She could blame it on the hot May sunshine outside the garage door, but who was she trying to kid?
What had Kate said about Petra? That she had bedazzled Sam that night? Well, the Sam who was scanning her body was quite capable of doing his own bedazzling these days.
Sam had been the first boy who had ever given her the tingles and there had only been two other men in her life. All god-handsome, all rugged and driven and all as far removed from the world of music and orchestral performance venues as it was possible to imagine.
And every single one of them had swept her off her feet and into their world without giving her time to even think about what she was doing or whether the relationship had a chance. Little wonder that she had ended up alone and in tears, bewildered and bereft, wondering what had just happened and why.
But one thing was perfectly clear. Sam had been the first, and there was no way that she was going to go through that pain again, just to score a few points on the payback scoreboard.
Decision time.
If she was going to do this, she needed to do it now, and put the tingles down to past stupidity. Or she could turn around and run as fast as she could back to the penthouse and lock the door tight behind her. Just as her kind friends thought that she should. Just as she would have done only a few months earlier, before her life had changed.
‘I hadn’t planned to give any more interviews after the press release. That part of my life is over,’ she said, her chin tilted up. ‘But I have a few things you could help me with and you need this interview to impress your editor and make your mark in the London office. Am I getting warm?’
He shrugged and tried to look casual. But there was just that small twitch at the side of his mouth which he used to have when things were difficult at home and he didn’t want to talk about it. ‘Warm enough.’
‘Warm? If I was any hotter I would be on fire. If I go to another paper, you will be waiting on the pavement for movie stars to stagger out from showbiz parties wearing their underpants as hats.’
Sam’s hands gripped onto the bench so tightly that his knuckles started to turn white. ‘Ah. Now I am beginning to understand. You want to see me suffer.’
Amber winced and gave a small shoulder shrug. ‘You walked out on me and broke my heart. So yes, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity for some retribution. And I am not in the least bit ashamed.’ She took a breath. ‘But that was a long time ago, Sam. And I am keen to put that away in a box labelled “done and dusted”. I think this will help me do that.’
Sam closed his eyes and shook his head from side to side before blinking awake and laughing out loud. ‘Done and dusted, eh? I am almost frightened to ask what form my punishment is going to take. But please, do continue, let’s get it over with.’
He stood to maximum height, pushed his shoulders back and lifted his chin. ‘Hit me.’
Amber strolled into the garage and focused her attention on the sports car, her fingertips lingering on the old leather seats, her face burning with awareness that Sam’s gaze was still locked onto her. ‘I want to get this done as soon as I can, but time is tight. I’m redecorating my apartment and the girls want to celebrate my birthday this week.’
She almost turned around at the sound of Sam’s sharp intake of breath. ‘May eighteenth. Hard to forget.’
Amber flung her head up and twisted around at the waist, ready with a cutting remark, but bit it back when she saw the look on Sam’s face was one of sadness and regret.
His lips twitched for a second before he replied. ‘Busy week. No problem. Just give me your email address and I can send over some questions so you can work on them when you have time.’
‘Email questions? Oh, no. This interview has to be in person.’
Sam coughed twice. ‘Are you always so awkward?’
She tilted her head slightly to one side before replying. ‘No. Just with you.’
He laughed out loud and planted a fist on each hip. ‘Don’t try and kid me, girl. You have been planning this for ages and are having way too much fun teasing this out.’ He flicked his chin in her direction. ‘You could have asked your agent to make the call and organised the interview over the phone. But that wouldn’t have been nearly so satisfying, would it?’
He waved her spluttering away. ‘And I understand that perfectly. Really. I do. I made a horrible mistake and treated you badly, and now you’re going to make me pay.’
Then his stance softened and his gaze darted from side to side. ‘I’m not proud of what happened the last time we met. Far from it. But that was ten years ago and we’re different people now. At least I am. I’m not sure about you.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You never had a vindictive thought in your life, Amber DuBois. So why don’t you just take me through that list of little things you want me to help you with and we can get this over and done with, and we can put the past behind us?’
Amber inhaled slowly and turned to face Sam, her head tilted slightly to one side, and she carefully pushed the slip of paper deeper into the heart-shaped pocket of her dress.
‘What makes you think I have a list?’ she asked in the best innocent and surprised voice she could muster at short notice.
‘Amber. You always had a list. For everything. A list of things to do that day, a list of how long you practised that week. You are a listy type of person and people don’t change that much. So it makes sense for you to have a list of all the things I am going to have to do in exchange for one interview.’
He shot her a glance which made her eyes narrow. Why did he have to remember that small detail, of all things? There was no way she could talk him through her list now.
‘I prefer to think of them as challenges. But you are right about one thing—I have thought about what you could possibly give me in exchange for an exclusive, and you can take that smirk off your face right now. You would not be so lucky. So I came up with a new approach.’
She crossed the space between them until her face was only inches away from his and licked her lips before speaking.
‘Look, Sam,’ she said in low, calm voice as her gaze locked onto his. ‘I know people are interested in why I decided to retire when I did, but my reasons are very personal and very close to my heart.’ She took a breath and swallowed before rolling her shoulders back a little. ‘It would be very easy for a reporter to do a hatchet job with some crazy headline just to sell more papers. So...I need to know that I can trust the journalist I go for to give me a fair hearing.’
‘That’s not going to be easy,’ he replied in a voice which sang with resignation and disappointment.
‘I know. This is why you are going to have to prove to me that you are the right man for the job before I say a word on the record.’
His eyebrows went skywards. ‘Any ideas on how I do that?’
‘Oh, yes,’ she sniffed. ‘You are going to have to pass an audition before I give you the job. You see, this week is crazily busy and my wrist is a problem. So I need someone to be my Man Friday for the next few days. Unpaid, of course, and you provide your own uniform. But all refreshments are provided by the management. And I just know how much Saskia and Kate are looking forward to having you around the place.’
‘A Man Friday,’ Sam repeated, very, very slowly. ‘So, basically, I have to be your man slave for the next week before you’ll even think about giving me the interview?’
Amber picked her business card out of her dress pocket with two fingers, gave Sam her sweetest camera-ready smile and looked deep into his startled eyes as she held the card high in the air. ‘Well, it’s good to know that your powers of deductive reasoning are as sharp as ever. The audition starts at my apartment at ten tomorrow morning. Oh—and