He went on watching her, his mouth a wry line. When she was silent, he gave a little nod. 'You're right, of course, and I apologise—my only excuse is that I've had a bad weekend.'
Sian gave a helpless snort of laughter, then tried to look serious again, but it was no use.
He smiled down at her. 'I lost my temper. It seemed the last straw, for some reason, when you pushed me away and told me to get lost.'
'Your ego couldn't take any more?' she suggested, tongue in cheek.
'Something like that.' He ran a hand over his dishevelled hair and grimaced. 'The past couple of days have been one long nightmare, and I haven't really had a chance to relieve my feelings by smashing anything or raging at anyone—I've had to keep myself on a tight rein because there has been so much to cope with.'
She watched him with understanding, remembering his gentleness with Annette, his patience and sympathy in the hospital.
'It was all bottled up, and I'm sorry it had to explode at you,' Cass finished, offering her his hand in a formal way. 'Will you accept the apology?'
She shook hands without laughing, recognising the sincerity of the gesture. A kiss would have been out of place after what had just happened. The handshake was perfect.
'You know, you're quite formidable when you're in a temper,' he said then, relaxing, and she eyed him disbelievingly.
'I am? What about you?'
He grinned. 'Yes, sorry about that, as I said. I'm afraid I do have a temper, but it's just "sound and fury, signifying nothing". I'm not really dangerous.'
'You had me fooled, then. I was beginning to look around for a blunt instrument to use if you suddenly went for me with murder in mind!'
'Oh, it wasn't murder I had in mind,' he drawled teasingly, and she went pink, which made him laugh again. 'My God, you're a surprising woman! Spitting teeth one minute, blushing the next!' He turned on his heel and strolled towards the front door. 'I'd better go before I get any more ideas.'
Sian followed him, hot-cheeked, and wondering what he meant by that. He said goodnight and added, 'I am sorry, Sian.'
Before she could answer he had gone, and she slowly closed the door, her face confused. He called her surprising! He was a bewildering man, and she didn't know how she felt about him now, but she was disturbed because she had a suspicion that it wasn't going to be easy for her to forget she had ever met him, and as they were never likely to meet again that would have been the wisest thing she could do.
She turned on her answering machine and listened drily to the succession of calls she had had from an increasingly irate Leo, terminating in one that threatened dismissal, decapitation and disaster unless she rang him immediately. Sian turned off the machine and went to bed. She would see Leo tomorrow morning. That was soon enough for her. It would have to be soon enough for Leo, too.
She overslept, exhausted by the events of the weekend, and had to rush her breakfast before dashing to work. She hadn't had time to read the morning papers as usual, but she was only a little late when at last she reached the office. As she walked through the newsroom eyes followed her, people grinned, she caught the subterranean whispers and her teeth met.
They must all know about her involvement with the Cassidy story; they had probably been talking about it all weekend. Sian was grateful that they only knew the public part of the story. They wouldn't have any idea what had happened between her and William Cassidy last night.
'Leo wants you,' one of the other reporters said. The front page of one of their competitors lay open in front of him, and Sian suddenly caught sight of her own face in a huge picture dominating the page.
'What the…' she began, snatching up the paper.
'Yes, it's you,' Carl said with dry amusement. 'And when Leo gets hold of you you're for it. Where do we bury the pieces?'
Sian was frantically skimming the story which went with the photograph. The other papers didn't mention her name or job; they had got this snap of her with Cass outside the hospital the morning after she and Annette had slept at the Cassidy house, and from the way the story had been written the obvious implication was that she was replacing Annette in Cass's life.
'Are you?' asked the other reporter, and Sian looked up dazedly.
'What?'
'The new woman in his life,' Carl said, grinning.
'Go to hell!' Sian said, throwing the paper down and rushing towards Leo's office to assure him that it was a stupid lie, a typical invention of the other paper, and that there was nothing between her and Cass at all. She had to stop Leo making matters worse by embellishing the story in their own pages. He was quite capable of getting someone to write up a follow-up with all sorts of embroidery decorating the first ridiculous lie. She had to stop him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Leo didn't believe a word of it but, when she furiously insisted that there was nothing whatever in the story about her and Cass, he sulkily had to accept that.
'But I want some sort of story,' he said, glowering from his chair. 'Go and knock out a few columns of inside stuff right away.'
'About what? There's nothing to write about, and anyway, I promised…'