by Diana X Dunn
Slowly she turned to look around the room again. Max engulfed her in a huge hug before she could focus on anything special.
“Suzy, you look amazing,” he gushed, clearly already out of his head on alcohol and more.
“Thanks, Max,” Suzy smiled at him. He was wearing a tuxedo as well, and even though his was custom-made, he still bore a disturbing resemblance to the waiters. Of course Suzy didn’t dare tell him that. She downed her drink in a single swallow.
“Why haven’t we twirled yet?” Max asked her as he ran his eyes over her figure-hugging gown.
“Oh Max,” she giggled at him, “one of these days.”
“How about now?” He threw an arm around her and slid his hand down to rest possessively on her bottom. “We could sneak out for a few minutes. No one would miss us.”
Suzy chuckled and then turned out of his grasp, ostensibly to refill her drink. “Max, my darling, when we do finally get together, a few minutes is not going to be enough.” She winked at him and licked her lips before she continued. “Besides, you would most definitely be missed. It’s your party.”
Max shrugged. “It isn’t exciting yet,” he pouted. “Everyone is late.”
Suzy mentally rolled her eyes as she downed the second cocktail. She hoped she’d taken enough neutralizing agent, although at the moment getting drunk was starting to sound like a great idea. Clearly Max was fighting with Randy about something, and he was looking for the fastest and easiest way to upset him further.
“Oh look,” she said, pointing toward the door. “Randy’s here, and he looks amazing.” She pulled Max with her as she headed toward Randy, who was dressed in a tuxedo of his own. Randy’s tuxedo, however, had been made out of bright red fabric. Suzy hoped she could turn the spoiled host over to his lover before he decided that he really did want to take her to bed.
“I don’t want to see Randy,” Max insisted, stopping Suzy in her tracks. “I want to take you upstairs.”
Suzy sighed inwardly as she pressed herself against Max. “Well,” she purred in his ear, “if you insist.”
Max grinned. “I knew you were the perfect woman,” he told Suzy. “Let’s go.”
They took a few steps toward the door before Suzy stopped again and glanced around desperately. Genifer had just entered the ballroom wearing a dress that was all but invisible. While it didn’t exactly cling to her curves, the fabric was so sheer that she might as well have been naked. She was clearly naked under the gown.
“What is Genifer wearing?” Suzy asked in a scandalized tone.
Max stopped as well and looked around. He finally spotted Genifer on the opposite side of the room. For a scary moment Suzy thought he was just going to ignore her, but then he obviously decided that his job as a parent was more important than sex with Suzy, at least for a moment or two.
“I’ll be right back,” he muttered to Suzy as he headed across the floor toward his daughter.
Suzy sighed with relief. Once Max was done with Genifer, something or someone else would distract him and he would probably forget all about dragging her off to bed. She would have loved to have heard the argument between Max and Genifer, but the closer she was to Max when it finished the more likely he was to remember his previous intentions.
She watched as the pair began with quiet conversation that quickly moved on to shouting and arm waving. Max was obviously very unhappy and Genifer didn’t appear to care in the slightest. An unfortunate lull in the music allowed everyone in the ballroom to hear their final exchange.
“You will go and change now,” Max shouted at her.
“The hell I will,” Genifer shouted back. “You can’t make me.”
“I can make you sorry if you don’t,” Max replied.
“You can’t just kill me like you did Chrystal,” Genifer shot back, spinning on her heel and stomping out of the ballroom.
The shocked silence that followed the exchange was suddenly broken by the band. They had been intending to take a break, but were quickly cajoled into continuing by a desperate Marta. Randy rushed over to Max and the two put their heads together for several minutes. It appeared to Suzy that Randy was trying to console a still furious Max, but it didn’t seem to be working.
Finally, as the band finished their next song, Max seemed to relax. He stopped a passing waiter and grabbed a few tablets and a drink from him. After he’d swallowed those he looked around slowly. Suzy made sure that he didn’t catch her eye. She had no idea what he was thinking, but she was hoping it wasn’t anything about her.
