“Neither can you.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “If you think you can stonewall me, Lola, you are sadly mistaken.”
“Call it what you will, but we are still equal partners—”
“Are we, indeed?” he cut in before she could finish. “In a legal sense, I suppose you’re right. But in a partnership of true equality, each partner brings something of benefit to the whole. What do you bring that I don’t already have?”
“Plenty. I have ideas—”
“Every actor worth his salt has ideas. Every actress has notions of how to play her part and what costume she wants to wear. But that doesn’t make her a valuable business partner. For that, Lola, you’re going to need more. Do you have connections I’ve no access to? Influence in London theater circles I don’t possess? Experience in production? Theater management? Do you have any business acumen at all? Hell, for all these ideas you claim to have, can you contribute even one idea that would increase the Imperial’s profits? Or,” he added, his dark eyes hard as granite, “is your greatest talent merely that of sleeping with the right man at the right time?”
“Oh,” she breathed, outraged. Clearly, he was attempting to intimidate her, but it was not going to work. “First of all,” she said through clenched teeth, “I’ve only slept with two men in my entire life, and one of them was you, so perhaps instead of pointing out my supposed deficiencies, you ought to take a good, hard look at your own. Hypocrisy being a prime example, as your lack of gentlemanly conduct has just demonstrated.”
She paused just long enough to suck in a breath before going on. “Second, as much as you deny it, the fact remains that legally, I am your full and equal partner, and though it’s obvious I can’t expect your trust or your forgiveness or your personal respect, I damn well expect you to accord me the consideration, equality, and respect mypositiondemands. We make decisions together, Denys, or we don’t make them at all.”
She turned and walked out, and she took great satisfaction in slamming the door behind her. Not a very ladylike thing to do, of course, but then, she’d never been a lady anyway.
Denys stared at the closed door, resentment and arousal seething through him in equal measure. During the past half dozen years, he’d seldom had cause to feel both those emotions at the same time, but now that Lola was back in his life, he had the feeling this tumultuous state was one he would find himself in quite often.
Perhaps instead of pointing out my supposed deficiencies, you ought to take a hard look at your own.
He grimaced, painfully aware he was in no position to deny those words. Throwing an accusation of immoral conduct in her face had been hypocritical, not to mention unthinkably boorish, and she’d had every right to call him out for it.
I’ve only slept with two men in my entire life, and one of them was you.
He frowned, uneasiness supplanting his anger. The other man was Henry, of course, and yet, even as he thought it, he felt a stab of doubt. The idea of Lola as a virgin when they’d become lovers didn’t square with what he remembered. Granted, she’d had less experience than he would have expected from a girl of her profession, but he’d never have thought her a virgin. Which, if she’d been telling the truth just now, meant that she and Henry hadn’t been lovers, and that was ridiculous.
Wasn’t it?
Denys muttered an oath. God, was he really trying to find a way to justify her actions and believe in her again?
He was. God help him, he was. And he knew why. Despite everything that had happened, and everything she’d done, he still wanted her, wanted her enough that he’d hauled her into his arms and kissed her without a thought of restraint, control, or consequences. Hell, in those few moments, he hadn’t been thinking at all.
He pressed his hands to his skull, grinding his teeth in frustration, wondering what on earth was wrong with him that he wasn’t over this by now. He wasn’t in love with her anymore, and he certainly didn’t trust her, but he wanted her as much as he ever had, and he didn’t know what he could do, short of hurling himself off a cliff, to stop wanting her. If a shredded bank account, a broken heart, and six years hadn’t cured him of this mad, insatiable passion for her, what would?
Feeling the need to move, Denys lowered his hands, circled his desk, and began to pace his office, but if he thought that would cool his blood and help him regain a semblance of sanity, he was mistaken. As he approached the window, he glanced down at the street below, just in time to see the object of all his tumultuous thoughts step out onto the sidewalk.
The sight of her stopped him in his tracks. As she paused at the corner for the traffic to clear, he told himself to look away. But though his mind gave the command, his traitorous body refused to comply. He didn’t move, and all the desire he kept trying to suppress flared up again, every bit as strong and hot as it had ever been.
Nothing’schanged,he thought darkly, his hand coming up as if to touch her, his fingertips pressing against the window glass as frustration and desire clawed at him.Eight and a half years since I first met her, and nothing’s changed.
She leaned out over the curb to look for a break in the traffic, a move that emphasized the lush curve of her hips, and Denys turned away from the window with an oath. To feel all this again after half a dozen years of peace and sanity was aggravating as hell. To know his control and his will could slip away any moment she was near him was just too galling to bear.
No man could be expected to endure this sort of situation. There had to be a way out of this, by God, and he was going to find it, for he had no intention of wrecking his life a second time because of her.
Lola strode away from Denys’s office mad as a hornet, so mad that she paid no attention to where she was going except that it was away from him. She couldn’t even remember now what reply she’d offered to his infuriating remark, but whatever she’d said didn’t matter, for no words would have been sufficient to express her fury. She ought to have hurled an inkstand at him instead.
Or is your true talent merely that of sleeping with the right man at the right time?
Of all the hypocritical, ruthless, downright unfair remarks—
But not wholly unwarranted.
She stopped on the sidewalk, so abruptly that she was nearly run down by the man walking behind her. He dodged, just managing to avoid a collision, and went around her, while she stood motionless on the sidewalk and faced the brutal fact that though Denys’s accusation wasn’t technically true, it was a reasonable conclusion. She had no right to be angry when what he thought of her was exactly what she’d led him to think.
Denys believed she had jilted him for Henry Latham, and a more lucrative career in New York had been part of the bargain. In choosing to come back, she’d expected his enmity, so why was she angry at him for expressing it?
Because she hadn’t realized how much it would hurt.
