When She Was Bad... by Louise Bagshawe Read Free Book Online

know?’
    ‘I did what had to be done, Bill.’
    ‘You did what could have cost lq, enee her Este Lauder shot. I do
    have other girls, you know, toots. I could just walk away.’
    ‘I won’t do it again.’
    ‘Damn straight you won’t. What happens to me if I have to go to my boss and say I just lost them a campaign beorth a hundred Gs, not to mention all the future business Benson Bailey wouldn’t do with us, all because I can’t control one of my clients?’
    He didn’t say ‘one of my smaller clients’, but it hung in the air between them.
    ‘And,’ Bill continued, not drawing a breath, ‘what do you think happens to agents that lose accounts? They get the can, and it’s not like other agencies are banging down their doors to get them to sign up. You have no idea how fiche this business is, Lita. light now you’re hot. But when you’re cold nobody wants to know your name. All those great friends you thought you had really don’t give a shit about you. So I don’t need you going around screwing things up on some crazy mission!’
    Lita swallowed. She felt bad. Bill was her friend, and she had put his career in jeopardy. She said in a small voice, ‘It didn’t go so bad. He told his people that I had an appointment, and we talked, and—’
    ‘Was that before or after he asked you to give him a blow.job?’ Bill passed a hand over his hair. ‘I’m sorry, baby. You didn’t deserve that. I
     
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    know you’re not that way.’ He grinned. ‘If you were, we’d have at least had the cover of Elle by now.’
    ‘He offered me a screen test,’ Lita said proudly.
    Bill rolled his eyes. ‘Of course he did. To get you out of his office without causing a scene.’
    Lita felt her face crumple. ‘You think so? You think he lied to me?’ ‘Why not? You lied to them, didn’t you?’ Bill shrugged. ‘I guess he might arrange a test for you, but it won’t do you any good. He’ll pick lkachel or Consuela, that’s the word around town. He most likely
    warned you that they were still the favourites.’
    Her heart dropped to her boots. ‘He did.’
    ‘See, he gave you what you wanted so there wouldn’t be a scene, but put his firm in no danger of getting pressganged by us. He’s a limey, very polite and proper. Hates scenes. You know that’s how lkupert Lancaster is.’
    Suddenly, despite her aching disappointment, Lita was very interested. ‘I don’t know anything about him. Why would I?’
    Bill remembered who he was talking to. Lita was the only one of his girls that didn’t pack her little vial of coke with the tiny silver spoon attached and hit the Manhattan clubs as soon as she exited the bars. She packed up her things and rode the subway out to Queens. Crazy, but he had stopped trying to figure her out long ago.
    ‘He’s, like, a big figure on the club scene here. Goes to gigs, hangs out backstage, always in the VIP bars at the best places. He knows the Wall Street crowd and the hipsters. Film premieres, that kind of thing. I saw him at the party for The Fre, nck Connection last week. He’s super polite to everybody. The middle-aged mamas adore him, of course, because he’s got that fancy title, and it’s kind of hip to hang out with a lord, too. That’s why the rockers love him, because they’re really snobs like everyone else at heart. It wouldn’t surprise me that he acted like that to you. He’s one of those chivalrous types. On the surface. A real
    smooth ladies’ man. I see him with a different chick every other week.’ ‘He has a girlfriend, then?’
    Lira knew it was ridiculous that her heart was thudding with adrenaline as she waited to hear the answer to this. She was eighteen. Too old to have crushes, right?
    ‘Girlfriends. Nobody special.’ Bill shot her a sly look. ‘Ah, princess, don’t even think about it. For your own good. He’s strictly a four-F guy.’
    ‘Four F?’
    ‘“Find ‘em, feel ‘em, fuck ‘em, forget ‘em”,’ Bill told her. ‘You