“Well, that was fun,” Luke murmured in her ear as she turned away from the scene.
“Wasn’t it?” Suzy grinned at him. “You look great.” He did as well, in his own tuxedo that wasn’t quite a custom fit, but still looked superb. Somehow, he didn’t look like one of the waiters. Perhaps it was the extra layer of muscle that was just discernable.
“So do you,” he spoke softly, his mouth against her ear. “Don’t those shoes hurt your feet?”
“Oh, so very much,” Suzy laughed, “but in these circles they’re part of the uniform.”
She was torn between putting some space between them and enjoying the quiet intimacy.
“This is quite a set-up.” Luke waved a hand, encompassing all of the elaborate decorations and expensive finery in a single gesture. When the hand stopped waving, it came to rest lightly on Suzy’s hip.
“Max doesn’t do anything cheaply,” Suzy sighed. “Marta will have spent hours arranging all of this and Max won’t appreciate any of it.”
“From where I was standing, it looked like Max was appreciating you,” Luke replied tightly.
Suzy laughed lightly, ignoring the tone. “For about two seconds I was the center of the his universe. Now his attention is focused elsewhere and he’s forgotten that I exist,” she told Luke.
“I doubt that,” Luke answered, still speaking softly into her ear.
Suzy turned slowly to look for Max, carefully staying close to Luke while she did so. “Really?” she asked as she gestured toward Max with the hand that held her drink.
Max was nearby, surrounded by a group of expensively but scantily clad women. Randy was standing next to Max looking jealous and annoyed, but Max seemed to be ignoring him. From where she was standing, it appeared to Suzy that all of the women were Genifer’s friends, which made Suzy wonder how Genifer felt when her friends made a play for her father. Perhaps they wouldn’t have done so if Genifer had still been around, but she hadn’t yet reappeared after her little scene with Max.
Suzy watched as one of the women, an overly artificially enhanced redhead who she vaguely recalled was called Bunny, leaned in close to Max and whispered something in his ear. Max seemed to shake his head and then frown. He looked around the room and caught Suzy’s eyes. His frown deepened for a moment as he noted exactly how close Luke was standing to her.
Suzy took a hesitant step away from Luke, wondering how best to handle the increasingly awkward situation. Max smiled humorlessly and then turned back to the redhead. He spoke a few words in her ear and she giggled and led him toward the door. Randy called after him, but Max pretended not to hear him.
“I need to go and cheer up Randy,” Suzy told Luke. “I’ll see you later.”
Luke frowned and took a step after her, but then stopped. Suzy knew he was supposed to be working. Presumably he’d just remembered that himself.
“Maybe I should just kill him and get it over with,” Randy said as a greeting as Suzy reached his side.
“Maybe you should just find someone who treats you better,” Suzy suggested, grabbing a couple of glasses of something purple from a passing waiter. She handed a glass to Randy and took a cautious sip from her own. “Blergh,” she exclaimed, making a face.
Randy grinned and downed his drink in a single swallow. “You’re too fussy,” he told Suzy, taking her glass from her and downing it as well.
“And you are going to be under a table soon,” she told him in a worried ton
e.
“Nah,” Randy looked around furtively before he whispered into Suzy’s ear. “I took some neutralizer,” he told her. “I can’t afford to get drunk when Max is in this sort of mood. He’s thinking of asking me to leave, I know he is.”
Usually Suzy thought Randy was just being melodramatic, but this time she wasn’t so sure. She didn’t want him to know that, however. “Don’t be silly, Max loves you,” she told him. “He’s just in a weird mood tonight, that’s all.”
“I’ll say,” Randy frowned. “That stupid redhead is nothing like the kind of woman he usually goes for.”
Suzy laughed. “In all the time I’ve known him, I’ve never known him to go for the same kind of woman twice,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess,” Randy shook his head. “What I don’t get is why he goes after women at all.”
Suzy laughed again. “I don’t know,” she giggled, trying to lighten the mood. “I don’t find women attractive, either.”
