“By all means sling away, since it’s money I’ve earned,” he said smoothly, admiring her nerve while simultaneously wanting to shake it out of her. “Maybe we can get together sometime and you can tell me what you think.”
“Sure,” she said—but her eyes told him he could drop dead. “Can you give me the titles?”
He bit back a laugh at the sheer arrogance of her. “The first one is called Catch, Tag, Release.”
“Ah, yes,” she said, tapping away at her phone. “As in hooking some poor fish, whacking an invasive tag through its fin, then throwing it back in the sea.”
“My second book—Liar, Liar if you’re really clicking—looks at what that fish does when it gets its new lease on life.”
“How uplifting that sounds—Liar, Liar.”
“I’m sure you’ll find both books...instructive.”
“Oh joy!” she said, and rolled her eyes, which had him vowing to make her eyes roll all the way back in her head for him before the night was over. “Just what I look for in a novel—to be instructed!” She put her cell phone away. “Right. All set. Now, I’m sure you’re anxious to return to Felicity—must have been painful, unjoining yourself from her hip!”
Oh God, it was so hard not to laugh. “Jealous, Veronica?”
“Jealous? Please!” She spluttered that out. “I assure you, you have my permission to fuck whomever you want to fuck.”
He stepped in close, crowding into her space, and the vanilla scent of her flooded his senses. She dabbed that special oil everywhere, even between her legs—and the taste memory of licking it from her was so vivid, he had to swallow because his mouth had flooded with saliva. “You sure about that?”
“Most certainly.”
“Then that is very good to know.”
“If that’s all, I have husband number three waiting in the wings for me at the reception.”
He took her left hand in his, rubbed his thumb along her ring finger without taking his eyes from her face, found nothing there. Good. The photos he’d seen of her with her husbands, the massive diamond engagement rings they’d given her flashing in the camera lights, had caused him to break two expensive cell phones throwing them against the wall. Time for her to pay for what seeing those rings had done to him.
He smiled at her—made it as chillingly seductive as he could. “I know you came on your own, Veronica, and I can make a good guess as to why.”
She snatched her hand back. “Husband number three is a work in progress but it’s going to happen, I promise you that.”
“Then I look forward to being introduced to him.”
“And I look forward to meeting your conjoined twin just as soon as you’ve reattached yourself,” she said, and stalked past him.
* * *
Veronica stormed her way across the lawn, furious with herself.
So much for coming on her own—he’d seen right through her.
So much for her rehearsed lines—he’d gotten in first about the books.
So much for being charming and sweet—she’d been snide and venomous.
So much for her intimidating eyebrows—he’d looked ready to lick them back down into place.
And, oh God, her entire traitorous body was in eruption mode. She wanted to stab him and...and kiss him, damn it! Taste him once more. Touch him. Feel something.
So much for closure, then!
Third husband? Where was she going to get one of those? Out of her ass?
She’d just have to hope there was a single man at the reception she could attach herself to. A single man who wasn’t going to trip over his tongue when Veronica dragged him into Felicity’s orbit.
“Yeah, good luck with that,” she muttered as she tramped through gardens and across more lawns en route to what was known as Tremenhill Hall but was really a repurposed mansion.
Okay, time to dust off the catastrophe scale. She needed something brutally dystopian if she was to emerge from her next encounter with Rafael with any dignity. Too bad nothing sprang readily to mind.
She should have gone for the damn knife, screw the DNA evidence! Her mother could have shipped her off to a country that didn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. Like...she didn’t know...did India have one? She could go and live on an ashram. Now there was a catastrophe she could get behind! Telling her mother she was gifting her trust fund to an ashram in India.
“Yeah, no thanks,” she said, and giggled suddenly as the marquee set up for welcome drinks outside the hall came into view. Like...giggled! Well, who knew? The catastrophe scale actually worked!
She whooshed out what felt like her first normal breath of the day as she crossed yet another lawn toward what was a very bridal confection. Garlands of white blooms not only festooned the marquee’s upper edge but also anchored billowing swathes of silky white fabric around the support poles. She looked down at her hot-pink dress, feeling every bit as conspicuous as she had during that “Oh fuck” moment in the chapel. But after her dare-you encounter with Rafael at the mausoleum, she was okay with that.
Or she would be, just as soon as she made sure she wasn’t on Table Two with Rafael and Felicity, because that would be taking the whole zero fucks mantra too far. Not that she really believed Romy and Matt would put her in that awkward position, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. And if she was on Table Two? Well, the bride and groom would be the first victims of the ensuing bloodbath, that’s all. It would be her Carrie moment!
She’d been to enough gala events to predict the seating plans would be at the hall entrance, so she walked straight through the marquee—and bingo! Two gold easels were set up alongside potted plants on either side of a center set of double doors. She headed for one of the easels and scanned the list for Table Two.
Brief close of her eyes—relief!—to find Rafael and Felicity listed but not her, before locating her name on Table Seven.
