The Sweetest Revenge. Emma Darcy

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СКАЧАТЬ at the end of the silver rod. It was broken, too.

      ‘You’re going to get a huge damage bill for this, Mr. Webster,’ Sue threatened darkly, folding her arms in firm belligerent style.

      ‘Okay. I’ll pay,’ he promised on a ragged sigh. ‘If we could move now …’

      They moved, Leon shepherding both Sue and Barbie through the loud melee in the marquee. The wings were left where they lay crushed. Leon muttered something about a good joke going awry. Sue castigated him for not providing adequate protection. Barbie stared at the battered wand in her hand.

      A falling star, she thought.

      A wish …

      Did wishes ever come true?

      CHAPTER THREE

      LEON swept into Nick’s office for their usual Monday morning conference, hoping his friend had wiped the birthday disaster from their joint slate, only to be faced with incontrovertible evidence that Nick was still obsessed with it!

      ‘What are those fairy wings doing on your desk?’ he demanded in exasperation.

      Nick lifted a belligerently determined face. ‘I’m going to fix them.’

      ‘And just how do you propose to do that? Tanya punched so many holes through them with her stiletto heels, the fabric is irreparable.’

      ‘I am aware of that, Leon.’ He glowered dangerously. ‘Which is why I need to get the fabric matched so I can replace it. I decided you wouldn’t mind lending me your secretary for a while this morning. She’d probably know how …’

      ‘You can’t use Sharon for personal jobs.’

      One black eyebrow lifted in challenge. ‘Can’t I?’

      ‘This is ridiculous!’ Leon expostulated. ‘I said I’d pay the bill for damages and I will. As soon as it comes in.’

      ‘I’m going to fix the wings,’ Nick repeated stubbornly.

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because I want to. Because it will mean something when I give them back to her.’

      Leon expelled a long breath. Nick was definitely out of his tree. He lifted his hands in a plea for sanity. ‘It was just an act. An act I paid for, Nick. Nothing more. Just a …’

      ‘It turned into something more.’

      ‘Okay, she was beautiful. She was sexy. She turned you on. But you don’t even know the woman, Nick. She might be …’

      ‘I don’t care who she is!’ His hand slammed down on the desk as he stood up. ‘I want to feel that again. I have to know. And I will know.’ He paced around the office, clearly disturbed, his hands moving in agitated gestures. ‘When I kissed her … I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life before. She’s different, Leon.’

      ‘Fairy princesses tend to be different, Nick. Kind of like dream stuff.’

      That perfectly rational point earned a flash of impatience that said he didn’t understand, didn’t have the experience to understand.

      ‘I can’t let it go,’ came the steely resolve.

       Totally out of his tree!

      Recognising a brick wall when he saw it, Leon asked, ‘So, have you tracked her down, arranged to meet under normal circumstances?’

      Nick’s face twisted with frustration. ‘I called and called the Party Poppers number yesterday and all I got was an answering machine. Then finally, this morning, I reached that Sue Olsen on the phone, but she flatly refused to give out the name and address of her fairy princess. Against company policy.’

      Dead right, Leon thought approvingly. Fantasy and reality didn’t mix. Expectations could never be met and it was a stupid waste of time to go chasing them.

      Nick grimaced and muttered, ‘But I’ll get it somehow. Sue Olsen said something about Singing Sunflowers before I started in on questions. I’ll ask my sister to book that act for her kids. My fairy princess is a singer … right? She might be a sunflower, too.’

      The desperate hope in Nick’s voice told Leon his friend needed help fast or very little creative work was going to get done on the designs they’d been contracted to deliver. He instantly revised his opinion. The sooner hopes and expectations were blasted, the better.

      ‘No need to go to that trouble, Nick,’ he soothed.

      ‘I’ll go to any lengths,’ came the punchy retort, his eyes flashing unshakable determination. ‘I have to find her.’

      ‘Sure you do. I understand,’ Leon quickly inserted. ‘All I meant was … leave it to me. I’ll have the name and address you want before today is out.’

      Nick frowned, suspicious of his confidence. ‘How?’ he demanded.

      ‘I’ll call Sue Olsen, ask her out for lunch as an apology for the mess on Saturday night. Restaurant of her choice. Promise to write out a cheque for the damages bill there and then. Butter her up. Piece of cake. As you well know, I am the best salesman in the business.’

      ‘What about her company policy?’

      ‘I’ll find a loophole. Trust me.’

      Nick expelled a deep sigh. Then his eyes narrowed. ‘You won’t put her further offside?’

      Leon laughed. ‘That feisty little redhead wasn’t offside. She was making hay while the sun shone. A dyed-in-the-wool opportunist, like me. In fact, I’ll enjoy having lunch with her. I have the feeling Miss Olsen and I speak the same language.’

      ‘Okay. Just don’t slip up, Leon. This is really important to me.’

      ‘No problem, Nick, I swear. Just shovel those wings off your desk and get to work while I …’

      ‘I’m still going to fix them. If you’d send Sharon along …’

      Leon ungritted his teeth enough to bite out, ‘Okay. But don’t take up too much office time on it. It’s bad business getting secretaries to do personal jobs, Nick, and you’ve got a full schedule, too.’

      ‘I just want to ask her advice,’ he insisted.

      ‘Fine! Speak to you later.’

      Leon went off fuming.

       Women!

      He’d got rid of Tanya Wells for good, only to be loaded with another festering problem. There was black irony for you. A fairy princess was supposed to remove trouble not make it. He should have hired a doll, not a real woman. Big mistake, Leon, he castigated himself. Though there was one bright spot.

      A very feisty little redhead.

      Cute, too.

      He СКАЧАТЬ