He couldn’t do that. Didn’t want to do that. More than ever he wanted this woman to have dinner with him this evening. Forget dinner—he just wanted her with him this evening.
‘Jinx, please sit down—’
‘No way,’ she told him angrily, once again flicking back the fiery length of her hair. ‘I can’t believe you did such a thing! Can’t believe anyone could sink so low as to—’
‘You weren’t exactly cooperating,’ Nik pointed out as he stood up to face her.
Jinx looked at him incredulously. ‘And that was enough for you to pry into my private life, my father’s private life, like some cheap—’
‘Excuse me, Mr Prince—it is Nik Prince, isn’t it?’
Nik had turned sharply at the first sound of the female voice, his angry gaze narrowing warily as he took in the woman’s appearance—short dark hair, deep brown eyes, a pleasantly smiling mouth—as she looked at him enquiringly.
‘The film director?’ the woman pressed brightly.
Nik felt the faint stirrings of unease; in his experience there was only one profession he knew of who pushed their way into other people’s lives in this intrusive way. And as he saw the woman nod to a man who had just entered the lounge, the familiar camera slung about his neck, Nik knew that his guess had been the correct one.
Hell, Jinx was skittish enough already, without finding herself face to face with a reporter and her photographer!
CHAPTER FIVE
‘WHAT do you think you’re doing?’ Jinx squeaked indignantly as she suddenly found her arm grasped in Nik Prince’s vice-like fingers as he began marching her across the room. ‘Nik—’
‘Move!’ he instructed harshly as she attempted to push his hand away from her arm.
‘But I don’t—’ Jinx broke off in alarm as a light was suddenly flashed in her face, momentarily blinding her.
Nik just kept on walking, pulling the semi-blinded Jinx along with him.
What on earth was going on? she wondered dazedly. Who was that woman? The same woman who had been staring at Nik so avidly across the lounge earlier…! Why had Nik wanted to get away from her so quickly? Most puzzling of all, what had been the source of that light that had blinded her?
‘She was a reporter, Jinx,’ Nik told her as he pulled her into the lift and pressed the button to ascend.
But not before another light had flashed brightly, almost in their faces this time, Jinx able to see clearly that the flash had come from a camera being thrust between the rapidly closing lift doors.
‘And he—’ Nik reached out to grab the camera just as the doors closed, the other man’s cry of protest instantly cut off mid-flow ‘—is her associate!’ He released Jinx to open the back of the camera and take out the film and thrust it into his trouser pocket. ‘Damn, damn, damn!’ he muttered grimly as he closed the camera.
A reporter…
Not just a reporter. Paparazzi!
The scourge of the true reporter, whose aim was to report the real news, these other, less professional members of the press weren’t really looking for truth, but went in search of sensationalism.
Jinx felt slightly sick at the realization that she had been in the presence of just such a reporter the last half an hour or so, that she had been completely wrong in her assumption earlier that the other woman had been looking at Nik because she’d recognized him and found him attractive; this woman was out for a story, and didn’t particularly care how she got it.
Her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably in reaction to what had just happened.
If Nik hadn’t realized—If he hadn’t spotted the photographer—If he hadn’t grabbed the camera in that way—!
‘It’s okay, Jinx.’ Nik spoke soothingly as he moved to stand in front of her, touching her gently as he moved the fringe of hair back from over her horrified eyes. ‘It’s okay,’ he repeated encouragingly.
Of course it wasn’t okay. Nik was a personality, a highly photographic one, and if he hadn’t retrieved that film then Jinx knew she would have appeared beside him in a photograph in one of tomorrow’s newspapers—prob-ably with a speculative comment about who this latest mystery woman was in his life. After that, it would only be a matter of time…!
‘Come on,’ he urged as the lift doors opened.
Jinx followed him out of the lift, only to come to an abrupt halt as she saw they were on one of the upper floors. A floor containing bedrooms, she realized as a maid came out from cleaning one of them.
‘Could you see that this is taken down to Reception and returned to its owner?’ Nik handed the camera over to the rather surprised maid. ‘You can’t miss him—he’s the one who looks as if he just found a cent but lost a dollar,’ he added with grim satisfaction before turning back to Jinx.
A Jinx who stared back at him accusingly. This was all his fault—
‘This isn’t my fault, Jinx.’ His words harshly echoed what she was thinking.
Her eyes widened. ‘Then whose fault is it? Mine?’ she asked scornfully. ‘Reporters and their photographers don’t usually follow me around, I can assure you—’
‘They would if they knew you were J. I. Watson!’ he assured her scathingly before turning to open the door across the corridor, standing back to allow her to enter first.
Jinx hung back reluctantly. Did she really want to compound this situation by going into a hotel bedroom with Nik Prince—?
‘Jinx, it’s my guess it isn’t going to be safe for you to leave here for some time yet,’ Nik informed her dryly as he saw her obvious reluctance. ‘In fact, I may have to have some help in creating a diversion.’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Jinx queried as she marched past him.
Into what turned out not to be the bedroom she had been expecting, but a sitting-room obviously attached to a bedroom. Of course; she should have known that a man like Nik Prince would have a suite, not just a bedroom!
‘Don’t worry about it, Jinx,’ Nik reassured her as he strode across the room to pick up the telephone receiver. ‘I’ll sort this out in just—’
‘Don’t worry about it?’ she repeated with suppressed violence as she threw her shoulder bag down onto one of the sofas. ‘You’ll sort it out? It’s because of you that I’m in this mess in the first place!’ She glared across the room at him, eyes gleaming deeply blue, her cheeks flushed. ‘Did you organize for that reporter to be there? Is this some trick to force me into giving you the film rights to No Ordinary Boy?’
‘Of course not,’ Nik rasped.
‘I don’t believe you!’ Jinx dissolved into floods of tears, her face buried in her hands.
As if by doing so she could shut out Nik Prince altogether, could fool herself into believing none of this were really happening!
‘Jinx, it was me the reporter spoke to, not you,’ he reminded her. ‘It was me she was after, not you.’
‘Are you sure?’ She so much needed to believe him!
His expression softened, and he murmured her name as he took her into his arms. Arms that felt strong and protective as they completely enveloped her, and Jinx reacted instinctively as she clung to him like a rock in a storm. A storm that seemed to be gaining momentum and force with each