A Past Revenge

‘Nick and I have been together a long time,’ Audra more or less purred. ‘I know how to keep him satisfied.’

‘Good.’

‘He has his little flirtations from time to time, of course,’ the other woman laughed them off as of no importance. ‘But he always comes back to me.’

‘That must make you very happy,’ Danielle answered in a preoccupied voice.

‘It does,’ Audra snapped defensively.

She shrugged. ‘Then that’s all right, isn’t it?’

‘Don’t look so smug, Miss Smith,’ Audra rasped. ‘He may find you attractive now, but it won’t last.’

‘I hope not,’ she said quietly, the sketch not going quite as well as she wanted it to. ‘Could you please sit perfectly still while I do this?’ The other woman was moving about in her agitation. ‘It’s difficult for me to sketch you if you don’t.’

‘That can wait for a few minutes,’ Audra dismissed impatiently. ‘Are you trying to tell me you don’t find Nick attractive?’ she sounded sceptical.

Danielle sighed, nodding. ‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Miss McDonald.’

‘I don’t believe you!’

‘Oh I should,’ she mocked. ‘Because it’s the truth. Not every woman finds him as attractive as you do,’ she added dryly.

‘I’ve never met one yet who didn’t!’

‘You just did,’ Danielle snapped.

‘And that little scene I witnessed between you a few minutes ago?’ Audra reminded waspishly.

‘I agree with you that it was a scene,’ she sighed. ‘But it wasn’t between us, as you suggest it was, it was all Mr Andracas’ idea.’

Audra frowned. ‘You really don’t like him?’ she made it sound as if that were impossible.

‘Not in the least,’ she replied flatly.

‘Don’t you realise the challenge of that will only make him more interested than ever?’

‘What are you suggesting I do?’ she mocked. ‘Pretend an interest in him I don’t feel just to get him to leave me alone?’

The other woman flushed. ‘Of course not,’ she bit out. ‘That would be stupid.’

‘Yes, it would.’ And it was something she could never do.

The brown eyes narrowed. ‘I’m very much afraid that I don’t like you, Miss Smith,’ Audra said slowly.

Danielle was very much afraid she didn’t like the other woman either. Audra seemed to be an intelligent woman, seemed to regard Nick Andracas as an asset in her life rather than the man she was actually in love with. Maybe the two of them deserved each other!

‘Do you have to?’ she raised mocking brows at the other woman. ‘I mean, is it necessary?’

‘No, thank God,’ Audra’s mouth twisted disgustedly. ‘Let’s get on with this damned portrait.’

This ‘damned portrait’ was probably going to be the hardest piece of work Danielle had ever done. It was not just the hardness of the other woman’s features that was making it difficult, it was also the actress’s attitude. Audra was not at all enthusiastic about being painted in the first place, was very restless in the chair, and Nick Andracas had further complicated matters by making the other woman resent her before they had even begun.

It was a difficult hour, and Danielle felt drained at the end of it, her main feeling one of relief when the doorbell rang shortly after three. Although she wasn’t looking forward to seeing Nick again, hadn’t realised he would continue to be quite so involved, knowing that he didn’t need to be after that initial meeting, that he had chosen to do so.

She went to answer the door while Audra used her bedroom once again to get changed. That was something else she didn’t like about this commission. With the studio being in her home she naturally had a certain amount of invasion of her privacy, but her bedroom had always remained apart from that before, none of her other clients needing to change before she painted them. Although she could understand the other woman’s reluctance to arrive in the gown; it was for evening wear, not for driving about London on a sunny Saturday afternoon. But even so, Danielle couldn’t say she exactly liked the other woman using what was, after all, her own personal room.

Nick looked much the same as he had an hour ago when she opened the door to him, tall and arrogant, striding confidently into her home. ‘You look tired,’ he turned to say bluntly.

She knew exactly how she looked—and felt. Her hair was tousled into disorder, her face slightly pale from the intensity of the work she had been doing the last hour, the peach lipgloss all but gone from her mouth where she had been chewing her lips in concentration. ‘And I had been led to believe you were a very charming man,’ she mocked.

His eyes narrowed. ‘By whom?’

‘Guess,’ her mouth twisted.

‘Audra,’ he derided. ‘Did she tell you that before or after she warned you off me?’

Her mouth tightened at his astuteness. ‘During, I think,’ she taunted.

‘I see,’ he drawled. ‘And did you tell her the warning was unnecessary?’

‘Of course,’ she replied with sarcasm. ‘I made very sure she knows I have no interest in you whatsoever,’ she added insultingly, hating his arrogance all over again, his self-satisfaction about how the other woman would react to seeing them together earlier.

‘Then you may have done me a favour, Miss Smith,’ he taunted.

‘Oh?’ she eyed him cautiously, knowing she wouldn’t offer him help if he were bleeding to death, that she hated him enough to stand and watch.

‘Audra is inclined to be a little bit more—attentive, when she believes, erroneously or not, that she has competition,’ he eyed her mockingly.

