Her lips tightened as she noticed that Seraphina was missing too but she guessed her granddaughter was too embarrassed to show her face. At least Max was there, at the back of the room, even if he did seem more interested in talking to Madeleine Lombard than in the party. Still, there were worse girls for him to be mixing with. Delphine frowned in disappointment. Considering this was supposed to be a celebration of the family’s best-selling perfume, her family were in scant attendance. Cat Hayes was also conspicuous by her absence, Delphine thought vaguely but she didn’t care. The girl was hardly her concern.
She realised everyone was staring at her expectantly. She cleared her throat and spoke again. ‘It also gives me great pleasure to announce that my grandson, Xavier, has created a brand new fragrance.’
A murmur of excitement fluttered round the room.
‘And in honour of this, instead of our usual low-key campaigns which simply feature our bottle of scent, we thought such a significant event deserved something special.’
At the back of the room, Max rolled his eyes. ‘Could this be any duller?’ he murmured to Madeleine.
Grinning, she nudged him. ‘Sshh, your grandmother will lynch you if she knows you’re not being one hundred per cent supportive.’
Max yawned in response.
Delphine caught sight of him and narrowed her eyes. God, that child was disrespectful! Still, this should stop him – and everyone else – in their tracks. ‘So I am delighted to be able to introduce you to the person who will be featuring in our new ad campaign to launch Xavier’s fragrance . . .’ As she paused for effect, a vision in a red Dior dress with acres of thigh showing swept into the room, a mane of shining blond hair hanging over one shoulder.
There was a collective gasp from the crowd, the biggest one from Max.
‘Wow,’ Madeleine breathed. ‘Now that’s an entrance . . .’ She glanced at Max, suppressing the urge to close his gaping mouth. ‘Get a grip, Max. She’s stunningly beautiful but there’s no need to look like an idiot.’
Max shook his head. ‘It’s not that,’ he managed in a hoarse voice.
‘Then what is it?’ Madeleine frowned.
‘I have to find Xavier,’ Max murmured, wondering where the hell his brother might be.
‘I think your father said he’d gone to the stables to look for Seraphina . . .’ Madeleine shook her head as Max tore out of the room. What on earth was going on?
In the stables, Cat lay in Xavier’s arms blissfully, wrapped up in his dinner jacket. She had never felt so wonderful in her life. Her chin was red-raw from his stubble, as were several other parts of her body, and she loved the fact that her skin was still throbbing from his touch.
Xavier traced his finger along her thigh, watching her squirm with pleasure. A horse whinnied in the stable next to them and he smiled. ‘That’s my palomino, Cassis,’ he told Cat. ‘She’s probably jealous you’ve stolen my attention.’
‘That beautiful, chocolate-coloured horse is yours?’
He nodded. ‘I got her from Spain. They say the name probably comes from Juan de Palomino who received one of Queen Isabella of Spain’s horses hundreds of years ago. Rumour has it palominos were named after a golden-coloured Spanish grape by the same name, so even though Cassis is a rare chocolate colour, she’s named after my favourite Provençal wine.’ Xavier rolled his eyes. ‘You probably think that makes me sound like a total wine snob, the rich playboy all over again.’
Cat shook her head. ‘I know I was wrong about that . . . I was wrong to compare you to Olivier. Look, me and Olivier . . . we only slept together a few times. It was more of a holiday romance than anything else – if we hadn’t got married, if he hadn’t died, who knows what might have happened to our relationship.’
Xavier immediately felt better. ‘I need to tell you something, too.’ He said, his eyes downcast.
‘That sounds ominous,’ Cat said, feeling her stomach tighten. She ran her hand across his broad chest, wondering when she had ever felt so happy.
‘It’s not,’ Xavier assured her. ‘It’s just that you said in Grasse that I didn’t want to open up to you because I was emotionally retarded and I want to explain.’
Cat blushed. ‘God, the things that come out of my mouth. At least, I meant it at the time but—’
‘There was someone,’ Xavier interrupted, needing to be truthful with her. ‘Someone I fell in love with and she . . . she changed everything.’
Cat felt a pang at his words. Of course he’d been in love before; she just wished the thought of it didn’t make her feel nauseous.
