One Night With You by Candace Schuler Page A

not. "I didn't know there was anyone left in this wicked business who still blushed."
    Jake turned back to look at her again, his dark eyes raking her flushed face, missing nothing of her suddenly tongue-tied embarrassment. A memory flashed between them, a memory of other blushes, for other reasons.
    "I'm sorry," he said, but this time he didn't look sorry. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."
    Didn't you? her eyes challenged him, but he only stared back at her, an expression of bland innocence on his handsome face.
    "Well, don't let it bother you," she managed to say at last. "We redheads tend to blush over the least little thing. It means nothing." She shrugged carelessly, hoping she didn't sound as hostile as she felt.
    Apparently she did though, because when he smiled at her—a cool smile that didn't reach his eyes—she felt the force of his anger wash over her in waves.
    What did he have to be angry about? Nothing, that's what! He wasn't the one who had been left to wake up all alone in a hotel room...left pregnant...left scared. He had walked away from it that weekend without ever knowing. And now he had the gall—the unmitigated gall—to look at her like that, with righteous anger and accusation simmering in his eyes.
    Almost, she could hate him.
    "Jake," she heard the brunet say, her husky voice finally penetrating the silence that stretched between them. How long had they been staring at each other like that? "Jake, darling, there are others to meet."
    "But you haven't met Miss... What did you say that last name was?"
    "Weston," Desi supplied, "Desi Weston."
    "Ah, yes." He performed the brief introduction. "Desi Weston, head of makeup, meet Audrey Ferris. Audrey is going to play the lead in Devil's Lady ."
    "Yes, I know. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you sooner, Miss Ferris, but you're much more beautiful in person," Desi said pleasantly.
    And she was. Much more beautiful. Audrey Ferris was a tall, full-bodied woman with smooth golden skin. She wore a stylish ivory silk wrap-front dress that exposed only a modest amount of cleavage. Her brunet hair was worn loose and full, curling to her shoulders in seeming abandon, her lips were glossed a rich rose, her nails were long and professionally manicured. She was an elegant woman; every sleek, feline, pampered inch of her. And she knew it.
    "I watch Night and Day whenever I get the chance," Desi continued. "It's my favorite soap." She didn't volunteer the information that she had acquired the habit while sitting home, waiting for Stephanie to be born.
    "Daytime drama, please," Audrey Ferris corrected her with a smile that didn't quite reach her big golden-brown eyes. They flittered back and forth between Jake's set face and Desi's, trying to decipher the sparks of tension that flashed between the two.
    She has cat's eyes, Desi thought, and decided, then and there, that she wasn't going to like the beautiful Miss Audrey Ferris even one little bit. Apparently the feeling was mutual because it was definitely not friendliness that she saw in the other woman's eyes.
    What was it? Desi wondered. Dislike was too strong a word. Fear, maybe? Challenge? Uncertainty? Suddenly the brown eyes seemed to make a decision and Audrey smiled sweetly.
    "It's very nice to meet you, Miss Wesley," she said, holding out a graceful hand, displaying long rose-tipped nails and the half a dozen slim gold bracelets that jangled on her arm.
    "Weston," Desi corrected her dryly. She shook the offered hand, mentally contrasting the other woman's sleek manicured fingers to her own short unadorned nails. "But, please, call me Desi."
    "Of course." Audrey smiled again and withdrew her hand to tuck it back into the crook of Jake's arm. "Desi." Her rich, theatrical voice seemed to taste the word. "It suits you, I think. Fresh, young, pixieish... almost boyish." She slanted a glance at the man beside her. "Don't you think so, Jake?"
    "If you say so." Jake's voice was curt, then, "Come on, Audrey love, there are