Page 5 of Here Comes Trouble
‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Jess asked.
‘Yeah. Feeling humiliated and rejected, but I’ll survive.’
Jess snorted. ‘Join the club.’
The woman looked at her in confusion. ‘What happened to you?’
Jess sighed. ‘I was supposed to be interviewing Xander Heaton, but he blew me off.’
The woman snorted. ‘Sounds like Xander. Does what he wants, when he feels like it, and sod everyone else. He’s a law unto himself, that guy.’
Aha, so she was right.
‘What did he do to make you cry?’ Jess asked tentatively. If she couldn’t get an interview with the man himself, she could at least get some information from one of his disgruntled models to try and appease Pamela.
The model looked down at the sink. ‘I’ve been stupidly excited about working with him and I’ve been telling everyone I’m going to be in a famous painting, but apparently I’m totally uninspiring. He doesn’t think I’m attractive enough,’ she said quietly. ‘He was all sweetness and flirty one minute and cold as ice the next and I have no idea what I did wrong.’
A shot of anger fired through Jess’s veins. Just who did the guy think he was? ‘What’s your name?’ Jess asked gently.
‘Seraphina.’
‘Well, I think you’re a very beautiful woman and Xander’s an idiot to reject you,’ Jess said, giving the woman an encouraging smile. ‘From what I’ve heard about him you’ve had a lucky escape. He’s not exactly known for having meaningful relationships.’
The model snorted, but managed to raise a smile. ‘No, I guess not. And it’s not as if he made a move on me, but I hoped he might.’ She looked down at the floor. ‘I just got a bit swept away by the excitement of it all and he’s so damn hot, you know? You can’t blame a girl for falling for him.’
Jess nodded. Okay, well that answered the ‘are you sleeping with him?’ question. ‘Yeah, I imagine that’s easily done.’ She brushed a speck of dust off the sleeve of her jacket. ‘Right, well, I’d better go. I have to go back to work and persuade my editor not to fire me.’
Her stomach sank at the thought of returning and admitting she’d failed.
Seraphina gave Jess a sympathetic smile. ‘Good luck.’
‘You too,’ Jess said, giving the girl’s arm a reassuring squeeze before leaving her alone in the bathroom – hot wrath at Xander rising like an out-of-control soufflé in her chest.
* * *
Xander was locking up the studio when the dark-haired journalist slammed through the ladies’ toilet door. She caught sight of him and seemed to pause in her tracks to think about something before stalking towards him. Her cheeks were flushed bright pink and anger flashed in those huge midnight-blue eyes of hers.
‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ she practically spat.
He took a step backwards in surprise. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘The way you treated that woman is inhumane.’
He frowned at her, baffled. ‘What woman?’
She threw her hands up in disgust. ‘Seraphina.’
Her reprimanding tone bothered him. Who was she to tell him how to conduct himself? ‘She needs to toughen up if she’s going to make it as a model.’
Her eyes widened in contemptuous disbelief. ‘Not everyone has rhino skin. Can’t you remember what it feels like to be young and filled with hope and excitement for the future?’
There was a hint of expectation on her face, as if she wanted to hear him admit to his own weaknesses out loud.
His automatic privacy barriers shot up.
Not a chance, journo.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been filled with hope. I may have filled a Hope in my time though.’ He flashed her a wicked smile.
