The Prince Brothers: Satisfaction Guaranteed!. Кэрол Мортимер
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Jinx had to smile inwardly at the man’s tact. ‘But the film isn’t going to be made,’ she said firmly, ‘so whether or not Mr Prince is a fine director or not is totally irrelevant.’ She raised mocking brows as Nik’s mouth tightened grimly at the ambiguity of her remark.
Deliberately so. She knew he was a brilliant director; the whole world knew he was a brilliant director; she just had no intention of adding to his fan club by admitting as much!
‘Yes,’ James Stephens accepted slowly. ‘I—’ He broke off as the internal telephone rang on his desk. ‘Excuse me.’ He smiled apologetically before taking the call.
Probably relieved to get a few moments’ respite from the building tension he could sense around him, Jinx guessed ruefully. She—
‘What are you doing here?’ Nik murmured in a forceful undertone.
Her eyes widened. ‘I have a perfect right to visit my publisher if I so wish,’ she told him coldly.
‘But you never have before.’
‘And I probably never will again!’ Jinx stood up restlessly, moving across the room to stare out of the window, sensing Nik’s presence inches behind her as he followed her. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded insultingly.
‘Believe it or not, saving you from yourself,’ he came back dryly.
She turned to look at him with wide eyes. ‘I beg your pardon?’
Nik grimaced. ‘You were in a reckless mood when you left the hotel earlier—’
‘I wonder why that was!’ she snapped.
‘Jinx—’ He had reached out to touch her, but held his hand up defensively as she flinched away from him. ‘Juliet,’ he bit out tautly. ‘I didn’t want you to do something…impulsive, where James was concerned, when it’s me you’re really mad at!’
He was right, of course, she had come here intending to tell James Stephens that one of his many employees couldn’t be trusted, before demanding the second manuscript back.
Because she was mad at Nik.
And herself…
But she would think about that later, when she was alone, not here and now, when Nik was much too close for comfort.
‘I’m not mad at you, Nik. I don’t know you well enough to be mad at you,’ she said insultingly.
His face darkened. ‘That isn’t true, and you know it—’
‘Sorry about that,’ James Stephens apologized as he concluded his call. ‘Coincidentally, that was your editor, Miss Nixon. I’ve told her that you and Mr Prince are here, and asked her to join us.’
Jinx hadn’t come here with the idea of her visit turning into a social event! In fact, she regretted coming here at all now…
But once again James Stephens looked so pleased with himself and the way things were turning out that Jinx didn’t have the heart to disappoint him.
‘I’m afraid I can only stay a few more minutes; I have a previous engagement for lunch.’ She smiled to take the sting out of her words.
‘I was hoping you might let me take you out to lunch.’ James frowned. ‘Having met you at last, I really don’t want to lose you again so quickly,’ he added charmingly.
Jinx avoided looking at Nik as he gave a sceptical snort. ‘Another time, perhaps.’ She was deliberately vague, having no intention of there ever being ‘another time’.
She should never have come here, never have blown her anonymity in this way. It was Nik Prince’s fault that she had done so. He—
‘Ah, Jane.’ James Stephens stood up as a tall blonde woman entered his office after the briefest of knocks. ‘I want you to meet our author, J. I. Watson,’ he announced triumphantly as he moved forward to lightly grasp Jinx’s arm.
As if afraid she might try to escape, or at the very least evaporate in front of his eyes, if he didn’t hold onto her!
The beautiful blonde Jinx could now identify as her editor, Jane Morrow, moved forward to shake Jinx by the hand, although her smile was bland as she turned to look at Nik.
But it was Nik’s response to the other woman’s presence in the room that caught and held Jinx’s attention; she was able to feel his tension as he looked at the other woman guardedly. A tension he did his best to hide as he seemed to sense Jinx’s interest, giving her a tight smile before turning to gaze out of the window at the London skyline.
A view Jinx was almost certain he didn’t even see!
She gave her editor a closer look, noting the smooth beauty of the other woman’s face, her slender curves in the black business suit she wore, her fingers bare of rings, her legs long and shapely. Attractive enough for Nik Prince to have used his practised charm upon?
The other woman’s smile warmed as she turned back to Jinx, blue eyes glowing with enthusiasm. ‘It’s such a pleasure to meet you at last!’ she gushed.
No, Jinx decided, the arrogant Nik Prince wouldn’t find this gushing, clinging woman in the least attractive. So what had been the reason for his tension when the other woman had come into the room? Surely Jane Morrow, her own editor, couldn’t be the one to have leaked information concerning her identity? That just didn’t make sense. But, then, what did make sense about any of this situation she now found herself in?
‘Thank you,’ she accepted lightly. ‘I was actually just telling James that I have to go now.’ That she should never have come here in the first place!
‘Surely not?’ Jane Morrow frowned her disappointment. ‘We have so much to talk about, so many questions I would like to ask you. The second manuscript is wonderful, by the way,’ she added delightedly. ‘So many second books aren’t, you know, that…’
Jinx tuned out the other woman’s praise, instead turning to look curiously at Nik as she once again sensed the tension in his rigidly straight back.
‘It’s so kind of you to say so—’ Jinx nodded to Jane Morrow as the other woman paused to draw breath ‘—but I really do have to get going.’
‘But you will come back?’ Jane Morrow asked.
She swallowed hard as both Jane Morrow and James Stephens looked at her expectantly. They were both nice people, Jinx accepted that, not at all the hard-bitten monsters of the publishing world that she had imagined, and certainly neither of them could be the ‘mole’ she had told James about before Nik’s untimely arrival. But, nice as they were, Jinx knew she had no intention of repeating today’s visit…
She moistened dry lips as she formed a polite refusal in her mind. ‘I don’t really think—’
‘I think Miss Nixon is slightly overwhelmed,’ Nik was the one to cut in firmly as he turned away from that sightless contemplation out the window. ‘Maybe it might be better to let her contact you, James, when she feels up to another visit?’
If it weren’t for the fact that he made her sound like a simple-minded idiot scared of her own shadow, Jinx might have felt grateful for Nik’s intervention. As it was, he made her feel like a nervous spinster thrown into total confusion by having so much attention paid to her!
‘I think, Mr Prince,’ she bit out tartly, ‘that I am more than capable of deciding that for myself, thank you very much!’
He raised dark brows impatiently before giving a dismissive shrug. ‘Fine,’ he grated, once again turning away.
She turned back to James Stephens. ‘I—I’ll call you, shall I?’
The publisher didn’t look at all happy with this idea, but one look at the determination on her face seemed to tell him that it was the best he was going to get.
‘Fine,’