In the Heat of the Spotlight. Кейт Хьюит

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СКАЧАТЬ need to know?’ she mocked. She held her coffee mug in front of her as if it was some kind of shield, or perhaps a weapon. Luke stayed by the door. He didn’t want its contents thrown in his face. ‘What else do you need, Luke Bryant?’

      Her eyes flashed and he tensed. He hated innuendo, especially when he knew it held a shaming grain of truth.

      ‘I have a proposition to put to you,’ he said evenly. ‘But first I need to know. Do you have a substance abuse problem, of any kind?’

      ‘Would you believe me if I told you?’

      ‘Yes—’

      ‘Ri-ight.’ She shook her head. ‘Why are you really here?’

      ‘I told you, I have a proposition to put to you. A business proposition.’

      ‘It’s always business, isn’t it?’

      Luke bit down on his irritation. Already he was regretting the insane impulse to come here. ‘Enough. Either you listen to me or you don’t. If you’re interested in making a comeback—’

      He saw her knuckles whiten around her coffee mug. ‘Who said I was interested in that?’

      ‘Why else accept the Bryant’s booking?’

      She raised her eyebrows. ‘Boredom?’

      Luke stared at her, saw the dangerous glitter in her eyes, the thin line of her mouth. The quivering chin. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said quietly.

      ‘Why are you interested in me making a comeback?’ she challenged. ‘Because you certainly weren’t in New York.’

      ‘I changed my mind.’

      ‘Oh, really?’

      ‘Look, I’ll tell you all about it if you think we can have a civil conversation, but first just answer the question. Do you have a substance—’

      ‘Abuse problem,’ she finished wearily. ‘No.’

      ‘Have you ever?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Then why were you passed out in New York?’

      Her expression was blank, her voice flat. ‘I hadn’t eaten anything. Low blood sugar.’ Luke hesitated. It hadn’t seemed like just low blood sugar. She eyed him cynically. ‘Clearly you believe me, just like you said you would.’

      ‘I admit, I’m sceptical.’

      ‘So honest of you.’

      ‘I won’t have anything to do with drugs.’

      ‘That makes two of us. Amazing,’ she drawled, ‘we have something in common.’

      He thought of the tabloids detailing her forays into rehab. The pictures of her at parties. He really should turn around and walk right out of here. Aurelie watched his face, her mouth curling into a cold smile he didn’t like. ‘That doesn’t mean I’ve been a Girl Scout,’ she told him. ‘I never pretended I was.’

      ‘I know that.’

      ‘So what do you want?’

      What did he want? The question felt loaded, the answer more complicated than he wanted it to be. ‘I want you to sing. At the reopening of four of my stores.’

      He felt her shock even though her expression—that cold, cynical smile—didn’t change. ‘Why?’ she finally asked. ‘You certainly didn’t seem thrilled I was singing at your New York store.’

      ‘No, I didn’t,’ he agreed evenly. ‘Bryant Stores is important to me and I didn’t particularly like the idea of endorsing a washed-up pop star as its mascot.’

      ‘Thanks for spelling it out.’

      ‘I’ve changed my mind.’

      She rolled her eyes. ‘Well, that’s a relief.’

      ‘The opening was well received—’

      ‘Oh, yes, the papers loved the irony of a store trying to reinvent itself hiring a pop star who can’t. I got that.’ Bitterness spiked her words, and Luke felt a rush of something like satisfaction. She was trying to change.

      ‘People still wanted to see you.’

      ‘The most exciting part was when I almost tripped. People want to see me fail, Bryant. That’s why they come.’ She turned away and he gazed at her thoughtfully, saw the way the sunlight gilded the sharp angles of her profile in gold.

      ‘I don’t want to see you fail.’

      ‘What?’ She turned back to him, surprise wiping the cynicism from her face. She looked young, clear-eyed, even innocent. The truth of her revealed, and it gave him purpose. Certainty.

      ‘I don’t want to see you fail. Give yourself a second chance, Aurelie, and listen to what I have to say.’

      Aurelie stared at him, wishing she hadn’t revealed so much. People want to see me fail. Why had she told him the truth? Even if he already knew it, he hadn’t known that she knew it. And, worse, that it hurt her. Yet she was pretty sure he knew now, and she hated the thought.

      She hated that he was here. She couldn’t act like Aurelie the go-to-hell pop princess here, in her grandma’s house. Her home, the only place she’d ever been able to be herself. Be safe.

      She felt a tightness in her chest, like something trying to claw its way out, finally break free. ‘I want you to leave,’ she said, and thankfully her voice came out flat. Strong. ‘I’m not interested in anything you have to say, or any job you might have for me, so please, please leave.’ Her voice wasn’t strong then. It trembled and choked and she had to blink hard, which made her all the more furious.

      Why did this man affect her like this? So much? In sudden, fearful moments she felt as if he saw something in her no one else did, no one else even wanted to. What a joke. There was nothing there to see. And, even if there were, he wouldn’t be the one to see it. He still probably thought she did drugs.

      ‘I will leave,’ Luke said steadily. ‘But please let me say something first.’

      He stood in the doorway of her kitchen, so still, so sure, like a rock. A mountain. She couldn’t get him out of here if she tried. Yet bizarrely—and terrifyingly—there was something steady about his presence. Something almost reassuring. Which was ridiculous because she didn’t trust any men, and especially not ones who strode in and blustered and proclaimed, insisting that they were going to rescue you as if they were some stupid knight. All Luke Bryant needed was a white horse and a big sword.

      Well, he had a big sword. She was pretty sure about that. And she knew exactly how to knock him off his trusty steed. Men were all the same. They might say they wanted to help you or protect you, but really? They just wanted you. And Luke Bryant was no different.

      ‘All right.’ She СКАЧАТЬ