Xavier stared past her. ‘She made me do crazy things. I wasn’t myself when I was with her but she had this hold over me, you know?’
Cat nodded. She did know; she had felt the same way about Olivier.
‘It was serious between us, really serious. She found out she was pregnant and I was so happy. Then, within a few weeks, my mother died and the baby too . . . a miscarriage.’
Cat was too shocked to speak. Whatever she had imagined was behind Xavier’s shutters, this wasn’t it. She wanted to stop him because she could see how much it was hurting him to say it all out loud but now that Xavier had opened the floodgates, he couldn’t seem to close them again.
‘My girlfriend . . . she left, without a word,’ he said in a flat tone. ‘She wouldn’t talk about it and I thought the worst of her. I had terrible suspicions that maybe she hadn’t suffered a miscarriage . . . that she had never really wanted the baby in the first place.’
‘So you stopped making perfumes,’ Cat said, abruptly realising what had caused Xavier to turn his back on his passion.
‘I felt dead inside. Probably the way you did when your parents passed away. Except that for me, I didn’t want to live each second as if it was my last.’ Xavier’s mouth tightened and he met her eyes. ‘I wanted to feel dead . . . I didn’t want to feel anything. I couldn’t find the enthusiasm to do what made me happy . . . I couldn’t bear it.’
Cat stared at him. All at once, she understood Xavier; the casual girlfriends, the refusal to make perfumes, the desire to live life mindlessly and without regret. He was protecting himself. Like her, he had been broken; he had just responded to his pain and grief in a different way. Cat took his chin in her hand and kissed him, tenderly. Xavier kissed her back, grateful she had listened without judging him.
Pausing, he slipped his dinner jacket from her lightly tanned shoulder and kissed it. ‘This is the first time I’ve trusted anyone enough to tell them about it. It’s been years and the worst thing about it was that this woman is in the public eye. No one knew about us but still, I had to see her name, her face, everywhere.’
Cat tensed. An awful thought had just occurred to her but she couldn’t be right . . . she couldn’t be. ‘Who . . . who was she?’ she asked, her breath catching in her throat.
Xavier swallowed. Did he trust Cat enough? He decided he did. What had just happened between them had meant more to him than anything ever had before. ‘She’s an actress . . . only well known in France.’ Hearing something outside, Xavier sat up suddenly. Throwing Cat’s clothes at her, he hurriedly dressed. ‘That sounded like Max. What on earth is he yelling about?’
Cat shimmied into the dress, feeling as though she could throw up. Catching Xavier’s arm, she stopped him. ‘The woman who broke your heart, what’s her name?’
Xavier stared at her curiously. ‘You won’t even have heard of her. She’s—’ He turned as Max burst into the stable, his chest heaving.
‘Xavier, you have to come up to the house,’ he panted, leaning over to catch his breath. ‘Grandmother . . . she arranged a surprise and you’re going to be so angry.’
‘What’s going on?’ Discreetly, Xavier tucked Cat’s bra into his pocket but Max’s words had sent a chill down his spine.
Max straightened up. ‘Just follow me . . . you have to.’ Shooting Cat a curious glance and noticing that her hair was loose and studded with straw, he said nothing. Instead, he hea
ded out of the stable.
Xavier threw his dinner jacket round Cat’s shoulders and grabbed her hand. She stalled, panicking. She had a horrible feeling she knew exactly what Delphine’s surprise was and she had to warn him; she simply had to ‘Xavier . . . Delphine’s surprise . . . I can only apologise . . .’
‘What? Let’s go. Max must have come looking for me for a good reason.’ Filled with apprehension, Xavier pulled Cat after him and they hurried towards the house. Cat breathlessly tried to explain the appalling mix-up but she knew she wasn’t making any sense and he wasn’t listening any way. Xavier’s dinner jacket fell from her shoulders as they entered the main salon but Cat didn’t even register the sudden chill she felt.
Xavier stopped dead when he saw Angelique. She looked stunning in her red dress. She was holding court in the room while photographers went crazy around her. Exuding star quality, she worked the room like a pro, shaking hands and murmuring greetings, politely accepting the gushing compliments of the star-struck crowd.
