She named a number that made his eyes widen, but he didn’t flinch.
“I can raise it.”
“You? But how could an accountant——?”
He laughed. “Is that what you think I am? Hell, baby, I’m a stockbroker. My specialty is researching investments for rich people and then convincing them to make them.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “I see.”
“And before that, I was an arbitrageur. Do you know what that is?”
Eve shook her head and swiped the tip of her tongue over her dry lips. Everything was happening too fast. She felt the way she had the first time she’d gone skiing, out of control yet almost giddy with excitement.
“It’s a guy who plays high-risk games with other people’s money. If he’s right, everybody makes a fortune. If he’s wrong…”
This time, she laughed out loud. “It sounds a lot like making movies.”
“Well?” His eyes met hers. “Is it a deal?”
Her heart was racing like a trapped bird’s; she wanted to say yes, but how could she? She would be working with a man who despised her, who thought she’d been his father’s playmate.
“I’ll give you a contract that lasts until we finish making Hollywood Wedding. Now, answer me, Eve. Is it a go?”
The tip of her tongue swept across her lips again. She saw his eyes follow the simple gesture and she took a breath.
“I’d like to say yes, but——”
“But? What do you want, Eve? A percentage of profits? Well, why not? You’ll work all the harder for a piece of the action.”
“I just—I just don’t see how we can work together as long as you think that I’m a woman who…”
She cried out as Zach swept her into his arms. His mouth dropped to hers in a kiss that was nothing but fierce masculine domination, and she struggled against it even as she felt the swift, answering rush of heat in her blood.
She whispered his name against his lips and instantly his kiss changed to something filled with a sweet passion that was her undoing.
Her arms rose and wound around his neck. He fell back against the wall, still holding her, his mouth hot over hers, his teeth and tongue branding her with his desire. His hand rose, cupped the fullness of her breast, and she moaned into his mouth.
The world dipped under her feet. When it settled again, Zach was holding her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes.
“It isn’t an act,” he said, his voice rough. “I thought it was, but hell, it isn’t. You want me, Eve, and there’s no point pretending I don’t want you.” He caught her wrist when she tried to turn away. “And that’s my ace, baby. You won’t be able to play your games with me. I’ve got your number, and I won’t let you forget it.”
Horror and despair made her throat tighten. “What kind of man are you?”
Zach laughed low in his throat. “The kind you wish had never driven into the middle of that movie set,” he said as he let go of her. “Now, get yourself dressed. We’re going out.”
“No! That’s not part of our deal.”
“This is business, Eve. They’re giving a going-away party for your pal Brubeck. I figure you can introduce me.” He shot back his cuff and looked at his watch. “I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“No. I’ll—I’ll meet you there.”
He laughed. “And let you cut off some other poor bastard on the freeway? No, thanks, not so long as Triad’s paying your insurance.”
She knew immediately. “You?” she whispered, remembering the man in the Porsche.
“Me.” His smile tilted. “It must be fate, Evie, keeps bringing us together.” He reached out and brought her to him for one swift, hard kiss. Before she had time to react, he turned and strolled from the kitchen. Eve flew after him.
“Zach!”
He turned, his hand on the doorknob.
“Zach,” she repeated. Her face was pale but she stood straight and tall. “I won’t sleep with you.”
He looked at her for a long minute, and then he smiled, opened the door and stepped outside.
“It’s polite to wait until you’re asked,” he said, and the door swung shut.
Eve stared at it while the silence settled around her. Then she rushed forward, wrenched open the door and slammed it hard enough to rattle the frame.
With a toss of her head, she turned and marched into her bedroom.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE house stood on a hilltop, looking out over the Pacific. It was low and angular, a brilliantly lighted beacon against the dark night sky.
Zach chuckled as he turned into the driveway. “It looks like a spaceship, ready for takeoff.”
“A cedar and glass spaceship,” Eve said, smiling. Behind the house, hundreds of tiny white lights glowed in the trees, shimmering and shifting on the wind’s breath. “But it’s handsome, isn’t it?”
Zach drove past the cars parked along the driveway.
