Those Angstrom Men!. (16 page)

...but this time it wasn’t just her face.

This time, her neck and shoulders were visible. David had instructed Rebecca to erase the swimsuit straps from the picture.

Suddenly the picture took on sex appeal, big time.
Suddenly you realized Daisy might be quite, quite naked...

Daisy stared at it, stared for maybe ten minutes. She had no idea where it could have been taken...

Her Features Editor came in to say Happy Holidays before he and his boyfriend left for two weeks in Morocco. Silently she handed him the photograph.

“Wow, Daisy. I never imagined you could look like this. You could be a model, if you were six inches taller, that is...Amazing. You’re a sex goddess, sweetie.”

“Dennis, if you weren’t gay, I’d think that was a come on.”

“Girl, any straight man who sees this is going to come on to you...”

Daisy was flattered, but worried. She worried through Christmas with her parents, siblings and their families. She worried through New Year’s, skiing with Vivian in the Swiss Alps. She worried until January 16
th
, when on her way through the lobby up to her office, she decided to pick up a copy of
Wonder Women
and see how David Angstrom looked as
Mr. January
...even though she’d looked at the proofs a hundred times.

She stopped dead and stared at
British Men
.

That was
her
face smiling up at her from the cover. And the teaser read,
“Want to see more of this British Beauty, boys, and find out who she is? Turn to page sixty...”

But the issue was encased in a sealed cellophane wrapper, and she had to buy the magazine to open it.

“What a clever idea,” she thought absently. “Why didn’t we think of that?”

Daisy carried the magazine into her office, afraid to open it and turn to page sixty. She glanced at her desk. In the middle was a beautiful crystal vase with two dozen long stemmed red and white roses. The card read,

To the most beautiful Miss January I can ever imagine...David

She was afraid to open the present propped up against the roses.

She knew it would be a photograph of her...
but what would she be wearing????

Daisy’s jaw dropped. She tore open the cellophane and scrambled, flipping the pages open until she saw herself....

She gasped. She looked wonderful!

Wonderful!

And she wasn’t nude, climbing out of the bathtub, which she’d feared....

No...
She was wearing a perfectly respectable swimsuit...well...a sexy swimsuit, that clung to her curves and made her look...sexy...

Oh. My.
God. She was displayed in
British Men
dripping wet, in a sexy swim suit with
that
expression on her face...that happy smile, as if...as if...as if she’d just been made love to...and it had been at least three years since she’d been made love to...maybe closer to four years, it couldn’t be five, could it?
Could it?

Any man who wanted to could buy that magazine and drool over her...any man...

She tore the wrapping off the photograph. It was the picture in
British Men.

Sarah and Dennis collided as they tried to be first into her office. Both waved copies of
British Men
.

“Daisy, you never told me,” began Dennis...

“Nor me, Daisy and I thought we were friends!” wailed Sarah.

“I didn’t know myself, I was totally blindsided...”

“Just as you blindsided me, and most of the other men on your
Eligible Bachelor List,
Daisy,” said a deep voice from the door.

“Ian Angstrom! Was this your idea?”

“No, Daisy, it was mine. I thought you might like to see how it feels to be
the object
everyone desires, instead of
a person
someone appreciates,” said David, just behind him.

“You...you...you
beast
! How dare you? How dare you do this to me???”

“You dared to do it to us first, Daisy,” smiled Ian.

“As my brother said, we just thought you should get a taste of what you put us through when you turn us into sex objects...

“...
and it’s going to go on all year, Daisy. An article a month, all year,” added David

Daisy hurled herself at David Angstrom, intent on scratching his eyes out.

He laughed, grabbed her hands and did the first thing that popped into his mind.

He
kissed her thoroughly.

To her great surprise, she was kissing him back.

They stared at each other. Everyone in the room stared at them.

David
let go her her wrists, turned on his heel and walked out the door.

That is, he took two steps, turned around and came back to Daisy, who was standing frozen in the place he’d left her.

He looked down at her and smiled.

“That was very nice, Daisy. I think we should do it again...”

And this time, his arms were around her, and her hands were entangled in his hair and the kiss went on and on and on...

Ian cleared his throat...”Eh, would you two like some privacy to discuss this?”

Daisy nodded, speechless for the first time in her life.

Ian firmly ushered Sarah and Dennis out, and shut the door behind him.

He told Daisy’s P.A. she was in an urgent meeting and not to be disturbed.

David sat down in one of the leather chairs opposite Daisy’s desk and pulled her down onto his lap.

“That was the best kiss of my life, Daisy Fowler, and you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever held in my arms.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she smiled.

“In that case, let’s go to my house and drink some of that Krug I laid down.”

“It’s only nine o’clock in the morning...”

“It’s after twelve in Dubai...”

“True...”

They kissed some more.

An hour later, they were in David’s hallway. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into his bedroom.

“Is this where we’re going to drink the Krug?”

“After I’ve undressed you, and you’ve undressed me, and we’ve made slow, perfect love to each other...yes, after that, this is where we’re going to drink the Krug.”

