Mistress of the Game

Instead she asked earnestly: "So what are your politics, Gabe? How would you define yourself?"

"I wouldn't."

"Come on. I'm interested."

Gabe sighed. "All right. I'm a capitalist."

Later that night, alone in bed, Gabe wondered if he'd somehow misspoken and said "I'm a Nazi child-killer" or "I'm a horse fetishist. You?" The very word capitalist sent Tara into such an apoplexy of rage, she stormed out of the restaurant before they'd even finished their entrees.

He'd had to beg for a second date. This time he decided to keep it simple. Uncontroversial. He took her ice skating.

"I've never done this before." Wobbling uncertainly on the ice in jeans and a pair of pink leg warmers, Tara looked about thirteen. Gabe had never wanted a woman more.

"It's a cinch." He smiled, reaching for her hand. Pulling her toward him, he skated around behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Just step...and glide. Step...and glide. Let me lead you." He began to skate forward.

"No, no, no, it's okay. Don't push me. I can do it."

"It's all right. Just relax. I won't let you fall." He started to build up some speed, gliding the two of them across the ice.

"No, Gabe. I don't want you to...I prefer - watch out!"

The guy who plowed into them must have weighed at least two hundred pounds, a human Mack truck with no brakes. Gabe needed six stitches in his forehead. Tara fractured a rib and broke her arm in two places.

"You look good in white," Gabe joked in the emergency room, when they finished setting her arm in a cast.

"Thanks."

She wasn't smiling. Oh God, I've blown it. She'll never go out with me again. Not after this.

"I'm not very good at dates, am I?"

"No."

"That was probably the worst date you ever had."

"Unquestionably."

"Apart from the one before."

"Apart from that one, yes."

"The thing is..."

"Yes, Gabe?"

"You're laughing at me."

And she was. Tears of laughter streamed down Tara's face. Instinctively she moved her arm to wipe them away, only to whack herself in the face with her cast. For some reason, this made her laugh even harder.

"I'm sorry. But you look so adorable with your face all bashed up. And you are the most useless date in the universe. I mean you're bad on a superhuman scale."

"I know." Seizing the moment, he leaned down and kissed her, a full, passionate kiss that took both of them by surprise. It was a nice surprise, though. So they did it again. And again.

"I love you," said Gabe.

Tara grinned. "Disappointingly, I'm afraid I love you, too."

"I know I'm a crap date. But I'd be a good husband."

"Oh, really? So is that a proposal?"

"I don't know. Is that an acceptance?"

"Come back with a ring and I'll think about it."

Three months later, they were married.

Phoenix's offices were on Adderley Street, the main artery of Cape Town's thriving central business district. Robbie and Lexi were shown up to the twelfth floor.

"Wait here, please. Mr. McGregor will be with you shortly."

The waiting area was comfortably furnished with deep, squashy sofas and tables piled high with magazines. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered spectacular views of Table Mountain. The overall impression was one of wealth and ease.

Robbie asked: "Didn't Kruger-Brent used to have a satellite office on this street?"

"They still do."

"McGregor must be doing well to afford headquarters here."

Lexi, who'd been thinking the same thing, nodded glumly. It was her suggestion that they meet at Phoenix's offices. "It'll give us a chance to get to know one another before we drive out to the clinic." In fact, her real intention was to size up her competition. Now she wished she hadn't bothered. These Antoni couches alone must have set him back twenty grand. I wonder how much Phoenix made last year?

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Gabe. Would you like to come through?"

They followed Gabe into his office. For a moment Lexi was lost for words. She'd pictured Gabriel McGregor as an ordinary, balding, middle-aged executive.

Why didn't Robbie warn me he was so attractive?

"Lexi Templeton." She shook his hand coolly.

"A pleasure to meet you, Lexi. Tara and I were really excited when we heard back from your brother. Robbie and Paolo have done so much for the AIDS cause."

Lexi thought: Quit sucking up. What do you really want?

"I had no idea you were involved in the charity, too."

"I'm not. I'm in Cape Town on business."

"Ah, that's right. Templeton Estates. That's your company, isn't it?"

You know it is. Don't play dumb with me, pretty boy.

"Amazing that three people with the same great-great-great-grandfather should find themselves in the same city, involved in the same charitable cause and the same business. Don't you agree?"

Lexi gave a peremptory nod.

Gabe thought: I wonder what's eating her? She's about as warm and cuddly as a piranha that just got slapped with a parking ticket.

He'd seen countless pictures of Lexi Templeton over the years, including the infamous sex shots. He knew she would be beautiful. But none of the photographs had managed to convey Lexi's presence in the flesh; the way she seemed to fill a room simply by walking into it. She was already dominating this meeting, stealing her brother's thunder.

The silence was getting awkward.

