‘Thirty-eight isn’t old,’ she put in disgustedly.
‘It is to still be playing the hero. There’s too much young competition appearing on the scene, Matt Strange is only twenty-seven. Pretty soon I’ll start having character roles offered to me. Oh, I won’t mind, at least I’ll still be working. But they aren’t leading roles.’
She couldn’t miss the look of pleading in his eyes. She had never thought of his career in this light before, he always seemed to have so much money and be constantly surrounded by other television and film stars. The money could be easily explained, the St Justs had their own family fortune, and the so-called friends would fade away as fame did.
‘But he wants me to go to his apartment with him first,’ she told him desperately, seeing her chances of getting out of this becoming slimmer and slimmer. She loved her half-brother, and if her going to a party with the hated Damien Savage was going to help him in any way, then she would go, no matter what her own feelings were in the matter.
James pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘That can easily be got around,’ he said carelessly. ‘You can go to our apartment and meet him later.’
‘But I don’t like the man!’ Her plea was only half-hearted now, as she realised that James was really serious about her going out with Damien Savage. She wished she didn’t feel quite so much as if she were selling herself to further her brother’s career.
He smiled. ‘You’re only going to a party with him, you don’t have to like him for that.’
She raised her eyebrows. ‘And how does the evening usually end for you and your date on these occasions?’ She saw his face flush knowingly. ‘Exactly,’ she told him dryly.
‘He won’t expect that of you on your first date. He won’t expect that of you at all, I won’t allow it!’
Kate had to laugh at his determined expression. ‘You can’t very well stop it a hundred miles away.’ All humour left her face. ‘But I think I should warn you that even though I may love you and want to help you, I am not prepared to go to bed with the arrogant Mr Savage to do it.’
‘You haven’t been asked yet,’ came the dry comment from behind them. ‘And there’s every chance you never will be.’
Kate blushingly turned to face Damien Savage, wondering just how much of the conversation he had heard, and what construction he had put on it. ‘This seems to be becoming a habit,’ she said shortly.
‘That’s right,’ he agreed unconcernedly. ‘And now that you’ve both declared your love for each other perhaps you would like to get some things together. I plan to be on my way in about fifteen minutes.’
Kate looked appealingly at James. ‘I—I haven’t said I’ll go with you.’
He looked at her brother too, arrogance in every line of his superb body. ‘Do you have any objections to my taking your—to my taking Miss Darwood to a party this evening?’
James evaded Kate’s pleading eyes. ‘Not if she wants to go.’
‘I—–’
‘She does,’ Damien Savage interrupted coolly. ‘I’ll return her to you some time tomorrow. I’ll also let you know about the part.’
That was a veiled threat if ever she had heard one, a threat that meant she had no choice but to go to her room and get the requested clothes. She did so with ill-grace, slamming about her bedroom throwing clothes uncaringly into the open suitcase on her bed. Why should she have to go out with someone she disliked? More to the point, why did he want to go out with her?
Well, if he thought he was going to have an affair with her he was going to be disappointed. She didn’t go in for that sort of thing. But he wasn’t to know that! To all intents and purposes she was living here quite openly with James, without thought of marriage. So how was Damien Savage to know she wouldn’t be just as willing to have an equally intimate relationship with him? Because she would tell him, that’s how he would know!
James and Damien Savage were still at the poolside when she came out a few minutes later. She walked up to James’ side, leaning intimately against him. She saw the other man’s mouth tighten disapprovingly and smiled more warmly at her brother. What Damien Savage didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, and she had no intention of telling him of her family tie to James.
‘Are you ready to leave now?’ he asked shortly.
Kate looked at him coolly. ‘My case is in the hallway.’ She had changed into slim-fitting brown trousers and a matching shirt, leaving her hair smoothed back on top of her head. Her mother had always refused to have the flaming red hair shorn, and although it could be a nuisance at times she too kept it to its long length.
‘We’ll be on our way, then.’ He picked up his discarded jacket.
She looked quickly at her brother. ‘James, the apartment,’ she reminded him pointedly.
Damien Savage looked at the two of them impatiently. ‘What’s wrong now?’
James looked uncomfortable. ‘Kate would like you to drop her off at our apartment in town so that she can change.’
‘I’ve already said she can do that at my apartment.’
‘Yes, well—–’ James laughed nervously. ‘She would rather go to ours, and it isn’t that far from your own. You could drop her off and then pick her up on the way back.’
Damien sighed heavily. ‘If that’s what the lady wants.’
She wanted to stay here, but he was making that impossible. ‘I do,’ she told him firmly.
‘Right.’ Damien put out his hand to James, giving the proffered hand a firm shake. ‘Thanks for the hospitality, James. See you tomorrow some time.’
‘Yes—right. Fine. Well, have a nice time this evening.’ James looked at Kate anxiously, trying to find some sign of softening towards him in her rigidly held features, and finding none. ‘Kate?’
She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. ‘Goodbye, James.’ There was no warmth for him in her voice either.
‘Come on,’ Damien Savage said impatiently. ‘I don’t have time to waste.’
‘So you’ve already said,’ she returned tartly.
He frowned his displeasure at her tone before marching through the house and out to his car parked on the forecourt. He didn’t wait to see if Kate followed him, but she knew he expected it, and with a resigned shrug in James’ direction she did so. The car was as impressive as the man, a black Lotus Elan. She knew the make of car because James had thought of buying one last year before finally settling for a Ferrari.
After stowing her small case in the back of the car he climbed in beside her, settling back comfortably in the low seat. ‘I thought we were never going to get away!’
Kate answered less sharply than she would have done normally, all too much aware of how close they were in the compact interior of the car. ‘Why did you come in the first place if you felt that way?’
‘I had to see James. Besides,’ he added tauntingly, ‘I may not have met you if I hadn’t.’
‘And I’m sure you would have been devastated.’ She admired the way he handled the car, going fast but always in complete control of the vehicle, not a movement wasted.
He gave a grin and she was amazed at how much less forbidding it made him, and younger, much younger. But then he couldn’t be all that old, mid thirties at most. ‘I doubt I would have been devastated, a little disappointed, maybe, but nothing so extreme as devastation. I’ve seen you before, of course.’
Her brown eyes widened. ‘You have?’
‘Mm,’ he looked thoughtful, his strong tanned hands manoeuvring