"Did you start sleeping with her before or after she told you her best friend was marrying Roarke?"

He stopped cold, and his brilliant gold eyes glittered with temper. "I am not using Mavis for a commission, and you insult her by thinking it."

"Just checking. She's very dear to me, too. If we're going to deal on this, I want to make sure all the cards are faceup, that's all. So – "

The interruption came in fast, and came in furious. A woman in skintight, unadorned black burst in like a comet, perfect teeth bared, lethal red nails curled into talons.

"You two-timing, back-stabbing, mother-fucking son of a bitch." She made her leap, rather like a gorgeous mortar locked on target, and with a speed and grace brought on by pure fear, Leonardo evaded. "Pandora, I can explain – "

"Explain this." Turning her wrath on Eve, she swiped out, barely missing scooping Eve's eyes out of their sockets.

There was only one thing to do. Eve decked her.

"Oh Jesus, oh Jesus." Leonardo hunched his huge shoulders and wrung his ham-size hands.

CHAPTER TWO

"Did you have to hit her?"

Eve watched the woman's eyes roll back, then roll forward. "Yeah."

Leonardo set down his scanner and sighed. "She's going to make my life a living hell."

"My face, my face." As she teetered back into full consciousness, Pandora scrambled up, patting her jaw. "Is it bruised? Does it show? I've got a session in an hour."

Eve shrugged. "Tough luck."

Jumping from mood to mood like a crazed gazelle, Pandora hissed through her teeth, "I'll ruin you, bitch. You'll never work on screen, on disc, and you sure as hell won't get a runway job. Do you know who I am?''

Being naked under the circumstances just added to Eve's mood. "Do you think I care?"

"What's going on? Damn it, Dallas, he's just trying to fit you – Oh." Hurrying in with glasses in both hands, Mavis stopped dead. "Pandora."