In the Shade of the Blossom Tree

by Joanna Rees

  In fact, as Luc continued talking, impressing her father with his tales of the Sorbonne in Paris and his high-flying business career in New York, Savvy hardly heard a word. Luc Devereaux was gorgeous and she wanted him to notice her very much.

  She could hardly believe this was happening. All that bullshit about love at first sight . . . well, it was just that, right? Just bullshit. Or at least that’s what she would have said before laying eyes on Luc Devereaux.

  But now – well, he’d certainly switched on something inside her. She felt lit up, like she was glowing, like she’d been plugged into a socket. And even if it wasn’t love at first sight, it sure as hell was close.

  When he left the table to go to the restroom, Hud had an even bigger shock in store.

  ‘So what do you think?’

  ‘He’s . . . he’s great,’ she said, unable to lie.

  ‘I think so too. Which is why from now on he’s going to be my right-hand man.’

  Savvy hadn’t even realized such a position existed.

  ‘I can’t go on running the show on my own for ever,’ he said, taking her hand to break the news gently. ‘I need someone to help take the strain – at least until one of you two decides you’re going to step up to the mark.’

  Savvy resisted the bait. She was having too much of a blast to disappear up a corporate dead end just yet.

  ‘So what will he do? Exactly?’ Savvy asked. Hud was a notorious control freak. There was no way he’d delegate important decision-making. Did Luc Devereaux know what he was getting himself into?

  ‘There are potential opportunities on the horizon in China. I’m going to train Luc to spearhead them,’ Hud said. ‘That’s where the future is, Savvy, you mark my words. But in the meantime, he’ll shadow me in Vegas until he learns the ropes. He’s got great ideas. He’s planning a Republican fundraiser at La Paris already.’

  Savvy was quick to give her blessing. Having Luc in Hud’s orbit would be a dream come true – for her. And he seemed smart, she assured her father.

  Amused by Savvy’s reaction, Hud was altogether more relaxed when Luc came back. Soon after, he left the table to make a phone call. And finally Savvy and Luc were alone.

  Savvy knew in an instant that whatever she was feeling, Luc was feeling it too. She watched him as he tried not to look at her. Then he did and he laughed, blushing.

  What the hell? she thought. If she’d read the signs wrong, then she was about to make a total ass of herself. But she was sure she hadn’t.

  She slipped off her shoe and ran her foot up his trouser leg underneath the table. She knew she shouldn’t do it – that it was completely out of order – but she couldn’t help herself. There was no point in pretending. This was sexual chemistry like she’d never experienced.

  ‘You know, Savannah,’ Luc said, ‘I never, ever mix business with pleasure.’

  Slowly she withdrew her foot and smiled. ‘I’m sure Hud will be delighted to hear that,’ she said, raising her eyebrow at him.

  But when Luc half stood up and had to use his linen napkin to cover his crotch, Savvy knew she’d got to him. The only bummer was the reason he’d been forced to stand up: Elodie was arriving at their table.

  ‘Look at you two,’ Elodie chirped. ‘Watching you chatting, it’s like you’ve known each other for ages. You must be Luc Devereaux. Daddy told me all about you.’

  And now Hud rejoined the group and gave Elodie a tender kiss, laying his hand on her cheek for a moment.

  ‘It’s not like you to be late,’ Hud gently chastised her.

  ‘I know. I’m sorry. But there was a Cézanne exhibition down the street and I couldn’t stop myself from popping in. And, well . . .’ She rolled her eyes. ‘You know me . . . I got completely absorbed.’

  ‘The father of Cubism,’ Luc said. ‘I’ll have to visit myself.’

  ‘You’re a fan then?’ Elodie asked.

  ‘And enthusiast. Certainly.’ He turned to Hud. ‘Two artistic daughters,’ he said, correcting his own earlier comment. ‘You are truly fortunate, Michael.’

  Annoyed and feeling, as usual, that she’d somehow been diminished by her sister, Savvy consoled herself that Elodie was looking her usual dowdy self. Her unhighlighted mousy hair was scraped back into a scrawny ponytail and her cheeks were flushed. She was inappropriately dressed, given the unseasonably hot April weather, in a purple turtle neck and boring black trousers. Next to her, Savvy, in her sexy low-cut yellow and white dress, high sandals and tousled hair, positively shone.