The room layout pinned below the table lists showed Tables Two and Seven were on opposite sides of the dance floor, but she decided she’d feel more confident of her ability to keep it together if she went inside and got the picture in 3D.
Through the full-height Palladian windows on either side of the entrance, she could see staff tweaking table settings. She hoped they wouldn’t shoo her out when she barged in early or she might lose her shit, but figured if she walked in like she owned the place—channeling her smiling-assassin mother and crossing that with the intimidating countenance so often worn by the headmistress of the Koller Finishing School in Switzerland—nobody would dare.
“Don’t fuck with me, people,” she said under her breath, stepping up and over the stoop to swing open the heavy double doors.
Within seconds she was threading her hot-pink, unchallenged way to Table Two. She sat in the spot reserved for Rafael Velez, then in the one for Felicity, and checked their line of sight to all the other tables before making her way to Table Seven. There she found that although she wouldn’t be facing them, she’d definitely be visible to them in profile.
That was going to have to change. Depositing her purse on her seat, she walked slowly around her table, stopping at each seat for a fresh assessment.
And then she heard her name. “Veronica Johnson.”
Male. British accent.
“‘Oh fuck’ from the chapel,” he added.
“I wonder how many times people are going to mention that to me tonight,” she said...and turned...and yes! Early thirties. Handsome. Impeccably suited—with tie, unlike Rafael Velez.
“I’ll be your knight in shining armor and defend you from attack,” he said.
“Hey, I didn’t say it, all I did was laugh.”
“And how could you not?”
“Exactly!” she said, and smiled her best smile at him. “But I’m in the market for a Sir Galahad tonight, as it turns out.”
She laughed as she squinted at his place card. “Why thank you, Phillip Castle.” She nodded at the extra card jostling for space beside her own. “But what will Sally Paulson say about it?”
“Ah, well, as to that...” He plucked Sally off the table and carried it around the table to put it where Veronica used to be. “I happen to know Sally Paulson fancies Romy’s cousin, Lloyd Allen—your erstwhile dining companion. So we’re sorted.”
A lightning-fast look across to Table Two told her she’d now be showing Rafael her back. “Seems we are,” she said, and decided to test the water vis-à-vis his susceptibility to Felicity. “You’re not disappointed you won’t be gazing across at the famous Felicity all night?”
He looked around as though Felicity had just materialized. Bad sign. “How do you know that?”
“I had a quick look around all the tables and found her on Table Two.”
“Ah! Maybe we need to do a few more place card swaps in that case—trade Sally and Lloyd for her and Rafael Velez.”
“A fan, are you?” Veronica said, abandoning hope of using him as her Husband No. 3 masquerader.
“Of hers? No. Of his? Most definitely.”
Damn, definitely no use to me, she thought, then wondered if she’d said those words out loud because Phillip laughed. “No, I’m not gay,” he said. “I just want his next book, Stomp.”
“His next...? Ah! You’re in publishing!”
“I am! Smythe & Lowe.”
“Me, too—Johnson/Charles. That explains why Romy has us on the same table.”
He looked her up and down, plucked her card back up off the table and read the name. “You’re that Veronica Johnson?”
“If you mean Veronica Johnson, editor, then yes.”
“More than an editor with that surname.”
“The name doesn’t carry as much weight as you’d think—and definitely not since the merger.”
“Do I scent dissatisfaction? If you’re contemplating a move, we’re looking for a Publishing Director for our new romance imprint.”
“That’s two moves—presuming it’s in London?”
“You’d love London.”
“I do love London.” Veronica laughed. “So thank you—I’ll take that under advisement.”
“I mean it!”
“So do I.”
“No you don’t—you New Yorkers are bloody hard to extract—but I’m a firm believer in the old adage ‘there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip,’ so I’m not giving up.” He put her card back on the table. “So—shall we do the card swap?”
“Hmm...” she said, pretending to think about it. “It would mean crossing out and rewriting names on Romy’s seating plan or there’d be pandemonium in here. If you’re willing to do that when Romy’s had the thing done by a calligrapher in gold ink, you’re much braver than I am!”
“Gah! Okay, stand down. Romy’s such a stickler for...”
But Veronica knew all Romy’s stickler-isms and tuned out to estimate how long it had been since she’d left Rafael at the mausoleum. Surely he and Felicity had to have made it to the marquee by now.
She tuned back into Philip to catch “...and that way we can leave the seating plan as is—so what do you say, shall we risk it?”
“No, I think it’s a recipe for disaster,” she said, assuming he’d come back to the subject of place card tampering. And then she smiled sweetly at him. At least, was it sweet? Her smile? She hoped it wasn’t as Sharknado-ish as she felt. “But if you escort me to the marquee for a glass of champagne, I’ll introduce you to Rafael.”
Phillip blinked at her. “You know him?”
“I do.”
“But he’s published with—”
“I know him personally not professionally. Johnson/Charles isn’t interested in publishing him.”
Phillip was looking at her curiously now. “So you’re not interested in acquiring his next book? It’s going to go to number one on the New York Times bestseller list without even trying, you know.”
