Bang, bang, bang. Words were fired out like bullets at a target, and his eyes were taking in everything. Every. Thing. They darted all over her face and swept up the rest of her—and maybe it was the close confines of the plane, or the fact that he had such a presence, or the fact that she was not used to standing in heels serving drinks to a total stranger at twenty thousand feet, but her footing faltered and she had to reach out to hold the back of a seat for balance.
‘Yes. I—I was just going to pour you another drink and find some snacks and...’
‘No problem. I’m fine for drinks and snacks. But apparently I’m heading to the ballet now, which is quite a turn of events.’
‘Yes,’ she said, regaining perfect balance and poise. ‘To see Two Loves. The premiere. We’re so excited. It’s an amazing production.’
And it was. And she’d have given anything to be in it. But because of this hideous injury she wasn’t even in the corps. Instead she’d had to pack her day with teaching junior classes and attending physio. And serving Love Rats...
‘And you’re the face of the British Ballet. That’s good. That’s really good,’ he said, scanning her again and nodding as if in fact it was really bad. ‘Done your homework, I take it? I’ll need to know the names and the bios of the people we’re going to see.’
He moved around the cabin now and she stood there, not quite sure if she was supposed to follow him, reassure him, or disappear off the face of the earth.
She watched him turn on a screen that flashed stock exchange numbers. He glanced at it, then changed it quickly to sports. He folded his arms and stared at the screen as a commentator’s voice rose to a crescendo over the roar of a crowd. She looked to see what it was—men charging into one another, with mud-splattered thighs as big as tree trunks, ears and noses like Picasso paintings, all grabbing for an oval shaped ball as if it was the Holy Grail. Rugby. Yuck. How could anyone get excited about that?
‘Come on!’ he grunted at the players on the screen as he moved towards it.
Obviously Matteo Rossini did. She waited...and watched, but it was as if she had become a part of the furniture, as incidental as the beige leather chairs. He might have the looks, but he had none of his mother’s charm.
Suddenly he turned, caught her gawping, and frowned. He pressed the remote control ‘off’ and tossed it down on the chair.
‘I have plans for later, so I’d like this to be all wrapped up by ten. Shall we make a start?’
He nodded, indicating the little lounge area where four leather armchairs were grouped around a coffee table. He lowered himself down, comfortable, confident and totally composed, while she perched carefully, straight-backed, knees locked, smile fixed.
‘OK. Basics first. You’re a dancer with this ballet company, but you’ve “volunteered” to take on this PR role just for tonight.’
‘Something like that,’ she said, ignoring the air quotes he made with his hands.
‘So what’s Ruby’s story? Why you?’ he said, narrowing his eyes and steepling his fingers.
‘You want to know about me? There’s not much to tell. I’ve been with the BB since I was eleven,’ she said, realising that she was now being interviewed for a job she didn’t even want. ‘I’m not dancing tonight, so I think I was the obvious choice.’
‘The BB is the British Ballet?’
She smiled at his stupid question.
‘Yes. The company’s fifty years old. I’ve been in the school, the corps, then a soloist and hopefully one day a principal. So I know everything there is to know.’
‘What about the other side of things? There will be political points being scored here tonight. You know everything there is to know about that too, I take it?’
As she stared at him she suddenly remembered the notes. Had she brought them? Pages and pages of silly handwritten notes about all the other stuff she was meant to tell him. She’d been writing them out in the kitchen, she’d numbered them, she’d stacked them... And then what had she done with them?
‘You’re prepared, right? One thing you should know about me is I’m not a big fan of winging it.’
Neither am I, she wanted to answer back. Which was why she had spent so long making notes about things she didn’t find remotely interesting. But being rude to the sponsor was not an option—not with all that revenue riding on it. Her own scholarship had been funded through the generosity of patrons like Coral Rossini, the Company Director had been quick to remind her.
‘I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Mrs Rossini was confident I was right for the job.’
‘Yes. I’m sure she was,’ he said, in a tone that buzzed in her subconscious like an annoying fly.
But where were the notes? In her bag? Or could she have stuffed them in her pockets? Left them on the Tube?
He tipped his head back, scrutinised her with a raised brow, looking down the length of his annoyingly handsome nose, and she wondered if he could read her mind.
‘How long have you known my mother, incidentally? She seems to have taken quite a shine to you.’
‘She has?’
She’d definitely had the notes just before she got in the car...
‘Yes. And you wouldn’t be the first person to want to be friends with my incredibly kind, incredibly generous mother.’
What was he talking about? Did he think that she wanted to be his mother’s friend? Did he think she actually wanted to be here, doing this?
‘I’m not here to make friends with anyone. I’m here because I was told to be.’
And then she stopped, suddenly aware of the dark look that had begun to spread across his face. She’d gone too far.
‘You were told to be?’ he asked as his brows rose quizzically above those sharp sherry-coloured eyes.
‘Someone had to do it.’
He sat back now, framed in the cream leather seat, elbows resting on the arms of the chair and fingers steepled in front of his chest. They were shaded with fine dark hair, and above the pinstriped cuff of his shirt the metallic gleam of a luxury watch twinkled and shone.
She kept her eyes there, concentrating on the strong bones of his wrists, refusing to look into his face as the jet powered on through the sky.
‘And you drew the short straw?’ he said, lifting his water.
She caught sight of the solid chunks of burnished silver cufflinks. She’d never even known anyone who wore cufflinks before, barely knew anyone who bothered to wear a shirt and tie, and she wondered for a moment how he got them off at night.
‘You’d rather be anywhere other than here?’
His voice curled out softly, quietly, just above the thrum of the engines, and with the unmistakable tone of mockery. Was he teasing her? She flashed a glance up. He was. The tiniest of smiles lurked at the corner of his mouth. Did that mean he didn’t think she was trying to stick her claws into his mother?
Maybe.
She shifted in the chair, used her core muscles to keep from slipping further down into the bucket seat. He sat completely still, and with all that body sitting across from her it was impossible to concentrate.
‘I’d rather be performing,’ she said. ‘Nothing matters more to me than that.’
‘That I understand,’ he said quietly. His face fell for a moment as some other world held him captive. He opened and flexed his hand, turned it around and she saw knuckles distended, broken. ‘I understand that very well.’
She