Lee stood back and regarded this madman who'd erupted into her studio like the breath of life. She took in the lines of his lean, yet muscular frame, the length of his thighs in a pair of well-cut trousers, the breadth of his shoulders. She saw the healthy look of his brown skin, the laughter lines of his face, the gleaming dark eyes with a hint of the devil in their depths, the aura of controlled yet powerful masculinity that made her office seem suddenly more cramped than usual.
'I might,' she said at last, with an air of making concessions, 'manage distinguished-'
He pulled a face.
'But not middle-aged-'
His mouth went down at the corners.
'And definitely not raddled.'
He eyed her as if assessing the strength of the opposition. Then inspiration seized him. He pulled out a pair of glasses with thick black frames and put them on.
'Raddled,' he said firmly.
She shook her head. 'Distinguished. That's my best offer.'
'What kind of a rotten photographer are you?' he demanded, outraged. 'I'm not asking for very much.'
'You're asking for the moon. Michelangelo couldn't make you seem raddled. You don't look middle-aged even with the glasses on. You've got all your hair, and it's kept its colour.'
He ran a hand distractedly through his shiny dark locks. 'You can blame that on Phoebe,' he said. 'I wanted to use a bit of flour at the sides, but she wouldn't let me.'
'Good for her,' Lee said. 'She has, if I may say so, a lot of common sense that she plainly did not inherit from her father.'
He grinned. 'She gets her savvy from her mother.
'Then give my compliments to her mother,' Lee said tartly.
'That lady has been out of my life for years,' Daniel said in a changed voice. 'Something I'm very glad of at the moment.'
Suddenly it wasn't funny any more. His eyes were on her and there was no doubt about his meaning. It was ridiculous. Discounting their first meeting, they'd known each other only a few minutes, and they'd spent those minutes having a laughing, idiotic conversation. But there'd been another conversation going on beneath it, communicating their mutual attraction.
She took a slow breath. She distrusted this man. Not that she knew anything about him, but she distrusted all men, especially those with charm. Jimmy Meredith had been the most charming man in the world-for a time.
'I'll take you in the glasses,' she said.
He didn't seem to hear her. 'Phoebe says you're divorced,' he said quietly. 'Is she right?'
She looked away and began searching a shelf where she kept stacks of film. 'Is that a professional enquiry?' she asked.
'You know quite well what sort of enquiry it is.'
'I'm divorced,' she said shortly.
'For very long?'
'Three years.'
"That's long enough for you to have found someone else. Is there anyone else?'
'No.'
'Will you come out with me?'
'No.'
'Why? Because of the way I behaved when we met?'
'Of course not. It's just that I don't know you.'
'That's no reason. But you're not going to tell me the real reason, are you?'
'No.'
She turned back to him and found him studying his fingernails. 'All right,' he said. 'I'm ready if you are. Let's get started.'
He left the office and after a moment Lee followed him, slightly startled by his abruptness. The last five minutes might never have been.
They started work. Lee seated him on a high stool and moved round him, this way and that, seeking angles. In the past she'd adjusted the subject's head with her hands, but with Daniel she contented herself with saying, 'Look here-now over there-turn to me- lift your head a little-'
After a while she said, 'How come you let them get away with that awful picture on the cover?'
'I was ignorant about photography, and anyway I was only thirty-three. Why should they want to make me seem younger?'
'Perhaps they thought you looked raddled?' Lee said impishly, and was rewarded with a spontaneous laugh straight into the lens, which she immediately snapped.
'When my agent said the publisher was hassling me to sign the next contract Phoebe suggested a little blackmail,' he went on. 'I told them they'd have to get a new picture for the book they're printing now, or I wouldn't sign again. They tore their hair but I stood firm. Phoebe then said she knew the perfect photographer, and it dawned on me that she'd been pulling my strings like a puppeteer all the time.'
He exchanged an affectionate glance with his daughter. It was the look of comrades who knew themselves to be two against the world. Lee wondered how Daniel and Phoebe came to be alone, and what had happened to the woman who was no longer part of his life. Instinctively she suppressed her curiosity.
She finished the roll of film and said, 'Let's bring Phoebe into some of the pictures, just for fun.' Phoebe bounded eagerly in front of the camera. Lee squinted through the lens at her and drew a deep, disbelieving breath. This girl was a natural.
She took some shots of them together, then said, 'I've a few frames left. Why don't I finish the film on Phoebe alone?'
Lee switched on the cassette player and disco music filled the studio. Phoebe began to sway with instinctive grace. With her colouring and her languorous movements she resembled a tigress, and Lee clicked away ecstatically.
'Fine, that's it!' she called at last.
Mark and Sonya had come into the studio while she was working. Phoebe hurried over, full of excited chatter about her afternoon, and Sonya introduced her to Mark.
Lee turned to Daniel. 'About that insurance…'
'Forget it. The fault was mine in the first place.'
'But-'
'Lee, please don't refuse me this,' he said seriously. 'Call it my thank-you for your kindness to Phoebe. She'll remember today all her life.'
It would have been churlish to refuse when he put it like that. 'All right,' she said. "Thank you.'
He followed her into her office and shut the door behind them. 'I'll remember today too,' he said, 'as the day we really met. I want very badly to see you again.'
So he hadn't really dropped the subject; he'd only been biding his time. Lee tried to ignore the treacherous inner voice that said she was glad he hadn't given up so easily.
'Why are you trying to put me off?' he persisted. 'Is there someone else?'
'No, there's no one in my life at the moment, and I want to keep it that way.'
'For how long? When will you want someone in your life? I'll come back then.'
She was saved from having to answer by the door bursting open and Phoebe erupting into the room. 'Mrs Meredith, when will the pictures be ready?' she asked anxiously.
'The day after tomorrow.'
'You already have my card, haven't you?' Daniel asked with a grin. 'Call me when they're ready and I'll come for them.'
He took her hand and held it for a moment. She found the persistence of that warm clasp unnerving.
Outside the office Mark and Phoebe were deep in conversation. 'Come on, Phoebe, time for home,' Daniel said.
Lee went with them to the front door. She was afraid he'd ask her out again, but Phoebe and Mark were right behind them and in the melee of goodbyes there was no chance for any more to be said. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the Raifes depart together, Daniel's arm around his daughter's shoulders. She had no intention of ever seeing him again.
Next day Gillian was lyrical. 'Fancy you actually having a session with Daniel Raife!' she bubbled. 'He's better looking in the flesh than on TV, isn't he?'
'I wouldn't know,' Lee said coolly. 'I seldom watch television. Have you got those pictures of his daughter?'
They studied the pictures together, both startled by Phoebe's impact. 'You must send these to a model agency,' Gillian said.
'I can't do that. Her father would hit the roof.'
'But what does Phoebe want?'
'She talks about being a model, but it might be just a passing phase. He certainly thinks so.'
'Passing phase, nothing! Not with that kind of talent.'