The Sweetest Revenge Part 5

'Seven o'clock?'

'Yes.'

'You won't disappear on me again?'

'I'll meet you for dinner.'

No promises beyond that, Barbie told herself. She may have embarked on madness, but she could allow this much time with Nick, just to see...

'I'll look forward to it,' he said, a happy grin spreading across his handsome face as he released her and withdrew her sungla.s.ses from his s.h.i.+rt pocket. 'No more disguises?'

Barbie flushed, the deception she was determinedly playing very high on her awareness scale. 'It was my job,' she excused.

'I'd like to hear more about that tonight.' He gave her the gla.s.ses then stepped away to scoop up her hat from the floor. 'Sorry about this but I had to take it off,' he said, smiling a rueful apology as he handed it back to her. 'Your hair is too beautiful to hide.'

She was hiding much more than her hair, Barbie thought, as she crammed the hat on. This was a game-a dangerous game-of hide-and-seek. If and when she was caught...would she know how to handle it by then?

'Thank you,' she said. 'I must go now. Sue's waiting.'

'Is she your boss?'

'More a case of mutual interests,' Barbie answered evasively.

He didn't pursue the point. 'Until tonight then,' he said, ushering her to the door.

Just before Barbie made her exit, her gaze flicked to the broken fairy wings, propped against the file cabinet.

Were they both pursuing a fantasy?

She paused in the opened doorway to take one last direct look at him and was instantly swamped by the s.e.xual awareness he generated. His eyes blazed with a wanting that had nothing to do with fantasy, and her whole body sizzled with a response that was very very real.

'Tonight,' he repeated.

It was like a drumbeat on her heart.

She nodded and left, unable to think, just feeling...feeling what Nick Armstrong did to her...not wanting to let it go.

CHAPTER SIX.

'ANNE SHEPHERD?'

Barbie sighed at the caustic drawl from Sue. At least they were out of the renovated warehouse which held the various departments of Multi-Media Promotions, and in the privacy of their own company car. She had known Sue wouldn't hold her tongue for long, but she wasn't ready to answer. She didn't want to explain anything.

How could anyone really explain feelings?

'Come on, Barbie. This is going a bit far, isn't it?'

The critical comment stung, yet Barbie hastily reasoned Sue didn't-couldn't-understand how this new thing between her and Nick would be spoiled if the truth of her ident.i.ty was known. She just wanted to let it run for a while, without those shadows from the past.

The past of Sydney was all around her in this old inner city suburb of Glebe where Nick had his business offices. She stared out at the terrace houses, many of them turned into trendy restaurants and galleries now. Times changed, places changed, people changed. Or at least their views did. Nick definitely saw her differently, very positively wanting her in his life.

'A false name,' Sue scorned. 'How long do you think you can fool him with it?'

'Long enough,' Barbie muttered.

'Enough for what?'

'Never mind.'

'If this is an extension of the revenge idea, you're playing with real fire, Barbie, and you may get badly burned,' Sue warned. 'Sat.u.r.day night's act was harmless, good for your pride, but if you're planning on a closer encounter...'

'It's not revenge.'

This terse statement of fact hung in the silence between them as Sue drove the length of the Anzac Bridge and took the route towards Ryde. Wanting to smooth over the ruction in their usual good understanding, Barbie offered the one piece of proof that Nick was not a shallow rat.

'He bought the fabric to mend my fairy wings.'

It was answered with blistering scepticism. 'Leverage. The guy will try anything to get to you. And he has, hasn't he? I'll bet you right now nothing more will be done about mending those wings, because he's already won what he wanted.'

There was no reply to that argument. Only time would tell the truth of it.

'What's the next step?' Sue went on relentlessly. 'Dinner, bed and breakfast?'

Barbie grimaced over the derision, but at this point she no longer cared what Sue thought. 'Dinner. This evening,' she answered. 'I'll be meeting him in the city so I'll need the car if that's okay with you.'

'Dinner,' Sue muttered, shooting a dark look of warning as she added, 'Well don't kid yourself that wolf hasn't got bed and breakfast on the agenda.'

Barbie's chin lifted, defying the bloom of heat in her cheeks. 'So what if he has? I might want that, too. You said yourself I should get him out of my system.'

'Not this way, Barbie.'

'You opened this can of worms, insisting we needed the business. The lid won't go back on it now. I've always wanted him, Sue. That's the truth of it.'

'You're pursuing a dream.'

'Yes. Why not?'

'Starting it off on a lie, Barbie? Deceiving him as to who you are?'

'A name doesn't mean anything. It's the person who counts.'

'If it doesn't mean anything, why hide it?'

Barbie once again retreated into silence, hating the argument, not wanting to listen to her friend. It was her business, not Sue's. She was the one whose childhood and teenage years were emotionally entangled with Nick Armstrong.

Once those memories were triggered in Nick, she would shrivel inside and all the good feelings would die. He would look at her and see Baa-Baa. Whereas if they connected really well as the people they were today, perhaps they might reach a point where they could both laugh over those old memories.

'Do you expect me to back you up?'

Hearing the strong disapproval in Sue's voice, Barbie had no hesitation in releasing her friend from any responsibility for whatever ensued from this decision. 'No, I don't. Thanks for not blowing my cover back there in Nick's office. From now on I'll do my best to keep you right out of it. It's my play.'

'A bit difficult when Leon has asked me out.'

'What?' Barbie gaped at her in surprise, not for a moment having antic.i.p.ated this outcome.

