Mistress For Hire

‘Are you always driven around by a chauffeur?’ she marvelled, as the car glided away from the curb.

‘No,’ growled Matt. ‘Only when I’m in Melbourne or Sydney and don’t want the bother of driving myself.’

‘Oh,’ muttered Lisa, settling into her seat and eyeing him doubtfully. It would have been nice to think that he had planned this as a special experience for her, but even her optimistic nature couldn’t accept that explanation. It was obvious that Matt Lansdon felt a powerful antagonism towards her, although she still wasn’t really sure why. As the car glided along through the streets of St Kilda towards the city, she thrust that small, niggling worry out of her mind and concentrated on enjoying herself. She had always loved this hour of the day when the neon lights of the city began to sparkle like coloured jewels against the backdrop of the silvery twilight. A soft sigh of pleasure escaped her.

‘I’m so glad they’re performing Carmen tonight,’ she murmured, half to herself. ‘It’s my favourite opera.’

‘I thought it might be,’ said Matt with a sardonic curl of his lips. ‘The heroine seems like the kind of character who would appeal to you.’

‘A gypsy slut with no heart and no morals who makes her lover suffer so cruelly that he stabs her in a jealous fit of rage? That’s the kind of character you think I could identify with?’

‘Yes.’

Lisa’s eyes flashed dangerously.

‘It must be wonderful to be able to sum up people’s characters the moment you meet them without having to bother about getting to know them,’ she purred. ‘I’m afraid it’s a skill I’ve never had and I might make terribly embarrassing blunders if I tried it. Take you, for instance. If I were foolish enough to go by my first impressions, I might think that you were arrogant, ill-mannered, prone to jumping to conclusions. Whereas no doubt if I wait, eventually you’ll be revealed to me as gracious, fair-minded, and with a heart as soft as a marshmallow.’

Matt scowled silently at her for a moment. Then he cleared his throat.

‘I’m sorry if I seem discourteous,’ he muttered. ‘I’ll do my best to be fair-minded about whatever you have to say to me this evening.’

‘Yes, why don’t you do that?’ agreed Lisa sweetly. ‘That way I’m sure we’ll both have a very pleasant evening.’

In some ways it was a very pleasant evening, although she could not remain unaware of the mysterious tension that seemed to be bubbling between them. Yet Lisa had a naturally cheerful disposition, so that even with Matt brooding silently beside her, she was still able to enjoy the magical atmosphere of the State Theatre. The women in their beautiful, shimmering dresses, the men looking splendid and formal in their dark suits, the sounds of instruments tuning up in the orchestra pit, the dim house lights, the rustle of programmes and then the colour and vitality of the stage sets and the costumes and the glorious, swirling music all combined to lift her spirits.

During the interval they did not join the rest of the throng, battling for glasses of champagne at the bar, but Matt ushered her into a private room, where the members of the opera board and their guests were mingling. To Lisa’s relief, he set aside his ill humour here and escorted her around from group to group, introducing her as if she was a cherished guest. Fortunately Lisa was in her element and recognised several people she knew from art gallery openings. She was soon deep in a conversation about the stage sets for the production, which had been painted by one of her old art school cronies, so she simply smiled and nodded when Matt asked her to excuse him so he could speak to a business associate. Later as they filed into the auditorium for the second half of the opera, she found him gazing at her with a thoughtful, appraising look, as if he was surprised that she had fitted in so well with his friends.

‘What’s wrong?’ she whispered wickedly in his ear as the house lights went down. ‘Did you think I was going to rip all my clothes off and lie on the table?’

Just before the orchestra came in on cue, she could hear the audible grinding of his teeth. However, the rest of the performance was so magnificent that Lisa’s thoughts were soon swept away from the mysterious subject of why Matt disliked her so much. Both of them became absorbed in the performance and, when the opera reached its stunning climax and the final curtain fell, they rose to their feet cheering and clapping with the rest of the audience. Only after half a dozen curtain calls had been taken and her hands were stinging from clapping did Lisa stop applauding and turn to look at Matt.

