Shafted (28 page)

Finishing his cigarette in silence, he flicked the butt into the water and was just on the verge of drifting off to sleep when the waiter came out to clear the empties from the surrounding tables. Sitting up straighter when the man told them that the bar was closed and they’d be taking the furniture inside in a minute, he downed both of his drinks and handed the glasses over. Glancing at his watch then, he asked Stephanie how she was getting home.

Finishing her own drinks and thanking the waiter, Stephanie said, ‘Taxi, I guess.’

‘Me, too,’ Larry said, reaching into his pocket for his mobile. ‘Where are you going to?’

A flicker of a frown crossing her brow, Stephanie reached for her handbag. ‘It’s okay. I’ll just flag one down out on the road. That’s what I usually do.’

Telling her that he had to call one for himself anyway, Larry scrolled through his menu to find the company he used when Georgie wasn’t around. Pressing ‘call’, he looked up at her. ‘I just need to tell them where you’re going to.’

‘Fallowfield,’ she lied, not really wanting him to know where she lived.

Ordering two cars, Larry pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘They’re busy tonight, but they reckon at least one should get here soon.’ He held out a hand to help her up. ‘We’ve got to wait outside the gates, though, because they won’t drive in.’

Reaching for his hand, Stephanie gasped when a tiny crackle of static leapt between their fingers. Blushing, she jerked her hand away and, looping her bag over her shoulder, kept her eyes to the floor as they made their way round to the road fronting the apartments.

It was ten minutes before the first taxi arrived.

Turning to Stephanie, Larry said, ‘You take this one.’ Then, inclining his head, he kissed her on the cheek, saying, ‘Nice meeting you, and I hope your boyfriend makes it up to you for standing you up. But tell him thanks from me, because you’ve been good company in my hour of need.’

Telling him that she’d enjoyed herself too, Stephanie climbed into the car when he opened the door for her. Dipping his head, Larry asked the driver if he had any idea how long the next car would be.

‘You’ll be lucky if it’s in the next half-hour,’ the man said. ‘Don’t know what’s going on in town tonight, but we’ve been rushed off our wheels for the past couple of hours.’

‘Typical.’ Larry tutted, swaying slightly as the alcohol he’d just downed rushed to his head. Steadying himself with a hand on the roof of the car, he looked at Stephanie and shrugged. ‘Oh, well, I’ll just have to wait, won’t I? See you later.’

Looking up at him guiltily as he moved back to close the door, Stephanie said, ‘Look, why don’t we share?’

Hesitating, he peered in at her. ‘Are you sure? I don’t mind waiting.’

Shaking her head, she said, ‘No, that’s silly when this car’s already here.’ Sliding further across the seat to make room for him now, she smiled.‘Please. I’ll feel really guilty if I leave you standing here.’

Thinking it over for a moment, Larry flapped his hands and climbed in beside her.

12

‘Oh, Larry, that wasn’t nice,’ Georgie scolded, shifting the phone to her other ear to continue rifling through the paperwork littering her desktop. ‘I know she’s a pain, but you shouldn’t have walked out on her party – not when she threw it especially for
you
. The least you could have done was wait until everybody else had gone.’

‘And have to fight her off when she tried to make me stay?’ Larry replied, sounding more relaxed than Georgie had heard him sound in a long time. ‘I don’t
think
so! She was already talking about breakfast. And I’m sorry, but there was no way I was going for that. It’d be like waking up in Madame Tussaud’s.’

‘Yes, well, I agree you didn’t have to
sleep
with her,’ Georgie said, a mock-disapproving edge to her voice. ‘But you shouldn’t make an enemy of her. She’s a powerful lady, and she could make things very difficult for you.’

‘Don’t see how,’ Larry drawled, stretching out languidly in his bed. ‘There’s nothing she can do to ruin things for me now.’

‘Don’t be silly.’ Georgie tutted. ‘You might be back in favour right now, but what happens when the next big story hits the news and you slide back into obscurity?’

‘Not going to happen,’ Larry said unconcernedly. ‘You’ve got tons of stuff lined up for me.’

‘Yes, and you said that none of it was big enough for you to waste your time thinking about.’

