Savage Interlude Read online

  ‘Perhaps that’s as well,’ that hateful man interrupted her thoughts. ‘I don’t think they’d like to see what you’ve become.’

  ‘I haven’t become anything,’ she told him angrily. ‘I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of.’

  ‘Nothing?’ He raised one dark eyebrow. ‘So that’s how you’ve managed to keep St Just interested. I should warn you, I don’t play by the same rules.’

  ‘I can imagine. You don’t appear to be a gentleman.’

  Her comment caused him some humour, and she watched in fascination as his mouth curved into a smile, showing even white teeth. ‘No,’ he agreed, ‘I think we can safely agree that I’m not a gentleman. That’s why I find it quite easy to invite you to a party with me this evening.’

  ‘This evening? But James is expecting you to stay here overnight.’

  ‘Then he’s going to be disappointed. I’m in England for three days only and then I return to Hollywood. I have a lot of things to do, a lot of people to see.’

  ‘And I’m not one of them,’ Kate said firmly, hoping to make her escape.

  ‘You’re an unexpected bonus. And I mean to take advantage of it.’

  ‘But not of me,’ she told him vehemently.

  ‘That could be arranged. I’ll be leaving in about an hour’s time, be ready to go with me. Bring something with you to wear to the party, you can change at my apartment.’

  ‘No, I can’t, because I’m not even leaving the house with you, let alone going to your apartment.’ How dare he suggest such a thing to her!

  He stood up in one lithe movement. ‘I wouldn’t be too sure of that. I should talk to James first before you say a definite no, he wants this part in my film pretty badly. The party tonight is being held by Matt Strange, he wants that part too.’

  ‘But I— That’s—blackmail!’ she glared at him.

  ‘All I did was invite you to a party. Be at the front of the house in an hour, I don’t want to have to come looking for you.’ He left her to join a group of people on the other side of the pool, instantly becoming the centre of attention.

  James touched her shoulder with one wet hand. ‘Why so deep in thought?’ He picked up a towel and began to dry his bronzed body. ‘Have you fallen for our enigmatic director too?’

  ‘No, I haven’t. I think he’s awful. Conceited and arrogant! He had the nerve to order me to go to a party with him tonight—I say ordered because he certainly didn’t give me any choice in the matter.’

  ‘Tonight?’ James frowned. ‘He isn’t staying here?.’

  ‘I would have thought that was obvious when he’s invited me to a party.’

  ‘All right, Kate,’ he sighed. ‘Just calm down. The man’s a damned nuisance. I expected to get him slightly inebriated, introduce him to a couple of nice girls, and then get his agreement to my playing the lead in his next film.’

  Kate looked at him closely. ‘I thought the part was already yours?’

  James slipped on a knitted blue top. ‘Matt Strange is after it too. But I want this part, Kate, I want it badly.’

  ‘I thought you said the script wasn’t bad. That doesn’t sound like the part of a lifetime to me.’

  ‘All an act, Kate. The part is brilliant. And I’d be good in it, I know I would. And I need this part, Damien never fails.’

  ‘I gathered that,’ she said dryly.

  He grinned. ‘You’re in the minority as far as women go, they usually go down like ninepins. So where is he taking you?’

  Kate’s eyes widened. ‘He isn’t taking me anywhere. I told him I wasn’t going.’

  He bit his lip. ‘I wish you hadn’t done that.’

  ‘You can’t be serious, James. I don’t want to go to Matt Strange’s party. I don’t like him any more than I do Damien Savage,’ and she looked at him anxiously.

  ‘Look, Kate, I’m at the top of my profession now, as far as I can go without starring in a Damien Savage film. Most of his films are for an unlimited budget, he can do what he damn well pleases. And no matter what he does it’s always a smash hit. Anything new he tries and all the other film companies take it up too. I’m not getting any younger, and there won’t be too many more opportunities for me to play a part like this one.’

  ‘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 the car without need for concentration, almost as if the vehicle were a part of the man himself. ‘Usually on the news, getting on or off a plane with James,’ he continued. ‘It’s amazing we’ve never met before.’

  Kate looked uninterestedly out of the window. ‘Amazing isn’t quite the word I would use.’

  ‘I should think lucky fits in more with your idea of things.’ He glanced sideways at her. ‘James must want this part pretty badly to allow me to walk off with his girl.’

  ‘I’m not his girl!’ she snapped.

  ‘You’re hardly more than that. Eighteen years of age!’ he said with disgust.

  ‘Nearly nineteen,’ she put in resentfully.

  ‘How nearly nineteen?’

  ‘Well, I—In eight months’ time!’

  ‘Like I said, eighteen years of age. And already you have someone like James St Just in love with you. You have me intrigued too, if that’s any consolation to you.’

