by Penny Jordan
'It looked like there was going to be a problem with the caterers at one stage. The magazine told us they wanted only colour-coordinated vegan food, in their house colors, but then they rang up saying that they'd heard that a certain glossy magazine editor only ate Beluga caviar and they had to have some.'
Carly had sympathized with her. Everyone knew how that particular British editor dictated and directed what was 'in' in certain important New York fashion circles. Just having her attend the event would be a major achievement. Of course she'd agreed gravely with her counterpart—it was essential that the caviar was pro vided, even though it meant breaking the co-coordinated theme.
'We're serving champagne cocktails on arrival— peach and rhubarb with pepper. We're using this new chef who's into mixing together different textures and tastes. He's very avant-garde. Virginia wants everything exclusive but statement-making simple. That's why she's chosen the Hamptons as the venue.'
Carly had continued to listen sympathetically.
Only the very richest of the rich could afford to live the 'simple' life Hamptons-style. She had read up on the area and knew that it was the preserve of those with old money—or at least it had been, until the media and fashion set had discovered it.
The magazine had been insistent that they wanted a very stylish and up market event—which was, Carly suspected, why they had been commissioned.
Lucy might not be the type to boast that her great-grandfather had been a duke, but the fact remained that she was very well connected socially.
'We've got the silverware on loan from Cristoffle, and the stemware is Baccarat—but very plain, of course.'
'Of course,' Carly had agreed, mentally praying that everything was well insured.
She had thought she knew what luxury was, but she had been wrong, she now admitted. As her visit to Barneys this morning had shown her. The exclusive store far surpassed anything she had ever seen, and had made her wonder who on earth could afford to shop there.
An elegant sales assistant had offered to help her, and Carly had suffered being shown a variety of stunning but impossibly expensive gowns—they could not be called anything else—before finally escaping by announcing that she had run out of time.
Any one of the dresses she had been shown would have been perfect for the French château birthday ball, but one in particular had stood out from the rest—a column of palest green silk, layer after delicately fine layer of it, the fabric floating magically with every movement of the air.
Carly had hardly dared to try it on, but the sales assistant had insisted and she had had no option other than to give way.
'It is perfect for you,' she had told Carly, and Carly had mentally agreed with her. But she had shaken her head and taken it off.
The Hamptons event was due to commence at four in the afternoon and go on until eight in the evening. A private house had been hired for the occasion, with large lawns and its own beach, and Carly had dressed— she hoped—appropriately—both for the occasion and the fact that she was part of the 'hired help', plus the fact that she was representing Lucy.
To do so she had had to give in and wear one of the outfits Ricardo had paid for. A pair of plain white Chloe linen pants teamed with an almost but not quite off the shoulder knit in navy and white. She had teamed the trousers with simple but oh, so expensive beige leather flats, and in order to accommodate all the paperwork she had to carry around with her she had splashed out this morning in New York before leaving and bought herself a large and stylish dark red straw bag—not from Barneys, where she had sighed over the unbelievable display of bags, but from a regular department store, and a marked-down sale item at that.
A couple of 'of the moment' trendy Perspex bangles, her own small gold earrings, and her good (although several years old) Oliver Peoples sunglasses completed her outfit.
She had been curious to see what Ricardo would wear. She had heard that there was an unofficial casual 'uniform' for visitors to the island—a variation on the traditional faded red jeans which had become a Hamptons visitors trademark—and had been unexpectedly touched and impressed to see that he was wearing classic Italian casual—almost as though he wanted to underline his own nationality. It was a mix of white and beige in cotton and linen, and he managed to wear it without looking either crumpled or over-groomed— which was quite an achievement.
Bare brown feet thrust into soft leather open shoes were a raw and masculine touch that certainly made her very much aware of the fact that he was dangerously male—and very much aware of him as well, she admitted, as she ignored the temptation to turn her head and look at him.
The more time she spent with him, the more she was being forced to accept how much he aroused her physically.
Even now, just sitting here beside him in silence, she could feel the tormenting ache of her own need growing stronger with every pulse of her body.
She was out of her depth. Why didn't she admit it? If he were to turn to her now and tell her that tonight he wanted to take her to bed and make love to her until morning there was no way she would refuse.
And why should she? She could go through the rest of her life without ever again meeting a man who could make her feel like this.
And sex without love was surely like... Like what? Like whisky without water? Undiminished? Its strength and flavor heightened by the fact that it was not touched by anything else? Why shouldn't sex be like that? Why shouldn't it? Why couldn't it be a pure, in tense, once-in-a-lifetime experience just as it was?
What she had to ask herself was, if she didn't have sex with Ricardo, in later years would she praise herself or would she berate herself? Would she feel that she had gained or lost? Would she yearn to have the opportunity back again or... ?
What was she trying to do? Persuade herself into bed with him? Wasn't that Ricardo's role? Nothing about him suggested to her that he was the kind of man who wasn't capable of going in all-out pursuit of anything and everything he wanted, be it a woman or a business. Ricardo played to win. If he truly wanted her he would be the one doing the persuading—and he would surely have persuaded her into his bed by now! As if she actually needed persuading, she admitted wryly.
