“For God’s sake,” he muttered, “let’s forget the whole bloody business. I don’t know why I ever thought any of you could offer suggestions that might help.”
“It’s not our job to help,” Jack told him with cheer, giving him a hearty slap on the back. “We’re your friends. Our job is to tease you mercilessly about your foibles, rag you about your upright, honorable nature, and point out to you when you’re being a complete dolt.”
“Thank you, Jack.” He took a swallow of port. “I feel so much better about it all now.”
Stuart spoke before Jack could reply. “If it’s suggestions you want, I have one.” He paused, leaning forward in his chair. “Stop kicking against the pricks.”
Denys stiffened. “Accept the inevitable, you mean. That’s an easy thing to say. Not so easy to do.”
“Only if you’re not over her.”
That was the heart of the matter. Over the years, he’d convinced himself he was over Lola, but that kiss had dispelled any such illusion. He wasn’t over her, not completely, and he didn’t know if he ever would be.
There was only one way to find out.
And suddenly Denys knew what he had to do. Time and distance hadn’t rid him of his desire for Lola, so taking such pains to avoid her wasn’t going to accomplish a thing. Working with her was the only way to demonstrate his resolve, reaffirm his choices, and prove to himself that her reappearance didn’t make any difference to his life at all.
It wouldn’t be easy. As things stood now, he had to draw on all the fortitude he possessed just to be in the same room with her without wanting to ravish her or wring her neck. But with time and sufficient strength of will, surely he could get past that. Perhaps this situation would accomplish what years of time and distance had not, and he would become immune to her charms once and for all.
“You’re right, Stuart. I didn’t choose this partnership, God knows, but I suppose I’ve no choice but to accept it.” He straightened in his chair. “After all, when a man’s caught in a hurricane, it’s better to be a reed than an oak.”
“A sound principle,” Jack approved, raising his glass, “and an apt analogy, for Lola Valentine is one hell of a hurricane.”
Denys couldn’t argue the point. Reed or oak, he knew he’d be facing some torrential headwinds in the days to come. He just hoped he could weather the storm without been wrecked all over again.
Lola thought Denys would keep avoiding a meeting with her, all the way to January if he could. But four days following her call at his office, she received a note from his secretary, granting her request and inquiring if five o’clock one week hence at his lordship’s offices would be acceptable.
Such unexpected capitulation on Denys’s part was quite a surprise, but though it gave her little time to prepare, her resolve to prove herself remained unaltered.
She had called on Mr.Lloyd Jamison as she’d intended, and whether it was due to her success in New York working with Henry, her role in Lord Somerton’s latest play, or her new position as the viscount’s partner, the theatrical agent happily accepted her as a client, despite her refusal to consider any role that involved kicking up her legs or singing bawdy songs.
For her part, she had found Mr.Jamison to be an engaging and likable man, and though she had little desire to employ an agent, she agreed to allow him to represent her acting interests. She also took the opportunity to make use of his extensive knowledge of London theater.
Thanks to that interview and the reports sent by Denys’s office, as well as what she learned about balance sheets and income statements from an accounting clerk she hired, Lola had a much stronger understanding of the financial workings of theater in general and the Imperial in particular than she’d had before. But two nights before her meeting with Denys, she still hadn’t come up with a single idea to increase the Imperial’s profits.
She had never lacked for ideas. She’d built an entire show around them. She knew she could do some innovative things with Shakespeare if given a chance, but though she trusted her creative instincts, she couldn’t expect Denys to do so. He would never agree to settingTwo Gentlemen of Veronain the American West or allowing Kate to be in on the joke when Petruchio made his famous wager, unless she could convince him her business acumen was as sound as her creativity.
Lola set down the theater’s latest financial report and leaned back, resting her weight on her arms and staring at the documents spread all around her on the floor of her suite, frustrated. She’d hoped to find some weakness in the Imperial’s current operations that she could exploit, but there didn’t seem to be one.
No, when it came to weaknesses, the only one she could see was her own. When Denys had hauled off and kissed her, she’d surrendered in mortifying fashion, and every time she recalled those passionate moments in his office, her body began to burn, but not with the indignation a woman ought to feel in such circumstances. No, when she recalled Denys’s mouth on hers and his arms around her, she felt the unmistakable burn of desire.
She tilted her head back, closing her eyes, memories coming over her in a flood—memories of other hot kisses they’d shared, kisses long ago, in that brief, blissful window of time when she’d allowed herself to fall in love with him, when she’d opened her heart and surrendered her body and chosen to believe in fairy tales.
Lola sat up, shoving aside the past, reminding herself that this was real life. Denys had not only kissed her, he’d used that kiss as proof they couldn’t work together, and he’d ripped her abilities to shreds. If she didn’t challenge his contentions and disprove them, if she couldn’t make him start to see her as an equal and a colleague instead of as his former mistress, then he’d be proved right, and the partnership would be doomed.
Lola frowned at the documents spread around her, thinking hard. The Imperial made a hefty profit. It was well regarded and efficiently run. As things stood, there just didn’t seem much room for improvement in theater operations. Anything with the potential to increase profits would have to involve some sort of radical change.
Radical change.
Something flickered within her, something forged by the documents before her, her interview with Jamison, and a chance remark made by Kitty during their supper. Suddenly alert, she worked to form this vague glimmer into an idea, and when she succeeded, she felt a jolt of jubilation and hope.
She rummaged through the stacks, pulling out various reports, then she spread the selected sheets in front of her to study them. A few minutes’ perusal confirmed that her idea could not only work, but it could also make the Imperial significantly more profitable. There was only one problem.
Denys would never agree. He’d never been one for radical change.
That irrefutable fact deflated her, but only for a moment. Her purpose was to prove she could hold her own as a partner, and this idea, properly presented, would accomplish that. He didn’t have to agree to implement it, but it would force him to admit he’d been wrong about her ability to come up with business ideas. Lola allowed herself a moment to savor the sweetness of that possibility, then she picked up her pencil and reached for a blank sheet of paper. She still had a lot of work to do.
Chapter11
