Savage Interlude

‘I could be,’ he replied deeply.

‘I thought so. You’re just another wolf, Mr Savage.’ And she had met plenty of them the last couple of years.

To her surprise he smiled. ‘At least I don’t dress up in sheep’s clothing. I meant what I said about you becoming a bigger star than James. Come round to the studio on Monday and we’ll see about that screen test.’

‘With the contract finalised on the couch in your office, no doubt?’ she returned.

‘Oh no,’ he smiled. ‘We’re a little bit more sophisticated than that nowadays. I take you back to my apartment for the night,’ that taunting mouth mocked her. ‘Can you act, by the way? It isn’t really necessary, but it would be a bonus if you can. Of course you can act,’ he answered his own question impatiently. ‘You’re doing it here all the time.’

‘I am not! I don’t like you and I’m making no pretence about it.’

‘I don’t ask that you like me, just that you turn up on Monday. And why should you pretend to like me when James openly admits to loving you? He’s rich enough to keep you in luxury for the rest of your life—or until someone richer comes along. Just as a point of interest, I am richer than James.’

‘So?’ she asked insolently.

He shrugged. ‘I just thought I’d save you the trouble of having to find out my bank balance.’

‘As I’m not interested in you your bank balance doesn’t interest me either,’ she told him angrily. The conceit of the man!

He was watching Sheri and James’ antics in the pool. ‘I suppose you’re used to sharing him with other women. James doesn’t seem to be able to settle down with just one woman.’ He was looking at her behind those dark glasses and she wished she could see the expression in his eyes. ‘You’ve lasted quite a long time now, a couple of years at least. Although it doesn’t seem to have stopped his other little diversions. How old are you?’ again the question was shot at her so suddenly it took her by surprise.

‘Eighteen,’ she answered jerkily. ‘Nearly nineteen.’

He nodded his dark head, his hair over-long and brushed back in the casual windswept style that was fashionable at the moment. ‘That’s what I thought. And you’ve been living with St Just since you were sixteen,’ it was a statement, not a question. ‘Don’t your parents mind? Or don’t they care what you do?’

‘My parents are both dead.’ Poor Mummy, who had to live with the guilt of having borne an illegitimate child, and her stepfather who had never let either of them forget that they owed their respectability to him. Given the same circumstances herself, Kate would have preferred to have remained unmarried rather than put up with Arthur’s abuse day and night.

Her mother and stepfather had been killed in a road accident when she was only fourteen and as she had no other family she had been put into care. Unbeknown to her she did have other family; her real father had been made aware of her existence from some papers left for him by her mother. Unfortunately the knowledge of his daughter’s existence had brought on a heart attack, closely followed a couple of months later by another one, this time fatal. But in his will he had left her to the guardianship of his only son, James St Just.

‘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.’