  She felt herself becoming hopelessly aroused, just watching Luc talk. The way his eyes sparkled as he spoke, his long fingers stroking the stem of his wine glass.

  She couldn’t stop picturing Luc naked. What would he be like in bed?

  Sensational, she decided. French men were all sexy, weren’t they? Her mind wandered off into shuttered French bedrooms with four-poster beds, she and Luc nakedly tangled in the softest of linen sheets . . .

  For the rest of the meal, Luc hardly looked at her, paying all his attention to Elodie. Savvy was amused at first, thinking it was a tactic to prevent himself from revealing his attraction to Savvy again, especially in front of Hud. But after a while, as their conversation moved on from Cézanne to Matisse and Picasso and then on to Elodie’s budding interior design business, it became obvious that Luc had so much more in common with Elodie than he had with her. Luc wasn’t interested in live bands, like Savvy was, he liked old school jazz, like Elodie. He wasn’t interested in clubbing, he liked to play polo in his spare time, or ski. Elodie was quick to invite him out riding. And of course, he loved that too.

  Or was it all an act? Savvy wondered. Was this just part of the famous Devereaux charm? Was he secretly saving up all his real passion for her?

  After the initial lunch with Hud, Savvy made it her business to find out everything there was to know about the handsome and charming Luc Devereaux. If he thought he could ignore her, he was very much mistaken. She was on a mission to snare him.

  His name cropped up often as an A-list bachelor in the glossier magazines, but Savvy’s internet research didn’t pull up anything unusual. He was straight and hard-working. He wasn’t into drugs and he didn’t drink to excess. But Savvy could clean up her act easily enough. She’d never had a problem attracting men before.

  The more Savvy thought about him, the harder she fell. She’d turned over a new leaf, she told herself happily, and had become a one-man woman.

  Soon Luc Devereaux was the talk of Vegas, as well as New York. Hud introduced him to everyone, and from day one he was a big hit.

  Luc wasn’t the only one to have moved his operation to Vegas. Savvy did the same. She spent more and more weekends at the White House. Hud was delighted. But that was the problem. She never seemed to get Luc on his own.

  With Luc so busy, Savvy decided to up the chase. She started taking photographs of herself. Intimate, arty, sexy shots that never showed her face. And she emailed them to Luc from an anonymous account, making sure that she was often in the room with him when he received them. She wanted him to know exactly what he was missing.

  Pretty soon, she was sure he hadn’t told anyone about them. The only problem was that the more pictures she sent, the more time he seemed to talk about Elodie at their family get-togethers. She started to wonder whether he suspected that the photos were from Elodie herself. Had Luc confused Savvy’s pictures with a secret come-on that he thought was from Elodie?

  She was determined to find out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Red’s hands were on Savvy’s hips as he helped her down from Mr Ed. They’d come out of the trees and Savvy squinted in the bright sunlight. In the clearing was a small pool and Red led the horses to the muddy bank to drink.

  Savvy sat down in the long grass, breathing in the fresh air. Red came over to her, smiling. He rubbed his thighs, then sat down.

  ‘This is a good place for a rest,’ he said. ‘Besides, I need to hear more. What happened then?�
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  Savvy sighed. She knew she’d started, so she shouldn’t stop. But she had no idea how she was going to feel telling Red about that night. But it was now or never.

  By the night of the Republican fundraiser and Luc’s lavish gala in La Paris, Savvy knew that this was the chance she’d been waiting for. Her flirtation with Luc had gone on long enough. It was time to seal the deal.

  Yet whilst all the great and good of Vegas turned up, Luc didn’t show. Word came through – annoyingly via Elodie – that he was stuck in fog at JFK airport and wasn’t going to make it.

  But Marcus had. He swooped into the room and gave Savvy a big hug. She could tell he was already drunk.

  ‘Where have you been?’ she asked him. ‘Seriously?’ She hadn’t heard from him for weeks. She was more pleased to see him than she’d realized. Marcus always livened up these stuffy events.