‘Wasn’t it wonderful?’ she breathed. ‘Thank you so much for bringing me.’

His eyes kindled.

‘My pleasure,’ he murmured. ‘It doubles the enjoyment to be with someone who appreciates it so much.’

Yet as they went up in the lift to the restaurant upstairs, Lisa sensed that the brief truce was over. She still felt magically uplifted and would have liked nothing better than to enjoy the discreet opulence of the restaurant with its candelit tables and its murals of famous opera sets from the past, but she had an uneasy certainty that Matt was spoiling for a fight. All the same, her earlier shot about his manners seemed to have gone home.

‘I think we should enjoy our meal and have a little chat to get to know each other better before we discuss anything really heavy, don’t you?’ he suggested with a wintry smile as they sat down.

‘Yes, I do,’ agreed Lisa candidly. ‘I’m starving and I won’t enjoy my food so much if you quarrel with me while I eat.’

Matt gave an explosive growl of laughter.

‘Well, that’s honest,’ he conceded. ‘And I’ve always liked women who enjoy food. It makes me feel they would enjoy everything else about life, as well. So tell me, my ravenous little sex goddess, what are you planning on eating?’

‘Sex goddess?’ challenged Lisa with a lift of her eyebrows.

‘If you don’t want to be considered a sex goddess, you shouldn’t lie around looking so luscious on dining tables,’ warned Matt in a hoarse, smoky voice, his blue eyes scanning her lazily from under half-lowered lids. ‘Nor, for that matter, should you wear cocktail dresses that show off your considerable physical charms to such advantage. I’ll say this much for my nephew—the boy evidently recognises a beautiful woman when he sees one.’

Lisa stared at him uneasily. There was something in the sultry, caressing way Matt was watching her that sent an unwilling tingle of excitement through her entire body, but at the same time she resented his frank appraisal of her attractions, particularly when she was still well aware of his underlying hostility towards her. And where on earth did Tim come into this? Tim certainly didn’t think she was beautiful. As a matter of fact, he often told her quite cheerfully that she ought to go on a diet. Unwilling to be drawn into a difficult discussion, Lisa simply flashed Matt a mysterious, fleeting smile and turned her attention to the menu.

‘I think I’ll have the seafood brochettes with wild rice and salad,’ she announced. ‘And perhaps the chocolate mousse cake and coffee to follow, if you don’t mind. I didn’t have any dinner tonight.’

‘Be my guest,’ Matt shrugged. ‘I think I’ll have the grilled lobster, myself. Would you like some champagne to drink with it?’

‘Yes, please,’ agreed Lisa. Once the champagne had been brought and approved, Matt leaned back in his chair and smiled at her. The smile worried Lisa. There was something dangerous about it, as if it was the opening move in a war game.

‘Tell me some more about yourself,’ he invited.

Lisa was just about to embark on this agreeable activity when there was a sudden interruption. A tall, flamboyant-looking man, dressed in a dinner suit of royal blue satin and with long, blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, stopped at her table and uttered a glad cry of recognition.

‘Lisa! I haven’t seen you for ages, darling. When are you going to give up that dreary little boyfriend of yours and come and live with me?’

Lisa gave a gurgle of laughter and returned her friend’s embrace warmly. In spite of Alan’s violently coloured clothes and theatrical gestures, she knew perfectly well that he was devoted to his wife, Vicky, and his two little boys. But this sort of banter was an old habit going back to their student days at art college, and she always enjoyed it.

‘Whenever you say the word, sweetheart,’ she replied. ‘By the way, I thought your sets were magnificent tonight. Alan, have you met Matt Lansdon? Matt, this is Alan, who designed the sets for the production.’

‘How do you do?’ muttered Matt, rising to his feet and extending his hand.

