Page 1 of Blood Stone

Chapter One

After eight years as a Hollywood producer/director, with one B-grade forgettable, three solidly respectable money-earners and four great movies to her name, Kate figured she’d seen it all. She was utterly cured and would never be star-struck again — until she stood six inches from the great Calum Micheil Garrett himself, he looked down into her soul with his sharp, crystal blue eyes, smiled his famous smile...and she was in star-struck fan mode with a vengeance.

Kate disguised her high-school-girl reaction with cool professionalism. She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Garrett. I don’t know how I can help a global industrial entrepreneur like yourself. Our worlds don’t exactly cross.” She glanced around the bustling main lounge of The Standard. This was a thriving network hot spot for Hollywood types. What was Garrett doing here? He lived on the east coast, and mixed it with politicians and power-hungry New York business types. This wasn’t his scene at all.

At the same time, she was cautiously pleased that half-a-dozen A-List names were watching her shake hands and chat with Calum Garrett. Her reputation would definitely rise after this.

Garrett gave another brief smile that made his eyes dance. “Just Garrett will do. You’d be surprised how far my business interests spread, Ms. Lindenstream.” His voice was even better in person than on television. Up close she could hear the timbre of his voice. It reverberated in his chest in a way that made her want to keep on listening.

“Just Kate, please. Try me.” She waved a hand at the table behind her. “Would you like to sit down?”

“You’re not expecting company?” He glanced around the bar casually, taking in everyone with a single sweep of his gaze. The movement made the groomed and burnished copper highlights in his hair gleam.

“I am,” she replied, “but his plane was late landing at L.A.X., so I have a moment.”

Garrett weighed the matter seriously, then appeared to agree by settling himself not on the buffet seating behind the art deco table where Kate was sitting, but on one of the chic but uncomfortable chairs crouched opposite. He unbuttoned the jacket of his business suit that gleamed with the dull glint of expense, and crossed his legs. Then he settled back like he was sitting in a two thousand dollar business chair. “Can I buy you a drink, Kate?”

“Are you trying to soften me up for a business proposition, or hit me up for a date, Mr. Garrett?” The words were out before she had time to edit them. They were an instinctive response to the question. People were always looking for something in Hollywood. So she kept her gaze steady, refusing to apologize for the reaction.

Garrett had been looking for a waiter to order her a drink. Now he turned to study her, his eyes narrowing. “Do you have a preference?”

Ooohhh,she thought. Now there was a take-down. Ball smashed straight back at her, for her to deal with. And Kate deserved the comeback for her direct parry.

But Garrett was smiling, the corner of his mouth lifted. Even he agreed it was a fair trade. Yet there was a light in his eyes that said he was genuinely interested in her answer, if she chose to give it.

And for a moment Kate wondered what her answer might be. She picked up her virgin daiquiri. “I already have a drink, thank you.”

“Ah.” Garrett swivelled to face her, the waiter forgotten. His gaze travelled over her face once more. “May I be frank?”

“My time is short, Mr. Garrett. This isn’t a board meeting. Frank is all you can afford.”

Again, the small smile. His head tilted to one side. He was measuring her. “You’re defensive, yet I haven’t said a word that could be considered anything but good mannered. You can hardly object to my notoriety when your own fame is just as well reported. Our names appear on different mastheads, but yours shows up as frequently as mine. Is it my money you object to, then?”

Kate bit her lip. Damn. She had overcompensated. Time to come clean. She took a deep breath and could feel her cheeks heating. “Can I be frank, then?”

Garrett lifted a single brow. “You have been, so far.”

Ouch.She spread her hands on the cool top of the table. “I really hate babbling star-stuck fans, Mr. Garrett. I—”

“Don’t fans come built into your line of work?” Garrett interrupted.

“Yes, and when I know I’m going to meet them, I’m fine. You know, rope lines and public stuff, when I’m braced for it.”

Garrett’s eyes narrowed. Not with suspicion, she realized, but deep thought. He was actually listening to her, thinking it through. Wow.

“Braced? That’s an interesting choice of words.” He crossed his arms. “I presume, then, the opposite applies. You dislike being caught flat-footed by fans, especially when you’re notbraced, not dressed in your public figure clothes, with your hair and make-up precisely arranged the way you feel the famous Ms. Kathrine Lindenstream should appear in front of fans.”

Kate nodded. “Exactly.” She leaned forward to make her point. “I presumed you would feel the same way.”

Garrett’s folded arms loosened. His gaze seemed to sharpen even more, which she would have said was impossible. His eyes were pinning her down where she sat, making her feel like she couldn’t move. It was uncanny.

Slowly, he turned around on the seat so that he was facing her squarely. He rested one arm on the table and a cufflink clinked softly. That put them almost exactly eye to eye.

“You’re...a fan? Of me?” He spoke the words with what sounded like genuine shock.

Kate’s cheeks were blazing now. She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to make a Federal case out of it, Garrett,” she hissed quietly, so the people at the next table couldn’t hear her. The last thing she wanted was forthisto be repeated and passed on! “I have lots of interests that have nothing to do with film. High finance happens to be one of them, and I follow your career. A little.”

The corner of Garrett’s mouth lifted in the same small quirk as before. “If it was such a small interest, Kate, why do you blush so prettily?” There was a lilt to his voice that hinted at the Scottish roots his family tree claimed.