Page 28 of His Last Gamble

Payne nodded. ‘I’m pleased to hear it. You obviously run a good company,’ he said, with deliberate emphasis on the word ‘you’.

Charmaine nodded, and took another sip, apparently unaware of the implications in what he’d just said. Payne watched her closely, then saw her suddenly stiffen.

Charmaine looked at him with wide blue eyes, which had darkened in alarm. ‘What do you mean? I don’t run the company. Jo-Jo does.’

So she was still lying to him. Though it saddened and puzzled him, it somehow didn’t surprise him. Payne leaned slowly back in his chair and swirled the wine in his glass. ‘Don’t you think it’s time that that particular lie be allowed to die a graceful death, Charmaine?’ he asked softly. ‘I know you and Jo-Jo are full business partners, and that, creatively, you are the driving force behind one of the biggest and best fashion houses in the world. Tell me, are you ashamed of your designs? Or your partner? Or the company?’

‘No, of course not! I love clothes, and stand by all my creations!’ she said hotly. ‘And Jo-Jo’s marvellous at all sorts of things — promotions, getting orders from the big-name stores, doing the publicity and everything.’

She abruptly subsided as she realised, a little late, that she’d risen to the bait far too quickly. ‘Anyway, how did you know?’ she asked after a moment of tense silence.

Payne shrugged. ‘Does it matter?’

Charmaine wasn’t so sure. It depended on what else he knew. Did he know who her family was — who Lucy was? And if he did know, or regularly made it his business to know these sorts of things, how long would it be until he found out why she was really here?

It would be ironic if, just when she’d come to her senses and realised that she couldn’t go through with her revenge, he found out about it and sent her packing.

The thought of never seeing him again was so painful it actually made her wince.

‘So why all the secrecy?’ Payne prodded softly, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, and unwilling to let her off the hook now he had her on the run.

‘It’s no big deal. I just don’t have that in-your-face personality that a fashion house needs to promote it,’ Charmaine said, and gave what she hoped was an uncaring shrug.

‘Unlike Jo-Jo,’ Payne acknowledged with a grin. ‘All right, I can see how your business partner earns his fifty percent, but what’s wrong with your own contributions being acknowledged? Jo-Jo can still be the larger-than-life front man, while others are still made aware of your own input.’

‘I don’t like the limelight, I never have. That’s for the rest of the family,’ she said, then could have bitten off her tongue.

‘Oh? They sound famous,’ Payne said. So it was confirmed. He wondered who they could be. ‘Entertainers of some kind, are they?’

Charmaine went pale. ‘Only my father,’ she lied, trying to gather her scattered wits. ‘He’s rather a name. On the stage. I don’t want to talk about him,’ she said, making it sound as if there was some big family rift. In reality, of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Her father, Lucy and herself were actually very close.

‘Look, it’s getting late, I really must go,’ she said, putting down her napkin with a shaking hand. Any moment now he was bound to think of Lucy, the nearly famous actress with a famous father. And then the game would be up.

But when she looked at him, he showed no signs of guessing her secrets. Instead, he looked bitterly disappointed.

And suddenly she knew why.

It was because she’d said she wanted to go, and he realised he would not have a bed-mate for the night after all. She almost wanted to laugh — except she felt like crying more.

‘I have a shoot tomorrow,’ she said, then wondered why she was trying to let him down lightly. Next she’d be anxiously trying to reassure him that he was a very sexy man, and of course she wanted him, any woman would.

But why should she, she thought defiantly. He was big enough and mean enough to take care of himself. And if he wasn’t used to rejection — well, the change would do him good!

‘But not until the afternoon,’ he said, then raised an eyebrow as she looked at him askance. ‘Jo-Jo told me the photographers would be all morning setting things up.’

Charmaine bit her lip. ‘Even so, we models have to get our beauty sleep. Nobody wants a girl to show up with dark rings under her eyes.’

She glanced longingly at the door. Why wasn’t he taking the hint? Would she really have to go out in search of a taxi? The marina had been far off the beaten track, and a mile or so from the nearest town. Still, she could walk it, if she had to, no problem. She took far longer walks in the countryside back home. Though itwasgetting dark . . .

‘Yes, why are you suddenly modelling for your own fashion house, Charmaine?’ he asked, and watched as all the colour drained from her face. ‘I mean, a moment ago you were telling me you were the shy one in the family, but now — voila. You’re reborn as a Jonniee model. You couldn’t get to stand in more limelight than that if you tried.’

Charmaine gazed at him hopelessly. Why hadn’t she seen that coming?

‘I . . . I . . . er . . . I . . .’ she swallowed and gulped, but no glib lie came to save her this time.

And slowly, Payne rose to his feet and came around the table. She pushed her chair back, glancing around wildly, the urge to flee sending her pulse rate rocketing.

‘Let me guess,’ he said softly, reaching for her and lifting her chin up tenderly with two fingers. He looked down searchingly into her lovely face, reading fear, pain and bewilderment in her eyes. ‘You finally realised that life was passing you by, and knew you had to do something about it. That’s it, isn’t it?’

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