“You mean Stomp? But I thought that was already—”
“Nope. I hear his deal has just fallen through.”
“Oh. Well. I see. But still...no,” she said. When Phillip blinked at her in disbelief, she added, “We’re over-inventoried. In that...er...area.”
“In the unbelievably fantastic, must-read, going-to-make-a-fortune area?”
She had no answer to that. Her boss, Melissa Charles—nickname “the Attack Dog”—would never understand a withered romance getting in the way of business. Veronica had had to lie when Melissa had asked her if she’d known Rafael at Capitol U. Melissa had been desperate to land Liar, Liar for Johnson/Charles and Veronica had known that any hint of familiarity let alone a full-blown, live-in love affair would have seen her pimped out to get it PDQ.
She hated to think what her reception would have been. She had, after all, refused to take his calls then blocked him, burned the letter he’d sent her via Matt and banned their mutual friends from telling him anything about her (and she knew he knew about that ban because she’d dispatched Teague to tell him so). So for her to come sniffing around begging for his book...?
No.
No, no, no.
She tried another smile—knew this one was definitely struggling to get anywhere near sweet. “If you’d rather I don’t introduce you, that’s fine by me. You can ask Romy to get you two together.”
“Romy knows him, too?”
“Romy, Matt, Rafael and I went to Capitol University together. We shared a house.”
“Good God! Why hasn’t she ever introduced me?”
“Maybe because he lives in LA,” she said through slightly gritted teeth. Did he want to meet Rafael or stand around talking about him? “But he’s here, and we’re here, so the offer’s...there...?”
He held out his arm. “An offer I can’t refuse.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“WELL, FUCK,” RAFAEL SAID under his breath as a triumphant-looking Veronica headed for him, accompanied by a guy who was a carbon copy of both her trust-fund-lugging husbands.
She stopped to take a glass from a passing waiter, then laughed at something Preppy Boy said as he grabbed his own glass. And in that instant Rafael may as well have been nineteen again, in that first year at college, about to go feral because some random dick of a guy had hit on her.
His hand jerked, champagne sloshing out of the glass and onto his shoe. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from cleaning that off, but the thought that Veronica would spot it, and in the process see that his shoes were handmade, stopped him. Not that he wanted to show off—she had a whole closet full of designer shoes—he just wanted to show her that he’d come a long, proud way, and the shoes were a symbol she’d understand.
Felicity gave his arm a warning squeeze. “You’re not going to strangle the poor man, are you?”
His lips twisted—half smile, half grimace. “I’m more likely to wring her neck.”
“You guys must have had fun at college if she can’t even walk beside another man without winding you up! Get it together, will you?”
And then Veronica was there, flashing a smile—what she called her finishing school smile—and he wanted to grab her by the arms and shake her and tell her not to use that smile on him. He wanted to kiss her, rip those uptight pins from her perfectly coiffed silver-blond hair and tear off her perfect dress and rattle her easy grace. He used to be able to do it. Make her as desperate and deranged as he was. Strip the cool off her just by touching her, so that she was hot and disheveled and gasping and throbbing.
And by God, he was going to do it again.
“How’s the hip?” she quipped back, inclining her head toward Felicity.
“Unattached,” he said. “Needing a replacement. Interested?”
“Is it the balls giving you trouble?”
“It’s the socket. I need a new one, but I can use an old one in the meantime.”
At which point Felicity cleared her throat and he became conscious that he and Veronica were exuding enough heat to light a furnace.
Veronica stepped forward, that smile replastered to her face as she held out her hand to Felicity. “I’m Veronica Johnson, an old college friend of Rafael’s.”
Felicity gave her fake smile for fake smile as she took that hand, shook it. “Felicity.”
“Oh, I know who you are—my sister, Scarlett, is your biggest fan!” Veronica laughed—like sweet bells on a clear night—but it was as fake as her smile; he knew because there was no snort to it. “Not, I promise you, in a Stephen King Misery kind of way.” She pulled Preppy Boy fully into the circle. “And this is Phillip Castle.” Back to Rafael, with her eyebrows set to go-fuck-yourself. “You know how we were talking about your next book? Stamp, is it?”
“Close enough,” Rafael said as Phillip choked on his champagne.
“Well, Phillip’s with Smythe & Lowe, and he’s very interested.”
“Oh, he is, is he?”
“Yes—go figure. And since you seemed so keen to tell me about your books when we had that delightful chat earlier, I knew you’d jump at the chance to speak to someone...impartial? Meanwhile, if you can spare Felicity—” turning to Felicity “—I hope she’ll regale me with all the salacious details about what happens next with Beth and Braxton in This Time Forever so I can fill Scarlett in once I’m back home in New York.”
Felicity waved an airy hand. “Oh, Beth’s going to have a wonderfully tragic soapy end I’m afraid,” she said, and narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. “I’m leaving the show to play Julie in Catch, Tag, Release—didn’t Rafa tell you?”
Getting Even Page 3