Danielle flushed as his meaning became clear. ‘Then I mustn’t keep either of you any longer than necessary,’ she dismissed coldly. ‘I’ll go and see if Miss McDonald is ready to leave yet.’

‘Danielle!’ His fingers bit into her arm as he dragged her round to face him.

‘Take your hands off me, Mr Andracas,’ she instructed in an icy voice, not at all surprised when he, with a chagrined frown, released her. She looked at him with cool disdain. ‘Your affair with Miss McDonald is your business,’ she told him emotionlessly. ‘As is the way you treat her,’ she added contemptuously. ‘But I will not be used by you as a means of making her jealous, and so more attentive. Do I make myself clear?’

‘As crystal,’ he drawled unconcernedly.

‘Good,’ she nodded. ‘Because I would also like to add that you have hired my services as a portrait painter, nothing else. And if you can’t, or won’t, accept that, then I suggest you get yourself someone else for the job.’

He gave an exaggerated sigh of relief that her tirade was over. ‘You can really let fly when you want to, can’t you,’ he mused, his arms folded in front of his powerful chest.

‘When I have to,’ she corrected pointedly, hating his condescending attitude to her anger.

He quirked dark brows over mocking eyes. ‘And with me you have to?’

‘With you I’m going to,’ she told him firmly. ‘I want to make it clear once and for all that I’m not interested in being one of your little diversions. I value myself a lot higher than some rich, bored man’s mistress for a few weeks.’

‘My wealth I can’t deny,’ he shrugged. ‘But what makes you think I’m bored?’

‘What makes you think you’re not?’ she instantly returned.

For the first time since she had ever met him he gave a genuinely amused smile. ‘You’re very astute, Danielle,’ he drawled dryly. ‘I am bored. I have competent men to run my businesses for me, that leaves me to the enjoyment of life.’

‘Then it’s a pity you don’t actually enjoy it,’ she told him waspishly. ‘And leave me alone.’

‘Danielle—–’

‘I’m ready to leave now, Nick,’ Audra spoke softly from behind them. ‘If you are,’ she added brittly, seeming aware of the tension between them.

‘Could you come back next Saturday at the same time?’ Danielle requested briskly.

The other woman gave her a look of glittering dislike. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’

It was a warning, Danielle knew that, but she shrugged it off. ‘I believe all our business together is now concluded, Mr Andracas,’ she met his steely gaze steadily. ‘All that remains is for me to send you the bill when I’ve completed my work.’

The hardness in his eyes told her that he knew exactly what she was saying—and that he didn’t like it one little bit. ‘Very well, Miss Smith,’ he acquiesed to her unspoken desire not to see him again. ‘Goodbye!’ he rasped angrily.

She felt drained once she was alone, hadn’t missed the triumphant gleam in Audra McDonald’s eyes when Nick showed his fury with her. Danielle had a feeling the other woman hadn’t believed her non-interest in Nick earlier. Well there could be no doubt that she believed her now!

And so, hopefully, did Nick Andracas. She knew she would only be able to take so much from him, and then she would break under the strain. And if that happened she had no idea what she might do. So far she had managed to keep her hate to a cold dislike, if the coldness ever left her she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control the hate.

‘Mmm, I needed that,’ Danielle drank some of her wine, at once feeling a soothing glow.

‘Rough day?’ Lewis sympathised, the two of them having a quiet dinner together at a popular club and restaurant.

‘Rough week,’ she grimaced, having accepted Lewis’s invitation eagerly this morning when he telephoned, glad to get out for a few hours.

‘It’s only Tuesday,’ he teased.

‘Is it?’ she sighed. ‘It seems like this week has lasted for ever.’ Not hearing from Nick Andracas was worse than his constant telephone calls. It was like waiting for the axe to fall.

‘Some weeks are like that,’ he shrugged. ‘How is the beautiful Audra’s portrait coming along?’

‘Slowly,’ she admitted heavily. ‘She isn’t as easy a subject as you would think.’

‘I warned you she can be difficult. Changed your mind about the fee?’ he mocked.

She shook her head, having had this conversation with him once before. ‘It isn’t hard that way,’ she assured him. ‘Admittedly she isn’t the easiest of people to get along with, but that isn’t what makes this difficult. If I paint her as I see her then she isn’t going to like it.’

‘Flatter her,’ Lewis advised with his usual eye for business first, art later.

‘Then she may be unrecognisable,’ Danielle pulled a face.

He laughed softly at her dilemma. ‘I’m sure you’ll find a compromise that will satisfy everyone.’

She liked his confidence in her capabilities, but she wasn’t altogether sure it was true this time; the portrait was proving to be as difficult to do as she had predicted to herself that it would.

She ran a hand across her nape as she felt a prickly sensation, unconsciously massaging the spot. But the sensation continued, so much so that she was beginning to feel very uncomfortable, wondering if she had been bitten by something.

‘Talk of the devil,’ Lewis muttered.

‘Hm?’

He nodded across the room from them. ‘Andracas and Miss McDonald,’ he murmured.