But why did she want him so much? It definitely wasn't because of his money! And equally definitely it wasn't because of love. Loving someone meant risking being hurt.
So it was the man himself, then? The tightening sensation within her own body told her she had found the truth.
All these years of believing she wasn't interested in sex—she had told herself that nothing would ever in duce her to adopt the casual attitude towards sex of so many women she knew, which she found repugnant— had been washed away by the ferocity of her own de sire, like a dam bursting its banks to flood a hitherto dried-out gully.
She had a terrible and terrifying urge to turn to Ricardo and ask him to turn the helicopter around. To take her back to New York and his apartment, his bed, so that she could discover for herself which was the more powerfully sensual and erotic—her fantasies or Ricardo's reality.
When had the balance, the scales themselves tipped? Ricardo wondered savagely as he tried to fight against the message his body's fierce hunger was sending him.
When had his hunger for Carly started to occupy his thoughts more than acquiring Prêt a Party? When had he somehow given way and abandoned the rule he'd thought he had set in stone never to allow himself to want any woman so much that the wanting overpowered him?
He didn't know! What he did know, though, was that he had looked at her earlier, when she had walked to wards him in his apartment, and had had to fight against the madness of an overwhelming need to take hold of her and kiss her until he could feel in her the same passionate response he had felt in her before—until her body was pliant and eagerly, erotically desirous of his touch, and her breathing was signaling an arousal that matched his own.
They had almost reached their destination; he could see the helipad up ahead of him. It was too late t
o turn back now.
East Hampton. New money and lots of it—or at least that was what she had read, Carly thought as a uniformed hunk, wearing eye-wateringly canary-yellow cut-offs and a bright blue logoed polo shirt—all muscles and too-white teeth—tenderly handed her down from the helicopter. What was it about such movie-perfect men that was so antiseptic and unsexy? Carly mused as she was asked for her name. And was it her imagination or did the bright smile fade just a little once its owner realized she was here as part of the workforce?
To the side of her, though, Ricardo was being greeted almost effusively by a stunningly pretty girl also wearing a greeter's uniform.
So this was corporate entertaining New York style! Certainly everything was well organized, very slick and professional—right down to the small packs they were being handed which she already knew included a map of the layout of the house and its gardens, a timetable of the afternoon's events, and a ticketed voucher so that guests could collect their goodie bags as they left—no cluttering the tables or, even worse, disgruntled guests leaving rejected and unwanted gifts behind them.
Ricardo was certainly receiving the deluxe treatment,
Carly decided, as a further glance in his direction in formed her that his greeter was still making him the focus of her attention whilst her own had mysteriously disappeared. He was nursing a half-empty glass of red wine, glancing away from his companion to stare down into its depths.
If Ricardo were a glass of full-bodied, richly flavored red wine, Carly thought fancifully, she would want to drink deeply of him, not sip delicately at him. She would want to roll the glorious velvety texture of him around her tongue before allowing him to turn the whole of her body to liquid pleasure. She would want to breathe in the richness of him and savor his unique musky flavor. She would want to fill her senses with the richness of him and then...
Hot-faced, Carly struggled to call her thoughts to order. Ricardo wasn't a wine, he was a man. And just seeing the way he was smiling back at the girl who was so obviously flirting with him filled Carly with a fierce, painful surge of jealousy.
She was here to work, she reminded herself starkly, and she turned her back on Ricardo and made her way towards the main hospitality area.
They were, of course, virtually the first arrivals, and Carly wanted to check in with both the New York event organizer and the clients to make sure that everything was going to plan. Waiters and waitresses—their uniforms comprising retro Hawaiian-style shirts with a brilliantly patterned design made up of front covers of the magazine—were already circulating with trays of drinks, presumably serving the clients themselves.
When Carly reached the main pavilion a security guard on the door stopped her, and she showed him both her pass and her identity badge. Once inside, she found the magazine's PR team and Luella Klein, her opposite number from the New York event organizer, standing together, engaged in conversation.
'Lurve the shirts those guys out there are wearing!' Luella announced dramatically as soon as the introductions were over.
'That was Jules's idea.' Carly smiled.
'Yeah, great—and cool, too. We've had the goodie bags made out of the same fabric!'
Carly nodded her head. Using the magazine's past covers as a basis for the design theme of the event had been the result of a brainstorming session held between Lucy, Jules and herself when they had first been approached to pitch for this event.
Getting a canapé' menu organized that would translate into plates of food put together in the magazine's house colors had proved to be a major headache, though, with several chefs refusing the commission before Carly had had the bright idea of getting one of the top catering colleges to take it on as a showcase for the talents of their students.
She was just keeping her fingers crossed that the results would be as impressive as the sample plates they had seen photographs of earlier in the year.
'And it may sound kind of silly, but I've always had a thing about Italian men—' 'I'm sorry—I have to go.'
