Prima Donna by Karen Swan Page A

anger.
    That seemed to set him off even harder. He slapped a hand across his stomach and laughed out loud. ‘Did you actually just stamp your foot at me? You really are just a spoilt little girl.
I’ve got a good mind to put you over my knee right now and smack your bottom.’
    Pia looked at him, horrified. The man was a maniac.
    Slamming her drink on the table, she turned to leave again, knocking Tanner Ludgrove’s single malt all over his shirt in the process.
    ‘Oh that’s just great!’ Tanner said as Pia streaked past, all indignation and legs. ‘Thank you!’ he boomed after her. ‘I see your legendary charms are having
the usual desired effect,’ he muttered laconically to Will, brushing his shirt.
    ‘Everything’s going to plan, if that’s what you mean,’ Will replied archly, watching her hair billow out like sails. ‘That delicious creature’s on the cusp of
falling passionately in love with me.’
    ‘Yeah! It looks like it,’ Tanner drawled sarcastically.
    ‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Will asked suspiciously. ‘You’re supposed to be setting off in a couple of hours.’
    ‘You don’t need to remind me,’ Tanner replied drily, looking around at all the underdressed women. ‘But Alonso’s shacked up with his latest woman in my bunk.
Perhaps you’d like to see if you can shift him. He’s your pet.’
    Will frowned. ‘Damn right I will. Those are
my
ponies you’re driving back. I didn’t tell him to crash at yours. I’ll give him a ring and tell him the
coast’s clear.’ He got his mobile out of his jacket pocket.
    Tanner looked at him. ‘You didn’t what?’ He shook his head. ‘What are you? His pimp?’
    Will looked casually around the room as the phone rang, one hand in his pocket. It was like the lights had gone out now Pia had left. ‘I just asked Alonso to make himself scarce with a
girl at the bar, that was all,’ he said casually. ‘You know what he’s like. It’s no big deal.’
    Tanner shook his head. At bang on six foot, he was well built, with rich hazel eyes and a flushed complexion that came from spending his life outdoors. Although twenty-eight, he looked younger
thanks to the thick brown hair that was kept in a schoolboy ‘short, back and sides’ and his boyish smile. Until he’d met Violet, he’d had no problem pulling girls either,
but things were on the rocks between them and his eye was beginning to wander again.
    Tanner drained his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘Who was that girl anyway?’
    ‘My new project,’ Will smiled and looked over at the grand staircase down which Pia had fled. ‘She’s the girl who’s going to change my life.’
    Pia stomped down the stairs haughtily, half-wondering whether Will would chase her. She looked around, but he wasn’t there. No. Of course not. He didn’t have the
nerve to come after her.
    A porter got her coat for her while she scanned the lobby for Sophie. She couldn’t imagine where she had gone. Back to the hotel? It was unlike her to leave without checking Pia was all
right first. They would be having words about this in the morning.
    A few stray autograph hunters mobbed Pia as she stepped outside the hotel, but she shooed them away crossly. She was off duty. In the distance she could hear the jingle of a horse-drawn sleigh
bobbing down the street. Beyond the hotel steps, out on the frozen lake, she could see an army of workers sweeping and brushing the decimated polo pitch in preparation for tomorrow’s final.
No doubt the Black Harbour team would win. As Bryan Spence had said, Will Silk wasn’t known for his losing streak.
    Well, she wouldn’t be here to watch him lift the trophy. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of standing victorious before her. She’d go back to the hotel and pack
immediately. Forget the final. She wanted to catch the first flight out of here in the morning.
    Her jet-lagged body sagged at the thought of another flight, but she