She turned sharply to find Nick and Audra seated a short distance away from them, the reason for the prickly sensation at her nape obvious now as she saw the narrowed grey eyes levelled on her. She looked away abruptly, realising she was still being stared at, still able to feel his gaze on her. The first time she had been out for weeks, the first time she had ever been out with Lewis on a social level, and this had to happen! She was beginning to get the feeling fate had suddenly turned against her.

‘What bad luck,’ Lewis obviously felt the same way. ‘I suppose we’ll have to ask them to join us.’

‘Why?’ she asked sharply.

He looked puzzled by the question, shrugging lightly. ‘It’s only polite—–’

‘I don’t see why,’ she snapped. ‘They haven’t asked us to join them!’

‘Danielle—–’

‘Well, have they?’ she prompted.

‘They only came in a few minutes ago,’ he explained softly.

She sighed. ‘I’d rather not eat with them, if you don’t mind.’

‘But I can’t just pretend they aren’t there.’ He obviously did mind!

‘Lewis,’ her voice was throatily soft. ‘I thought you wanted to be alone with me tonight?’

He flushed. ‘I do—–’

‘Then let’s just act as if we haven’t seen them, hm?’ she touched his hand across the table.

‘But I can see them as clearly as—–’

‘No, you can’t, Lewis,’ she persuaded, giving him a dazzling smile.

‘I—I can’t?’ he was mesmerised by the warmth of her smile.

‘No—–’

‘Good evening, Danielle, Vaughn,’ a familiar gravelly sounding voice greeted them. ‘Audra and I wondered if you would care to join us for dinner?’

Danielle snatched her hand away from Lewis’s as if he had burnt her, looking up reluctantly at the man who now stood beside their table, her stomach giving a sickening lurch at how similar he looked in the black evening suit and snowy white shirt to the man she had first seen seven years ago. It was almost unnatural, no time seeming to have passed at all.

His eyes narrowed at how pale she had suddenly become. ‘Did I startle you?’ he asked in a puzzled voice, as if he wasn’t used to having this effect on women.

‘No more than usual,’ she answered abruptly, ‘and as you can see, Lewis and I have already started our meal,’ she refused his invitation before Lewis could accept, knowing she had to stay away from him tonight, that she was feeling too vulnerable at the moment to deal with him with her usual coolness.

‘Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind if the two of us joined you,’ he returned smoothly.

‘I—–’

‘Please do,’ Lewis cut in firmly as she would have refused once again. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ he demanded in a fierce whisper as Nick Andracas crossed the room to bring Audra McDonald over to their table.

‘It must be obvious,’ she glared at him. ‘I didn’t want them to join us!’

‘Oh it was obvious, all right,’ he snapped impatiently. ‘To Andracas too!’

Her mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure he’s enjoying the fact that he got his way in spite of that!’

‘Danielle, he’s a client—–’

‘I’m well aware of what he is, Lewis,’ she told him tautly. ‘And his being a client is the least important of them.’

He looked puzzled by her unusual behaviour, although he couldn’t question her further as the other couple joined them, standing up politely until they were seated.

From what Danielle could gather from Audra’s stilted manner as they ate dinner the other woman was no more eager for the foursome than she was. Only Nick seemed perfectly at ease with the arrangement, Lewis talking incessantly to try and cover the obvious silence of the two women.

Although both women declined Nick’s suggestion that they all go upstairs and dance they somehow found themselves in the smoky atmosphere of the nightclub, a table for four miraculously secured for them, despite the fact that the place was crowded.

‘Would you care to dance, Danielle?’

Her heart sank at the request she had known was coming, the last thing she wanted was to be in Nick’s arms again, for any reason. ‘I think it’s a little soon after I’ve eaten,’ she refused.

‘Perhaps later,’ he nodded, the mockery in his eyes telling her that he knew it was just an excuse, that he knew she didn’t want to dance with him, the fact that she had hardly eaten anything at all telling him she was merely prevaricating.

‘Perhaps,’ she agreed, both of them knowing that it would take a miracle for her to dance with him, or something equally as effective—and Nick Andracas was certainly that. After she had refused to dance with him the third time she could see Lewis was becoming really uncomfortable with the situation, asking Audra to dance as a diversion. With a certain amount of reluctance for leaving the two of them alone together Audra followed Lewis out on to the dance floor.

Nick moved his chair closer to Danielle’s, his leg partially touching hers under the table. ‘Alone at last,’ he mocked her desire to have nothing to do with him.

She looked at him uninterestedly. ‘It would seem so,’ she acknowledged without enthusiasm.

‘You aren’t going to excuse yourself to the powder-room, or something equally boring?’

She flushed at his mockery. ‘No,’ she answered tautly.

‘But you still don’t want to dance?’

‘No,’ she said again.

‘You’re consistent, I’ll say that for you. Or is it just that you prefer not to dance with anyone but Vaughn?’ he leant back in his chair, perfectly relaxed, smoke swirling up to the ceiling from the cigar he held in his right hand.

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