There was a stormy glint in his eyes as he took in every detail of Alan’s unconventional appearance, but the set designer seemed in no way taken aback by this scrutiny. He winked at Lisa and gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze before he began to thread his way between the tables again.

‘Well, I must be going,’ he said over his shoulder. ‘Nice meeting you, Matt. I envy you your supper partner. Isn’t she the sexiest little moll in town?’

Matt’s face was like thunder as he glared after Alan’s departing back.

‘Are you aware that he’s a married man with two children?’ he hissed when Alan was safely out of earshot.

Lisa smiled tranquilly. She found Matt’s disapproval so exquisitely humorous that she couldn’t bear to spoil the fun by telling him how harmless the friendship really was. Instead she gave him a long, sultry look from under lowered eyelashes and pouted at him.

‘Yes,’ she breathed.

For a moment she thought Matt was going to jump up out of his chair and box her ears, but instead he simply scowled at her.

‘Where did you meet him?’ he asked.

‘Alan? We were at art school together.’

‘Oh, so you really do have some claim to be a genuine artist, do you?’ asked Matt in a surprised voice. ‘I thought…no, never mind.’

Lisa gave him a puzzled frown and then shook her head regretfully.

‘No, I don’t think I can really claim to be a genuine artist,’ she said flatly.

‘But you just said you went to art school.’

‘That doesn’t make me an artist,’ she retorted. ‘Not by my reckoning, at any rate. I have an art school diploma and I’ve sold maybe a dozen reasonably important paintings over the last three years, but only at very moderate prices. I couldn’t possibly live on what I earn from my art, and that’s my definition of an artist. One of these days I will be a genuine artist, if hard work has anything to do with it. In the meantime I support myself in whatever way I can, but I won’t claim to be something I’m not.’

Matt gazed at her thoughtfully and took a sip of his champagne.

‘That’s interesting,’ he said, half to himself. ‘You strike me as being a very ambitious young woman.’

She shrugged. ‘I suppose you could say that.’

‘How old are you now?’ he asked.

‘Twenty-five,’ replied Lisa ruefully. ‘So I’ve been at it long enough to know that it isn’t easy to make a name for yourself as a painter. But one of these days I’ll do it, whatever sacrifices I have to make.’

‘Aren’t you afraid that marriage and children will cramp your style?’ asked Matt.

Since Lisa wasn’t at all sure that she ever wanted to marry, that question didn’t faze her.

‘I have no intention of letting marriage and children cramp my style!’ she replied with a toss of her head.

‘I see,’ said Matt grimly as he speared a piece of lobster with his fork. ‘You’re one of these liberated women, are you?’

There was so much distaste in his tone that Lisa had to hide a grin.

‘Have I said something funny?’ demanded Matt.

‘No. It’s more the way you said it, as if you were asking, “Oh, you’re one of those poisonous snakes, are you? Or one of those deadly spiders? Or one of those white pointer sharks?”’

‘Any of those would be preferable in my view to a liberated woman,’ said Matt disdainfully, picking up his champagne glass again.

Lisa choked. ‘You take my breath away,’ she said.

‘I’m astonished that any man should have the power to do that. You strike me as the sort of woman who would be glib and fluent in any situation whatsoever.’

‘Thank you,’ purred Lisa. ‘I assume that’s a compliment.’

‘It isn’t,’ replied Matt evenly. ‘But we’ll let it pass for the moment. Tell me, have you known Tim long?’

There was something in the way he asked the question that made Lisa feel as if she was in a fencing ring, circling around a far more experienced, agile and deadly opponent. An odd, simmering sense of excitement began to tingle through her as she braced herself for the impending clash of swords. Then she told herself not to be melodramatic. After all, wasn’t this what they had come out for? To discuss Tim’s future like two calm, rational adults? She shrugged and gave Matt a faint smile.

‘About six months,’ she replied. ‘I’ve been living with him for three months of that time.’

A muscle twitched in Matt’s cheek at this revelation, but he continued methodically eating his lobster for a moment before glancing across at her with appraising blue eyes.

