Читать книгу: «Savage Interlude»

CHAPTER ONE

‘YOU had no right to do it, James. No right at all!’ Kate smoothed back her almost waist-length hair, now pulled back and secured on the top of her head, the gold flecks in her brown eyes more vivid in her anger. ‘Why must you always interfere?’ she demanded.

James looked up from the script he had been casually perusing, a faint smile to his cynical lips. ‘I had every right, Kate. Humphries is not for you.’ He threw the script down on the sofa beside him.

Tears filled her eyes. ‘No one will be for me if you carry on like this. As fast as I become interested in someone you effectively get rid of him.’ She sat down dejectedly in the chair, throwing one bare leg over the arm.

He snorted with laughter, getting up to refill his glass with a liberal amount of whisky. ‘You’re only eighteen, Kate dear. Stop trying to latch on to the first man you meet. You have plenty of time to meet the man of your dreams,’ his lip turned back in a sneer, ‘you don’t have to rush it.’

Kate pouted sulkily. ‘But I really liked, Nigel. He could be fun.’

James shrugged. ‘Can’t they all? And take that sulky look off your face. Damien Savage will be here soon, and with you glowering at him like that he isn’t likely to stay long.’

‘Good,’ she returned childishly. ‘Who wants to meet Damien Savage anyway?’

‘I do,’ he told her dryly. ‘This film script isn’t bad.’

‘Up to your standard, brother dear?’ she taunted.

He frowned his displeasure at her flippancy. ‘I’ll stop you seeing Susan if you don’t stop picking up her mannerisms,’ he warned darkly. ‘And don’t call me brother, you know I don’t like to advertise the fact that we’re related.’

‘Neither did your father,’ she put in shortly.

‘Our father,’ he corrected.

‘Mm, that was a closely guarded secret until he died.’

‘Stop grouching,’ he grinned. ‘He made provision for you in his will, didn’t he?’

‘Oh, yes. And dragged me from obscurity into a life of gaiety. Like hell he did!’ she added fiercely. ‘He forced you to accept me into your life, took me away from the people I knew, and now half the people we know think I’m little more than your—–’

‘Calm down, Kate! My—our—father was a much respected man in the business world, and I’m not exactly unknown myself. And there’s my mother to think of. What do you think it would do to her if it came out that her husband had fathered you?’

‘It wouldn’t help your reputation much either,’ she grimaced. ‘So in the meantime everyone thinks I’m your mistress, woman, whatever.’

‘And they think I’m a cradle-snatcher. What the hell, I couldn’t give a damn about what people think. It does me no harm to be thought to have my mistress in residence, none at all. And this way I can protect and look after you as our father intended.’

‘So I’ve noticed. For the past two years, since I insisted on leaving that dreadful boarding school you sent me to, I haven’t been able to do anything, see anyone without your say-so. It’s so restricting!’

‘Now come on, Kate. You aren’t exactly deprived of meeting people. Look at the crowd we have this weekend.’

‘All of them your friends,’ she flashed back at him. ‘The distinguished, the famous, the handsome, the notorious James St Just. You’ve appeared in so many films that have been shown all over the world that we can’t go anywhere or do anything together without you being recognised.’

‘You knew that when you demanded to be taken away from school.’

‘Yes, but I didn’t ask to come and live with you instead. I thought the school was bad, but this place is like a prison in comparison!’

‘Don’t exaggerate. You have everything you could wish for here—clothes, money, friends. You want for nothing.’

‘Except love.’

He laughed at her woebegone face. ‘I love you, funnyface. What more can you want?’

‘Indeed,’ drawled a voice behind them, the faint American accent only slightly noticeable. ‘It would appear that Miss Darwood has what numerous women in the world would gladly give up everything else for.’

‘What the hell—–!’ James sprang to his feet, turning to face the intruder. ‘No one is allowed in this part of the house—Damien! By all that’s holy! But I told Jennings to show you out to the pool when you arrived.’

Green eyes narrowed. ‘I didn’t come all this way to be fobbed off to the pool with your other guests. I’m sorry I interrupted your těte-à-těte with Miss Darwood, but I have a limited time in England, and all of it accounted for.’

