Swept Away!: Accidentally Expecting! / Salzano's Captive Bride / Hawaiian Sunset, Dream Proposal. Lucy Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ stuff. Nothing, really.’

      ‘Yes, it doesn’t amount to much,’ he agreed. ‘You have to wonder why people make such a fuss about it.’

      They nodded in solemn accord.

      He yawned suddenly, turning so that he was half-sideways and could raise one foot onto the seat beside him; he rested an arm on it and leaned his head back. Ferne studied him a moment, noticing the relaxed grace of his tall, lean body. His shirt was open at the throat, enough to reveal part of his smooth chest; his black hair was slightly on the long side.

      She had to admit that he had ‘the usual stuff’, with plenty to spare. His face was not only handsome but intriguing, with well-defined, angular features, dark, wicked eyes and a look of fierce, humorous intelligence.

      Quirky, she thought, considering him with a professional gaze. Always about to do or say something unexpected. That was what she’d try to bring out if she were taking his photograph.

      Suddenly he looked at her, and the gleaming look was intense.

      ‘So, tell me about it,’ he said.

      ‘Where do I start?’ She sighed. ‘The beginning, when I was starry-eyed and stupid, or later, when he was shocked by my “unprincipled vulgarity”?’

      Dante was immediately alert.

      ‘Unprincipled and vulgar, hmm? That sounds interesting. Don’t stop.’

      ‘I met Tommy when I was hired to take the photographs for the play—’

      ‘Tommy?’

      ‘Sandor. His real name is Tommy Wiggs.’

      ‘I can see why he changed it. But I want to know how you were unprincipled and vulgar.’

      ‘You’ll have to wait for that bit.’

      ‘Spoilsport!’

      ‘Where was I? Ah, yes, taking pictures for the play. Thinking back, I guess he set out to make me fall for him because he reckoned it would give an extra something to the photographs. So he took me to dinner and dazzled me.’

      ‘And you were taken in by actorly charm?’ Dante asked, frowning a little, as though he found it hard to believe.

      ‘No, he was cleverer than that. He made a great play of switching off the actor and just being himself, as he put it, saying he wanted to use his real name because Sandor was for the masses. The man inside was Tommy.’ Seeing his face, she said, ‘Yes, it makes me feel a bit queasy too, but that night it was charming.

      ‘The thing is, Tommy was made to be a film actor, not a stage actor. He’s more impressive in close-up, and the closer you get the better he seems.’

      ‘And he made sure you got very close?’

      ‘Not that night,’ she murmured, ‘but eventually.’

      She fell silent, remembering moments that had been sweet at the time but in retrospect felt ridiculous. How easily she’d fallen, and how glad she was to be out of it now. Yet there had been other times that she still remembered with pleasure, however mistakenly.

      Dante watched her face, reading it without difficulty, and his eyes darkened. He raised a hand to summon the attendant, and when Ferne looked up she found Dante filling a glass of champagne for her.

      ‘I felt you needed it after all,’ he said.

      ‘Yes,’ she murmured. ‘Maybe I do.’

      ‘So what was the film actor doing in a play?’ Dante asked.

      ‘He felt that people didn’t take him seriously.’

      ‘Heaven help us! One of them. They make a career out of being eye candy but it’s not enough. They want to be respected.’

      ‘You’ve got him to a T,’ Ferne chuckled. ‘Are you sure you don’t know him?’

      ‘No, but I’ve met plenty like him. Some of the houses I sell belong to that kind of person—”full of themselves”, I believe is the English expression.’

      ‘That’s it. Someone persuaded him that if he did a bit of Shakespeare everyone would be impressed, so he agreed to star in Antony and Cleopatra.’

      ‘Playing Antony, the great lover?’

      ‘Yes. But I think part of the attraction was the fact that Antony was an ancient Roman, so he had to wear little, short tunics that showed off his bare legs. He’s got very good legs. He even made the costume department take the tunics up a couple of inches to show off his thighs.’

      Dante choked with laughter.

      ‘It was very much an edited version of the play because he couldn’t remember all the long speeches,’ Ferne recalled. ‘Mind you, he made them shorten Cleopatra’s speeches even more.’

      ‘In case she took too much of the spotlight?’ Dante hazarded a guess.

      ‘Right. He wasn’t going to have that. Not that it really mattered, because everyone was looking at his thighs.’

      ‘I don’t think you’re exactly heartbroken,’ Dante commanded, watching her intently.

      ‘Certainly not,’ she said quickly. ‘It was ridiculous, really. Just showbusiness. Or life.’

      ‘How do you mean?’

      ‘It’s all a performance of one kind or another. We each live by pretending something’s true when we really know it isn’t, or not true when we know it is.’

      A strange look came into his eyes, as though her words carried a particular resonance. He seemed about to say something, but then backed off. She had the impression that a corner of the curtain to his mind had been raised, then dropped hastily.

      So there was more to him than the charming clown, she thought. He presented that aspect to the world, but behind it was another man who hid himself away and kept everyone else out. Intrigued, she wondered how easy it would be to reach behind his defences.

      The next moment he gave her the answer.

      Seeing her watching him, he closed his eyes, shutting her out completely.

      CHAPTER TWO

      SUDDENLY he opened his eyes again, revealing that the tension had gone. The dark moment might never have been. His next words were spoken lightly.

      ‘You’re getting very philosophical.’

      ‘Sorry,’ she said.

      ‘Were you talking about yourself when you said we each live by refusing to admit the truth?’

      ‘Well, I suppose I really knew that another woman had her eye on him, and I ought to have realised that he’d give in to flattery, no matter what he’d said to me hours before. But it was still a bit of a shock when СКАЧАТЬ