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chuckled.
    ‘My clients are a big brand. They think it’s better to be associated
    with a well-known model.’
    Lita brushed the objection aside. ‘Rachel, Consuela and Tina are the
    girls on your list?’
    He nodded. ‘You have good information. How did you find that
    out?’
     
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    ‘It’s not important,’ Lita assured him. ‘But 1Lachel has never even had a Vogue cover, and the other two girls only picked up their covers after they got their first TV slots. It’s TV that makes a girl well known. If you
    use me, I will be well known the first time you show the commercial.’ ‘Hmm. I’m not sure they’d go for it, Miss Morales.’ ‘Lita, please. May I take my coat off?.’
    As she stood, he came around the desk and peeled it from her shoulders. She heard his faint intake of breath as his head came close to her one bared, bronze shoulder under the clinging white knit, as he took in the glorious curve of her back and her high, tight butt. She smiled softly. She was going to get him.
    Rupert hung her coat up on a mahogany rack in the corner of his office. Lira turned to face him, so her silk skirt could flare up a little and show offher calves and the rhinestone pink Gucci straps could flash. She was the height of fashion and they both knew it. Delicately she folded herself back into her chair. Her top clung to her curves and her hair was trailing over her one bare shoulder.
    ‘Maybe you could also tell them that all three girls they are thinking of are in their late twenties. I’m almost ten years younger than some of them. If Costa goes with me, they’ll get young and fresh. And it’s all about that today.’
    ‘I know. You might have a point there, Lira.’
    She loved hearing her name pronounced with that aristocratic accent. She leaned forward to close the deal.
    ‘Look - Rupert - I’ll make a deal with you. You don’t have to give me the campaign right away.’
    ‘Very good of you,’ he said cryly.
    ‘But give me a screen test. Thirty seconds. You take that to your clients, and you’ll have discovered a fresh face. Plus, I’ll work cheaper than 1Lachel or Consuela.’
    ‘You certainly will, if you want the job.’ He grinned. ‘Well, you sold me on the test. However, please understand I’m not promising you anything. Your enthusiasm and … presence may not translate to the screen. I think they will still prefer Consuela. But I am prepared to offer you a test for the part.’
    ‘Great. Where do we go?’
    ‘You go home.’
    He walked over to the coat-stand, took her Burberry offit and shook it out for her. Lita reluctantly put it on.
    ‘I’m a busy man, surprising though that may seem to you. 1Kight now I’m ten minutes late for my next appointment. Leave your details with Mrs Smith, and when I’m ready to set it up, I’ll call you.’
     
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    ‘But wouldn’t it be better to do it—?’
    ‘No, it wouldn’t.’ P,.upert opened his door. ‘Mrs Smith, would you see Miss Morales out?’
    Lita caught a cab for once. She needed the privacy to collect herself. She felt elated, but a little humiliated. And strange. What was it about him that made her feel like this? Her heart was thudding. He had been so rude, almost dismissive, when he turfed her out of his office. But it made her all the more attracted to him. Why?
    It dawned on her slowly. He had refused to take her shit.
    They were going to do the screen test, but they were going do it on his terms and his schedule. She felt a squirmy sensation in her chest. Then there was his eyes … those dark eyes with the black lashes, and the black hair that was almost as glossy as her own. You could stick him in a pair of flares and he could be Mick Jagger. But the dark, insistently businesslike suit just made him ten times as attractive to her.
    She felt like she was floating all the way back to Models Six. When she got there, Bill wasted no time bursting her bubble. ‘How could you do that to me? You can be such a bitch, Lira, you