His eyes pinned Camilla to the spot as he continued his ruthless attack. ‘And who do you think it is who comes to the rescue of hospitals when a story appears about a patient dying on the operating table, or some misdemeanour during routine surgery?’
Was her ice-cool sister actually blushing?
‘Yes—er—I see what you mean.’
‘From my own experience Phoebe has been first class.’ He shot her a look that curled her toes. Which particular experience was he talking about?
‘My sister was about to lose everything.’
Good, the professional one. Not the personal one. Not the hot and steamy and fiery one. Excellent. Wasn’t it?
Phoebe gave up trying to work out what she thought she ought to be thinking and decided to just wallow in his praise. Who knew when she’d get another chance?
‘Phoebe worked her guts out to protect her reputation and restore her confidence and fix the problem. She pulled off an incredible piece of damage limitation when I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do. And as the balance tipping the wrong way could well have sent my sister spiralling down into hell, I do rather consider it to be a matter of life and death.’
‘Yes, well, she’s always been the brightest one in the family.’
Phoebe’s jaw dropped.
‘Well, you are,’ said Camilla tetchily. ‘Oh, the rest of us might have the doctorates or the string of letters after our names, but you’re the creative one, the only one who has any sort of emotional intelligence. To tell you the truth I’m rather envious.’
Whatever next? Would her father renounce all things capitalist and take up yoga?
‘Right, who’d like a drink?’ said Alex.
‘God, yes, please,’ said Phoebe with more haste than decorum.
Alex nodded and gave her a scorching smile. ‘I’ll be right back.’ Then he turned on his heel.
‘Wow,’ said Camilla, staring at him with an unusually dazed expression on her face. ‘I wouldn’t mind having him on my side. He’s quite something.’
‘I wouldn’t get too carried away,’ Phoebe muttered, swirling with confusion and feeling all topsy-turvy inside. ‘He probably bites the heads off Jelly Babies.’
As Alex stopped, turned and shot her a wicked grin Phoebe added ‘hearing of a bat’ to his list of talents. ‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I swallow them whole.’
‘Is she always like that?’ asked Alex, thrusting a glass of champagne into Phoebe’s hand and steering her through the French doors and into the relative peace of the garden.
‘She doesn’t mean it like it sounds,’ said Phoebe, shrugging and following him into the shadows. ‘I guess when you’re doing something that saves lives, public relations does seem a little shallow.’
‘Rubbish.’
‘Well, I know that and you know that, but they’re not as enlightened as we are.’
Alex dropped a swift hard kiss on her mouth that left her reeling. ‘You are beautiful and brilliant. You look incredible in that dress, and you’d look even better out of it.’
Phoebe’s heart thumped. ‘Someone should bottle you.’
She took a sip of champagne. Did it really matter what her family thought of her job anyway? She’d been doing it for years. She was good at it and she loved it. If she’d been truly concerned she’d have given into the pressure and become a corporate lawyer years ago. She wasn’t going to give up her career, so it was high time she got over her fear of letting them down.
‘What happens to the people whose businesses fail, Alex?’
‘Those that are determined enough pick themselves up and start again.’
‘As simple as that?’
‘It’s far from simple, but it’s what I did.’
‘Really?’ He’d lost everything? ‘When?’