Fast Friends (62 page)

Mac knew exactly how furious she was
with herself right
now.
He knew, too, that she wouldn’t leave straight away because
that would seem to her like running out. But she was
insecure. Her cover had been blown, and she had lost her psychological
advantage as a result.

Her acute vulnerability touched a nerve within him and
despite himself, Mac smiled, sympathizing with her predica
ment. But
maybe now at least she would understand how he had felt when she had in the
past hurt him.

’Martin Stacey-Thompson,’ said the young man in the filthy
trainers and the Robbie Williams T-shirt. He stuck out his hand
for Loulou to shake and inspected her shamed
features with
beady pale blue eyes which missed nothing. When she tried
to
pretend she hadn’t heard him he shook his
head and tut-tutted.
‘I thought you
had more guts. Wouldn’t it help for him to see
you engaged in animated
conversation with another man rather
than
shivering all alone like a frozen whippet? Being caught
out like this
can’t honestly be the most awful thing that’s ever happened to you.’

Realizing that he was right on all
counts, Loulou willed
herself to relax. Turning to look at him – his voice was
surprisingly deep and mature and didn’t
match his appearance
one bit –
she gave him a slightly forced but nonetheless dazzling
smile. Before he realized what was happening she had kissed
him
on both cheeks.

Across the room, Mac felt his blood pressure soar. The
bitch,
he thought furiously. The bloody,
bloody cow. She was only
doing it to irritate the hell out of him.

‘
Your move, smartass,’
she said, without allowing the words
to disturb her smile, and Martin
Stacey-Thompson slid his arm
around her
waist, beneath the voluminous white trenchcoat,
and drew her tightly
against him.

Mac gritted his teeth and found to
his disgust that he was
quite incapable of turning away. His warring, ambiguous
emotions felt as if they’d been
thrown into a blender on high
speed and
in less than five seconds he had lost
his
advantage.

That terrific sense of superiority
had gone right down the
pan. Loulou, the little tart, was kicking him in the groin,
exerting maximum pain as only she knew how.

‘Is that her boyfriend?’ said Cecilia, struggling to make
conversation with her tense, silent lover. She knew
how
important it was to appear friendly – people always leapt at the
opportunity to call extremely beautiful women
bitches – and
she genuinely admired Loulou, who had given away a
consider
able fortune to a very deserving
charity. ‘Shall we go over and
say hello?’

‘
Are you out of your
mind?’ said Mac brutally. ‘I have nothing
to say to her. She’s
nothing but trouble.’

Cecilia wilted like a flower in the
desert and with a stab of guilt he realized that he was playing a cruel game
with her. If
he had said that to
Loulou she would have marched over to the offending party and introduced
herself just to show him that he couldn’t bully her. And while her impetuosity
in the past had sometimes made him wince, he admired her for being so gutsy.

He was
playing the two women off against each other in his mind, he knew that. And
unfairly, neither of them could win.

When the eager woman with the notebook dragged Cecilia
away for a ‘girls’ talk’ he felt relieved. He didn’t want Loulou to make
mincemeat out of her; now he could tackle her alone. Or almost alone, since
that leech with the T-shirt still had his arm around her waist as if it was
glued there.

‘
Loulou.’ He announced
his presence curtly, gratified to see
the startled expression in her
grey eyes when she turned round.

‘Mac,’ she replied evenly, and waved an arm at the
exhibits hung behind her. ‘Quite a nice show. You’ve done well. How are you?’

‘
Fine.’ He glared at her companion, presumably
the latest in her endless queue of lovers. ‘Surprised to see you here.’

‘
Oh, we
thought we’d pop by,’ she said airily. ‘Martin wanted
to come. Darling, why don’t you zoom round the rest of the
gallery?
I’ll have a little chat with Mac and then we can shoot off.’

Martin, watching the exchange of
bravado with interest,
shrugged
and kissed her cheek. ‘Five minutes then,’ he said,
sounding almost amused. ‘But our table’s booked for three
fifteen
and you know Peter hates it if we’re late.’

‘
Don’t remind me,’ exclaimed Loulou, giving him
her society smile and pinching his wrist hard. ‘Now run along.’

When they were alone the atmosphere between them changed
so abruptly that Loulou shivered. The air was
electrically
charged. She felt
exhilarated, and afraid and slightly out of
control. Fate was an incredible thing, she thought wildly.
Anything could happen now, anything at all. So long
as she
played it
cool.

‘
Run along?’ mimicked Mac,
his dark eyes flashing with
derision. ‘So that’s your latest lap-dog?’

‘A
wolfhound in poodle’s clothing,’ she replied demurely, her heart hammering
against her vest. She could smell Mac’s
aftershave
and it was doing incredible things to her senses.
‘And you,’ she added,
nodding in Cecilia’s direction, ‘appear to have a tiger by the tail. Is she as
dangerous as she looks?’

Mac put one hand out, resting it
against the cool white wall
so that Loulou was hemmed in on one side. She tried not to
notice how close he was, nor how he towered over her.

‘
At least she didn’t
come here in some ridiculous disguise,’
he drawled in a low voice. ‘What
are you playing at, Lou?’