  ‘I told you. Disneyland. With disadvantaged children.’

  Savvy grinned. ‘Still after that nurse?’

  ‘Bagged and tagged,’ he told her. ‘She wasn’t as hot as I’d thought she’d be.’

  But then Marcus seemed to remember something and pulled out a plastic lighter from his pocket. ‘Ta da!’ he said. ‘I bought you a present.’

  She took the lighter from him, laughing. It said Savannah on it in loopy writing.

  ‘And that’s not all I’ve got in my party pockets,’ he told her. He opened his jacket and pulled out a see-through plastic bag of cocaine, shaking it enticingly.

  ‘Shall we, milady?’ he asked, nodding towards the cloakrooms.

  Savvy smiled, but she felt torn. She wanted to save herself for Luc. She didn’t want to be wired if he did make it tonight. She’d been looking forward to seducing Luc for months. She wanted to savour and remember every second of it. Every touch of his hands . . . and thrust of his hips . . .

  But now he wasn’t coming, what the hell. She might as well console herself somehow and Marcus was so difficult to resist.

  Marcus darted into a cubicle and she followed him in. She watched as he tipped out the cocaine on to the top of the porcelain tank. He chopped several huge lines.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing. Why?’

  ‘You seem . . . different. You aren’t sober, are you?’

  Savvy smiled. ‘Yes, actually, I am.’

  ‘Good God. Why?’

  Marcus snorted the giant line of cocaine he’d laid out.

  ‘I was waiting for someone to show up,’ Savvy said.

  ‘Someone?’ he asked, amused, making her wish that she hadn’t said anything. How she felt about Luc was too precious to be the subject of Marcus’s inevitable derision.

  Marcus offered her the rolled-up note he’d used with a grin.

  ‘Yes,’ she said, snatching the note from him. ‘And it’s none of your business, so don’t ask.’

  She turned away from him and leaned down towards the coke.

  ‘Did I tell you that you look sensational in that dress?’ he asked, as she bent over.

  She felt him slip his hand inside the fabric of the long skirt and reach for the softness of her upper thighs.

  ‘Oh, easy access,’ he cooed. ‘I likey a lot.’

  ‘Stop it,’ she said, slapping his hand away. She snorted the smallest line and turned to face him.

  ‘What?’ he said.

  But they both knew damn well what. And looking down she saw that he’d dropped his pants and was holding his impressive, throbbing cock in his hand.

  ‘Marcus!’ she hissed, both outraged and amused. ‘Put it away.’

  ‘Oh, but your old friend is missing you. Come on. Just a quickie. You’re mistress of the quickie. I know you want me. I’ve missed you.’

  ‘Get off me, you idiot,’ she said. ‘I told you, there’s someone else.’

  Still not letting go, he buried his face in her neck. ‘How can you say that?’ he said, lifting her skirt higher and pressing against her.

  ‘Because it’s true,’ she said, pushing him away.

  ‘So where is he?’ he said, shrugging. ‘Not here. I don’t see him.’ He lifted up Savvy’s arms, pretending to look.

  ‘Just cut it out, OK?’

  ‘So you’re hooked on some new guy? So what? This is us. It’s different.’

  ‘I said no,’ she told him.

  They both froze as they heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door.

  There was a clicking noise, then the squeak of the cubicle door being pushed open.

  Their cubicle door.

  ‘What the fuck?’ Savvy said, spinning round.

  Elodie stood in the doorway. She stared at Savvy. Then her eyes went to the cocaine laid out on the white porcelain. Then back to Marcus, who was still holding his cock in his fist.

  Marcus burst into fits of giggles, but Elodie didn’t make a sound. She just turned on her heel and marched out of the cloakroom.

  ‘You fucking idiot,’ Savvy hissed, shoving Marcus back. ‘Now look what you’ve done.’ How could they have forgotten to lock the door?

  Savvy pulled her skirt down and raced after Elodie.

  She didn’t catch her up until they were on the dance floor.

  ‘El. Please stop,’ she implored her, catching hold of her arm.

  Elodie’s eyes flashed angrily at her. They were wet with tears. ‘What you do with your life is your own business. But for fuck’s sake, Savvy. Here?’

