‘I…I can’t do this, Justin,’ she whispered just as the lift stopped at one of the floors on the way down to the lobby.
‘Yes, you can,’ he reassured firmly.
The lift doors whooshed back and there, waiting for the lift, were the objects of her fear.
Rachel sucked in sharply.
‘I gather that’s Eric the Mongrel,’ Justin whispered.
‘Yes,’ she choked out, not feeling at all like giggling at the silly nickname this time. Eric the Magnificent would be more like it. He really was a drop-dead gorgeous-looking guy, especially in a dinner suit. Charlotte was no slouch in the looks department, either, the passing years seeming to have enhanced her darkly striking beauty. Tall and supermodel-slim, she was chic personified with her concave-cut dark brown bob and elegant black dress.
‘Charlotte, come on,’ Eric said impatiently, stepping forward to hold the lift doors open whilst not giving its occupants a second glance.
Charlotte, who’d been checking her hair and make-up in the hall mirror when the lift doors opened, finally swung round. ‘Keep your shirt on, lover,’ she said. ‘These things never start on time.’
As Charlotte walked past Eric into the lift he glanced up over her shoulder and finally noticed Rachel in the corner, his face registering instant recognition this time, plus considerable shock.
‘Good lord!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s Rachel. You remember Rachel, Charlotte. Rachel Witherspoon.’
Rachel would later wonder where her courage—and her composure—came from. Possibly from the look of surprise on that bitch’s face as she surveyed Rachel from top to toe.
‘So it is,’ Charlotte said. ‘Fancy seeing you here, of all people.’ Her sexily slanting black eyes soon slid over to Justin. Women like Charlotte never looked at other women for long when there were attractive men around.
Meanwhile, Eric kept staring at her as though she were a little green man from Mars.
‘I was just thinking the same about you two,’ Rachel returned, proud as punch of her cool control. ‘I gather you’re together? This is my boss, Justin McCarthy,’ she swept on, not giving either of them the chance to answer. ‘Justin, these are friends of mine, Eric Farmer and Charlotte—er—sorry. I can’t seem to recall your second name, Charlotte.’
‘Raper.’
‘Oh, yes. Raper…’ A ghastly surname. ‘So what brings you two up to the Gold Coast this weekend? Business, or pleasure?’
Eric muttered ‘Pleasure’ the same time as Charlotte said ‘Business’. After Charlotte shot him an angry look he changed his answer to ‘Both’. But he looked far from happy.
Rachel had to smile at having rattled Eric so easily. Justin was right. A spot of revenge was a good salve for old wounds. But she still wasn’t sure about pretending she and Justin were lovers.
‘And you?’ Eric finally thought to ask. ‘Are you here for business or pleasure?’ He too was assessing Justin on the quiet, Rachel noticed. And perhaps not feeling his usual male superiority. For, as glamorous as Eric still looked at first glance, up close there was some evidence he was beginning to go to seed. He was becoming jowly, his crowning glory was thinning on top and his stomach was no longer athletically flat.
Frankly, he was looking a bit flabby. Of course, he had to be going on forty nowadays, whereas Justin was in his earlier thirties. Justin was taller than Eric, too. Taller and fitter and possibly more attractive, Rachel was surprised to discover.
‘We’re just here on business, aren’t we, Justin?’ she said, and touched him lightly on his nearest arm, her eyes pleading with him not to say differently.
Justin covered her hand with his and gave it an intimate little squeeze. ‘Oh, absolutely,’ he agreed, whilst his glittering blue eyes gave an entirely different message. ‘Rachel’s my new PA, and such a treasure. Only been with me for five weeks or so, but I already wouldn’t know what I’d do without her.’
Oh, God, Rachel agonised. Somehow, without saying a word to that effect, Justin was making it sound as though their relationship extended way beyond the office.
‘Really,’ Eric said coldly, one eyebrow arching as he stared at her cleavage.
Rachel could feel heat gathering in her cheeks because it was perfectly clear what Eric was thinking.
‘Eric,’ Charlotte said sharply. ‘Will you please move your butt inside the lift so that the doors can close?’
He flashed his lover a caustic glance but took a step inside.
‘Have you known Rachel long?’ Justin asked him whilst they waited for the lift to resume its ride down.
Rachel immediately tensed over what answer he would give.
‘We were engaged once a few years back,’ Eric bit out. ‘But things didn’t work out at the time, did they, Rach?’
Everything inside Rachel tightened further at his use of that once affectionate shortening of her name. But she’d be damned if she’d show any reaction on her face other than indifference to the role he’d once played in her personal life. ‘Oh, I think things worked out just fine, Eric,’ she said with a casual shrug. ‘I did what I had to do and you did what you had to do. Anyway, there’s no point in talking about the past. You’ve obviously moved on, and so have I.’
The lift doors closed at that juncture, as though emphasising her point.
‘You still let a good one get away,’ Justin remarked on the way down. ‘But your loss is my gain.’
‘I thought she was only your PA,’ Eric shot back.
‘Oh, she is. But a good PA these days is worth her weight in gold. Rachel leaves the girl I had before her for dead. She’s not only beautiful but bright as a button, and such a sweetie. Just think, if you two hadn’t broken up Rachel would be your wife by now. Instead, she’s working for me, making my life run like a breeze. Amazing the little twists and turns in life, isn’t it? Aah, here we are at the lobby.’
Rachel did her best not to flinch when Justin slid a highly intimate arm around her waist and steered her smoothly from the lift in Eric and Charlotte’s wake. They weren’t touching at this point, Rachel noted. They weren’t even holding hands. Charlotte’s body language showed anger, and so did Eric’s.
Rachel tried to be scandalised with what Justin had just done, and she was a bit, but at the same time she felt a strange elation. And some vengeful satisfaction. Now she knew what Justin had meant by putting a cat amongst the pigeons.
‘I presume you’re going along to the special presentation dinner tonight?’ Justin asked Eric before he could make his escape with Charlotte.
‘Yes, we are. Charlotte’s in real estate and is here representing a wealthy client of hers.’
‘I can speak for myself, Eric,’ Charlotte snapped. ‘Actually, my client is more than wealthy. He’s a multi-multimillionaire. Trust me, if he decides to buy this place whoever you’re working for won’t stand a chance. What this man wants he gets. So who is it that you work for, anyway? And what is it that you actually do?’
Justin delivered an intriguingly enigmatic smile. ‘Now, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? I can confess to being an investment adviser, but, as I’m sure you are aware, client confidentiality is important in matters such as this. Property-development deals are rather like a game of poker. You don’t ever put all your cards on the table, not till after the game has been done, or won.’
‘My client never bluffs,’ Charlotte said