‘Oh, I know that,’ she glared at him.
‘Behave yourself,’ he warned. ‘Or I just might try and carry out the other half of it.’
‘You might try,’ she challenged. ‘But you wouldn’t succeed.’
‘Don’t kid yourself,’ he mocked. ‘I can take you any time I want.’
‘Want!’ she scorned. ‘That’s all you can feel, isn’t it, want and desire?’
‘With you it’s difficult not to. Now behave, you’re embarrassing Juliet.’ He walked around the back of the car to get in behind the wheel.
The drive back was completed in silence, Jake quietly concentrating on his driving, Juliet tactfully holding her tongue, and Stacy quietly seething. As far as she was concerned the sooner she went back to London the better.
Jake didn’t bother to get out of the car as she and Juliet scrambled out on to the forecourt of the hotel. He leant over to secure the door. ‘I should see if you can get this little hellcat to lie down for a while,’ he spoke to Juliet.
‘I’ll try,’ she promised shyly.
‘I have no intention of lying down,’ Stacy cut in angrily. ‘I’m getting the first train out of here!’
Jake’s eyes narrowed. ‘You’ll be here when I get back tonight,’ he stated coldly.
‘I will not!’
He sighed impatiently. ‘Try and talk some sense into this child, Juliet. I don’t have the time right now—or the patience.’ He accelerated the car away from the hotel.
The two girls went up to their room, Stacy slamming drawers as she packed her suitcase.
‘You really should listen to him, Stacy.’ Her friend sat down on the bed watching her. ‘He knows what’s best.’
Stacy threw her costume down on the bed, hating it and anything to do with the film. ‘If I listened to everything he said I would have been in bed with him that first evening. That was when he first told me he wanted me,’ she explained scathingly. ‘He doesn’t know the meaning of the word love.’
‘He did help you.’
‘Oh yes,’ Stacy agreed. ‘But only because he doesn’t like shopsoiled goods.’
‘Paul Forbes was pretty rude about you—and in front of everyone. You should have let Mr Weston hit him again. I would have done.’
‘Paul Forbes is a liar,’ Stacy said with a sigh. ‘And anyone who really knows me would know he was lying. Jake doesn’t know me, doesn’t care to know me.’
Juliet grinned. ‘You don’t give him the chance. You snap and snarl at him the whole time. And that isn’t the real you.’
Stacy slumped down on her own single bed. ‘I don’t snap and snarl all the time, just since he gained the impression I’m some sort of bed-hopping groupie of the stars. Paul Forbes threatened to tell Jake those lies, but it didn’t really matter, he already believed it anyway. You can’t fight the inevitable, Juliet, and Jake doesn’t have much faith in women.’ She couldn’t tell the other girl the reasons for this, that would be breaking a confidence. ‘I just seem to have added to his disillusionment,’ she added wryly.
‘But only through misunderstandings. If you just explain to him—’
‘What could be the point?’ Stacy cut in resignedly. ‘Maybe I could explain away the men here, and maybe we would continue to see each other, but what happens the next time he thinks I’ve looked at another man for too long, smiled too brightly at another man?’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t live like that, just waiting for the next flare-up of temper.’
‘But—’
‘Leave it, Juliet, please.’ Stacy shut her suitcase. ‘I just want to get away from here and anything that reminds me of Jake.’
‘At least wait until tonight. Matthew is driving us both back then.’
‘I daren’t run the risk of running into Jake again. If he tries to charm me again I don’t think I could resist him.’
‘You can always have dinner in your room. No one would expect you to face Paul Forbes after his disgraceful behaviour today.’
‘I suppose I could,’ she agreed slowly, not relishing the thought of getting a train back. ‘As you say, I have no need to see anyone before I go.’