Tilly Bagshawe 3-book Bundle: Scandalous, Fame, Friends and Rivals. Tilly Bagshawe

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СКАЧАТЬ pulling her further back into the shadows, away from the stage. Turning around, she saw it was Raj.

      ‘I don’t believe it.’ Sasha was shaking, close to tears. ‘That bastard Jackson’s asked to speak, now. He knows how hard I find this. He’s done it deliberately! He’s trying to throw me off.’

      ‘I’m afraid it’s worse than that,’ said Raj grimly. ‘Listen, Sash, there’s something I’ve got to tell you …’

      Two hours later and Jackson Dupree’s roar could be heard through the floors of his eighth-floor suite, shaking light fixtures in the rooms below.

      ‘You fucker!’ he bellowed. ‘You swore to me you wouldn’t say anything! I hope you realize that your contract’s now null and void? I’m not hiring you and I’m not paying you a damned penny. FUCK!’ He banged his fist on the antique writing desk so hard it cracked like a stick of kindling. Raj, as ever, kept his cool. Jackson might want to throw his toys out of the cot because he’d failed to publicly derail Sasha, but Raj doubted the rest of the Wrexall board would back him.

      ‘Don’t be so childish, Jackson. You know I’m the best man for Wrexall. That’s why you made me the offer in the first place. Clearly the board agrees or they’d never have signed off on the package.’

      ‘I trusted you,’ Jackson fumed. ‘You warned her. You fucking warned her!’

      ‘Yes, I warned her. She’s my friend, and what you were trying to pull was just a shitty thing to do. You might not care whether the world thinks you’re a card-carrying wanker, but I do. You were right, me leaving Ceres for Wrexall was a business decision. And I don’t regret it. But throwing Sasha to the wolves like that? That’s not business. That’s spite. You know speaking in public terrifies her. It’s that kind of shit that made us all leave Wrexall in the first place.’

      ‘GET OUT!’ Jackson yelled at him. ‘Get the hell out of my sight!’

      ‘Fine,’ said Raj, unruffled. ‘But you’d better get your shit together, Jackson. Or, money or no money, I will walk away. I will stay at Ceres – and don’t kid yourself Sasha wouldn’t have me back in a heartbeat – and I’ll make sure the world, and the Wrexall board, knows why.’

      He walked out, shutting the door behind him firmly but gently. In Jackson’s current mood, even that felt like an affront. Why can’t he lose his cool like a normal fucking human being? Why can’t he slam the door, or yell back. Why do I have to be the only jerk around here? He kicked the leg of the desk he’d just broken and winced at the pain in his shin. He knew Raj was right. He was being childish. And spiteful. And ridiculous. But he didn’t care.

      Jackson had taken the podium earlier full of confidence, praising Ceres for their innovative business philosophy while simultaneously undermining them brilliantly, constantly stressing their youth and inexperience versus Wrexall’s maturity, longevity and rock-solid financial pedigree. Unlike Sasha, Jackson was an inspired speaker. Had he not gone into the family business he’d have made a terrific politician, masterfully shredding his opponents without landing any obvious or overt blows. In this case, however, after a carefully crafted speech that successfully belittled Sasha’s achievements, he launched a full-frontal nuclear strike in the form of Raj Patel, whom he invited onstage, introducing him to a shocked audience and industry press as Wrexall’s latest star hire.

      Stepping down to gasps and thunderous applause, Jackson had taken his seat in the front row like a Roman emperor, waiting to watch Sasha being thrown to the lions. But instead of stammering confusion, he found himself watching a poised, thoughtful and above all gracious Sasha, deliver a speech that ultimately won her a six-minute standing ovation. Discarding everything she’d prepared, she spoke from the heart. About how much she owed Raj Patel, and how much she owed Wrexall Dupree. About how, as a young, experimental company, Ceres always pushed its people to accept new challenges, to move forward and be all that they could be. She joked about the tabloids painting her and Raj as a couple, pondering aloud whom she might be linked with next. ‘I hear Rafael Nadal’s single again,’ she quipped, to ecstatic applause (the home-grown Spanish tennis champ had won the US Open two days before). ‘Maybe I should stay in Spain for a while and work on my backhand?’

      Seething with fury in the front row, the tennis analogy stuck in Jackson’s throat. He’d just served Sasha what ought to have been a sure-fire ace. But here she was, lobbing it back to him with the effortless grace of a champion. So much for the element of surprise.

      Up in his suite, the phone rang. Jackson answered with a snarl. ‘Fuck off, I’m busy.’

      ‘Aren’t we all?’ Lucius Monroe’s reedy, elderly voice had lost none of its dry, sardonic humour. He didn’t miss a beat. ‘I was calling to congratulate you on landing Raj Patel. That’s a great hire for us.’

      ‘Thank you,’ said Jackson grudgingly.

      ‘You don’t sound very happy about it, dear boy.’

      ‘Sorry, Lucius. It’s been a long day.’

      ‘Well, go out and celebrate. Better yet, get Patel to pick up the tab. He can afford it on what we’re about to pay him.’

      Jackson hung up. Raj was a great hire. He knew he should be pleased, and focused on the bigger picture. But all he could think about was Sasha and the way this afternoon’s conference crowd had lapped her up. Raj’s defection should have been, at the very least, a PR nightmare for Ceres. But once again, Sasha had managed to turn things around.

      The phone rang again. If one more person calls to congratulate me, I’m pulling the cord out of the wall. ‘Yes?’

      ‘You cunt.’ Sasha’s voice was quiet, but Jackson could feel the rage quivering in every breath. ‘It wasn’t enough for you to go after Raj. You had to try to humiliate me too, as publicly and painfully as possible. You knew how much I was dreading that speech!’

      ‘Yes, well, thanks to Mr Patel’s bleeding heart I never got the chance, did I? So I don’t know what you’re bitching about.’

      ‘Don’t know what I’m bitching about?’ Sasha sounded as if she was about to erupt. ‘Get over here.’

      ‘Excuse me?’

      ‘I said get over here! Walk next door to my room and tell me to my face that you don’t know what I’m bitching about. You’re a fucking coward, Jackson.’ She hung up.

      Six seconds later, Jackson was pounding at the door of her suite. Coward, indeed. She thinks I’m afraid to face her? I’ll face her. I’ll tell her exactly what I think of her, right to her face.

      ‘I’m not here to apologize,’ he announced defiantly. ‘So if that’s what you’re hoping for you can kiss my ass.’ Sasha had opened the door in a hotel bathrobe with a towel tied turban-style on top of her head. Clearly fresh out of the shower, she had no make-up on and looked more like an incensed fourteen-year-old who’s just had her pocket money stopped than a beleaguered CEO. Jackson was just thinking how strangely sweet she looked when a sharp slap across the face sent him reeling. ‘What the fuck?’ He clasped his stinging cheek. ‘You hit me!’

      Sasha didn’t answer, but let out a shriek that sounded like some sort of Maori war cry and flung herself at Jackson, punching, biting, kicking, flailing at him with her nails like a wildcat. ‘You arsehole! You fucking arsehole!’ It was so unexpected that at first Jackson barely reacted. In those СКАЧАТЬ