Last Resort (17 page)

"Fancy coming for a spin later?"

Rolling her eyes, Penny walked back into the house.

"I sent out for pizzas/ she told him as he came in after her.

"I hope that's OK with you."

"Sure. I'll just take a half, though/ he added, patting 122

his stomach. 1 overdid it a bit at lunch."

Penny groaned inwardly. That meant she could only have half herself and she was absolutely starving.

This is quite some place you've got here/ he cornmented, looking around as he followed her into the sitting room.

"How did you find it?"

Through an agent."

She watched him taking it all in and rather liked the feeling his presence seemed to have added. He was quite an enigma, she was thinking, with his air of frivolity that never quite masked the depths of a character she was intrigued to know better.

Tike some wine?"

she offered, tucking the hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind an ear.

"Great,"

he nodded, opening up the piano and giving it a quick tinkle.

"Do you play?"

he asked.

"Not at all/ she answered.

"Do you?"

"Only when under the influence."

"Red or white?"

she said, going into the kitchen.

"Whatever's open. Yeah, this really is a great place/ he said, leaping on to one of the sofas and stretching out.

"I could kind of get to like it here."

Deciding to ignore the remark, Penny poured him a glass of wine and took it back to the sitting room.

To you/ he said, raising his glass,

"and whatever we're going to call this magazine of ours."

To all three of us/ she said with a smile, touching her glass to his.

"We got off to a pretty good start today, don't you agree?"

he said after taking a generous sip.

"Well, some of us got off to a flying start, but... Sorry, sorry, I couldn't resist it/ he grinned as she flashed him a warning look.

"But I've got to hand it to you, Pen, you sure are getting things together."

Thank you/ she said, going to sit down.

"But most of the credit belongs to you and Marielle. You certainly don't waste any time, either of you."

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'Except in the afternoons/ he remarked drily.

Penny slanted her eyes as she looked at him.

"I hope I made myself clear about that/ she said.

"It's not on, David. It's unprofessional and'

"OK, OK/ he laughed.

"We just got carried away. It won't happen again, I swear."

"At least not in the afternoons/ she muttered.

His grin widened and, despite herself, Penny laughed. The uneasy moments since asking him to order Marielle back to the office had continued throughout the afternoon as she'd wondered if a part of her had done it out of some kind of misguided jealousy. But sitting here looking at him now, as attractive as he was, she no longer feared that to be the case.

"Incidentally/ he said,

"I like your idea of getting the gossip and reviews straight from LA. When do you intend to go?"

"I'm not sure/ she answered.

"Probably just after the launch."

"You don't want it in the first issue?"

"I do, but I don't think I'll have the time to go between now and then."

He shrugged.

"Well, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'll make some calls if you like, see if we can get something to cover before you go out there. And when you do go I'll give you some contacts."

"Thank you/ she said, her head to one side.

"How come you know so many people?"

she asked, curiously.

He grimaced. T guess I've just been around."

"Doing what?"

"You name it."

"No, why don't you?"

"Hey, come on/ he laughed,

"what are you asking for here, my CV?"

"Yes, I suppose that's about the measure of it. I'd like to know who I'm working with."

"Is that so?"

he remarked, with a suggestive lift of his

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eyebrows.

Scowling, Penny got to her feet and headed back to the kitchen.

"Are you trying to hide something or do you just get off on irritating me?"

she called out to him.

"Now, why would I want to irritate you?"

he said, from the doorway.

"Why would you want to avoid the question?"

she challenged.

"Do you mind if we eat here?"

she added, putting the pizzas on the kitchen table.

"Not a bit,"

he answered.

"And I'm not avoiding anything. Neither do I have anything to hide, but I'm afraid if you want to know about me you're going to have to ask someone else

"cos I'm a pretty modest sort of chap at heart."

"OK, I'll do that/ she said, thinking she'd give Sylvia a call in the morning while wishing that suitable putdowns didn't always come to her when it was too late.

"But, tell me, how committed are you to making this magazine work?"

He seemed surprised by the question.

"I'd say about a hundred per cent,"

he answered.

Penny's eyes came up to his.

"Why?"

He smiled.

"Why not?"

"I wish you'd stop answering questions with questions,"

she snapped.

"OK. I want to see it work because you want it to work,"

he said, sitting down at the table.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!"

she cried.

"You're not dealing with one of your stupid little airheads here, so stop treating me like one."

"And what would you know about the way I treat them?"

he grinned.

"David stop it!"

she shouted.

"I want us to build a good working relationship, but you're making it impossible."

"I am?"

he said, tucking into his pizza.

"Then tell me what you want me to do."

"I want you to be straight with me."

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'OK."

He thought about it for a minute, then said,

"Well, I reckon what you're really aiming to find out is how come we've managed to get so far so fast? Am I right?"

"You are."

Then that's easy/ he told her.

"I put Pierre to work on finding out about The Coast as soon as Sylvia told me she was interested in Fieldstone. So your suspicions are correct that I've been involved in this a lot longer than you, and they're also correct where the editor of the NiceMatin is concerned/ he added, thereby confirming that Pierre had reported his conversation with her.

"So the contacts Monsieur Couval gave me actually came from you?"

Penny said curtly.

"Not really. They came from him originally, but the list was a lot longer then and by the time you came along I'd already narrowed it down to those I considered to be the best."

Penny's anger was making it hard for her to swallow.

"So in other words/ she said,

"I was duped into believing that I had managed, as you put it, to charm the contacts out of Monsieur Couval myself?"

That's right/ he answered, completely unabashed.

Then I don't see how we can possibly continue working together/ Penny said coldly.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

she cried.

"Because you're doing things your way without even so much as consulting me and you're deceiving me into the bargain."

