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"Oh, if you stretch the point."
"That wasn't meant to be an insult. It's hard for me to picture you as an executive, making corporate decisions. Your father's always had this aura of power. You're more—"
"Feckless?" he suggested.
"No. Relaxed." Impatient with herself, she huffed out a breath. "I'm really not trying to insult you, Josh. What I should say is that whatever it is you do, you make it seem easy. Take Peter."
"No, thanks."
"In comparison," she continued. "He's tense and driven. 'Successful yet ambitious corporate man' is etched onto his face."
"And I, on the other hand, the scion of the Templeton for tune, am relaxed, was it? And carefree, jetting my way around the world's hot spots, seducing women in between squash matches. Or is it playing squash in between seducing women?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Margo said evenly, "but that's beside the point."
"And the point of this deathless observation is…?"
"I have insulted you." Too used to him to be concerned, she shrugged. "You have to have some talent for business because your parents aren't fools. However much they love you, they wouldn't give you free rein to poke into the hotels. They'd just let you drain your trust fund and be a wastrel."
"Your confidence in me is touching." With a sneer, he topped off their glasses. "I think I need another drink."
"And you have that law degree."
"Yes, the one they gave me after I'd finished racketing around Harvard."
"Don't be so sensitive." She patted his hand. "It occurs to me that you must know something about managing… things. I've had a few interesting offers," she began. "The most lucrative and least complicated is from Playboy."
His eyes went so sharp, so flinty, it surprised her that they didn't strike sparks off the silverware. "I see."
"I've posed naked before—or the next thing to it." Wary of his enigmatic response, she sliced off a bit of cheese. "European magazines aren't as puritanical as American ones."
"And you consider an arty ad in Italian Vogue on the same level as a centerfold in a skin magazine?" There were murderous thoughts rocketing through his head, making him feel ridiculously like the cuckolded lover.
No, she didn't, and felt incredibly foolish. "Same body," she said with a careless shrug. "The point is, I've made my living in front of the camera in varying stages of dress and undress. This is a way to continue to do so. A one-shot deal, anyway, that would put some distance between me and the creditors. With what they're offering me I could get back on my feet. Well, one foot anyway."
His eyes never left her face. Nearby, a waiter dropped a tray of dishes with a resounding crash, and Josh didn't so much as blink. "Are you asking me to look over the offer?''
It had been her thought, but she reconsidered, and reconsidered quickly, at the razor-edged tone in the question. "No, I was simply mentioning one of my alternatives."
"Is that what you want to be, Margo? Some sweaty-palmed adolescent's wet dream? This month's pinup in the auto mechanic shop, a visual aid at the fertility clinic?"
"I think that's in very poor taste," she said stiffly.
"That's in poor taste?" The way he exploded with it had several diners jerking their heads around and murmuring.
"Don't shout at me," she said under her breath. "You've never had any respect for what I do. I don't know why I thought you might have some sensible comment about this."
"You want a sensible comment. Terrific." He gulped down wine to force the bile back down his throat. "Go right ahead and do it, duchess. Take the money and run. Don't worry about embarrassing your family. Why should you care? So they snicker the next time your mother's standing in line at the supermarket. If the kids tease Ali at school, it's not your problem. Just make sure you're well paid."
"That's enough," she said quietly.
"Is it?" he tossed back. "I'm just warming up."
"I said it was an option. I didn't say I was going to accept." With impatient fingers she rubbed at a headache brewing at her left temple. "Goddamn it, it's just a body. My body."
"You're connected to people. I'd hoped you'd begun to realize that what you do affects them."
"I have." Wearily she let her hand drop. "All right, I have. Judging from your reaction, it wouldn't go over very well."