  ‘It isn’t,’ she said firmly.

  ‘Look, kid, the James St Justs of this world will only use you. You’d be better off, with people of your own age, people who don’t want you for what they can get.’

  She glared at him angrily. ‘Is that why I’ve been forced to come with you?’

  ‘I didn’t force you. If there was any forcing done it was by James. I merely requested that you come with me.’

  ‘Requested!’ she scoffed. ‘You blackmailed me.’

  His green eyes narrowed. ‘And how did I do that?’

  ‘You—you threatened me.’

  ‘I did no such thing,’ he denied mildly.

  ‘Well, you threatened James, then,’ she blustered. ‘You more or less said that if I didn’t accompany you to this party you’d give the part to Matt Strange, the part James wants.’

  ‘My dear girl—’

  ‘I’m not your dear anything,’ she interrupted.

  ‘My dear girl,’ he continued as though she hadn’t rudely interrupted him, ‘if I intended giving Matt Strange that part then believe me he’d get it, no matter what bribe James put in front of me. Even if you are the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in years.’

  ‘Then you don’t intend giving Matt Strange the part?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, James is definitely right for it, he knows it and I know it.’

  ‘Then why—’

  ‘Why the supposed indecision?’ he finished for her. ‘I never believe in letting my actors become too sure of themselves, and a little healthy competition does them no harm at all.’

  ‘So you’ve already decided to give James the part?’ she demanded, a feeling of indignation beginning to well up inside her.

  Damien Savage nodded. ‘That’s right.’

  ‘So I have no need to be here really?’ Her fiery temper was definitely beginning to take over now.

  The look in his eyes could only be described as intimate. ‘I wouldn’t say that.’

  ‘Well, I would!’ Kate turned fully in her seat to glare at him. ‘You have a damned nerve! You’re like a puppeteer, you pull the strings and everyone moves as you tell them to. I don’t like you, Mr Savage, I don’t like you at all.’

  ‘I know,’ he admitted calmly. ‘I think that’s half your attraction to me.’

  ‘I don’t want you to find me attractive. I—’ She suddenly noticed that he had pulled the car to a halt. She looked about her dazedly. This was an apartment block, but it certainly wasn’t where she and James had their apartment. ‘Where are we?’

  He was already getting out of the car. ‘At my apartment.’ He came round to open the door for her.

  ‘But I— You said you’d drop me off at James’!’ she accused.

  ‘So I did,’ he taunted. ‘But you didn’t honestly believe I would, did you? Let’s go,’ he continued. ‘I promise not to look while you change.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  KATE hung back, glaring at him indignantly. ‘I know you won’t look while I change, because I’m not changing anywhere near you. I’m not going anywhere near your apartment either. I’m not completely naïve!’

  Damien Savage looked down his haughty nose at her. ‘And I’m not going to suddenly leap on you as soon as the door is closed behind us. I have more finesse than that.’

  ‘I can imagine,’ Kate r
eturned dryly.

  ‘I’m sure you can, little girls like you often have vivid imaginations. Don’t be such a coward, Kate!’ he snapped. ‘What harm can it do you to come up with me, take a shower, change, and then go on to a party?’

  Put like that it sounded quite innocent, but how could she be sure it would be with a man of his reputation? ‘I—I’m not sure,’ she looked at him uncertainly.

  Damien was no longer looking at her but had turned his attention to the man who had left the apartment building at their arrival. ‘Good evening, Barry,’ he greeted the man, handing over his car keys. ‘I’ll be needing it again about eight-thirty.’

  ‘Right, Mr Savage,’ the younger man smiled.

  Damien Savage raised a taunting eyebrow at Kate as she still sat inside the car. ‘Ready?’ he asked softly.

  He left her no choice but to follow him, which she did with ill grace. She fumed silently all the way up in the lift, hardly aware of her surroundings, except to note absently that they were plush and obviously the height of luxury. She would still have liked to refuse to come up here with this man but had baulked at causing a scene in front of the other man. As he had known she would!

  The lift doors opened directly into the penthouse apartment and Damien Savage stepped out into the luxurious interior, waiting only fleetingly for Kate to follow him. He led the way silently into the lounge, moving forward to switch on the stereo before turning to face her.

  The music that pervaded the room was soothingly melodious and not jarringly obvious as most music seemed to be nowadays. In fact the whole room was decorated for comfort and not for fashion, and it instantly found favour in Kate’s eyes. A three-piece suite in deep brown leather stood before the mock fireplace, a deep-pile cream carpet adding to the warmth and relaxation of the room, an antique mahogany dresser and stereo unit completed the furnishings.

  Damien Savage was watching the play of emotions across her expressive face. ‘I take it my home meets with your approval?’

  ‘It’s—it’s very nice,’ she replied awkwardly.