Delphine, accompanying Angelique on her gracious tour around the room, spotted Xavier and paused to gauge his reaction. She couldn’t help noticing that his dark hair was all over the place and that his shirt was undone. Her eyes slid to Cat and, noting her loose hair and dishevelled appearance, Delphine felt a moment of disquiet. Surely not . . .
‘Angelique,’ Xavier croaked, unable to believe his eyes.
‘It’s her, isn’t it?’ Cat gulped, watching the blood drain from his face. ‘She’s the woman you were in love with.’ His stricken expression said it all and Cat felt faint. ‘I would never have approached her if I’d known,’ she told him desperately. ‘Please forgive me . . .’
‘You?’ Deathly white, Xavier spun round to face her. ‘You did this?’
Cat shook her head dumbly. ‘I didn’t know . . . she’s here for the ad campaign for your fragrance . . .’
Xavier’s eyes turned dark with pain. ‘Do you have any idea what you’ve done?’ He shook her hand from his arm and turned to face Angelique as she sidled up to him.
‘Xavier.’ Seeing a hovering photographer she recognised from a gossip magazine, Angelique planted a juicy kiss on Xavier’s mouth. ‘Have you missed me?’
‘Fuck off,’ Xavier told her in a cold undertone, recoiling at the pungent waft of jasmine. He gave Cat a look of utter devastation before stalking out of the room.
Crumpling, Cat met Delphine’s self-satisfied gaze. She really does hate me, Cat thought in shock.
Max put Xavier’s dinner jacket around Cat’s shivering shoulders. ‘Shit. Cat, are you all right?’
Cat shook her head blindly. ‘No, no, I’m not. Sorry, I have to go . . .’
Tearing away and not even able to look at Delphine again, she stumbled out of the room and ran up the stairs. Only when she was safely in her room did she fall on the bed and give in to her feelings. Burying her face in Xavier’s dinner jacket and inhaling the evocative scent of his aftershave, Cat sobbed harder than she ever had in her life.
Chapter Eighteen
The following morning, Leoni found herself sitting in her office, listlessly sorting through her paperwork. Unusually, she hadn’t put on one of her designer dresses; she was wearing a simple black tunic with a gold chain belt. Today, looking like a businesswoman who thrived on pressure and challenge seemed unimportant and inappropriate. Besides, who was she trying to impress?
Biting her nails, Leoni thought about last night. What a spectacle, what a drama! She didn’t fully understand everything that had happened because she had been so caught up in her own issues, but the look on Xavier’s face when Angelique had turned up . . . Leoni sighed.
Returning to her own turmoil, she thought about Jerard and the way she had presented herself to him. She accepted now that her work persona had been a shield to hide behind; a brittle, professional aura she had created to protect her emotional vulnerability. It was nothing more than an act, one she was tiring of. Couldn’t she just be herself? Couldn’t she just be allowed to be who she was and be accepted for it? It seemed that even Jerard, so perfect at first glance, seemed to want her to be something she wasn’t.
No, Leoni corrected herself. Jerard wanted her to be the person she’d appeared to be: professional, committed to work and ultimately emotionless. She had given him the impression from the start that all she cared about was work and he had assumed she was a kindred spirit, a woman who didn’t mind being left alone at a party just because a big deal had been finalised. A woman who didn’t protest when a romantic moment was interrupted because, after all, business was everything, wasn’t it? Leoni sighed. Ironically, it was Jerard, the only man she’d met who really liked the old Leoni, who had made her realise she wanted more out of life than work.
So, where did that leave them? Leoni wondered. Did she really want to be with a man who ditched her at the first sight of a deal? Because there would always be another deal, that much was obvious.
Leoni checked her phone. No messages.
And what about Ashton? He hadn’t said a word to her all night, even after Jerard had gone. Ashton had arrived at the party without a date but he had seemed to be actively avoiding her and it felt horrible. Leoni was confused. Had she done something to upset him? She missed her best friend. Ever since Jerard had come on the scene, her friendship with Ashton seemed to have deteriorated. Was that the problem, perhaps? Did Ashton feel neglected? Surely not. He wasn’t the type to be so self-absorbed. No, there must be some other reason.
Leoni looked up bleakly as the door opened.
