After The Music. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t have to play up to him. Just be friendly. Be yourself.”

      She frowned. “You aren’t going to paint me into a corner, are you?”

      “Scout’s honor,” he promised with a flash of white teeth. “Trust me.”

      “I don’t trust anybody, even you,” she said with a smile.

      “I’m working on that. Let’s go.”

      He led her down the long flight of stairs.

      “Couldn’t you ask him yourself?” she murmured. “After all, blood is thicker…”

      “Thorn’s kind of miffed with me.”

      “Why?”

      Al stuck his hands in his pockets with a sigh and glanced at her ruefully. “He brought a girl home for me last night.”

      Her eyes widened. “He what?”

      “Brought a girl home for me. A very nice girl, with excellent connections, whose father owns an oil refinery. He was giving a dinner party, you see.”

      “My God!” she burst out.

      “I called my mother after it was over, and she called up and chewed on his ear for a while. That made him mad. He doesn’t like her very much most of the time, and he needs that refinery damned bad.” He shrugged. “If I could get him a refinery, he’d sure rush over to sponsor my benefit.”

      “You could buy him one,” she suggested.

      “With what? I’m broke. Not totally, but I don’t have the kind of capital I’d need for business on that scale. I’m a partner on paper only, until I come into my share of Dad’s estate next year.”

      “I’m beginning to get a very interesting picture of Hamilton Regan Thorndon the Third,” she said stiffly. “A matchmaker, is he?”

      “That’s about the size of it,” Al confessed. He gestured toward his car when they reached the street. “I’m parked over there.”

      She followed him, scowling. “Does he do this to you often?”

      “Only when he needs something he can’t buy.” He sighed. “You’d never guess how many businessmen have eligible daughters they want to marry off. Especially businessmen with refineries and blocks of oil stock and…”

      “But that’s inhuman!”

      “So is Thorn, from time to time.” He unlocked the car and helped her inside. “Haven’t you wondered why I usually keep you and Jessica away from company parties?”

      “I’m beginning to realize,” she said to herself. She waited until he got inside the green Mercedes-Benz and started the engine before she added, “He doesn’t want you associating with the peons, I gather?”

      He stiffened, started to deny it, and then huffed miserably. “He’s not marriage-minded himself. Thorn Oil is worth millions, with all its subsidiaries. He wants an heir for it. But with just the right girl, you see. Jessica has been married before, and her family isn’t socially prominent,” he said, biting it out. “Thorn would savage her.”

      It all became crystal clear. Everything…How he felt about Jessica, why he’d been so secretive. “Oh, Al,” she breathed piteously. “Oh, Al, how horrible for you!”

      “Next year I can fight him,” he said. “When I’ve got money of my own. But for now I have to lie low and bide my time.”

      “I’d punch him out,” she growled softly, gray eyes throwing off silver sparks, her long hair swirling like silk as her head jerked.

      He glanced at her as he drove toward his apartment down the brightly lit streets. “Yes, I believe you would. You’re like him. Fire and high temper and impulsive actions.” He smiled. “You’d be a match, even for my brother.”

      “With all due respect, I don’t want your brother.”

      “Yes, I know. But please don’t take a swing at him tonight. I need you.”

      “Now, wait a minute….”

      “Just to help present my case, nothing else,” he promised. His smile faded as he studied her. “I wouldn’t strand you with him. Thorn isn’t much good with innocents. You’ll know what I mean when you see the woman he’s got with him tonight. She’s as much a barracuda as he is. I only want you to help me convince him to sponsor the benefit. I’ll get an accompanist and you can do the aria from Madame Butterfly for him.”

      “He likes opera?” she asked.

      “He loves it.”

      She eyed him closely. “How does he feel about rock singers?”

      He shifted restlessly, and looked worried. “Well…”

      “How?”

      His jaw clenched. “Actually, he’s never said. Don’t worry, we’ll find out together.”

      She had grave misgivings, but she didn’t say anything. After all, his older brother would probably be nothing like she imagined. He might like women, but she pictured him as a retiring sort of man like the pictures of businessmen she’d seen in magazines. She knew all too well that a rich man didn’t have to be good-looking to get women.

      Al’s house overlooked the bay, and Sabina dearly loved it. It was white and stately, and had once belonged to his grandmother. She could picture the huge living room being the scene of elegant balls in the early days of New Orleans. There were shrubs all around it, assorted camellias and gardenia and jasmine. Now, of course, everything was dormant, but Sabina could imagine the grounds bursting with color, as they would in the spring.

      Jessica came darting out of the big living room, where several people were socializing over drinks, and her face was as red as her hair. She was small and sweet, and Sabina loved her. She and Jess went back a long way. They’d shared some good times when Sabina was at the orphanage just around the corner from where Jessica lived. They’d met by accident, but a firm friendship had developed, and lasted all these years.

      “Hi, Sabina!” Jessica said quickly, then turned immediately to Al. “We’re in trouble. You invited Beck Henton.”

      “Yes. So?” Al asked blankly.

      “Well, he and Thorn are competing for that oil refinery in Houston. Had you forgotten?”

      Al slapped his forehead. “Damn!”

      “Anyway, they just went out the back door together, and Thorn was squinting one eye. You know what that means.”

      “Damn!” Al repeated. “I was going to ask Beck to help sponsor my benefit,” he growled. “Well, that’s blown it. I’d better go and try to save him.”

      Sabina stared after him with wide, curious eyes. She was getting a strange picture of the sedate older brother.

      “I’d better get Beck’s СКАЧАТЬ