The voice was attractive enough, deep and faintly husky, but what he was saying wasn’t. And the contempt in those deep green eyes wasn’t very pleasant either. Kate had seen numerous photographs of this famous man, but no photograph could do him justice. It couldn’t begin to hint at his height, well over six feet, or the blackness of his hair, and the deep emerald of his eyes. His face was deeply tanned as if he enjoyed being out in the sun, his features harsh, from the thinned contemptuous lips, the taut aquiline nose, to the deep lines grooved either side of that satanic face.

‘Come in, come in,’ James invited, unperturbed by this man’s terseness. ‘Of course you don’t have to go to the pool if you don’t want to. Can I offer you a drink?’

‘Whisky will be fine,’ Damien Savage nodded consent.

James poured out the whisky for his guest himself. ‘I’ve read the script, Damien. I like it.’

The film director looked at Kate pointedly. ‘Could we discuss this somewhere more private? The script is not for the public yet.’

‘Kate isn’t the public,’ James laughed. ‘I have no secrets from her, you can talk quite freely.’

‘Nevertheless I would prefer that we spoke alone.’

James shrugged. ‘Would you mind, Kate?’

She looked from her brother to the arrogant face of Damien Savage. ‘But I—–’

‘Please, Kate.’ Her brother’s eyes were pleading.

She glared at Damien Savage. Damn his arrogant face! He walked in here looking like the devil himself, dressed completely in black from head to foot, and proceeded to order everyone about. Well, she would do as James asked this time, but if that man dared to order her about again, she would …

‘All right,’ she agreed ungraciously. ‘I’ll see you later, James.’ She deliberately ignored Damien Savage, but from the bland look on his face that didn’t bother him in the slightest.

She swayed gracefully out of the room, well aware that her perfect figure was shown to advantage in the pale green bikini she wore. What an arrogant devil that Damien Savage was! His importance as one of the leading film directors in the world must have gone to his head. Goodness knows James was famous enough in his own right, but even he had seemed rather overawed by the man’s dominating personality.

‘Kate darling,’ Sheri greeted with her low American drawl. ‘Where’s James?’

Kate sat down next to the tall junoesque Sheri, admiring the other girl’s cool blonde beauty. Her own red hair often led to her losing the fiery temper that went with that hair, no matter how she tried to prevent it happening. She had been having another heated argument with James only minutes earlier, about his ruling concerning her friends. In fact, it hadn’t yet been settled, Damien Savage had seen to that. Damn the man! With James in his rare good humour of the last few days she could perhaps have managed to make him change his mind about Nigel. Who knew what his mood would be like the next time she saw him?

‘He’s inside,’ she told Sheri. ‘With Damien Savage.’

‘Damien’s arrived?’ Sheri’s blue eyes lit up excitedly.

Kate grimaced. ‘Oh, he’s arrived all right. Sweeping all before him.’

Sheri gave a husky laugh. ‘That sounds like Damien. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly.’

‘Are you saying I’m a fool?’ Kate demanded indignantly.

‘Oh dear, has he upset you already?’

‘You say that as if he does it often.’ Kate looked at the other girl interestedly. She had only ever seen newspaper reports about Damien Savage’s women friends and what a brilliant director he was, nothing about the rest of his life. But there had been plenty about the women in his life; he always seemed to be involved with one leading lady or another.

‘He’s very—blunt,’ Sheri told her.

‘You’ve met him before?’ she couldn’t help her interest.

‘Mm,’ Sheri sipped her lime juice, ‘at a couple of James’ parties in London. He’s very good-looking, and so masterful.’

‘I can think of a few other choice words to describe him. I don’t like him at all. And James surprised me, he more or less let him walk in and take over.’

‘You do that with Damien. And to appear in one of his movies is to guarantee success, and you know how James loves success. Damien never fails. I think it’s all to do with the fact that he writes them as well as directing them. He’s brilliant, everyone accepts that.’