‘And what do you think of him?’ he demanded.

Lisa hesitated. There was a lot she wanted to say, but Tim had strictly forbidden her to say most of it. He was morbidly afraid of the sort of angry scene he believed would ensue if his mother and uncle discovered that he was still pursuing his passion for art against their wishes. Left to herself, Lisa would have been perfectly frank with Matt. She would have told him that his nephew showed extraordinary promise as a painter and begged him to let the youth give up his half-hearted study of economics and go to art school full time. Yet Tim had sworn her to secrecy and she did not feel that she could betray his trust. Her misgivings showed in her face.

‘There’s no need to be tactful,’ urged Matt irritably. ‘I want the truth from you. What are your impressions of my nephew’s character?’

Tim’s character! Well, it was easier to be truthful about that than about his ambitions. Tim had never sworn her to secrecy about his character.

‘He’s basically a nice boy,’ she replied in the measured tone of a headmistress giving a character reference. ‘Although he is rather spoilt and he seems to think he can have whatever he wants simply by demanding it.’

‘That’s Sonia’s influence,’ said Matt in an exasperated voice. ‘She’s a very silly woman and she gave in to him too much when he was a child. Still, I suppose it’s not surprising that she spoiled the boy after his father died.’

‘How did his father die?’ asked Lisa hesitantly. ‘Tim has never told me.’

A shadow crossed Matt’s features.

‘He was piloting a light aircraft, which crashed. Tim was only two years old at the time.’

Something in the grim lines of Matt’s face told her that long-ago grief still haunted him. She thought about how she would feel if her own adored brother, Brian, had met with such a disaster and instinctively flinched.

‘I suppose he was your older brother, wasn’t he?’ she said huskily. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Matt’s gaze darted swiftly across the table to meet hers, as if he was startled by the sympathy in her voice. Then he shrugged.

‘Thank you,’ he replied. ‘But it was a long time ago. I seldom think of it now.’

‘You can’t have been very old when it happened.’

‘I was eighteen. There was a ten-year age gap between my brother and myself.’

‘Only eighteen?’ she exclaimed. ‘And yet he made you trustee for the whole estate?’

Matt’s mouth hardened. ‘Yes. He thought I was the tough one in the family and he knew I was shrewd at handling money even then. I bought my first portfolio of shares when I was sixteen. You’d do well to remember that, Lisa.’

Lisa gave him a baffled look. Why would she do well to remember it? What did it have to do with her? Although perhaps this was the opening she had been waiting for, to turn the conversation round to Tim’s interests again. If she could persuade Matt to give Tim more financial freedom, perhaps she need not even mention the delicate subject of art.

‘Can I ask you something?’ she said. ‘If you wanted to, could you wind up the trust and leave Tim in control of his money?’

‘Yes,’ said Matt in a clipped tone.

Lisa let out a long sigh.

‘I really think you ought to do that,’ she urged.

‘Why should I?’ demanded Matt suspiciously. ‘He’ll come into his inheritance at the age of twenty-five in any case, and all his expenses are paid for him at the moment. He doesn’t go short of anything.’

‘No, he doesn’t go short of anything,’ agreed Lisa passionately. ‘But he doesn’t have control of anything, either, and that really infuriates him. I’m sure he wouldn’t get involved in so many silly stunts at the university if he didn’t feel so hemmed in by you and his mother. In my opinion, half the reason he’s so silly and disruptive is that he feels as if he’s treated like a child.’

‘Does he now?’ said Matt dryly. ‘Well, he’ll simply have to put up with it until I’m convinced that it’s in his best interests to change my approach. And I’m not convinced of that yet. Tell me, are you in love with Tim?’

Lisa choked with laughter.

‘Of course not!’ she retorted.

‘Yet you live with him?’ demanded Matt sternly.

All the hostility between them seemed to come bubbling to the surface as the implication of his words sank in.

‘So you assume—’ cried Lisa hotly and then bit off the words.