"I'm sorry Paolo couldn't be here," said Robbie. "His health is not what it was, I'm afraid. He finds all the travel terribly tiring."

"That's quite all right. Perhaps next time? I know my wife will be pleased to see you, Lexi. She gets fed up with all the guy-talk."

Lexi's frown deepened. So he thinks I'm the "little woman," does he? Here to spend the next two days shoe shopping with his trophy wife while he fleeces Robbie's foundation? Well, he can forget it. I'm here to protect my brother's interests.

Out loud she said. "I look forward to meeting her. Shall we get going?"

Without waiting for an answer, Lexi started for the door.

After you, Your Majesty, thought Gabe.

It was going to be an interesting day.

Later that night, in bed at their sprawling, Cape Dutch farmhouse in the hills above Camps Bay, Gabe asked Tara what she'd thought of the Templetons.

"He's a sweetheart. She's a card-carrying bitch."

Gabe laughed. "You're so tactful, darling. Why don't you tell me what you really think?"

"Oh, come on. You can't have liked her." Tara turned off the bedside lamp. "And she certainly didn't like you. All those barbed comments?"

It was true. After a long and grueling day touring three new AIDS clinics that Phoenix had funded, Lexi's negativity had begun to grate on everyone's nerves.

"Anyone would have thought you wanted her brother's money for yourself. Here you are, trying to help these poor, suffering people, and this woman talks to you like you've just given her herpes."

"Another lovely image. Thanks for that, darling."

Tara teased: "You're sure you never slept with her?"

"Quite sure."

"It would explain a lot. There were so many, Gabe. She might have slipped your memory."

"Ha ha. Believe me, if I'd slept with her, she wouldn't look so damned miserable."

"Arrogant bastard!" Tara hit him over the head with her book. Thankfully, it was a paperback. "Seriously, though. Why do you think she has it in for you?"

Gabe had been pondering the same question all day. He noticed the sour look that came over Lexi's face whenever he alluded to their family connection. Perhaps that had something to do with it? Phoenix had outbid Templeton on a couple of deals recently, but he couldn't believe that a serious businesswoman like Lexi would take something like that personally.

"She's probably just protective of her brother. Doesn't want to see him being taken advantage of."

"Bollocks," Tara said roundly. "Robbie Templeton's forty years old and richer than Croesus. He can take care of himself. Besides, this is what his foundation does. They help people with AIDS. I couldn't believe how cold that woman was. Everyone cries when they see clinics like ours for the first time, but not that one. Oh no. Couldn't have cared less, could she?"

Gabe wasn't so sure. Lexi was certainly withdrawn. Aloof, even. She had declined to hold the babies when offered the chance, and seemed uncomfortable amid so much suffering and sickness. But people reacted to tragedy in different ways. Reaching out, Gabe ran a hand over his wife's belly. Since Collette was born, Tara's body had lost some of its firmness. Tara felt self-conscious about it, but Gabe adored her new soft contours. She had given him his children, brought a joy and purpose to his life that no words could ever fully express, nor any action of his could ever hope to repay. He loved her more than life.

He whispered in her ear: "I love you."

Tara sighed. "I love you, too, Gabe. But I'm absolutely bloody knackered. Be a sweetheart and piss off to your own side of the bed, would you?"

Ah! The sweet delights of matrimony.

For once in her life, Tara McGregor was dead wrong. The truth was that Lexi had been deeply moved by what she saw at the clinic. Those tiny, doll-like babies with their stick arms and bulging joints. When the nurse offered her a little girl to hold, Lexi was gripped with an irrational terror that she might break her. Her skin was paper thin...what if she gripped her too tight? The thought of causing that child one more ounce of pain was unbearable. The pleading look in the little girl's eyes would haunt Lexi forever. She'd been determined not to betray any emotion or weakness in front of Gabe McGregor. But as soon as they got back to Cape Town, she broke down in Robbie's arms.

"How can this still be happening? Those kids are just being left to die. What about the international aid programs?"

"They're overwhelmed," Robbie explained patiently. "They need private-sector money desperately. That's why I'm so eager to develop this relationship with Gabe McGregor. Can't you cut him a little slack?"

Lexi dried her tears. "I'll write you a check right now for those babies. But I don't trust McGregor. I'm sorry, but I don't."

Over the next two years, Lexi Templeton and Gabe McGregor crossed paths more frequently, at charity events and business conferences, as well as occasionally in the boardroom when they found themselves on opposite sides of a deal. Templeton Estates was investing in emerging real-estate markets all across the globe, from Georgia to Iran to Tibet. But something kept drawing Lexi back to South Africa. The returns were high. But it went beyond that. South Africa was the birthplace of Kruger-Brent. Lexi felt a powerful urge to succeed there.