Sue shrugged. 'I like him. He's fun. He's invited me to a party this coming Sat.u.r.day night.'

Barbie sagged back into her pa.s.senger seat, closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, needing to still the whirl of complications that this connection set off in her mind. Leon Webster had been a friend of Nick's since university days, and shared the same business. They were bound to talk together as much as she and Sue did. Impossible to ask Sue to drop him if she liked him. That wasn't fair.

'We'll have to keep these involvements separate,' she argued. 'You with Leon. Me with Nick.'

'Or you could be honest with him. Get it out of the way,' came the salutory retort.

'No. Not yet.'

'I don't want to lie to Leon about you, Barbie.'

'Then don't. Do what you have to do and let me do what I have to do. Okay?'

Sue didn't reply. She didn't say anything more on the subject. Neither did Barbie. But they were both very conscious of the serious difference of opinion between them-an unwanted wedge in their long and close friends.h.i.+p.

Was Nick Armstrong worth it?

Barbie grimly decided she would have to find that out, beyond any shadow of a doubt...before Sat.u.r.day night.

Having explained the circ.u.mstances of the Drop Dead Delivery to Leon, and the subsequent unmasking of Anne Shepherd, who'd played the fairy princess, Nick felt no compunction to explain anything else. Anne Shepherd was now his business-his personal, private business-and Leon had no rights over it.

'Thank you for being persuasive with Sue Olsen on my behalf,' he said, winding up the inquisition. 'I hope it wasn't too much of a ch.o.r.e. As it is, Anne and I can take it from here so you can drop it, Leon. Okay? Back to work now?'

'No, it's not okay,' came the sharp retort.

'You did remind me when you broke into my office that we were supposed to be working,' Nick dryly pointed out.

'Sue was right. You're charging like a bull, Nick. I bet you've got Anne lined up to race her off to bed tonight.'

Not race. He wanted to savour and revel in every bit of antic.i.p.ation, then eke out every bit of pleasure he knew was coming with his fairy princess. Impossible to explain how he felt about her to Leon.

'I'm not working tonight so it's no concern of yours,' he said dismissively.

'No concern!' Leon rose from his chair with the rising of his voice, hurling his arms around and gesticulating dramatically as he paced around the office, flinging out a torrent of unsolicited advice. 'So I'm supposed to ignore it while you get into another mess with a woman. Remember, Tanya? You raced her off to bed the first night you met her, then spent the next four months finding out what a b.i.t.c.h she was. You're too fast on the draw, Nick.'

This was different. No way was Anne Shepherd in the same ring as Tanya Wells and he didn't like Leon linking them, either. Irritated by his friend's criticism he shot him a quelling glare. 'Look who's talking?'

'Sure I've done it, too,' Leon whipped back. 'Taking what's there whenever I've felt the urge. No harm done with willing parties. But the break-up with Liz taught me something. Great s.e.x peters out when you find you've got nothing in common and you're pulling against each other's interests. Like with you and Tanya. Right?'

Nick leaned back in his chair and visually quizzed the reformed character Leon was supposedly demonstrating. 'When did this wisdom descend on you?' he asked. 'I didn't notice it in play at the party on Sat.u.r.day night. Seems to me I remember...'

'There was no one important there,' Leon cut in emphatically. 'You said this Anne Shepherd is important to you.'

'So?'

'So treat her right. Get to know her.'

'I intend to.'

'It didn't look that way to me when Sue and I came in,' Leon reminded him, sounding like a preacher pus.h.i.+ng some righteous path.

Nick frowned at him, wis.h.i.+ng he'd mind his own business. 'I appreciate your concern. Now let's drop it, shall we?'

Leon stopped his pacing and took a stand, glaring vexed disapproval. 'She and Sue are friends. Long-time friends. And business partners,' he stated curtly.

'I gathered that.'

'Sue is very protective of her when it comes to pushy guys.'

'I gathered that, too.'

'I like Sue Olsen. She's in tune with me. We might become a big item.'

Understanding dawned. His friend and partner fancied the little redhead. 'Each to his own, Leon.'

The usual agreement between them was not forthcoming. Leon did not relax. If anything, the tension he was emanating increased, his hands clenching and unclenching as though he wanted to throw a punch.

Bemused and rather unsettled by the aggressive flow from his friend, Nick waited to be enlightened further.

'We've got wires crossed here, Nick,' he stated with an underlying throb of vehemence, quite uncharacteristic of his usual easy-going manner. 'I'm counting on you not to give them a negative charge.'

'Right at this moment I don't see any problem,' Nick a.s.sured him confidently. All the signals with Anne were very positive.

'Well, think about this.' Leon wagged an admonis.h.i.+ng finger. 'Sue wouldn't be so protective of Anne without a d.a.m.ned good reason. I figure there's some bad history that might need soothing over. Better find out what that reason is before you charge, Nick. Or we may find ourselves in major conflict.'

He made his exit on that sobering challenge, closing the door with a bang that telegraphed very serious concern.

It gave Nick considerable pause for thought.

Leon must really fancy the redhead.

And he was right. There were crossed wires here.

A strong s.e.xual interest could break up friends.h.i.+ps. He'd seen it happen many a time, women coming between men, men coming between women. It could mess up family relations.h.i.+ps, too, when an interest wasn't approved, severely testing loyalties.

Nevertheless, he couldn't see why it should happen here. Sue Olsen had certainly been protective of Anne, and clearly there was some hurtful history he didn't know about. The signposts had been spelled out.