Career Girls (53 page)

Yes, ma’am, I know, but we’re extremely busy… ‘

‘Well, thanks for your help,’ Rowena said as Michael walked in, replacing the receiver with a bang.

Krebs took in her lean, elegant silhouette against the windows, the last light of day catching her blonde hair so it shimmered and gleamed, her tight black outfit hugging every slender curve and her long legs seeming tO stretch down for ever in sheer black pantyhose.

He felt an instant twitch of lust. ‘Who were you calling?’ ‘Oh, nobody special,’ she said defensively. ‘Was that your fiance?’

‘No,’ said Rowena, blushing. She grew angrier with John. Why did he have to be so childish about her staying in llew York for a few weeks? Now she was embarrassed in front of Michael Krebs. The last guy in the world she wanted to know about her relationship problems.

‘Well,! guess that is nobody special,’ Krebs commented shrewdly, giving her an infuriatingly knowing grin.

‘Do you want to work this through here, or should we go

over to Mirror, Mirror?’ Rowena asked, determinedly ignoring him.

‘Nether. I’ve booked us a table at LeCirque,’ he told her,

‘and don’t look like that, Rowena, if we’re gonna work all night I have to eat first.’

Rowena glanced at him, wanting to object but not daring

to. If it was anybody else, of course they’d need dinner before working all night …

But it wasn’t anybody else. It was Michael Krebs.

‘Are you coming, or what?’ he demanded, turning to go.

His expression was one of complete indifference.

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Pull yourself together, Rowena, she told herself severely, and grabbed her sheaf of notes and contracts.

Tm right behind you,’ she said.

They drove uptown through the twilight, talking business, watching each other. Rowena leant back against the supple leather of her seat and tried to listen to what Krebs was suggesting: buying a couple of hardcore labels, trimming the European roster, expanding the licensing division. She needed to concentrate. This stuff was important. And yet she just couldn’t stop watching the way his mouth moved when he spoke, the way his large hands gripped the wheel, the sexy grey hair at the side of his head. She didn’t want him to come on to her, but she was somehow resentful that he was being so goddamn professional … why didn’t he push her like he used to? Has he given up on me? Rowena wondered, instantly ashamed to find herself dismayed at the thought, o

Krebs stared at the traffic ahead of him, seeing Rowena out of the corner of his eye, talking on autopilot. This deal was Josh and Rowena’s future, and he’d done a lot of work on it; besides, personally, professionally, it would be catastrophic for him to have Mansion House take Musica over. Krebs had his own proposals off by heart, which meant he could reel them off to Rowena without thinking. Leaving his mind free to consider those schoolgirl pantyhose. The clinging cut of her dress. The way her slim little body curled round in her seat. Jesus, but the way she moved drove him crazy. He remembered the tiny catlike curl she’d done on that studio chair in London, the night they’d first had sex.

I want “you, I want you, Rowena thought fiercely.

She’s so far under my skin, Krebs thought, heady with a sudden urge to just pull over and reach for her. He fought back the impulse and kept talking, but he was enraged. Rowena Gordon was his! She had always been his! Who was this little kid John Metcalf? Some jerk-off Angeleno who knew absolutely nothing about music, absolutely nothing

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about what fired Rowena’s passions…

At the elegant restaurant on East 65th they were ush

to a secluded table, and Michael ordered champagne.

‘Le Cirque is my favourite, these days,’ Rowena said to I him, searching for some safe ground for small talk. In the cool shadows and soft lights she felt Krebs’s presence as a real threat. He’d put on a dark jacket and tie to eat here

something he never wore; it amplified his air

power. His charcoal eyes, fringed with those

lashes, looked into hers with an easygoing interest that

maddened her.

She wanted him to leave her alone.

She wanted him to forget her.

She wanted him to just be her friend.

Yeah, right.

‘Its got the best diet menu in Manhattan,’ she added hastily, suddenly aware that she’d been staring at him. Tm past thirty. I have to watch my weight.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. You’re perfect as you are,’ Michael

said, watching her drop her gaze. ‘And what is this past

thirty bullshit? You’re just a child, Gordon.’

Rowena laughed, and the long sweep of her hair

‘the candlelight. He felt his left hand clench under the:

tablecloth.

