‘It isn’t a chat-up line! I’m not sure I even know any of them any more,’ he said self-disgustedly. ‘Unlike you, it seems, I’ve lived a very quiet life the last five years. Come and have a drink with me, Laura,’ he pressed.

‘I thought you said you didn’t drink any more,’ she reminded him dryly.

‘I occasionally indulge in a social glass of white wine,’ he corrected.

‘I’m afraid I’m booked up for the next two evenings,’ she refused.

It was just like Liam to assume that she could drop whatever arrangements she might have made in her social life just so that she could go and have a drink with him!

Probably because eight years ago she would have done exactly that. She had been head over heels in love with Liam then, had taken any opportunity she could to spend time with him, even to the point of letting down other friends if he’d asked to see her.

But that had been then. This was now. The two situations were completely different.

‘I meant now, Laura,’ Liam cut softly into her indignant thoughts.

‘Now?’ she repeated incredulously.

‘Why not?’ he pressed huskily.

‘Because I’m already in bed!’ she protested astoundedly.

And then wished that she hadn’t. It was, after all, only ten minutes past nine!

‘Alone?’ Liam prompted harshly.

What on earth—! ‘I would hardly be calling you if I weren’t!’ she answered with cold disdain.

‘You might be surprised at what some women are capable of,’ he rasped scathingly.

‘Not this woman,’ she assured him indignantly.

‘So you’re in bed. But alone. What’s to stop you joining me for that drink?’

Having to get up. To dress. To put on make-up she had already removed. Drive over to the hotel. All just to spend time with someone she didn’t want to be with!

‘I don’t think so, thanks,’ she refused distantly. ‘I did as you asked and called you. I don’t think I owe our past—friendship any more than that.’

‘I disagree,’ Liam refuted. ‘Aren’t you in the least bit curious about the last eight years, Laura? I know I am.’

Laura was suddenly very tense. ‘Curious about what, Liam?’ she enquired guardedly.

‘What’s happened to you during that time,’ he came back instantly. ‘Because you certainly aren’t the impressionable university student I knew back then!’

‘Thank goodness!’ she said with some relief. ‘Look, Liam, I only called you at all against my better judgement—’

‘Why against your better judgement, Laura? Am I so awful, so morally depraved, that you want nothing more to do with me?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Liam,’ she cried. ‘I don’t even know you any more—’

‘My point exactly,’ he pounced with satisfaction.

‘And I don’t want to know you, either!’ she concluded firmly.

‘That isn’t very kind, Laura.’

Kind! Had it been kind eight years ago when he’d left for Hollywood and just walked out of her life? When he hadn’t even called, sent so much as a postcard? Had never even troubled himself to find out if she were okay after he’d left?

This man didn’t even know the meaning of the word kind!

Thankfully she had found other people in her life who did…

‘We have nothing to talk about, Liam,’ she assured him flatly. ‘Absolutely nothing in common.’

If you took away the fact that she owned a publishing house, he was an author, and it would be mutually beneficial to both of them if Shipley Publishing were to acquire Liam’s latest novel…!

‘We have the past—’

‘It’s been my experience that to indulge in reminiscences is a complete waste of time, Liam,’ she told him bluntly. ‘People very rarely remember the same experience in exactly the same way!’

‘I remember our relationship eight years ago as something sweet and rather beautiful—’

‘Oh, please spare me that, Liam,’ she cut in disgustedly.

‘—in my life,’ he finished.

Maybe in retrospect that was how it now appeared to him. It was a pity he hadn’t felt the same way eight years ago!

‘Which just bears out my earlier statement about people acquiring differing impressions. Of the past or anything else,’ she said briskly. ‘I remember myself as a rather stupid twenty-one-year-old, totally infatuated with a world-famous author—an author who probably found me a complete pain in the—’

‘Now you’re being unkind again, Laura,’ Liam cut in. ‘To yourself, I mean.’

‘No, just realistic,’ she drawled. ‘No wonder you couldn’t wait to get away—from me as well as England!’

‘It wasn’t like that—’

‘It was exactly like that, Liam,’ she assured him laughingly. ‘I must have been such a nuisance, following you around all those months like some faithful little lap-dog, hanging on your every word, there every time you turned around—’

‘I said it wasn’t like that, Laura,’ he told her angrily. ‘The fact that you remember it as such is a good enough reason for us to meet up for that drink!’

‘You’re very persistent, Liam,’ she said wearily. ‘Or is it just a question of my being something of a challenge now that I’m obviously not as malleable as I used to be?’

‘I never thought of you as malleable!’ he barked.

She sighed, wondering exactly what she should do for the best.

As Laura, there was no doubt in her mind that she didn’t want to meet Liam; she still remembered all too vividly the pain she had felt after knowing him in the past. But as the owner of Shipley Publishing she knew that at some stage in the negotiations she was going to have to deal with him. Perhaps it was better to get any personal awkwardness between them out of the way before that became necessary? Although that didn’t include, at this stage, telling him that she was now Laura Shipley…

‘Or perhaps it’s just that you think your husband might object to your meeting me for a drink?’ Liam put in softly.

Laura stiffened resentfully. ‘Let’s leave my husband out of this,’ she retorted. Robert, and her marriage to him, were not things she ever intended to talk about to Liam. They might have a business relationship ahead of them, but that certainly didn’t involve confidences about her personal life.

‘Gladly,’ Liam returned shortly. ‘So what’s it to be, Laura? Meet me for a drink tonight? Or I come looking for you tomorrow?’

‘That sounds decidedly like a threat, Liam.’ It didn’t just sound like a threat—it was one!

‘If that’s the way you care to take it,’ he conceded with exasperation.

‘I think I should warn you—I don’t respond too well to threats,’ she told him stiffly.

‘Then don’t take it as one,’ he replied impatiently. ‘My goodness, Laura, you didn’t used to be this difficult!’

She had used not to be a lot of things. But it was those changes, in herself as well as her life, that now gave her the inner strength and security to accept his invitation. Liam couldn’t touch her emotionally. Not any more.

‘Okay, Liam, I’ll meet you for that drink,’ she accepted graciously.

‘Why ever couldn’t you have just agreed to do that ten minutes ago?’ he demanded.

‘I didn’t want to make it that easy for you,’ she told him with blunt honesty.

He sighed. ‘I would take a guess that you don’t intend making anything easy for me!’

She laughed softly. ‘You would guess correctly. Give me forty minutes or so to dress and get over to you,’ she continued briskly, throwing back the satin sheets to get out of bed.

‘I’ll have the champagne waiting on ice for you,’ he came back huskily.

Laura stiffened. ‘Let me make it clear from the onset, Liam—we do not have anything to celebrate,’ she told him flatly.

‘Maybe you don’t—but I do.’ He sounded completely unperturbed by her outburst. ‘I’ll tell you about it when you get here,’ he promised.

Laura dressed, frowning at her reflection in the mirror as she put on her make-up. Exactly what did Liam have to celebrate? What did he intend telling her about when she got to the hotel? She couldn’t believe, after the secrecy he had maintained concerning his manuscript, Josie’s World, that he intended telling her about that.