Stunned surprise yanked Camille back. She shook her head with an air of resignation. “No.” Camille’s voice cracked with her failing optimism. She studied Margo’s stark face, feeling increasingly uncomfortable as she began to realize the severity of her boss’s resolve. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”
Margo waited, letting the silence linger on the space between them. A tactic to let fear of the unknown build in her enemy. “Camille.” Her tone was calm. A little too calm. That couldn’t be good. “How long have you been interning at Disclosure? A year now?” She grabbed a fountain pen and rubbed her thumb along the edge. “Our internships typically last a year. Then I decide whether or not to offer a full-time position, or quite possibly to offer recommendations elsewhere, if I’m so inclined.”
“Margo, I’d love a permanent job with the magazine.” Camille leaned forward and rested her arm on her boss’s desk. “But I’d also appreciate a recommendation if that’s your decision.”
“Camille, how would you like to come on board with your own column?”
“That’d be a dream come true.”
“You get me that story and the column is yours.”
Tempting as that was, Camille wasn’t prepared to play the game by those rules. She stifled her cynicism and retreated back into her chair. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” She dared to raise her gaze and look at Margo. “Is there anything else? Other positions available?”
Margo stared at her in a forceful, gritty way. “Camille, your continued employment with Disclosure is contingent upon your accepting this assignment and getting me that story.” Her tone hardened to match her cynical words. “People like de Laurent make me sick. They think they can come over here and buy people at will.”
Wasn’t that what Margo was trying to do with Camille?
“Well, I guess I’ll have to decline a position with the magazine then.” Camille wanted to go back to the beginning, before the ad showed up in the L.A. Trades. That was the beginning of the end of her basic belief that her employer abided by the rules of human decency.
Julian de Laurent’s actions, as far as Camille could see, were no worse than the average superrich guy who’d gotten himself into a bind and was trying desperately, albeit foolishly, to wriggle out of a disagreeable situation. That didn’t mean he deserved to have some reporter disguised as an actress spying on him and his family to write a juicy tell-all.
Not that Camille wouldn’t mind helping out Julian. She wouldn’t mind living the luxurious life for few months, except she’d probably get too used to it. That’d be her luck. She’d become too attached to the life and Julian’s charms.
Margo cleared her throat. There was no mercy in her countenance. “That’s really unfortunate,” she said with a faint bitterness. “I guess I was wrong about you.”
“Wrong?”
“I thought your career was your top priority.” Her comment was no question. “As opposed to protecting the privacy of someone you don’t even know.”
Maybe Margo had a point. Why did Camille care about the ramifications for Julian and his family?
Why? Because she wasn’t raised that way. Granny Mae had made sure of that. Camille had lived with her grandmother ever since she could remember, after being deserted by both her parents, and Granny Mae had infused Camille with some old-fashioned values. Values that wouldn’t allow her, in good conscience, to do something so underhanded.
“I’m sorry Mar—Ms. Fontaine. I guess there is a line I’m not comfortable crossing.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Might I perhaps garner a letter of recommendation?” Desperation pushed the hopeful inquiry out of her mouth. Camille would have to find another job and quickly. The bills for the student loans she’d acquired while putting herself through college would soon inundate her. She didn’t want to have to compete in a job market that was overcrowded with aspiring actors and actresses. Not that there was anything wrong with waitressing, but that was supposed to be a temporary gig for college students and people like Tasha, who were waiting for that big break. It wasn’t meant to be an option for people with college degrees in journalism.
“Recommendation?” Margo’s ridiculing laughter shattered what little esteem she had left. “Camille, it’s all or nothing.”
“All or nothing?” Camille’s light tone failed to fit the moment.
Margo leaned over her desk and propped herself up on folded arms. “How’s your serving skills?”
“Serving skills?” What the hell was she talking about?
“Well, actresses who can’t act, waitress. Reporters who can’t report, well, they waitress too.”
What? “Waitressing?” Surely she’d misunderstood Margo’s meaning. Camille had graduated from Stanford University with honors. It shouldn’t be that hard to land a job with some sort of publication in southern California. “I think I’ll be able to do better than that.”
“Not when I’m done, you won’t.” Margo pushed herself up and marched around in front of her desk. She leaned against it and folded her arms and crossed her legs, staring down at Camille from behind a mask of artificial sympathy. “In case you’ve convinced yourself that I’m nicer than people have tried to warn you in the past year, by the time I’m done, you’ll be lucky if you can get a job at a fast food restaurant.”
CHAPTER TWO
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Camille Chandler rapped on the hotel room door so hard her knuckles hurt. But damn it, Julian de Laurent owed her. Big time. He’d gotten her fired. Well, sort of. He was definitely the reason she wasn’t going from an internship to a permanent position with Disclosure Magazine.
Granted, that wasn’t his intent when he placed his ad in the L.A. Trades. She was just supposed to find out what the mega-wealthy Frenchman was up to, and boy, did she ever. Not in Camille’s wildest dreams would she have ever imagined her hard-nosed boss would make such demands. Who knew rejecting a proposal for an arranged marriage was shunning her job duties. She’d missed that memo.
A little piece of Camille—the part that found Julian de Laurent as fascinating as he was handsome—had pushed her to his doorstep. But mostly, her fear of being homeless, not to mention broke and in debt, was her main motivation for relenting and giving in to his business proposal.