TII always be a child to you, Michael.’

‘You’re a lot of things to me,’ he said softly, ‘but a child

isn’t one of them.’

He stared at her, and Rowena sensed the deep,

well of heat starting to pulse in her groin. Under the taut fabric of her sweater, quite noticeably her nipples tightened, swelling with blood. Lust strong enough to match his own ‘ started to trawl across her skin, digging little teasing hooks ‘ of pleasure into her groin. She felt a wave of panic, aware that her desire for him was written in bright letters across her face.

Tm going to have you again,’ Krebs said quietly, never taking his eyes from her. ‘It’s what you want and it’s what I want. ‘

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‘No it’s not,’ Rowena answered sharply, reaching blindly for her wine glass. Michael lunged across the table and caught her hand in his, gripping it, his fingers pushing against the soft flesh at the base of the thumb.

His touch was like flicking on a switch. Rowena’s stomach dissolved in longing and she flooded with wetness. Involuntarily she gave a little shudder of need, her whole

body shaking on the chair.

‘Isn’t it?’ Krebs insisted.

‘Are you ready to order?’ enquired a waiter politely.

Krebs felt the moment shatter and glared at the poor man with a look that could have melted steel.

‘Thank you, yes. I’d like the monkfish with sorrel leaves,’. Rowena said hastily, pressing her hot palm against the glittering coolness of her engagement ring.

She discussed contracts briskly for the entire rest of the

meal.

They drew up at Beekman Place at nine exactly. Topaz Rossi let them in, elegant in an empire-waisted dress of dark blue velvet that cut offjust below the knee, flowing over her round stomach and contrasting beautifully with her red curls, shiny and lustrous from her pregnancy.

‘You look terrific,’ Rowena told her, forgetting her reserve of that morning. ‘That dress really picks out your

eyes.’

‘You think so? I hate it,’ Topaz said. ‘I hate everything in my wardrobe at the moment though. I can’t find one thing that will make me look less fat.’

‘Oh, you don’t look fat, you look pregnant,’ Rowena protested. ‘Look at your arms ind legs, Topaz. Look at your chin.’

‘Hello, Michael, ‘Joe Goldstein said, appearing behind his wife. He put a protective hand on her shoulder and added somewhat coldly, ‘Hi, Rowena.’

‘Hey, Goldstein,’ Krebs answered, feeling the renewed chill settle between the two women. Not that he would ever understand their relationship; he still remembered the

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unusual venom that had crept into Rowena’s voice when she talked about Topaz; he could hardly forget all the barbs this cute-looking redhead had thrown at them, the sniping at Atomic Mass when they were just starting out, the way she’d blown out the Madison Square Gardens launch of Heat Street, the way she’d taken Velocity from under Rowena’s nose, and the final damning Westside cover story that finished Rowena Gordon’s meteoric career off in one. fell swoop. And on their side? Joe Hunter publicly embarrassing Rossi on Oprah, closing White Light down with a few phonecalls, and the inexorable rise of Rowena and her band, right up until that final blow.

There has to be more to it than that, Krebs thought, watching Topaz Rossi’s back as she led them through to the office. I know they had a history.., it’s like they know

‘ each other backwards. Half of the time they would act like sisters, fixing each other’s coffee without asking how they took it, finishing off each other’s sentences, complaining about the traffic. Then they would catch themselves doing it, and suddenly, instantly, snap back into the two bitter rivals who’d been forced to do business together.

,But she keeps glancing over at Goldstein, keeps looking around the house, Michael thought, interested. It’s like she’s incredibly curious but doesn’t want to show it… and Topaz, too, that girl’s always checking me out, always striking up conversations with Oberman…

Of course, over the last few weeks there’d been a crowd of people around them. Now they were practically on their

own.

Krebs grinned as he pulled the Atomic Mass contract out of his briefcase. This was going to be hard work, but it might be fun to watch.

Topaz shook her head, trying to clear the fumes of exhaustion and fatigue. It was ten to three inthe morning, and they were still at work. Despairing of her stubbornness, Joe had long since turned in - he liked to be at NBC before seven - and Michael Krebs, who’d been up until five the

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night before mixing the latest Black Ice album, had passed out on the sofa.