‘I’ve seen for myself that you lie around naked on the dining table inviting his attentions,’ continued Matt in a hushed, rapid tone so that she had to strain her ears to catch the words. ‘So I assume that you’re having an affair with him. Is that unreasonable?’

Lisa flushed scarlet and glanced uneasily around her, but the other guests in the restaurant seemed quite unconscious of what they were discussing. Her mind raced as she tried to gather her thoughts. She could have told Matt Lansdon the simple truth, every bit of it, including the bargain about the art lessons. But why should she? What business was it of his?

‘It’s nothing to do with you,’ she flared.

‘I see,’ he replied mockingly. ‘Then I’ll simply have to go on making my assumptions, won’t I? But if you’re not in love with Tim, are you at least fond of him?’

‘As a matter of fact, I am!’

‘Then leave him alone, Lisa,’ urged Matt, leaning forward across the table and seizing her wrist. ‘Move out of that flat and give him a chance to grow up. He doesn’t need a woman like you in his life when he’s barely out of school and still wet behind the ears.’

‘A woman like me?’ echoed Lisa. ‘And what exactly is that supposed to mean?’

‘You know damned well what it’s supposed to mean. You’re a sensual, ambitious little schemer and you’re using your considerable charm and physical attraction to lure him into your nets.’

‘I’m flattered that you think I have charm and physical attraction,’ jeered Lisa.

‘Don’t be. It’s a simple statement of fact, not a compliment. What baffles me is why you bother. Is the money really worth it?’

‘What money?’ demanded Lisa contemptuously.

‘The money you hope to get when Tim marries you,’ snapped Matt.

Lisa’s mouth fell open. ‘Is that what I’m supposed to be after? Marriage to Tim?’

‘Oh, I love the bewildered innocence, sweetheart! But you’re wasting your time trying to fool me. Sonia’s already told me you and Tim are planning to get married.’

Lisa very nearly picked up the champagne bottle and emptied it over Matt’s head. Then she took a long, deep breath and exhaled slowly. She had disliked Tim’s mother from the moment she met her, considering her snobbish, patronizing and extremely silly, but even Sonia was incapable of such a pearl of fantasy without at least a grain of truth to get her started. Tim must have said something to set this whole tale in motion!

‘Where did you hear this?’ she asked.

‘Tim told her. She says she’s found you in the house twice when she went to visit him. The first time she suspected you were living with him, so the second time she arrived unannounced, found a wild party in progress and Tim draped all over you.’

‘It wasn’t a wild party!’ protested Lisa. ‘It was just a few of Tim’s friends at the end of third term. We’ve had much wilder parties than that.’

‘Have you?’ demanded Matt in an ominous tone. ‘As your landlord, I hardly find that reassuring. Anyway, be that as it may, Sonia tackled Tim about it afterwards and demanded to know what you were doing there. At first he told her a lot of implausible stories and then finally blurted out the truth—that he had fallen in love with you and was planning to marry you.’

Lisa gave a low gasp of indignation.

‘That idiot,’ she muttered. ‘I might have known he’d go to pieces once Sonia started interrogating him. He’s nothing but a big, silly kid.’

‘Exactly,’ growled Matt. ‘So why are you wasting your time on him? You don’t need a boy, you need a grown man, and a powerful one at that, to keep you occupied, young lady.’

‘Oh, so you’re offering your services, are you?’ demanded Lisa sarcastically.

Matt’s hold on her wrist tightened.

‘I might be, I just might be,’ he growled. ‘Not marriage, Lisa. I’ve no intention of marrying a woman who’s available to the highest bidder, but a love affair, that’s something else.’ He leaned forward and his voice was so low that she could scarcely catch the words, but when she did they made her quiver with rage and something else. ‘I can make you tingle and ache with sexual passion in a way that boy hasn’t even discovered yet. You’re a gambler and a deeply sensual woman, Lisa, and I’m a man of considerable experience. Why don’t you try your luck with me?’

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