  ‘Elodie, stop it. Calm down. I wasn’t doing anything—’

  ‘I could see perfectly well what you were doing.’

  ‘It’s not what you think—’

  ‘You obviously don’t care what I think. Or anyone else for that matter, so just stop pretending.’

  Savvy blew out a long, frustrated breath. Elodie was a nightmare when she was like this. She had been this way since they were children. Once she’d made her mind up about something, that was that.

  ‘I’m going home,’ Elodie told her. ‘I’ve got a headache.’

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Savvy said. She wasn’t going to justify her behaviour. Not when Elodie was so clearly in the wrong.

  After that, Savvy wasn’t in the mood for Marcus’s pranks and she told him to leave. And for once, seeing how upset she was, he apologized and did as he was told.

  As the coke wore off, she decided to go home herself and cornered her father to say goodbye.

  ‘But you can’t go,’ Hud told her.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because look who’s just arrived.’

  Savvy turned and saw what her father meant. Luc Devereaux was standing by the doorway in an immaculate Tom Ford tuxedo.

  Even across the crowded dance floor, his eyes picked her out straight away.

  And when they did, he smiled.

  As usual, however, getting to Luc – and getting him alone – proved extremely difficult. Hud enthusiastically introduced his protégé to the assembled dignitaries and Savvy for once played the part of the dutiful daughter, skirting around the room, always keeping Luc in her peripheral vision.

  She switched to spritzers to stay sober, flirting gently with the male politicians whilst charming their wives and girlfriends too. She listened to their boring stories and laughed at their tired jokes. It was all an act, of course, but she knew the part well. She’d had plenty of practice watching her sister playing it for real.

  It didn’t escape her notice that Luc had been watching her from across the room as she effortlessly racked up brownie points for La Paris. Oh yes, she thought, I have many strings to my bow, Luc Devereaux. And the perfect corporate hostess is just one . . .

  It was the early hours by the time the party finally started to wind down. She spotted Luc heading for the washrooms and made sure she was in the corridor when he came back out.

  Even though she’d rehearsed this moment over and over in her mind these last few weeks, Savvy was nervous as hell. This was too important to mess up. He was too important. But seducing men was wha
t she did best, she reminded herself. Giving the right signals and pressing the right buttons . . . it was second nature to her. Except that right now all that knowledge suddenly seemed to have deserted her. She stared at him like a tongue-tied teenager, through wide, yearning eyes.

  ‘Ah, Savvy,’ he said. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked, his mouth crinkling into a confused smile.

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  ‘Only you look kind of spaced out.’

  When for once I’m not, she thought. Get it together, she told herself. Remember the plan.

  ‘It must be this light,’ she said with a shrug, as she linked her arm through his and turned him away from the main function room and towards the service lift.

  ‘Where are we going?’ he asked. She could feel his hard muscles through the soft material of his tuxedo. She didn’t want to let go.

  ‘Hud wants us to join him for a nightcap,’ she said. ‘He’s upstairs in one of the suites.’

  She led him down the corridor, just catching the elevator before it closed. Inside, a maid smiled at her, the button for their floor already lit up.

  As the elevator rose, Savvy’s nerves multiplied. What if he rejected her? What if he really did want Elodie instead? Or, what if there was someone else, someone she knew nothing about? What if this was a contest she’d already lost?

  Infuriatingly, the maid got out on the same floor as them and they still couldn’t talk. They followed her in silence down the corridor. With each slow step, Savvy felt her dream fading. This wasn’t how it was supposed to have been. It was meant to have been impulsive, fateful, quick. Not awkward and tense like this.

  Please let me be right about him, she prayed. Please let him feel the same as me.

  It wasn’t until Savvy unlocked the suite door and showed Luc inside that he finally spoke.

  ‘There’s no one here,’ he said, looking round the empty room.

  The bed was already turned back. Just as she’d requested, a bottle of iced champagne, two Tiffany flutes and a single red rose were on a silver tray on the bedside table.

  Hanging a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the outside handle, Savvy shut the door behind her, sealing them in. ‘There’s us,’ she said.