‘Do you want to call it a night?’ Rowena asked, seeing her check her watch.

Topaz took another gulp of her industrial-strength coffee and shook her head. ‘If we can work through this joint statement about artistic commitment we’ll be finished. I’d rather do it that way, I gotta say. I don’t want to have to go back to it.’

Rowena nodded. ‘We did pretty well. Check this out,’ and she reached down to Topaz’s laser printer and pulled off thirty sheets of paper. ‘Creative planning, sell-offs, the human resource factor- ‘

‘Translation: all my writers and all your bands will be out the door in a heartbeat,’ Topaz butted in, grinning.

‘Exactly. Plus, detailed expansion plans, distribution details, licensing deals-‘

‘Translation: we know how to run these babies and Connor Miles knows jack,’ added Topaz.

‘Plus five-year plans for the core businesses -‘ ‘Translation: if you sell this stock you’re as dumb as Clan fucking Quayle,’ said Topaz elegantly. ‘Hey, Rowena, let’s just be straight with this statement. Type this up - The boards of American Magazines and Musica Records-‘

‘Musica Records and American Magazines,’ said Rowena loudly.

‘- state that they have complete commitment to all their artistic principles, as long.as they’re making money-‘

‘- and if they stop making money, we’ll drop them right away -‘

‘- and ifConnor Miles buys us-out we’re walking -‘

‘- and everybody’s coming with us

‘- and your shares will be worth one-tenth of what you paid for them -‘

‘so don’t fuck with us!’ Rowena finished triumphantly. The two women collapsed in a fit of laughter, clutching each other for support, then shushing each other as Michael Krebs turned fitfully on the sofa.

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‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Topaz whispered. ‘I shouldn’t wake Michael. He was really cool on all that licensing stuff.’

‘Yeah,’ Rowena agreed, turning her head to look at the producer. Topaz watched her gazing at him, her face suddenly softened and tender.

‘What’s the deal? You love him?’ she asked. Rowenajumped out of her skin. ‘Of course not,’ she said instantly. Even in the dull flickering glow of the Mac, the only light in the room, Topaz could see her old rival blushing scarlet. ‘Whatever gave you that idea?’

‘Whatever gave you that idea?” mimicked Topaz quietly. ‘Oh please. How long have I known you?’

There was a pause, as the rhetorical question brought it all flooding back.

‘A long time,’ Rowena replied slowly.

There was another pause. Both women felt their heartbeats speed up a little. Over the course of the deal, and especially tonight, they’d been able to work together because they had to. Because there was no other way. Because they were career girls with their careers at stake.

And the unspoken, unwritten, unbreakable rule was: Say nathing. Confront nothing. Resolve nothing.

A temporary truce. No more than that.

And now …

Topaz Rossi looked at Rowena Gordon.

‘Why did you do it?’ she asked softly. ‘We were so close.’

Rowena felt as though a fist of mixed emotions was closing around her heart.

‘I was young, and dumb, and selfish,’ she said eventually. ‘I wanted him and he was with you. You were so … sexy and outrageous, and I was a virgin.., it was just another guy rejecting me, I suppose.’

Imperceptibly, Topaz leant forward on her seat.

‘And then I started to resent you, because you had him,’ Rowena went on, unable to look the other woman in the fac, ‘and the more I was jealous of you the guiltier I felt, and I kept on wanting him but in reality, I think it was only because you had him.’

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‘And you were with him alone such a lot,’ Topaz said, with the beginnings of understanding.

Rowena nodded. ‘So I tried to justify it to myself, when there “was no justification… I started thinking all these snobby thoughts.., it was like all the establishment values I’d been hurt by myself I used against you. And I was ashamed of myself, so I focused all that on you. And then you blew me out for the Union Presidency, so I could kid myself that it was all your fault … you’d pushed me at him … and I hated you, because I just couldn’t admit that what I’d actually done was trample all over the first person in the world who had ever cared about me for who I was. I am so, so sorry, Topaz,’ Rowena finished weakly. ‘I just hope you can forgive me.’

Topaz stared at her for a long moment. Then she broke into a slow smile.

‘You know, if you’d said that before it would have saved us both .lot of trouble. All you English guys are such emotional cripples.’