He watched as her chin came up in a gesture of defiance.
At that precise moment, when their eyes locked and all the old
memories flooded back, he wavered. It was all up
to Loulou
now. She was almost
everything he had ever wanted, and the
little part of her which wasn’t
was supplied to him by Cecilia.

If only, he thought, she could drop the pretence, confess
that she had been unable to stay away because she had to see him –because she’d
never stopped loving him – then the rest of their
lives would be changed. If she could only
admit
that, he would
be
hers.

Loulou, also flashing backwards
through time, remembered
the lessons
she had learnt the very hardest way of all. Mac only wanted her when she could
take him or leave him. He detested limpets. He liked tigers. She had to play it
cool
or he would be truly lost for ever.

‘
My disguise?’ she said with a casual flip of
the hand and a
glance in Martin’s direction
calculated to drive Mac into a
frenzy of jealousy. ‘Well, if you must
know, Martin’s quite a fan of your work so he dragged me along here with him.
Since I
thought it might be awkward if you
and I bumped into each
other, I stuck
on a hat and dark glasses. Less embarrassing for
all concerned—’

‘
Bullshit,’ said Mac flatly, his face darkening with anger.
She was
blowing it. He’d given her the chance, dammit, that all-important chance and
she was throwing it back in his face. ‘You wanted to see me. You couldn’t stay
away.’

He watched her spine stiffen as she drew herself up,
leaning away from him like a very small and outraged tower of Pisa. At that
moment he knew that all was lost.

‘I couldn’t stay away?’ she echoed in a fierce whisper. ‘Don’t
give
me
that crap. I haven’t been
near you for almost two years
– that’s how hard it is to stay away from
you, you smug bastard. Do you really think you’re
that
irresistible?’

Out of sheer desperation, Mac tried
again. Softening, he
said, ‘No,
but I’m right, aren’t I? You did want to see me.’

I mustn’t back down, thought Loulou
wildly. Sticking out
her chin,
she averted her eyes from that dangerous, knowing,
mesmerizing gaze. For a moment her mind went blank. She
couldn’t
retaliate because no words would come. The room was too hot and she was dimly
aware that almost everyone in the gallery was watching her lose the battle.

Encouraged, Mac reached out and touched her forearm. ‘Why
can’t you at least admit it, Loulou?’ he went on in the same low
tones. ‘I know it must have cost you a lot to come
here. Stop
being so bloody proud, for Christ’s sake, and tell me the
truth.’

Something inside her snapped. She hated the fact that he
was
being condescending in front of all these
people. This was
Mac’s exhibition.
They were here because of him, because of
his incredible talent. He was
a success now, and living with the most sought-after model in England to prove
it. She felt like an extremely poor relation, to whom he was forcing himself to
be kind because he was that kind of guy.

And bloody
hell, she thought furiously, it’s because of him
that I
am
poor. But that doesn’t give him the right to reduce me
to
an emotional mess in full view of his adoring bloody public.

‘
OK,’ she said loudly, ‘I’ll tell you the truth. I did come here
to see you, but only to remind myself how lucky I am. I’m
happy now,
happier than I ever was with you, so there’s no need
to play your condescending little games with me any more. In
fact,’
she continued, her voice rising, ‘I feel sorry for that woman over there. How
the hell does she manage to put up with your bloody awful moods and your
obsession with work?’

‘
Shut up! You’re making
a scene,’ hissed Mac, grabbing her
by both arms. Furiously, she shook
him off.

‘I
like
making scenes. If I’m not happy about
something I’ll argue – that’s the difference between us. And yes,’ she yelled,
realizing that by now the entire gallery was agog, ‘it
did
cost
me a lot to come here
today, but that’s nothing compared with
the two million you cost me two
years ago. You always resented the fact that Vampires was mine so I got rid of
it. For
you,
Mac!’ Gasping for breath, hot tears rolling helplessly down
her cheeks,
she thought she would burst with
rage. ‘But that wasn’t enough
for you,
either. So don’t talk to me about what it cost me to
come here because we both know just how much it
was. I learnt
a very expensive lesson
from you, Mackenzie, and I’ll never,
ever
forget that!’

Turning away, sobbing wildly and
almost blinded now by
tears,
Loulou pushed through the hypnotized crowd and ran out
of the gallery. On the steps outside, like Cinderella’s slipper,
her
grey fedora fell to the ground once more and cartwheeled
slowly until it came to rest against one of the
stone pillars
flanking the entrance.

‘Come on,’ said Martin breathlessly, when he caught up
with her halfway down the street. ‘Stop crying. I’ll take you home.’

‘I haven’t got a home,’ whispered Loulou, sniffing
disconsolately and wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

‘
Don’t worry.’ Putting
his arms around her and pulling her to
a halt, he kissed away the salty
tears. ‘I have.’

Chapter 46

It didn’t take Roz long to realize
that she was seriously out of
her depth.
On the phone to Camilla after three days in Littleton Grey with Natalie she
said, ‘I feel as if I’ve ordered the Crown
Jewels
from a catalogue as a joke and now they’ve told me I
can’t send them back. I can’t cope.’ But Camilla
only laughed
and said, ‘Are the Crown Jewels really so bad? Pay for them
in instalments. Take your time with Natalie and don’t expect too much too soon.’