Ravensong (4 page)

And he didn’t need the complication of
an office romance - hell, one night stand. He didn’t want a
relationship with Elena, he just wanted her for one night, nothing
more. And he felt fairly certain he only wanted her because she was
unavailable. The conquest was what intrigued him - not her wealth
of chestnut hair or her fiery green eyes.

Annoyed with himself, he pressed the
intercom button for his secretary.

Alice answered immediately. “Yes, lord
and master,” she said, teasing him.

“
I need a ticket to L.A. I
want to leave tonight. Call Megan for me and tell her when I’ll be
arriving. I’m going home now to pack,” he said in a rush, feeling
more anxious to leave than ever before. A few nights with Megan
would do him good. A few days away from Julian would be even
better, and an absence from Elena would be best of all.

“
Done,” said Alice and he
released the intercom button.

Yes, a few nights with Megan would
take care of this hunger, and when he came back, Elena would mean
absolutely nothing to him. He leaned back in the chair and swiveled
it to look out the window again. Already he felt much
better.

CHAPTER 2

Elena entered the
conference room with trepidation. She didn’t know if she was
welcome anymore after the previous morning, but no one had come to
relieve her of her duties and she’d waited in her office all day,
even canceling lunch with Kate. At five, she wandered down the hall
toward David’s office, but he’d left earlier that afternoon. Julian
was also gone. On impulse, she meandered past Ravensong’s office.
She’d lost her courage then and had simply retreated
home.

Elliot was standing at the banquet
table as she entered and gave her a warm smile. She returned it,
grateful for this show of friendship.

“
I didn’t think you’d come
back after yesterday,” he said.

She studied his face a
moment. He had a mass of curly brown hair and equally brown eyes.
His face was friendly and open. Hadn’t she read in a tabloid
somewhere that he was the only person who could bring Ravensong out
of his shell after rehab?

“
I thought I might be
fired. You heard anything to that effect?”

His face became troubled.
“No, of course not. If they fire you...” He stopped short as the
door opened and Julian entered.

The manager glared in their
direction, but didn’t speak, moving directly to his place at the
table. Elena reached for a tea bag and placed it in a
cup.

“
What you did yesterday
took a hell of a lot of courage,” whispered Elliot as Michael and
Ralph entered the room.

Elena smiled at him in gratitude,
watching the steam rise from her cup.

“
Hey, tiger, come back to
finish the kill,” said Ralph, placing an arm over her
shoulder.

Elena laughed and looked
down.

“
So,” he continued to
Elliot, his eyes making a quick sweep of the room, “where’s Josh?
Did he say whether he’d show today?”

“
Took off yesterday,” said
Elliot confidentially. “Down to L.A.”

Elena’s head lifted and she
stared at Elliot in surprise.

“
How long is he going to be
gone?” asked Michael in a worried voice. “We need to rehearse
before we go to the studio.”

Elliot shrugged. “You know
how he gets after a blowout like yesterday. Could be a week or a
month. I wouldn’t expect him back before next Monday. He was pissed
enough this time to quit.”

Ralph shook his head.
“Julian’s just itching to ruin everything for us. I wish we could
get rid of that bastard.”

“
Shh,” hissed Michael, “I
don’t want any more trouble today.” He leaned closer to Elliot.
“You think he’ll come back, right?”

“
Of course he will,”
interrupted Ralph. “Once he gets his fill of the beautiful Megan
Wheeler.”

Elena looked away,
surprised at how this information unsettled her. Ravensong had left
yesterday to go down to his lover in Los Angeles. When Elena had
gone to the market last night, the cover of
Vogue
had attracted her attention -
blond bombshell Megan Wheeler in a skimpy bikini that showed every
inch of her impressive cleavage. Elena couldn’t compete with that -
she was neither tall nor overly endowed.

Picking up her tea, she headed for the
table, forcing the disturbing image of Ravensong and Megan from her
mind. She hesitated a moment as David entered the room beside
Robert. They both gave her a warm smile and proceeded on to the
banquet table.

The meeting began promptly
and no one mentioned the previous day or the fact that Ravensong
was missing. However, Elena’s eyes kept roving toward his chair and
her thoughts persistently fixed on him with Megan. It bothered her
that she felt this stab of ridiculous jealousy or that she felt she
had the right to. Finally she looked down on her engagement ring,
reminding herself that as soon as John returned from his sabbatical
in Colorado, they were going to plan their wedding.

“
Elena,” said Julian,
startling her out of her thoughts. “David and I discussed this
business about the cover yesterday afternoon. We both found your
idea intriguing and we’d like to turn the project over to
you.”

Elena’s eyes widened in
surprise and she couldn’t speak for a moment. She could tell by the
tightening of Julian’s jaw that he hadn’t been intrigued nor was
the idea of turning the project over to her his idea, but diplomacy
had demanded he present it. Her gaze shifted to David
gratefully.

“
Hire a photographer and
work out a shooting schedule with the band. I can give you the
names of a few excellent graphic artists you can interview,” said
David with one of his warm smiles.

“
I don’t know what to say,”
stammered Elena, overwhelmed at the change in events. Just an hour
before she’d been sure she would be fired and now she was in charge
of the new album cover.

“
I can give you the name of
the photographer we use for all of our publicity shots. She’s quite
talented and has worked with the band numerous times,” added
Julian.

“
Thank you,” she said, “I
would appreciate your help.” Diplomacy worked both ways, she
decided.

David nodded in approval
and Julian looked down as if to show he’d made enough concessions
for the year. Elliot was smiling at her when she turned back around
and he reached out to squeeze her shoulder. Elation filled Elena,
but it deflated a bit as her gaze came to rest on Ravensong’s empty
chair. How she wished he’d been here to see Julian
humbled.