‘Oh, I admit he’s clever, I’ve never denied that. But does he have to be so bossy with it. I didn’t—–’

‘James!’ Sheri stood up to greet him, pursing her lips to receive his kiss. She hugged his arm to her side. ‘Kate was just telling me you’d been delayed. Damien, how nice to see you again,’ she smiled at him.

‘Sheri,’ he nodded curtly, those piercing green eyes now hidden behind dark glasses.

‘I didn’t realise you’d be coming here today,’ she said conversationally.

His look was scathing. ‘At least James didn’t feel it necessary to inform all his guests of my plans.’

Kate knew he was referring to her and she felt her hackles rise. He had a nerve! Why shouldn’t James discuss things with her? She might only have been in his care four years, but during that time they had become as close as any normal brother and sister who had been brought up together.

James was twenty years her senior, and a very famous film star into the bargain, but he always had time for her—sometimes too much time, which was when they had their arguments. But he had been very good to her since he had learnt on his father’s death that he was not an only child after all, but had a fourteen-year-old-sister by another woman. Kate had been in an orphanage since her mother had died and it had seemed like a dream come true to suddenly find that her brother was James St Just, and that he intended looking after her.

She had every reason to feel grateful to him, and so on being allowed to leave school at sixteen had set out to become his friend and confidant. And she had succeeded, although there were still certain things he shut her out of, times when he could be stricter than a father, and these were the times she wished he didn’t take his guardianship of her so seriously.

She rejoined the conversation at Sheri’s suggestion that they go for a swim. ‘Not you, Kate,’ James said sternly. ‘You’ve only just eaten your lunch.’

‘Oh, but—–’

‘You’ll have to excuse me too, I’m afraid,’ drawled that infuriating voice. ‘I’ve just eaten myself.’

‘Oh!’ For a moment James looked undecided. ‘Oh well, we can talk again later. Just ask one of the staff for a drink and relax for a while.’

He and Sheri ran to the pool’s edge before diving into the clear blue water, leaving Kate alone with the man she already heartily disliked. Too magnetically attractive and arrogant for his own good, that was her opinion. She made a move to leave. ‘Well, if you’ll excuse me …’

She was stopped from leaving by the firm, blood-stopping grip of his hand on her wrist. She looked down at that hand, even in her discomfort admitting that it was a nice hand, strong and sensitive at one go, and not at all rough as she had imagined it to be.

He smiled mockingly as he interpreted her surprised glance. ‘Surely you aren’t going to leave me alone, Miss Darwood—Kate? I’m sure James wouldn’t like you to do that.’

She was sure he wouldn’t either. Bother the man, he was too damned sure of his own importance! She subsided back on to the lounger, watching him from behind her dark glasses as he slid on to the one next to her. ‘Are you working on a film at the moment, Mr Savage?’ She had learnt during the. last couple of years that there was nothing most of James’ friends liked more than talking about themselves.

‘Damien, please,’ he said smoothly. ‘Yes, I’m working on a film at the moment. Do you enjoy this sort of life?’ She was startled by the suddenness of the question, expecting the next fifteen minutes or so to be spent in boredom as she pretended to listen to him praising himself. ‘Lounging about poolsides,’ he continued, ‘and no doubt attending numerous parties.’

Kate had to admit she had attended a few, but only with James in close attendance. She shrugged. ‘It’s okay.’

‘Okay!’ he snorted his disgust. ‘Wasting your life away here! Why don’t you get yourself a job instead of hanging around here like some sort of expensive groupie for St Just and his rich friends? Go out and meet life head-on instead of sitting here waiting for it to come to you.’

Kate had visibly stiffened at his use of the word groupie, and had gone on to burning anger. She sat up rigidly. ‘You don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about, Mr Savage, so I’ll try to ignore all your insults.’

‘I don’t want you to ignore them, I want you to listen and take note. You have good bone structure, good colouring, in fact you’re quite beautiful. Have you ever had a screen test?’ he shot the question at her.

‘No, I haven’t. James wouldn’t like it.’

He gave a cruel smile. ‘I can imagine. Probably because with the right tuition you could be a bigger star than he is.’

‘And I suppose you think you’re the person to give me that tuition,’ she said sarcastically.

‘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.’

‘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.