Randy smiled at her and then grabbed another passing waiter and snagged two more drinks. This time they were green. He guzzled his and handed the other to Suzy. She took it and took a cautious sip. It wasn’t too bad and she took a bigger swallow, wanting to be seen to be in the party spirit.
“Now there’s a man I’d leave Max for,” Randy murmured to Suzy.
Suzy turned and found herself smiling as she watched Alex make his way across the room toward them. “That one is all mine,” she purred to Randy. “I met him this afternoon, and I’m already hooked.”
Randy laughed. “Lucky him. Who is he?”
“His name is Alex Knight and he’s an author. Apparently he does very well at it, but he isn’t in Max’s league.”
“No one is in Max’s league,” Randy replied, “but he is definitely smoky hot. Is he boring or does he play?”
Suzy tipped her head to one side as she thought about the question. As far as she knew Alex was heterosexual, but she hadn’t ever thought to ask him. “I just met him today. It didn’t come up,” she teased Randy. “You should probably ask him.”
“Oh, I will,” he grinned as Alex finally reached them.
The large room was already starting to feel quite crowded. “Where did all these people come from?” Alex asked Suzy after she had introduced him to Randy.
“I have no idea,” Suzy admitted. “There are a lot more people here than the people in our little group could have managed to invite.”
“Oh, Max invited about a hundred people from all over the world,” Randy told them both. “Then he told them all to bring as many friends as they wanted. Poor Luke is having fits trying to check them all out and keep them all monitored.”
Suzy stifled a sigh. Poor Luke indeed. Max was a walking nightmare for a murder investigation.
“So,” Randy said, sliding an arm around Alex, “what sort of fun do you like to have?”
Alex laughed and tapped a passing waiter. He had to step away from Randy’s grasp in order to collect three drinks off the man’s tray. He passed one to Randy and then handed Suzy hers, deliberately running his fingers up her arm as she took the glass, ending with his arm loosely around her shoulders. He downed his drink in a single swallow and then turned back toward Randy.
“I’m incredibly fond of tall women in pink dresses and silver shoes,” he told the other man. “In fact, if I thought I could get away with it, I would be trying to get this one to leave with me right now.”
Randy laughed. “I know I’m no competition for Suzy,” he chuckled. “She even tempts me and I don’t like women.”
Now it was Suzy’s turn to laugh. “Stop, both of you,” she told the men. “I’ll only start believing that I’m irresistible.”
“He could probably resist you,” Randy waved his glass at someone across the room. “I bet he isn’t interested in women or men, just business.”
Suzy turned to see who he was talking about. She wasn’t surprised to see Henry Martin looking uncomfortable on the edge of the crowd. “He looks miserable,” she commented, pointing him out to Alex. “That’s Henry. He’s a business associate of Max’s,” she told him.
“He doesn’t look like he is the mood for a party,” Alex commented.
“He never does,” Randy chimed in. “He just wants one little signature on one little piece of paper and then he can go back to whatever it is that he does when he isn’t hounding Max. Unfortunately, Max won’t sign for some reason. So he has to keep hanging around, looking increasingly desperate.”
“I know he invited some friends.” Suzy looked around the room, trying to spot any of the guests she thought Henry had invited. “I don’t see any of them.”
“I think they are all over there,” Randy pointed to a dark corner.
Suzy looked over at them and smiled. They looked even more uncomfortable than Henry, something she wouldn’t have thought possible a minute earlier. “Not a lot of party in that corner,” she grinned at Randy. “How long do you think they’ll stay?”
“I think they’ll stay until Henry tells them they can leave,” Randy shrugged. “Henry will stay until he is sure that Max won’t mind if he leaves. It could be a very long night for our Henry.”
“Max isn’t even here, is he?” Alex asked.
“He’ll be back very soon,” Randy smirked. “It won’t be long at all.”
Suzy laughed loudly, pretending to be feeling the effects of the many drinks she had downed. “Glad it wasn’t me that he left with, in that case.”
Randy grinned. “I am too, because I like you.”
Suzy smiled at the man. “I like you, too,” she cooed, patting the top of his head.
