Persona (The 'Professional' series) Read Online Free Page B

with the
interview.  The planned one.
    ~~~~
    After a
couple of hours of questions, sandwiches and drinks, courtesy of Eric; Daniel
sat back in the seat, put his head back and relaxed.  After that first
slightly awkward question, the rest had been straight forward, the usual about
childhood, family, career, future.  He had actually enjoyed telling Ella
about the things Eric and himself had got up to as kids.  They had all
laughed when telling their tales, Eric butting in now and again to
elaborate. 
    Daniel
winced slightly.  There was only one point that had become slightly
uncomfortable.  Ella had obviously got warmer and had taken her suit
jacket off to put over the back of the chair.  When she had twisted
around, the opening on her blouse had gapped apart slightly.  Daniel had
ended up feeling like a pimpled faced teenager, trying to check out what was
underneath that cool white blouse.  She turned and caught him staring at
her breasts!  She had made a little o with her mouth and looked
down to see if her buttons had opened.  He felt really foolish, for
goodness sake, he was an adult! He knew exactly what was contained inside a
bra.  But for some reason, the slight glimpse of the white lace under her
blouse had got him having to rearrange his sitting position, so neither of them
became too embarrassed.
    Daniel
lifted his head and yawned.  “Sorry, late night.”  He watched her
blanch.  It immediately came to him what she would be thinking - that he
was referring to Cassandra.  He truly wasn’t, so he tried to change the
subject.  “So, I guess that you are going to be following me around for a
while?  Alice, my agent, says that you need to stay here most nights
too?” 
    He looked at
her, eyes narrowing slightly, for any indication whether she was comfortable
with this arrangement or not.  She seemed to be fine, so a devilish
impulse came over him.  He wanted to ruffle her again, see her blush.
“Great, I have a couple of bedrooms.”  He had four, but he wasn’t going to
tell her that yet.  “Eric stays in one…”  He drew it out for affect.
 “So I guess… you can share mine.”  He put on his most charming smile.
    Ella choked
on the coffee she had been sipping.  She felt Eric tap her on the back and
looked at Daniel’s huge wolfish grin.  “Well, that could be a big
problem.  I mean… if there is no room… I could get a hotel somewhere I
suppose?”  Ella was thinking on her feet.  She caught Eric raising
his eyebrows at Daniel.  “That was some kind of joke, I presume?” she
countered.
    “Doesn’t
need to be a joke, El.  I wouldn’t mind you sharing my bed.”  The
 wolfish grin was still splitting his face.
    “Well, I
don’t think my boyfriend would approve.”  Crumbs, what made her say
that?  Using Jeff as some sort of shield to wield when she became
uncomfortable with the banter?  She was used to batting around sexual
innuendoes and banter in work, so why did his make her feel so uncomfortable?
    Daniel felt
his joyful mood drop suddenly to his toes.  She had a boyfriend. 
Lover, no doubt, they were not school children anymore.  He should have
figured she would have.  She must be around twenty five, beautiful and had
a lovely curvy figure.  Of course she would have a lover, why wouldn’t
she?  So why did that piece of information about her, suddenly make him
feel annoyed? 
    All of a
sudden Daniel felt claustrophobic and needed to get out. “Right, Eric.” 
He stood up and stretched his arms, trying to look unaffected by her boyfriend
comment.  “Could you show Miss Hender to the spare bedroom?”
    Eric noticed
that Daniel had gone from calling her El to Miss Hender.  Interesting, but
he wisely did not comment while he picked up her bags.
    Daniel continued
as he waited for her to look at him.  “The guest bedroom has been made up
for you.  You should find everything you need there.”   He
turned to Eric who was standing ready to show Ella