Under His Influence

“You’re a gambling man?” Mimi set down the bottles and sat opposite him, keeping her face as guarded as she could.

“For me it isn’t gambling, Mimi,” he mused, making little piles of pounds in neat rows. “For me, chance is a myth, which has been used to successfully confound your kind for millennia.”

“My kind?”

He looked up, clicking his teeth. “Forget it. Let’s just say, I play to win, or I don’t play. So belief in chance, or coincidence, isn’t in my makeup.”

“And do you always win?”

“So far.”

“You’ve been lucky?”

“No. No, I really wouldn’t say that. That’s one thing I’ve never been.”

Mimi took a contemplative swig of water, thinking it best to wait for Stone’s next line of attack.

“You aren’t here to interview me about the ozone replacement programme, are you? They would have sent a science writer for that, and you aren’t a science writer, are you? You’re on the Meaningless Wittering desk, aren’t you? You deal with ‘Fake Tan Emergencies’ and ‘How to Date a Metrosexual Man.’ That kind of thing. Or at least, so I’ve heard.” He smiled. The effect was not ingratiating, and neither was it meant to be.

“What have you done with Anna?”

“What haven’t I done with her?”

He must have seen Mimi’s muscles tense, her hand fly up as if she was going to slap him. He held up a deflective palm, and suddenly took on an expression of appeasement.

“I’m sorry. It was flippant and ungentlemanly of me. The fact is, Mimi, Anna is happy. She is happy with me, and I with her. We have a chance to hold on t

o that happiness together. There is nothing more to it than that. I can understand why you are so protective of her—but I’m going to take care of her.”

Mimi retracted her hand, unconvinced by Stone’s smooth, persuasive tones, but having nothing concrete to fight against now. She took refuge in her glass of water.

“And I think you’ve already shoved your oar in far enough, don’t you? You’re a journalist, aren’t you? Surely your researching on Google skills extend beyond reading the first page of results?”

“Okay, I admit I was wrong about that. I’m sorry. I read about your wife over the weekend. I know she’s…not with you. Anymore.”

“Ah, and you chose not to tell Anna? Why would you do that? Are you her keeper?”

Mimi drew a deep breath. “Yes, in a way, I suppose I do see myself as such. Look, Mr. Stone, you don’t know Anna well, but you must have seen enough to know how vulnerable she is. She’s an innocent. She’s alone in the world—I’m almost all she has. I see her as a little sister as much as a friend.”

“Little sisters fall in love, Mimi. With men who want nothing more than to love and look after them.”

“But you…I don’t buy it. I don’t know why. I just don’t.”

Don’t look directly into his eyes. Mimi took heed of her inner warning voice. It had never let her down before, and her capacity to trust her instincts was one of the things Mimi took most pride in.

“You think it’s too soon after my wife’s death? That’s understandable. It looks as if I’m on the rebound. Believe me, I’m not. Saskia and I were a mismatch. I know it sounds harsh, and I’m not speaking ill of her. She was a terrific woman. Just not the woman for me. Now I’m free, and I’ve found the woman for me. It’s simple.”

“Simple?” It sounded anything but. “You think Anna is the woman for you? You met her, what is it, four or five days ago? How can you say that?”

“Have you ever been in love, Mimi?”

“We aren’t here to discuss me or my love life.”

“Oh, so you haven’t. I thought not. You have that confidence, that hard gleam of self-righteousness that comes from never giving your heart away. Are you scared of love, Mimi? Is that why you are so angry that Anna has found it? Because, deep down, you worry that you never will. Yet I think you’ll find it. I think you’ll lose that self-control you’re so proud of one day. Either that or you’ll carry on dating and accepting the worshippers and perhaps you’ll even marry. But it would be a shame to keep your heart in that tough little shell, wouldn’t it, Miranda? You think Anna is weak, but she’s stronger than you in that respect. Braver. And I both respect and admire her for it.”

Mimi barely heard the words. They seemed to be distorted by the sheer force of his intonation. She fought the shivers that threatened her body, fought the stupid impulse to cry and rant at this uncanny man.

“We aren’t here to discuss me or my love life,” she reiterated, grinding the shaky edge out of her voice. “So you’re set on Anna? Is there anything I can give you to induce you to let her go?”