"You are in charge, Penny/ he assured her.

"I just used what little know-how I have to get things moving. And I'm sorry about not being straight with you from the start."

Penny was silent for a while, finding all this as difficult to digest as the pizza now that he'd managed to rob her of her appetite by making her see that in truth she was working for him, rather than with him.

"Not true,"

he said when she challenged him.

"We both

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work for Sylvia. We've got equal power, which I think she told you and/ he said, starting to grin,

"you look great when you're confused."

Penny's eyes flashed with temper.

"It doesn't work with me, David,"

she told him angrily.

"I'm as unmoved by your charm as I'm upset by your deceit."

Swallowing a mouthful of pizza, he picked up his wine.

"Deceit's a pretty strong word/ he said.

"The way I see it is that I just did what Sylvia asked me to do and when you came along I didn't want you to think I was trying to run off with all the glory when we're a fifty-fifty partnership. So that's why I didn't tell you right off about the editor of the Nice-Matin, or that I'd been working on setting things up for so long."

"Did you seriously think I'd be so stupid that I wouldn't see through it?"

Penny demanded.

"As a matter of fact, I thought you might be/ he answered frankly.

"But now I know you I have rather a different opinion, which is why I'm no longer trying to deny it. In fact I'd have told you sooner if I'd been able to get over to London during the couple of weeks you went back, but I had to go over to the States to wrap a few things up there. And I reckon the worst you can accuse me of here is patronizing you, which I readily hold my hands up to and swear it won't happen again."

"So why me?"

Penny said after a pause.

"Why do you need me when you're obviously perfectly capable of running the magazine without me and could take all the power if you installed Marielle as editor?"

"Two reasons/ he answered.

"First, it's not me who makes the decisions, it's Sylvia. Second, Marielle doesn't have what it takes and Sylvia's convinced you do."

Tearing her eyes away from him, Penny got up to go and get more wine from the fridge.

"Hey, come on/ he said, watching her go. T'm really sorry I've made you feel so bad. It wasn't my intention, honest. I mean, I don't suppose I thought about it one

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way or the other before we met, I was just doing a job ... But now we've met, well, I'm kind of looking forward to working with you. So, what do you say we put this behind us and start over?"

"You've made me feel such a fool,"

Penny told him bluntly as she refilled their glasses.

"If anyone's a fool around here/ he said,

"it's me, for insulting your intelligence. It won't happen again."

For some reason the dark intensity of his eyes and the convincing concern that had deepened his voice made Penny smile.

"It had just better not,"

she said.

He took a mouthful of food and continued watching her as he chewed it; then, following it with a sip of wine, he said,

"Look, I know you're telling yourself you don't like me very much, but it's still early days and I reckon you might find that I'm not so bad when it comes right down to it. And,"

he went on, giving her a mischievous wink,

"I can tell already that you're finding it pretty hard to resist m'

"That's it!"

she cried, jumping to her feet.

"You've gone too far now and I've had just about all I can take from you for one day/

His smile vanished as he looked up at her in profound astonishment.

"What have I said now?"

he cried.

"It's what you were about to say!"

she seethed.

"That you can't resist my jokes?"

he said, starting to grin as he belatedly realized what she'd thought he was going to say.

Penny looked away as the blood came rushing to her cheeks.

"Hey, you're not telling me you fancy me, are you?"

he teased. Then, as her eyes came furiously back to his,

"Oh shit, I feel a tiramisu heading my way/

With one arm pointing towards the door she glared down at him, determined not to show how very close to laughing she was despite her anger.

T reckon you're kicking me out,"

he said, faking

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amazement.

How very astute of you."

"But I haven't finished my pizza/ he pointed out.

"And I'm kind of enjoying myself."

Giving herself a moment to get both her laughter and her frustration under control, she said,

"If you stay I don't want to discuss anything other than the magazine. Is that clear?"

-a

"Perfectly. Do you have any hot sauce?"

vL

"No/

They ate in silence for a while. Then, leaning back in his chair and picking up his wine, he said,

"So where do you hail from, Penny Moon? Somewhere up north I can tell by that little trace of an accent. Let me guess ... No? Oh shit, I forgot, the magazine."

He took a sip of his wine.

"Got any ideas for a title yet? If you do, you might just end up winning a dinner with yourself."

Rolling her eyes, Penny put down her knife and fork and dabbed her mouth with a napkin.

"You could fling a tiramisu in your own face at the end/ he suggested helpfully.

"Stop it/ Penny laughed.

"You're really milking that one now."

T swear, I'll never mention it again/ he vowed, hand on heart.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"Distribution/ she answered.

"OK, what do you want to know?"

At first, as he filled her in on his initial plans for distribution, Penny almost regretted asking, for it was such a complicated business and one he so clearly had under control that it was only highlighting her ignorance.

However, she soon found that she was enjoying listening to him and was gaining a great deal of pleasure from the way her own editorial plans, outlined just that morning, were about to effect so many changes in his plans. There was no question about it, Sylvia was right: he really did have a head for business and when it came to ambition

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he almost took Penny's breath away. He appeared to have no conception of what it was to be conservative and there was no doubt at all that big business and high finance were nothing new to him - in fact Penny had the distinct impression they were much closer to being second nature. It made her wonder again what he had been doing in the States, but as he talked her on through the ever-expanding circle of a European-wide distribution, of what she'd be required to put into the magazine to make it all cost-effective, she could only listen and marvel at how effortless he made it all sound. As effortless as changing the subject and getting her to talk about herself, and to discover that they had nothing at all in common besides the magazine. They enjoyed neither the same music nor the same literature, were diametrically opposed in both politics and philosophy, and were so irreconcilably at odds over, of all things, the ethics and origins of humour that it was some time before Penny realized he was teasing her.