Shaking her head, she forced this
thought away. She intended to enjoy her first triumph and nothing
was going to spoil this moment - not even the image of the
black-eyed lead singer in bed with another woman.

* * *

Elena watched the photographer toy
with another shot, which deliberately singled Ravensong out from
the rest of the members of the band. No one seemed overly thrilled
with this distinction, especially the lead singer. As Cara moved
him into position, her fingers trailed intimately up his thigh. He
backed up and looked away, but she merely laughed at his
discomfort.

Elena frowned. Where did
this woman get off thinking she had the right to touch him in such
an unprofessional manner? And why did Ravensong think he had to put
up with it when he obviously didn’t like it?

He’d returned three days
ago, much sooner than anyone had expected. He didn’t say anything
about his trip to L.A., but Elena got the feeling it hadn’t gone as
well as he’d hoped. She hadn’t spoken with him since his return and
had only seen him during the daily meetings, but he seemed
preoccupied and moody. Elliot had mentioned that he wasn’t acting
like himself. Elena wondered what was eating at him, then wondered
why it mattered to her.

Cara peered through the
camera for a few seconds, then threw back her head, shaking her
short black hair. “This just won’t work.”

The band members groaned in
protest. How many times was she going to rearrange them? And how
many more rolls of film did she need to take? They’d been shooting
pictures for the last three days and Elena had yet to see a
preliminary specimen. Julian’s deadline for the rough draft was
tomorrow and she didn’t relish telling him she didn’t even have the
photo shot yet. He expected to see a mock-up of the completed
project with the graphic artist’s rendering included.

It nettled her that Cara
was his choice of photographers and Elena had felt obliged to use
her despite her better judgment. Was Julian setting her up for
failure? Elena wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d given her the
project out of good will or confidence in her abilities. It was a
test and when she failed to produce the results, she was sure he’d
high tail it to David with his complaint. Elena just might lose her
job yet and she hadn’t held it for a full two weeks.

“
What’s wrong now?” she
dared to question the temperamental photographer.

“
Shh,” commanded Cara,
glaring at her as she moved toward Ravensong once again. “Let’s put
you here, Gorgeous.”

She hooked her arm through his and led
him back toward the other members of the band, but rather than
allowing him to blend in, she set him on a chair in front of them,
her hands caressing his shoulders and chest in a mockery of
positioning him.

“
I don’t think this is what
we want...” he began, but she shook a single finger in front of
him.

“
You aren’t being paid to
think, baby, just sit still and look beautiful.”

He started to say
something, then caught Elena’s eyes and looked away, his jaw
tightening in irritation and humiliation. Elena’s frown
deepened.

Making a box out of her hands, Cara
backed away from them and put a hand out to her assistant for
another camera. She looked through the viewfinder yet again, then
shuddered and held the camera out to the assistant with an
impatient jerk of her arm.

“
This just doesn’t do it
for me. Let’s take your shirt off, baby,” she said to
Ravensong.

His eyes flashed to Elena
for help. Although it might cost her her job, Elena couldn’t deny
the look any longer. Chewing on her lip, she approached the
photographer.

“
I don’t think that’s
necessary.”

“
No one asked you to think
either,” remarked Cara without even giving her a glance.

Rage spiraled through Elena and she
moved deliberately in front of Cara to command her
attention.

“
Your tactics are not only
unprofessional, they are unproductive. You are two days behind
schedule and you haven’t shown me that you intend to catch up any
time soon.”

“
You can’t rush
genius.”

Elena’s brows lifted in
surprise. “Genius, is that what you call it? All I’ve seen so far
is your over-active libido.”

Cara’s eyes widened in mock
offense. “What does that mean?”

“
It means you haven’t taken
any pictures in the last two days because you’ve been too busy
putting your hands all over the lead singer.”

“
How do you think I capture
his sensuality? I’ve got to get him in the mood.”

“
I don’t think he’s in the
mood for anything but running away from you.”

Cara gasped. “Since when do
you speak for him?”

Elena moved closer and
lowered her voice so only Cara could hear. “What you’re doing here
is called sexual harassment and it’s illegal. Just because
Ravensong’s a man, doesn’t mean he has to put up with it nor do I.
Pack up your gear, you’re fired.”

“
You can’t do
that!”

“
I just did,” answered
Elena, turning her back on the photographer. She strolled toward
the band members. “We’ll take a two hour lunch break and meet back
here at three to finish the shoot.”

“
You can’t do this!”
persisted Cara. “I’ll tell Julian.”

Elena turned. “Go right
ahead. You’re still fired. Pack up your gear and get out before I
call security.”

Cara sputtered, but seemed
to understand that Elena meant what she said. Waving a furious hand
at her assistant, she stormed from the auditorium and slammed the
door on her way out. The band members didn’t move, they simply
stared at Elena in shock. They all knew she had to make deadline by
tomorrow.

Elena regarded them
placidly. “Take a break. We’ll finish up this afternoon. You have
my word on it.”

Ralph broke the spell with
a characteristic laugh. “Hell, I think I’ll have a beer to
celebrate. Anyone want to join me.”

The rest agreed, except Ravensong who
was still staring at Elena.

“
Coming, Josh?” asked
Elliot over his shoulder as they moved toward the door.

He shook his head. “No, I’m
not hungry. I’ll get something later.”

Elena watched them leave and then
retreated to the bleachers, lifting her purse and snapping it open.
As she searched through it, Ravensong approached her.