Tiring of the conversation now, Larry said, ‘Just stop fannying about and get me something amazing, Georgie. And if it makes you feel any better, I’ll ring Raine and tell her I got sick and had to go home. I’ll even send the old bag flowers, if you want. But there’s no way I’m shagging her – not even for you.’

‘Thank you,’ Georgie said, with a hint of satisfaction. ‘And I’m sure the flowers will suffice. You might not realise it, but it was Raine who got the ban lifted so she could have you on her show last night. Alan Corbin was reluctant to back down, as you can imagine, but I hear she pulled the right strings and got him to reconsider, so I think you ought to be thanking her for that, at the very least.’

‘I didn’t ask her to put herself out.’

‘No, but it’s just as well she did, because she’s got the highest ratings of any chat show in the country, and I’ve already had calls from a couple of producers off the back of it.’

‘There you go, then.’ Larry grinned. ‘So, what are they offering?’

‘Nothing particularly interesting,’ Georgie admitted. ‘And I’ve already turned two of them down. But it’s good to know they’re sitting up and taking notice, isn’t it?’

‘So they should be,’ Larry said, rolling across the bed to slide a cigarette out of the pack on the table. ‘What were they, anyway?’

‘One was a cameo on
Judge Joanie
, but it was only two days’ work, and they wanted you to play a criminal.’

‘Cheeky bastards.’

‘My sentiments exactly,’ Georgie agreed. ‘The other was a guest presenter slot on CBBC’s
Garage Gang
, but that’s
so
not you.’ Pausing now, she cleared her throat. ‘But they weren’t the only producers I’ve been speaking to this morning, and I thought you’d be rather pleased when you heard what my last chat was about.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Larry said, smiling at Stephanie when she walked into the room. She was wearing one of his shirts, which really accentuated the length of her lovely legs, and she looked gorgeous with her glossy, sleep-tousled hair framing her beautiful face. And it was a refreshing change to see that she hadn’t redone her make-up while she was in the bathroom – the girls he bedded usually liked to get their faces perfect before he laid eyes on them the morning after.

‘Remember we bumped into Frank when we were leaving the studio yesterday and I promised to return his call?’ Georgie was saying now. ‘Well, I felt a little guilty about neglecting him, because he’d actually rung a couple of times and left messages, so I rang him this morning to apologise and find out what he wanted.’

‘And what
did
he want?’ Larry asked, drawing the quilt back for Stephanie to climb back into bed beside him.

‘
Well . . .
’ Georgie said, drawing it out because she thought he’d be ecstatic when he heard the news. ‘He wants to give you your old job back.’

‘Are you joking?’ Larry frowned. ‘What about Matty?’

‘I don’t actually think he’s part of the equation,’ Georgie said, chuckling softly. ‘It’s not a job for two hosts, is it? Anyway, you and I both know that the ratings have slipped since you left, so this is purely good business as far as Frank’s concerned. And I’m delighted, because this really marks how far you’ve come since last year.’

‘I hope you told him where to stick it,’ Larry said, sounding more offended than impressed.

‘Absolutely not,’ Georgie replied confusedly. ‘I thought you’d be pleased.’

‘Well, I’m not. I haven’t gone through all this shit to go straight back to square one.’

‘But I thought this was what you wanted? You’ve been saying it’s your show all the way down the line. Don’t you even want to think about it?’

‘What’s to think about? I don’t want it, and I’m amazed Frank thought I’d even give it the time of day. No wonder he was being so flaming nice when I saw him at the party last night. He must think I’ve forgotten what he did to me.’

‘I’m sure everybody’s got regrets about what happened,’ Georgie told him. ‘And Frank is a decent man, so I imagine he’ll have had his fair share.’

‘What about Terri?’ Larry asked, abruptly changing the subject. ‘Has she been back to you about that American thing she was talking about yet?’

‘Obviously not, or I’d have told you,’ Georgie said, wondering why Larry still seemed to think that Terri Lawson had any power or influence, given that she’d been dumped by Shock-Wave after the disastrous game show. The woman talked a good game, you had to give her that. She’d been on the phone almost continuously in the first month after she went home in disgrace, telling Georgie that she was concentrating all her efforts on Larry now, trying to get him a vehicle that would secure him his big break in the States. But nothing had happened in the three months since the programme had aired over there, so it was all hot air in Georgie’s opinion, and of no real benefit whatsoever to Larry.

