Free Beaumont Brides Collection by Liz Fielding Page B

the possibility sounded, well, unusual.
    ‘I’m really sorry, Felicity. It’s been lovely having lunch with you, but there’s nothing I can do about the loan.’
    ‘At least you’re being honest with me.’
    ‘Tempting as it is to try, I’m not stupid enough to think you’d fall into bed with me if I promised to help.’ His smile reappeared. ‘And I prefer not to have my eye blacked for suggesting it.’
    ‘Oh, Julian!’ she declared, moved to laughter despite her worries.
    ‘Not all us City folk are as black as we’re painted,’ he said. And that, at least, gave her an opening to ask a favour.
    ‘There is one thing you can do for me. Nothing to do with money,’ she added, quickly. ‘Can you get me a full list of your directors?’
    ‘Why?’
    She didn’t know. ‘It’s not a state secret, is it?’
    ‘We’re a private bank, Fizz.’
    ‘And I’m a customer. It must be on record somewhere, surely?’
    ‘If you know where to look. Oh, what the heck. I’ll get it for you and bring it when I meet you this evening. You are still coming to the theatre with me?’
    ‘Only if you’re paying,’ she said, as despite his protestations, she insisted on signing the credit card slip for lunch.
     
     
    Claudia was in a foul mood and made no effort to hide it. She never bothered to put on an act for her sister, Fizz knew her too well to be fooled, but even she was surprised by such an open display of temper.
    ‘The man is a vertically challenged jerk,’ she declared, before Fizz had even drawn breath to ask what had upset her.
    ‘Who?’ she asked, barely managing to suppress a sigh and she followed her sister into her sitting room. Whenever Claudia had problems, she never accepted that she might bear some of the responsibility, preferring to load the entire blame onto someone else’s shoulders.
    ‘Who?’ Claudia turned to face her, throwing her hands dramatically in the direction of the ceiling and groaned. ‘Don’t you ever listen? Sean Deveraux. That’s who.’
    ‘Oh.’ Sean Deveraux was the hottest thing in tight pants on the box, a cover pin up on every television magazine since a smouldering portrayal of Heathcliffe a few months earlier.
    Claudia had been drooling on about him ad nauseam since she’d landed a plum part starring with him in a bodice ripper designed to show his tanned torso to its best effect. He was a little too self-conscious in his manliness for Fizz’s taste, but if he’d offended her sister, she pitied him.
    ‘You begin shooting in Spain in a couple of weeks, don’t you?’ She’d have to check the scheduling, make sure that the recordings for “Holiday Bay” were made before Claudia left the country. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough at the moment.
    But Claudia was demanding her full attention. ‘I was shooting in Spain with Sean-bloody-Deveraux as my leading man,’ she said. ‘He still is shooting in Spain. With someone else as his leading lady. Some totally unknown, talentless trollop he’s fallen in bed with,’ she said, claws at full stretch.
    ‘But he can’t do that. What about your contract?’
    ‘There was a delay in signing. My agent wasn’t quite happy with one or two of the details.’ The defensive toss of the head spoke volumes. Claudia had probably been holding out until the last moment, hoping to squeeze a better deal when it was too late for the film company to change their minds. ‘Do you know what excuse he made? Why he’s insisting on a different leading lady?’
    ‘No.’
    But she was going to be told. At length, with all the actions and for that she would need the fortification of a strong cup of coffee. As she filled the kettle, Fizz grinned. Luke Devlin had described her performance as melodramatic. If her sister ever stormed his office intent on making her opinion felt the man would discover the true meaning of the word.
    She quickly straightened her face as Claudia loomed in the doorway. ‘He said ... he said ... I was