for Santino to know how she felt. She tipped her chin and referred him to her clipboard, angling it in front of him so he had nowhere else to look. ‘I wasn’t aware that the job required me to adopt a particular hairstyle.’
As he stared at her she held his gaze until it was Santino who looked away. Then she made a point of saying, ‘Good morning, Santino.’ She said it brightly, determined he wasn’t going to have everything his own way. ‘There are a few things we need to go over—’
‘Such as?’ He looked her up and down.
‘The showers ran out of hot water yesterday,’ Kate continued briskly, ‘and the on-set catering needs an urgent review. The toast was burnt today and there weren’t enough eggs to go round—’
‘Really?’ Santino murmured.
The expression in his eyes made Kate’s heart thump painfully in her chest and she had to force herself to concentrate. ‘Yes, and that’s not all—’
‘It is for now.’ Taking her by the arm, Santino steered her out of earshot of everyone else on the set. ‘I tried to ring to tell you what I planned for today, but both the hotel phone and Cordelia’s mobile were engaged. You’ll have to give me your mobile number, Kate. I expect to get hold of you whenever I need you even if you are only working for me for a few days.’
Kate ground her jaw and somehow managed to remain silent. It was clear she should have read the small print before agreeing to work for Santino. It appeared he demanded twenty-four-hour availability as well as an approved hairstyle.
‘If I could have got hold of either of you it would have saved Cordelia the trouble of arriving on the set so early,’ he went on. ‘What on earth was so important both of you were on your phones so early in the morning?’
‘I can’t speak for Cordelia—’ Kate’s pleasant tone belied the anger rising inside her ‘—but I was ringing for a taxi to bring us here.’ She wasn’t about to be intimidated.
‘There’s no point in Cordelia hanging around the set without a director to direct. You should have known that, Kate. Tell her she can go—’
Kate’s first thought was, Tell her yourself! But a show of emotion wasn’t appropriate between employee and employer. She had worked for difficult people in the past and knew how to handle them. And no one had forced her into this job. She had agreed to take on the role of Santino’s PA for a few days until he hired a proper assistant, because it suited her—on a number of levels, not least of which was making sure Cordelia’s best interests were always at the forefront of Santino’s mind.
‘I imagine your client will appreciate having the time to perfect her role.’
‘I’m sure she will, and thank you for your consideration,’ Kate said coolly. This wasn’t about her, or how she felt about Santino, this was about Caddy and work, and … If only life could be that simple! Right now she was trying not to breathe in case she inhaled Santino’s intoxicating cologne and was willing her body not to tingle all over just because he was within touching distance.
‘You’d better come with me—’ his voice was brusque, his glance impatient ‘—and I’ll go over what’s expected of you.’
Accustomed as she was to difficult people, Kate had to take several deep breaths before she could trust herself to speak. ‘Good idea,’ she managed pleasantly.
‘We’ll talk over breakfast.’
‘Breakfast?’ Another meal together? Another opportunity to sit close to Santino? Another opportunity to have her mind blanked and her senses take her over?
‘A breakfast meeting suits me.’
‘I’m sure it does,’ Kate murmured under her breath as she followed him. Any excuse to exert his authority over her suited Santino. ‘Do we have time for breakfast?’
He stopped, and after a moment turned. The tug of self-assurance at one corner of his mouth made her heart thunder.
‘I’m the boss, Kate. If I say we’ve got time, we’ve got time.’
He hid it well, but he was still smarting as he watched her rush off to tell Cordelia where she was going. He couldn’t accept Kate had someone back in England and wouldn’t admit as much to him. He had hired her because she was happy to take the heat, but who took the heat for her? Jealousy ripped through him at the thought that there was someone back in the UK who did that for her, someone she was eager to get back to by the weekend.
But jealousy was disabling and not an emotion that Santino was used to.
‘You mentioned breakfast?’ she reminded him calmly when she returned.
She was prompting him? And she was acting as if there were nothing between them—no sexual tension, no undercurrents, no unanswered questions. She didn’t appear to be rattled in the slightest. Far from it, her face was composed as if she was resigned to dealing with truculent employers.
‘We need to talk,’ he said bluntly, dipping his head to stare into her eyes.
‘Talk about what? The job?’
There it was again … anxiety in her gaze. Then she looked away, proving he was right to be suspicious. She was just as untrustworthy as the rest of her sex. He would keep the pressure on until she told him everything.
‘You can leave your clipboard here; you won’t be needing it.’ He could sense her unease growing. She knew breakfast gave him another chance to probe.
‘I’ll get my bag.’
‘You do that.’ He watched her walk away.