‘Never mind Terri,’ she said now, wanting him to focus on the
real
things which were on offer over here. ‘I know you say you’re not interested, but would you please just think about Frank’s offer.
Star Struck
made you, and I think it would be fantastic for you
and
the show if you went back and rescued it now that it’s failing. Frank’s proposing a completely fresh start. New theme tune, new set, new – fantastically higher – salary. And you’ll have the option of backing out of the contract after a year, so it would give you a real chance to pick and choose where you went from there.’

‘See you later,’ Larry said, refusing to humour Georgie by agreeing to even think about it when he’d already made his feelings quite clear. Disconnecting the call, he tossed the phone onto the floor and turned to Stephanie, who was still sitting up, with her arms folded around herself.

‘Something wrong?’ she asked. ‘You didn’t sound too pleased with that call.’

‘My agent,’ Larry told her, reaching up and stroking a finger down her cheek. ‘Apparently I’ve just been offered my old job back, and – for
some
reason – she seemed to think I’d be pleased.’

‘But you’re not?’

‘No, I’m not,’ Larry murmured softly, pulling her down beside him and gazing into her eyes. ‘But I don’t want to talk about it, so let’s just . . .’

Closing her eyes when he lowered his head and kissed her softly, Stephanie shivered when he slid his hand down over her breasts and slowly unbuttoned the shirt.

‘Like that?’ he whispered, easing the material aside and lowering his head to tease each nipple in turn with his tongue.

Nodding, she bit her lip and arched her back as he slid his hand down over her stomach. Raising her hips to meet his fingers, she gasped when he slid one inside her. Then she gripped his hair, holding him to her.

Pulling away when he felt her body begin to tense, Larry rolled onto his back and pulled Stephanie on top of him, easing his tongue into her and savouring the sweetness of her juices as she bucked her hips above him. Groaning when she lowered her head and trailed her tongue slowly along the length of his dick, he gripped her thighs tightly in his hands and thrust himself into her warm mouth, holding her fast until the heat in his balls turned to searing flames.

Flipping her over then, he pushed her arms up above her head and peered down into her eyes as he thrust himself into her. She looked so vulnerable and sexy, with her lips parted and her eyes so dark and intense, and he felt as if they were melting into each other as their hips rose and fell in perfect unison.

Throwing his head back when the orgasm tore through his body, he gritted his teeth and rode the waves, feeling the sensation increasing and sucking him in as Stephanie cried out beneath him.

The phone started to ring again. Ignoring it, Larry flopped down and laid his head against Stephanie’s sweat-slick breasts, listening to her heart pounding wildly in time with his own.

‘Shouldn’t you get that?’ she asked him breathlessly, swiping damp hair out of her eyes as the phone continued to ring.

Larry shook his head. ‘I don’t want to move.’

‘It might be important.’

‘Nothing’s that important.’

Exhaling softly when the phone stopped ringing at last, Stephanie gazed down at Larry’s head on her naked breast and felt a crushing wave of guilt wash over her. Closing her eyes as a tear trickled slowly down her cheek, she fought to stem the rest that were threatening to follow.

She hadn’t intended for this to happen. She’d never in her life slept with a man on a first date before – not that it had
been
a date. But whatever it was or wasn’t, it certainly wasn’t right, and knowing that she had cheated on the man she loved was the worst feeling in the world.

The drink had obviously played a large part – not that
that
was any excuse. And it hadn’t helped that Larry was so good-looking, and charming, and gentlemanly. If he’d been cocky or presumptuous, she’d have found it so much easier to keep him at bay. But he’d made her feel so relaxed. And, even though they hadn’t spoken about very much at all, he’d really listened to what she had to say, and she’d found herself enjoying his company far more than she should have.

Standing beside him waiting for the cab, with the drink stirring feelings which had been buried for far too long, Stephanie had found herself wondering what it would be like to have his arms around her – even if it was just a quick goodbye hug. Anything to take the edge off going home to an empty bed again.

Then the taxi had arrived, and she’d been glad, because she was disgusted with herself for getting drunk enough to feel attracted to another man.