Daisy’s mobile started to ring.

David reached for it, turned it off and threw it onto a bedside table.

Then he turned his own mobile off, and pulled the house telephone out of the wall.

Several hours later, they’d finished a bottle of Krug.
They made love again, and again, and napped.

Then they
showered, a long, sexy shower, got dressed and David took Daisy out to dinner, to Bevin’s, where he’d taken Sarah.

“Do you come here a lot? Sarah said y
ou brought her here, that your cousin owns it.”

“Actual
ly, my cousin Alec and I own it. Bevin is a brilliant chef with no money, so Alec and I backed her. If we stay afloat two years, she’ll have earned fifty percent ownership with her sweat equity...we’re already half way there and the wait lists for reservations are getting longer...”

“That’s a very nice thing to do, David.”

“It was Alec’s idea. I’m just along for the good food...Bevin is a culinary genius.”

Neither of them knew what they ate, they were too busy gazing into each other’s eyes.

The meal was nearly over when the flashbulbs started. The paparazzi had found them.

They ducked out the back, ran down an alley, and grabbed a taxi.

“Good thing you own the joint, running out on the bill like that,” joked Daisy.

“Yeah.”

“Will this go on all year, the paparazzi?”

“Yeah.
Ian couldn’t go anywhere without the press and hoards of young women, anxious, as he puts it, to meet his money...”

“Oh...I never thought about that, the human factor...I just thought about selling magazines...” Daisy sounded sad.

“I know, Daisy. Now I know you, I know you were pretty naive about the whole impact on the lives of the Eligible Bachelors.

“
And you know what? The actors love it, because it builds their careers. The singers and athletes love it too, and usually have bodyguards. It’s the ordinary blokes like my brother and I who feel the flack...”

“You’re anything but ordinary, David. I think you’re extraordinary.”

“Thank you, Daisy. I think you’re extraordinary, too.”

Daisy blushed with pleasure.
“My place or yours?”

“Yours, Daisy.
We haven’t christened your bed yet...”

“Nobody’s christened my bed, David. You’ll be the first in that bed.”

“How long have you had it?”

“About three years, David...” Daisy blushed
again.

“I like that, Daisy...”

There were photographers waiting at Daisy’s home. They fought their way through the cameras and the microphones.

This was one hot story for the tabloids.
Mr. January
and
Ms. January
, from the top women’s and men’s magazines in Britain hooking up...and the fact they were the magazines’ owners, and rich and gorgeous just fed the fire.

There were flowers piled on her steps. The hall floor was littered with cards and letters that had been pushed through the mail slot...

“Oh my God...” she wailed.

“My place will be as bad, Ian says
. And if we go to a hotel, somebody will see us and tip the press off.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, we’re inside now. Let’s get your security system turned on, shall we? Somebody’s bound to try to break in for an exclusive interview. Happened several times to Ian. Tomorrow, we’ll get an executive short term let,” David improvised, “and we’ll live there until the interest in us wanes.”

“Good
idea, and I supposed we’d better get bodyguards...”

“I’m the only bodyguard you need, Daisy,” smiled David
as he kissed her.

The executive short term rental proved to be a stroke of brilliance.

Daisy didn’t even think to suggest
two
short term lets.

Life settled down somewhat because nobody knew where they were after they left work.

They became very good at sneaking around. Whenever they didn’t feel like cooking, they’d go into Bevin’s through the alley, and sit at a very secluded booth at the back.

T
heir respective housekeepers had all the fan mail and unsolicited gifts hauled away each day. They sent the flowers to the local hospitals.

Settled cosily into the executive rental,
Daisy and David talked for hours about their businesses. They talked at breakfast and at dinner. They talked every night in the bathtub. They talked to each other at least six times during the day. It was so nice to have someone to talk to about business...

They didn’t ta
lk about business in bed though - they were too busy making love...

Their Febru
ary issues came out, and with them, a new
British Beauty
and a new
Eligible Bachelor
were introduced to the world.

The
two magazines offered bodyguards, unlisted mobile numbers and two flats in the same building that Daisy and David were living in now for the new
Beauty
and
Bachelor
.

Daisy wasn’t surprised when the model and the actor featured in the two layouts declined. As David had pointed out, it was good for their careers.

They cancelled the ongoing articles about each other, and once in a while ventured past Bevin’s. They even went to a couple of Board of Trade Luncheons and emerged relatively unscathed.

March...April...May
flew by. Daisy and David were still at the executive rental. They liked it there. It was half way between both offices.

He took her to Greece in June, sailing on his thirty
-two foot sloop which he had a professional crew sail to Crete to be ready for their holiday.

She took him to Kenya in July, on a photo safari, because s
he’d always wanted to go, and because it was with Daisy, so did he.

They had a long weekend in Scotland in August with both sets of parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. Everyone passed muster.

They went to Ian and Maggie’s son’s christening in September.

Daisy
started to attend his football matches, cheering him on, and drinking beer in the pub after the games. David always seemed to score when Daisy was there to cheer him on, so the rest of the team insisted he bring her to every game.