Page 51 of The Couple Behind the Headlines

‘What?’ she asked, although she wasn’t at all sure she wanted clarification.

‘Stay,’ he muttered again.

‘I can’t,’ she murmured, fervently hoping that, as she had on so many other occasions, she’d got it wrong and he was only asking her to stay here now. ‘I have to go. Besides, what must your staff be thinking?’

Jack reached out and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. ‘I don’t mean now,’ he said with a crooked little half smile. ‘I mean, don’t go to the States.’

Briefly, Imogen’s heart sank at the knowledge she’d been right. And then she froze, because to her utter shock it was on the tip of her tongue to throw everything she’d worked for aside and say OK.

But no, she thought, setting her jaw as she put her hands flat on his chest and gently pushed him back. That wasn’t an option. She’d let her head be turned all her life and it wasn’t going to happen again just because the sex had gone back to being soulful. ‘I have to.’

With a frown, Jack stepped away and fixed his clothing. ‘No, you don’t.’

‘I do.’

‘Why?’

Imogen wriggled off the desk and pulled her skirt down. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’ How could he?

‘Try me,’ he said flatly.

She moved away from him to give herself room to breathe and sat on the arm of the sofa, watching him tuck his shirt into his trousers. ‘Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up one morning and realise how pointless everything you’ve done is? How little you’ve achieved, despite all the privileges you’ve had?’

Jack glanced over at her. ‘I guess not.’

‘Well, I do. I’ve had pretty much every advantage going and what have I done? Absolutely nothing.’ She ran her hands through her hair and then crossed her arms. ‘I messed up at school, partied my way through my early twenties, the only jobs being a bit of modelling and writing the occasional article. It’s shameful.’ She tilted her head and regarded him thoughtfully. ‘You know, you were right when you accused me of being shallow and vacuous.’

‘I wasn’t, and you’re not,’ he muttered and stalked over to a cabinet in one corner of his office.

‘I have been. But I’m not going to be any more.’

Whipping round, he held up a decanter of what she presumed was either whiskey or brandy. ‘Want one?’ he said.

‘No, thanks.’

He poured himself a large measure and knocked it back in one. ‘Fine,’ he said curtly. ‘So study here.’

Imogen blinked and fought back the urge once again to give in. ‘I’m going to the States, Jack, where I can live and study without the scrutiny of the press.’

‘Stay and I’ll protect you from it.’

‘You can’t. You know what they’re like. Over there I’m a nobody. They won’t give a toss about my past or who I am. They’ll leave me alone. That would never happen here.’

His jaw tightened. ‘I’ll think of something.’

Imogen sighed and sat up straighter. ‘Look, Jack,’ she said, deciding she needed to be firm, more for her sake than his, ‘this has been fun, could still be fun for another couple of months if we go back to the way things were before, but I’m not going to throw this opportunity away. This may be my only chance and I’m not going to blow it. Certainly not on a whim.’

For a moment there was silence as Jack simply stared at her. He went still, his face draining of all colour so swiftly that she wondered if he was all right.

And then it was as if he sort of exploded. The glass he’d been gripping flew across the room, crashed against the wall and shattered. Imogen jolted, her heart thundering with shock.

Colour slashed across his cheekbones. Fire blazed in his eyes and waves of anger rolled off him. He took a step towards her, then stopped and thrust his hands in his pockets as if not trusting himself not to throttle her. ‘You think this is a whim?’ he said roughly. ‘You think asking you to stay is easy for me to do?’

Imogen blanched in the face of his fury and struggled to work out the reason for it. ‘Why wouldn’t it be?’ she said, genuinely baffled. ‘Things come easy to you and you’re used to getting your own way.’

He glared at her. ‘Things don’t come easy to me and nothing since I met you has gone my way. Nothing.’

At his scathing tone, through all the shock and the bafflement, Imogen felt her own anger begin to stir. ‘And that’s my fault?’

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