The young woman, who had spent the best part of the last fifteen minutes congratulating herself on having got Ricardo's exclusive attention, just about managed not to stamp her expensive heel down into the turf as he cut through her breathless words and started to walk away. Her chagrin gave way to resentment as she saw that he had left her to go to someone else—a woman who was standing with a group of caterers, of all things. Grudgingly she acknowledged that the white linen trousers her competitor was wearing did do full justice to legs that, as the male sex would have it, went all the way up to her armpits.
Carly smiled her thanks at the team leaders of the hired catering staff. It was nearly nine in the evening and most of the guests had left. Most, but not all. Not, for instance, the baby blonde whom she had seen clinging fragilely to Ricardo's arm earlier in the afternoon, whilst she had been talking to a trio of famous British fashionista sisters whom she knew, in a roundabout sort of way, via mutual contacts in London.
The clients had just told her how pleased they were with the event, and her New York opposite number had said that she knew her agency would want to do business with Prêt a Party again.
All in all, a successful event. A successful event but not, so far she was concerned, a personally successful or mood-enhancing few hours. But then she was not here for her own benefit, was she? Carly reminded her self, as she dismissed the waiting staff and wondered how long it would be before she could reasonably suggest to Ricardo that they leave.
Two men—executives from a big New York PR agency to whom she had been introduced earlier—were approaching her. She forced her lips to widen in what she hoped looked like a genuine professional smile.
'Good event,' one of them told her approvingly. 'Harvey thought it was real neat—didn't you, Harv?'
'Yeah,' the second one agreed. 'Real neat!'
Ricardo increased the pace of his stride. Every time he gave in to his need to look for her Carly was surrounded by other men. And he didn't like it. He didn't like it one little bit!
'Sorry to break up the party,' he announced untruth fully now, as he reached the trio.
Immediately the two men fell back, leaving an empty space at Carly's side, which Ricardo promptly filled. As he did so he deliberately stood so that he was blocking out the other men—and anyone else who might have wanted to approach Carly.
'Have you seen everything you want to see?' Carly asked him brightly. All afternoon she had been reminding herself that she was supposed to be making sure that Ricardo was so impressed with Prêt a Party's skills that he offered them a contract.
Ricardo was tempted to tell her bluntly and in explicit detail that she was what he most wanted to see—preferably lying naked on his bed, with that look in her eyes that said she wanted him like crazy.
Instead he nodded his head tersely and asked, 'How soon can you be ready to leave?'
Her New York counterpart had already assured her that there was no need for her to stay, and she had spoken with the clients.
'I'm ready now.'
'Fine. Let's go, then.'
Carly didn't really want to move. Ricardo was standing right next to her, and if she turned towards him now they would be standing body to body...like lovers...
'What's wrong? Missing the attention of your new friends? Want me to call them back?'
Instead of turning towards him, Carly took a step back.
'No, I don't,' she told him quietly. 'And as for what's wrong—I was just wishing that I didn't ache so much for you to take me to bed!'
She turned away from him and started to walk to wards the helipad, trembling inside from the shock of actually having told him what she was thinking and how she felt. Her face and body both felt equally hot, but for very different reasons. Her face was burning because of her embarrassment, but her body was burning be cause what she had said to him was the truth.
Ricardo caught up with her before she had taken more than three steps, his hand on her arm halting her progress
until he could stand foursquare in front of her.
'Is that an admission or is it an invitation?' he asked silkily.
Carly forced herself to look up at him, and to hold his gaze as she responded calmly, 'Both!'
Ricardo couldn't even remember how many women had propositioned him over the years, never mind count them, but none of them had ever spoken to him like this—simply and directly, admitting and owning their need for him.
'That's quite a change of heart! Why?'
'I suddenly realized how much I would regret it if I went to my grave without knowing you.'
'Knowing me?'
His voice was cynically mocking as he moved aside so that they could continue to walk together to the helipad.
'Without having sex with you,' Carly corrected her self steadily. 'Obviously it goes without saying that it is only sex that we both want.'
'Less than twenty-four hours ago you were outraged because I'd paid for your clothes. Now you're offering to have sex with me?'
'I was furious because I felt what you'd done implied that I could be bought. Choosing freely to have sex with you is completely different.'
'Indeed. Didn't it occur to you that I might feel equally insulted by your suggestion that I would want a woman I had to bribe into bed with me?' he challenged her.
They had almost reached the helipad.
She had spoken to him, touched a deeply secret part of him, as no other woman had ever done, and instinctively he felt wary of his own emotional response to that. At the same time he also felt challenged by the fact that she was so obviously determined not to allow herself to become emotionally involved with him. A woman who wanted to give herself freely to him physically whilst refusing to become emotionally involved? Shouldn't that knowledge delight him instead of irking him? he taunted himself derisively. He certainly wasn't going to refuse her, was he?
Carly wondered what he was thinking. Was Ricardo shocked by what she had said? Turned off by it? Indifferent to it? Should she have been less direct, and instead created an artificial opportunity for him to come on to her if he wanted to do so?