A sudden silence swept through the crowd and all three turned to see what was happening now. Max had returned, without his new redheaded friend. Instead, Genifer was now hanging decoratively off his arm, dressed in a red lace number that was only ever so slightly less revealing than her previous gown.
Max strolled in and smiled to the left and to the right, nodding greetings to all of the guests. He looked around the room slowly and then fastened his gaze on to Randy and Suzy. In only a few long strides, he joined their little group.
“Ah, there you are, my dears,” he said smoothly. He slid an arm around Randy and smiled at the man. “I don’t know why you put up with me,” he told him in a low voice, “but I’m ever so glad that you do.”
Randy flushed and smiled the happiest smile that Suzy had seen on his face for this entire visit. “I don’t know why either,” Randy grinned at Max. “Anyway, I’m glad I do, too.”
“Get me a drink, will you?” Max asked him. Once Randy had scurried away to fill the request, Max turned to Suzy. “And you,” he shook his head at her. “I had big plans for you,” he said sadly.
“Sorry, love,” Suzy purred, still standing with Alex’s arm around her shoulders. “Have you met Alex Knight?”
Max blinked at the sudden change in topic. He took a deep breath and then smiled at Alex. “How do you do?” he asked, extending a hand to shake.
Alex had to remove his arm from around Suzy in order to politely shake the offered hand. “Nice to meet you,” he muttered, clearly not at all happy with the way Max was looking at Suzy.
“Likewise, I’m sure,” Max grinned. “So are you two a couple? I thought I saw Suzy all snuggled up with that policeman, Luke whatever? Where has he gotten to?”
Suzy sighed. Max was in a really difficult mood. “I was talking with Luke earlier,” she agreed. “I think he has gone to double-check all of the security for the evening.”
“So are you enjoying the party?” Max asked of no one in particular as Randy came back carrying a whole tray of drinks.
Suzy quickly downed one before she answered. “It’s a great party,” she lied. “I think everyone is having a wonderful time.”
“Henry looks miserable,” Max laughed, “and his friends look even more miserable than he does.”
Suzy could only murmur her assent.
“Where is Peter?” Max
demanded suddenly. “He was supposed to be here on time. Everyone was told.”
Suzy and Randy exchanged glances. Max was definitely in a bad mood. “I thought I saw him by the buffet,” Suzy lied, hoping to diffuse Max’s sudden anger. She wasn’t all that interested in protecting Peter, but an angry Max could strike out in any direction.
Randy swallowed the rest of the drink he was holding while he surveyed the room. “Isn’t that Peter over there with Genifer?” he asked, relief evident in his tone.
Max swung around and stared through the crowd. “It does look like him,” he admitted. “I think I’ll go and have a word.”
Max struck off into the crowd. Randy took a step or two to follow and then dropped back. “It’s not worth the effort when he’s in this sort of mood,” he muttered, mostly to himself.
Suzy patted his arm and grabbed another drink off the tray that he was still holding. “I don’t know what’s bothering him, but he is in a terrible temper, isn’t he?”
Randy nodded miserably. “I think he’s still upset about Chrystal. He wanted to have this stupid party, but now I think he sees that it was a bad idea and he wishes he hadn’t done it.”
“I think it’s a great party,” Alex interjected. He slid an arm back around Suzy, this time around her waist. “Should we dance?” he questioned her.
“Sure,” Suzy sighed. “Why not?”
The pair made their way to the small dance floor at the back of the room where the band was performing some of the hits from the twentieth century and a half dozen or so couples were dancing and laughing together. Of course Alex knew all of the songs, and as he held Suzy close she chuckled when he sang softly in her ear.
“I love these old songs,” he confessed to her.
“I can tell,” she grinned. “It’s fine, you aren’t a bad singer.”
The pair danced for a while, and Suzy let herself get caught up in the pleasure of being in Alex’s arms for a short time. After the fifth or sixth song, Suzy reminded herself that she was supposed to be working.
“I’ve really got to get back to observing,” she told Alex, regret in her voice. “I’m hoping to get this murder solved and get things back to normal for Max.”