Prince's Passion. Carole Mortimer

Jinx continued as if he hadn’t spoken, ‘then I shall contact the police and have you arrested for stalking me.’

      ‘Wouldn’t that rather null and void this phobia you have about your father’s privacy?’ he mocked. ‘I’m quite well known, Jinx; there is no way having me arrested wouldn’t appear in some tabloid newspaper or other.’

      Nik Prince’s much-photographed face and highly recognizable profile were aspects of this situation that she was well aware of. They were yet more reasons she intended avoiding him at all costs.

      ‘That’s your problem, not mine,’ she dismissed with much more confidence than she actually felt. ‘My priority is to keep any publicity from even touching my father. It’s the reason a pseudonym was used, for heaven’s sake!’ Her eyes flashed warningly.

      Nik’s frown deepened. ‘What exactly is wrong with your father?’

      Jinx turned away. ‘Just stay away from us, Nik.’

      ‘And if I can’t do that?’ he challenged.

      She shrugged. ‘Watch this space.’

      ‘Damn it, he wrote the book; surely it must have occurred to him, to both of you, that it might be a bestseller—’

      ‘Of course it didn’t occur to us!’ Jinx protested heatedly, the colour back in her cheeks now. ‘Writing a book is a very personal thing.’ She shook her head. ‘Who could possibly have imagined that No Ordinary Boy would be as popular as it was?’

      ‘As it still is.’

      ‘Yes,’ she conceded quietly.

      ‘Aren’t you being just a little selfish, Jinx?’ he pursued relentlessly. ‘You’ve made your own feelings about my filming No Ordinary Boy more than clear, but until I’ve actually spoken to him I have no way of knowing that’s your father’s opinion too…’

      Jinx looked up at him, tears glittering in her deep blue eyes.

      ‘Why don’t you just leave us alone?’ she choked.

      ‘Because I can’t do that.’

      One of the tears spilled over onto her cheek and she immediately brushed it away. ‘How I wish none of this had ever happened!’

      ‘Oh, come on, Jinx,’ he scorned. ‘All that money your father is earning has to have its advantages for you too. That dress you’re wearing, the diamond earrings—’

      ‘That’s enough!’ she exclaimed.

      ‘Quite enough,’ he agreed.

      ‘I bought these things myself,’ she told him angrily. ‘With my own money. Earned by my own endeavours.’

      ‘If you say so.’

      ‘I do,’ she snapped.

      ‘Fine,’ he replied.

      Jinx looked up at him searchingly, knowing by the determined glitter in his eyes that he wasn’t the sort of man to back off just because she asked him to. Considering the lengths she knew he must have gone to in order to meet her this evening, she shouldn’t be surprised by that.

      And she wasn’t. Surprise certainly wasn’t her primary emotion.

      ‘If I so much as think you’re following me home I will contact the police, Nik,’ she declared.

      He gave an inclination of his head. ‘I know that.’

      ‘And?’

      ‘And I’ll find some other way,’ he answered unhesitantly.

      Looking at him, she could see that he would, as he had arranged their meeting this evening, by fair means or foul.

      ‘I have to go,’ she told him coldly.

      He shrugged. ‘Your prerogative.’

      She suddenly realized from the harshness of his expression, that whatever had happened between them a few minutes ago was definitely over now as far as he was concerned.

      Which was what she had wanted. Wasn’t it…?

      Of course it was. Any relationship with Nik Prince was dangerous. To her own peace of mind, as well as her father’s.

      She nodded abruptly before turning and walking away, knowing from the way she felt no tingling of awareness down her spine that Nik wasn’t watching her this time. And why should he? He had failed in his objective, which meant she was of no further use to him.

      What would Nik say, Jinx wondered, if he were to ever learn the truth?

      * * *

      He was less than proud of himself, Nik acknowledged uncomfortably as he sat across the dinner table from Jane Morrow, the pretty blonde thirtyish-year-old making no effort to hide the attraction she felt towards him, touching him constantly as they talked.

      The last six days of searching for Jinx’s home address had proved even more frustrating than the previous two months.

      There were several J. Nixons listed in the London telephone books, none of them the right ones. Jackson Nixon’s previous publishers—of those serious historical tomes—had informed him that Professor Nixon had recently moved and hadn’t yet supplied them with his new address. Although, they had also added firmly, they wouldn’t have been able to reveal that information even if they did have it!

      Nik hadn’t been any more successful when he’d decided to turn his attention to investigating Jinx instead of her father.

      Cambridge University had been of no use at all in supplying him with an address for Dr Juliet Nixon, claiming they weren’t at liberty to give out that information, although they had offered to forward any letter he cared to send to Dr Nixon at the university. Very helpful!

      A visit to Jinx’s friend Susan Fellows two days after her party, on the pretext that he had lost a cufflink on Saturday evening, had proved totally unfruitful, both with regard to the non-existent cufflink and in garnering any information on Jinx. Apart from confirming that, yes, the Nixons had moved in the last year—with no address forthcoming, naturally!—and that Jinx’s father had been ill for some time, the beautiful blonde hadn’t wanted to discuss her friend at all.

      None of Stazy’s friends seemed to know Jinx personally, let alone where she lived. Which had brought Nik full circle and left his only possible source of information to be Jane Morrow at Stephens Publishing…

      But, strangely enough, even though he had felt no qualms about calculatingly charming this woman a month ago, he now felt distaste at the possibility of taking it any further. As Jane seemed to want him to do. Oh, Jane was attractive enough, but his reason for asking her out again was certainly less than honourable.