“And cozy,” he said with a wry smile as he pulled in between a Lamborghini and a Rolls. “Just the right setting for a casual poolside barbecue.”
Eve laughed as she undid her seat belt. “I probably should have warned you that out here, casual only means you can leave off the tux.”
“Yeah.” Zach stepped from the Porsche, came around to her side of the car and opened the door. “Well, I took old Bob at his word. They’re going to have to take me as I am.”
She looked at him as she stepped from the car. He was wearing softly faded, snug-fitting Levi’s, leather moccasins and a cream-colored shirt. His collar was open, exposing his throat; his sleeves were rolled back to show hard, muscular forearms. The light from the lampposts set along the driveway touched his brown hair with gold and amber, and there was a faint, tantalizing scent about him, a combination of soap and lemon and clean, sexy male.
Eve felt a sudden tightness just behind her breastbone. She had been at a dozen parties like this one; she knew that the crowd would be studded with stars and wannabees. And yet Zach would be the man every female eye would seek out, the man other men would envy. He would turn heads by entering a room, not just because of his ruggedly masculine good looks but because of what emanated from him, that aura of arrogance and power she found so infuriating.
It was an aura other women might be foolish enough to find intriguing, but not she. She would never—she could never…
“Well?”
Eve blinked. Her gaze shot to Zach’s. He was watching her through eyes that were dark and unreadable. A little smile crooked at the corner of his mouth, and suddenly she thought of how it had felt when his mouth crushed down on hers, when his body had pressed, hot and hard, against hers…
“Now that you’ve taken the time to look me over, will I do?”
She fought for breath as the fist squeezed her heart again. It took all her strength to smile brightly and lift her shoulders in an unconcerned shrug.
“Of course,” she said briskly. “Besides, by midnight the place will be so crowded people will be standing on top of each other. Nobody’ll be able to see what anybody’s wearing.”
A car horn beeped behind them. Zach glanced over his shoulder, put his arm lightly around Eve’s waist and drew her out of the path of a Mercedes.
“In that case,” he said, smiling at her, “I’m glad I got a look at you before midnight. You look lovely tonight, Eve.”
The compliment had been automatic, the kind of thing a man said to a woman on an evening out, but Zach regretted it as soon as he’d offered it. This wasn’t an evening out, it was a business arrangement, plain and simple. And Eve was a woman who probably collected praise from men the way some people collected stamps.
And yet, he thought as he looked at her, what he’d told her was true. She did look lovely. More than lovely. She was wearing a blue dress that turned her eyes the color of violets and her hair a shade of gold that was so pure it dazzled his eyes. His gaze fell to her mouth, pale and pink and soft, and he thought of how it would feel beneath his, of h
ow it would be to take her in his arms right now.
“I mean,” he said, hurrying the words, gathering them around him to cloak the direction his thoughts had been taking, “I had no idea what people wear for a night out in Tinseltown.”
Eve smiled as they reached the steps that led to the front door.
“Everything,” she said, “and anything. From the sublime to the ridiculous, and back again. Sometimes, the password seems to be, the more outrageous, the bet——”
Above them, the door flew open. A couple came racing out of the house, laughing, and tripped down the steps arm in arm.
The woman, blazing with diamonds, looked as if she’d been poured into her skintight leather bustier, matching short shorts and black fishnet stockings. There were laced granny boots on her feet, the heels as high and slim as stilettos.
The man was every bit as exotic-looking as his companion. Gold and silver hoops bristled in his ears. Chartreuse silk jeans were tucked into his lizard-skin combat boots, and his fuchsia jacket was only a shade or two brighter than his spiked hair.
“You’re late,” the woman said gaily, “at least half a dozen glasses of Dom Perignon behind the rest of the crowd.”
Zach laughed and drew Eve out of their path. “We’ll do our best to catch up.”
Eve grinned wickedly as the duo sped past them.
“See what I mean?” she whispered. “In this town, anything goes!”
Laughing, they stepped through the door.
Zach’s first thought was that they’d blundered into a mirrored anthill.