Scarlet Women by Jessie Keane

backgrounds. Now, she looked at Redmond—tall, effete, red hair swept back from his white skin, his pale green eyes watching her, dressed in his usual sober black—and felt only hatred.
    And what the hell was Constantine Barolli, who had for years been tight in business with the Carters, doing—having a private meet in a plush West End hotel with their worst enemy?
    ‘Annie?’
    It was Constantine who called her name, not Redmond. Redmond had always called her Miss Bailey or Mrs Carter. Always very formal, that was Redmond. Cold as black ice and twice as deadly.
    Constantine bloody Barolli.
    Annie forced herself to look at him with cool dispassion. And that was hard. Because—damn it—he looked good.
    In fact, he looked just the same as when she had last seen him—a stunning man in his early forties, tall and silver-haired, with vivid blue eyes and an all-American tan, wearing a beautifully cut grey suit. Exactly the same as when she had chased after him like an over-keen schoolgirl to Heathrow and told him to call her.
    And— oh yeah— he hadn’t. He had called the Delaneys.
    She looked at him, looked at Redmond—and walked on. She was down the steps and out on the pavement when Constantine caught up with her.
    ‘What, are you ignoring me now?’ he asked, catching her arm, and his voice was pure New York, just like she remembered.
    Annie stared at his hand on her arm. He was very close, very overwhelming—even more physically imposing than she remembered. She couldsmell his Acqua di Parma cologne, she was dazzled anew by those intensely probing blue eyes, and she knew that she could all too easily fall under his spell again. If she let herself.
    ‘It looks like it,’ she said, voice cool, face blank. ‘Don’t it?’
    ‘You got my note?’ he asked.
    ‘Yeah. I got it.’
    ‘You didn’t come over,’ he said.
    ‘You’re right, I didn’t,’ said Annie as Tony pulled up in the Jag. ‘Will you excuse me? I’ve got a lot of business today.’
    ‘Why the big chill?’ asked Constantine. She could see a flicker of amusement playing around his mouth. Fuck it, she was angry and that amused him. As usual.
    ‘What big chill?’
    ‘All right, put it another way, why have you got that stick up your ass? What’s up with you?’
    ‘What’s up with me ?’ Annie opened her eyes wide and stared at him. ‘What’s up with you , arsehole?’
    Probably Constantine had done her a favour, leaving her out in the cold for three long months. It had brought her to her senses, made her rethink. Yeah, she was well out of this. Well out.
    ‘Excuse me, but people don’t generally talk to me like that,’ said Constantine, grabbing her arm again.
    Annie saw Tony’s attention sharpen, and he started to get out from behind the driver’s seat. She shook her head quickly. She didn’t want him starting anything up with this one; he’d be placing himself in more danger than any of them could handle. She couldn’t see Constantine’s minders anywhere, but she knew damned well that they were there, watching. Tony stopped moving.
    ‘Excuse me , but I think you’ll find I just did,’ said Annie, and got in the car. ‘The Palermo, Tone,’ she said.
    But Constantine still had the door open. He hunkered down and looked at her. He still looked as though he was finding this whole thing the biggest joke in the world.
    ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to let this go.’
    ‘Well, good luck with that,’ she said.
    ‘You asked me to call you.’
    ‘Yes I did. Stupid of me. Hey, you’d better get back to your meeting. Redmond Delaney’s a big noise around here, you don’t want to go pissing him off. And if he sees you running after a Carter , that’ll do it every time.’
    Constantine stood up. ‘Look, it was a business lunch. We met, discussed things, ate a little, drank a little, now I’m going home.’
    ‘Home to Holland Park? Or home to New York?’
    Constantine pursed his lips and stared at her.
    ‘Is that