‘Do you have any idea what sort of portrait you would like?’ she addressed her question to Audra McDonald, although she wasn’t altogether surprised when Nick Andracas answered.
‘We know exactly what sort of portrait we want, Miss Smith,’ he told her smoothly. ‘It’s a requirement of the play Miss McDonald is in, and will be presented to her at the end of the play’s run.’
‘Oh,’ she nodded understanding, giving no indication that his gravelly sensuous voice meant anything to her, her interest wholly professional as she listened to him explain the details of the portrait needed.
‘You have precisely one month to complete the portrait to our requirements, Miss Smith,’ he finally concluded. ‘We need it for the opening night.’
‘Of course,’ she acknowledged stiltedly. ‘I’ll do my best.’
‘And I’m sure that will be good enough,’ he returned huskily, his eyes darkly caressing.
She refused to meet that gaze, deliberately turning to the actress who had sat quietly at his side on the sofa as he talked. ‘When would you like to begin your sittings, Miss McDonald?’
Anger still burned deep in the brown eyes. ‘Is that really necessary?’ she drawled in a bored voice. ‘Wouldn’t a photograph do?’
Danielle shook her head, all the time aware that narrowed grey eyes never left her face. But they contained no grain of recognition of the past, she was sure of that, saw her only as the beautiful woman she was now. ‘I’m afraid I can’t work that way,’ she explained politely. ‘Although I could recommend someone else who—–’
‘No,’ Nick Andracas cut in abruptly. ‘I want you to do the portrait.’
‘Really, Nick,’ Audra McDonald turned to him impatiently, her beautiful mouth pouting provocatively. ‘Do I have to sit around here for hours on end, bored out of my mind?’
‘Yes,’ his answer was uncompromising.
Her hand came to rest on his thigh. ‘I’d much rather spend the time with you.’
He looked at her without emotion. ‘You’ll come here as often as Miss Smith requires you to.’
‘But, Nick—–’
‘Audra!’ He didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t need to, his tone enough to silence his mistress.
Danielle witnessed the exchange with a certain amount of embarrassment. That the fiery Audra McDonald was about as ‘tamed’ as she could be when with this man was obvious, her expression now rebellious, although she raised no more objections. Danielle did not like the other woman in the least, but she could feel sorry for her. ‘I doubt I’ll need to trouble you for more than one or two sittings,’ again she ignored Nick Andracas, talking to the actress. ‘And probably only for an hour or so at a time, perhaps on a Saturday morning if that’s convenient?’
Brown eyes shot Nick Andracas a resentful glare, although he seemed immune to it. ‘I suppose Saturday is all right,’ she agreed ungraciously. ‘Although it will have to be in the afternoon,’ she gave her lover a smouldering look from beneath long lashes. ‘I don’t like to get out of bed early.’
‘What time is most convenient for you, Miss Smith?’ Nick Andracas ignored the actress’s effort to flirt with him, removing her hand pointedly from his thigh, his mouth a thin straight line of disapproval at the intimacy.
Danielle was beginning to get the feeling she had been brought in on the middle of a lovers’ tiff. Or perhaps this was the way Nick always treated his mistress? He had been cruel and unfeeling in the past, perhaps those emotions had just intensified with the passing of the years. ‘The afternoon will be fine,’ she said coolly. ‘About two o’clock?’
He nodded. ‘I believe Mr Vaughn has told you the details of your fee?’ he raised dark brows in challenge, as if he already knew of her refusal to accept the amount he had offered.
‘It’s too much,’ she met his challenge. ‘You will get the bill for the usual amount once the portrait is completed. If my work is satisfactory.’
The grey eyes rekindled with interest. ‘I’m sure it will be.’
‘Only time will tell.’ She had a feeling Audra McDonald wasn’t going to be an easy subject to paint. Besides the fact that she didn’t actually like the other woman, there was the problem of her brittle hardness to contend with, a quality they didn’t want in the portrait, she felt sure. ‘I—–’ she broke off as the telephone began to ring, surmising it to be Lewis wanting to know how the meeting had gone. He was a little premature. ‘Excuse me,’ she gave a bright meaningless smile in the other couple’s direction before picking up the receiver.
‘Ellie?’
She instantly recognised her father’s voice, some of the tension leaving her. ‘How are you?’ she asked warmly, listening as he went on to tell her briefly about the holiday he and her mother had just taken. ‘Dinner tonight?’ she repeated his suggestion. ‘That would be lovely.’ She rang off a few minutes later, turning to find narrowed grey eyes levelled on her, displeasure etched into the harsh features. ‘Sorry about that,’ she felt compelled to make the apology. ‘Now where were we?’
‘I believe we had just about concluded the meeting,’ Nick Andracas rasped harshly, standing up, the three-piece suit in charcoal grey fitting his lithe masculinity to perfection. ‘Miss McDonald will be here at two o’clock on Saturday.’
The other couple left so abruptly Danielle was left with a sense of anti-climax, although she had to admit to a certain amount of relief too. The meeting had been as much of a strain as she had thought it would be, although at least she had been spared the humiliation of recognition. Nick had seen her only as Danielle Smith, although there could be no doubt that he found her attractive in that capacity. He was a dangerous man for any woman to find attractive, had been lethal for her all those years ago.
When the telephone rang half an hour later she felt sure that this time it had to be Lewis. It was not.
‘Danielle, will you have dinner with me this evening?’
There was no need for him to identify himself, she recognised his voice immediately. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Andracas, I already have an appointment this evening,’ she refused frostily, a telephone call from him so soon after he had left the last thing she had been expecting.
‘So I heard,’ he bit out. ‘I want you to break it.’
Now she knew the reason for his abruptness before he left. She had thought he had been annoyed that she had taken the telephone call while he was here, instead he had been eager to drop off his mistress so that he could ask her for a date! The cold-blooded arrogance of the man. ‘I’m afraid that’s out of the question.’ She thought back on the conversation he had overheard, realising that not once had she identified her caller as her father. ‘I really couldn’t let my friend down at such short notice,’ she added with throaty insinuation.
For a moment there was angry silence on the other end of the telephone. ‘Tomorrow?’ he finally rasped.
‘I’m afraid not.’
‘You’re seeing the same man again then?’
‘Possibly,’ she evaded lying.
‘In other words you don’t wish to go out with me?’ he said dryly.
‘That’s right,’ she acknowledged coldly.
He gave a throaty laugh at her honesty. ‘But I always get what I want, Danielle. And I wanted you the moment I set eyes on you.’
‘Wouldn’t Miss McDonald have something to say about this?’ she taunted with sarcasm.
‘No,’