‘Sorry,’ Cat mumbled, turning away. ‘I-I was looking for Xavier.’
Leoni called her back. ‘Wait. Come in. Please, come in.’ She ushered Cat in, not sure why she was doing such a thing. But something in Cat’s eyes told her that all was not well. ‘What happened last night?’
Cat sat down in the stiff leather armchair Leoni offered her. She didn’t want to be here; she didn’t trust Leoni and Leoni couldn’t stand her.
Leoni sat on the edge of her desk and stared at Cat. Usually so sparkling and warm, Cat’s aquamarine eyes were dejected and sombre looking. There were violet shadows beneath them from lack of sleep and her long hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Her clothes had clearly been an afterthought that morning; she was wearing old jeans with a crumpled purple T-shirt that needed a wash.
‘Talk to me,’ Leoni said, concerned. ‘You look like you need a friend. And I know I’m probably not your number one choice but I’m here and I’m listening.’
Cat looked up warily. What could she say? How could she explain? Leoni had warned her against getting involved with Xavier. ‘One Ducasse is enough,’ she had spat out nastily. Cat shifted uncomfortably. She had only just got her head around what her relationship with Olivier had been about – who he really was – and she had flung herself headlong into another ill-fated romance.
‘This is to do with Angelique,’ Leoni guessed accurately.
Cat rubbed a hand over her eyes, feeling exhausted. ‘You could say that.’
‘Xavier’s ex-girlfriend. He was never the same after she left.’
Cat raised her eyebrows. ‘Yes, he told me about it last night. I know . . . everything.’
‘You know everything?’ Leoni felt an irrational stab of jealousy. Xavier hadn’t told her a single thing about it. In fact, as far as she knew, only the twins were in full possession of the facts and nothing would prise the truth out of those two when they’d been sworn to secrecy.
Cat, unaware of Leoni’s thoughts, groaned. ‘Why did I let Delphine talk me into speaking to Angelique? I thought maybe she was finally coming round to trusting me – liking me even, for fuck’s sake!’ She stopped, realising she’d let it slip about Delphine. What was she thinking? Leoni had claws, sharp ones, and she wasn’t afraid to use them. Cat could have bitten her tongue off but it was too late now.
Leoni gawped. ‘Grandmother asked you to bring Angelique here?’ She looked flabbergasted. ‘Why would she do that?’
Cat was silent and Leoni felt guilty. ‘Look, I know I’ve given you a hard time and you don’t trust me. I’ve been an absolute bitch and I think I’ve finally figured out why.’ She met Cat’s gaze head on. ‘Ashton said something to me once that makes sense. I-I think I’m jealous of you. I mean, I was.’
Cat’s jaw dropped. Why on earth would Leoni be jealous of her? Because she married someone she barely knew? Because she was a widow at the age of twenty-six?
‘I know it sounds stupid but I think I was jealous that you were the person Olivier spent his last hours with,’ Leoni confessed. ‘We were so close – at least, I thought we were and yet I didn’t even know he was married. And you didn’t even know I existed! It hurt me, and with no Olivier here to blame, I took it out on you. It’s horrible but I hope it makes some sort of sense.’
Cat nodded slowly. It did. ‘I did love him; at least, I think I did.’ She frowned, thinking about the way she felt about Xavier which made her feelings for Olivier fade into insignificance.
‘It really doesn’t matter any more,’ Leoni told her, meaning it. ‘I just wanted to get that off my chest.’ She sat down in another armchair. ‘Do you want to talk about what happened with Xavier? I won’t be offended if you don’t want to.’
Cat hesitated. She desperately needed to confide in someone but it was hard to spill her thoughts to Leoni. Realising that it had probably taken a lot for Leoni to own up to her jealousy over Olivier, Cat thought maybe she should give Leoni a chance but Leoni seemed to be in an offloading mood.
‘All right, I’ll tell you something about me, shall I? Something personal. Then maybe you’ll be able to trust me.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’ve fallen for Jerard, the guy I’ve been dating. But he . . . he puts business before me. We haven’t slept together because his phone rings off the hook and, honestly, I think the only way we’ll ever get it together is if I plaster an enticing deal all over my naked body to persuade him to pay attention to me for long enough.’
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