Free Everything to Him by Elizabeth Coldwell

Chapter One
     
     
     
    “Shona, how many times do I have to tell these people I’m not interested?”
    Resting her head against the thick, tiled lip of the hot tub, letting the bubbling jets of warm water caress her body, Amber Meredith lay back and listened to her husband arguing with his PA. It wasn’t like Felix to come home in such a vile mood, but she knew he’d been under a good deal of stress these last few days. He’d been negotiating to buy an Internet radio station that specialised in classic rock, but the deal appeared to be on the verge of collapse. No wonder he was tense.
    But this phone call—at least the end of it she could hear as Felix paced the floor of their mini spa room—didn’t sound as if it had anything to do with that particular piece of business.
    “I know, Shona, believe me, but what part of my being unavailable for interview are they failing to grasp?”
    Amber closed her eyes, and did her best to tune out his voice. Whatever the problem, if it was important enough, he’d share it with her in due course. Felix might thrive on the adrenaline rush he got from being in stressful situations, but he knew the importance of letting off steam, too. It was far better for his blood pressure in the long run than keeping everything bottled up.
    At last, she heard him toss his phone onto one of the rattan sun loungers that stood by the side of the pool. Amber hauled herself halfway out of the hot tub. Resting her elbows on the cool, white tiles, arms crossed in front of her, she smiled at her frazzled-looking husband.
    “Everything okay, darling?”
    Felix ran a hand through his short, blond hair, causing it to stick up in tufts, making him look more like the teenager who’d started out running a record company from his university bedroom than the owner of the extensive multi-media empire he’d become. “Oh, it’s just Glitz! magazine. They’re still after me for an interview.”
    “I thought you turned them down?”
    “I did—twice in the last nine months. But they’re persistent. They keep telling me a feature in the mag would do wonders for my image.”
    Amber flicked through Glitz! occasionally, usually when she was in the hairdressers’ for maintenance of her dark honey and caramel highlights. She’d read the magazine more religiously in the days when she’d worked for a short-lived television shopping channel, doing her best to suppress any pangs of envy raised by the photos of all those perfectly groomed celebrities in their beautiful homes. Since she’d married Felix, she knew she’d become an object of envy in her own right, with no need to compare her wealth or status to that of anyone else.
    “There doesn’t seem to be too much wrong with your profile at the moment,” she commented, climbing out of the hot tub. As she walked over to where she’d left her towel, she was aware that Felix’s gaze never left her. She wore her plainest black swimsuit, with low-cut legs and a functional racer back, ideal for cutting through the water as she swam her regulation twenty lengths of the pool. Only when she’d completed her exercise for the day did she ever think of sliding into the hot tub, however inviting it might look as she slogged dutifully away. Still, the wet, clinging material emphasised the curves of her breasts and hips, and Felix clearly enjoyed the sight. For the first time since he’d walked into the spa room, a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
    “Yeah, well, someone seems to think that since we had to close the New York Clarion , Midas Media is a company in crisis. They’re convinced a big, glossy spread in Glitz! is just the thing to tell people otherwise.”
    Though Felix was trying to keep his tone upbeat, Amber knew only too well how criticism and unfounded gossip surrounding the company hurt him. He’d worked so hard to build his business up over the last couple of decades, starting from nothing and bringing it to a point where his own personal