Heaven Scent

by Sasha Wagstaff

  Cat smiled. She knew it must have killed Leoni to admit to that.

  ‘And he buys me lilies and I can’t bring myself to tell him I can’t stand them and instead of telling me how he feels, he shows me . . . but he’s always interrupted so I never really get to find out.’ Spent, Leoni sat back in her chair. ‘Is that enough sharing?’

  Cat gave a short laugh. ‘Yes.’ Knowing she could trust Leoni with Xavier’s secret past, she filled her in quickly, telling her the briefest facts of Xavier’s relationship with Angelique. She didn’t mention what had happened with Xavier in the stables; that was too personal . . . too intimate.

  Leoni was perplexed. ‘So she just left, without discussing losing the baby with him? That’s a bit suspect, isn’t it? And not a very nice thing to do, especially after Aunt Elizabeth had just died.’ Leoni let out a slow breath. ‘No wonder Xavier lost interest in the business . . . no wonder he howled at anyone who went near him.’ Leoni felt mortified when she thought of the many jibes she had thrown at Xavier for not pulling his weight and creating more perfumes. How she had mocked him for walking away from the family business and not being as committed to it as she was. Leoni let out a strangled breath. She was learning an awful lot about herself lately. She wished she’d had a more open mind. Maybe she and her grandmother were more alike than she’d thought. Leoni frowned and suppressed that unpalatable thought for the time being.

  She focused on Cat again. ‘So, the bit we don’t understand is what Grandmother is playing at, getting Angelique back here.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Well, she can’t know about the baby situation or about Angelique just leaving Xavier like that,’ Leoni pointed out reasonably. Seeing Cat’s eyebrows lift doubtfully, she shook her head firmly. ‘No, Grandmother is a tough old lady and we all know how she manipulates everybody but there’s no way she’d hurt Xavier in that way. He’s her favourite grandson, she adores him.’ Leoni thought for a second. ‘I can only imagine she thought Xavier was still in love with Angelique and that they’d had a silly row or something. I wonder if she thought she was playing Cupid?’

  Cat bit her lip, realising Leoni was probably right.

  ‘It was an honest mistake on your part,’ Leoni pointed out. She could see how upset Cat was and she wondered why. Out of nowhere, the penny dropped. Cat had fallen for Xavier! Something had probably happened between them last night but Cat didn’t want to talk about it. Leoni was surprised at herself for not being more bothered by the realisation.

  ‘Aren’t we in a mess?’ she commented lightly, not letting on to Cat that she had guessed about Xavier. She gestured to her towering pile of paperwork. ‘I’ve been working so hard on the home fragrance campaign, I’ve neglected everything else.’ Leoni grimaced. ‘And I don’t even know if my proposal is any good.’

  ‘Let me have a look at it,’ Cat pleaded. ‘Please, I need something to take my mind off all of this, at least until Xavier’s calmed down and I can speak to him about everything.’ Quite honestly, Cat still wanted to flee from La Fleurie and never set eyes on it again but she knew she owed it to Xavier to try and explain herself. According to Bella, her passport was on its way, so in all probability Cat would be leaving very soon. She needed to make her peace with Xavier before that.

  Leoni was about to turn Cat’s offer of assistance down automatically, the way she did whenever anyone offered help, but she caught herself. Why did she keep doing that? Hadn’t she learnt yet that it wasn’t a failure to admit she was struggling with something? Besides, with Cat’s branding and advertising know-how, it would be madness to reject an offer of assistance when she so sorely needed it.

  ‘Actually, yes. Do you mind?’ Leoni dragged the paperwork towards her. ‘I just can’t get my head around how to pitch this to Guy. I thought I had it all worked out but now I can’t even think of a reason to launch a home fragrance line. I’ve totally lost my way.’

  Cat took the plans from Leoni. Mentally shelving her agonies over Xavier, she skim-read the proposal. Leoni watched anxiously from across the desk.

  ‘It’s good but it needs honing,’ Cat assessed. She felt her imagination take hold and she was pleased. Anything to keep her from giving in to the appalling ache in her heart. ‘Product placement is my speciality. I know exactly how you should pitch this to Guy. Hand me a pen and we’ll get started.’

  Throwing her a grateful smile, Leoni did as she was told for once.

  Later that day, Guy was sitting in his office, barely holding it together. He was raging but he didn’t know what to do with his rage or how to handle the situation. Seraphina’s behaviour last night had appalled him. He hadn’t thought she could possibly shock him more than she had the day she’d ridden round the college gardens naked but now she had done it again. And this time, it was far worse. This time, Seraphina’s actions had taken a sinister turn, one that frightened the hell out of Guy.

  He shook as he thought about what had happened. Seraphina was far too young for boyfriends, especially one who was old enough to be her father. Guy’s mouth tightened. And he had been worried about perverts approaching Seraphina on the beach! It seemed he had far more to worry about closer to home. He cursed his mother for bringing that man into their home. What was she thinking, hiring a private detective? This obsession with Cat Hayes was completely out of hand.

  Guy felt repulsed, both by his mother’s actions and by Seraphina’s. He was angrier with Seraphina because she was his daughter but, really, his mother was appalling these days. He laced his fingers together, wondering what he should do. He wanted to speak to Elizabeth, to ask her advice because he was at a complete loss and it was making his head and his heart ache. But he couldn’t, he could never ask Elizabeth anything ever again.

  He saw his mother approaching and he shook his head at her in disgust.

  Delphine flushed. Unlike the night before, Guy now looked to be fully in control of himself. He was wearing a spotless white shirt with a silver tie that matched the colour of his neat hair. He was pale beneath his tan and his brown eyes were aflame with anger but other than that, he looked scarily calm. Xavier often looked this way, Delphine mused, in the seconds before he erupted. She needed to have her wits about her.

  ‘Now, I know you’re cross,’ she said in a soothing tone, fully aware it was an understatement, ‘but I can explain.’

  Guy gestured to a chair. ‘Well, come on then, Mother. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say about all of this.’

  She limped to a chair without her cane. Guy’s aloof expression remained unchanged. If his mother was trying to get the sympathy vote, she’d have to do better than that, he thought harshly.

  Delphine touched a hand to her snowy-white chignon shaking and, uncharitably, Guy was pleased to see it. His mother was always so in control, so restrained. She had always presented herself as a figurehead, someone to emulate and follow, but this time she had gone too far.

  ‘You have every right to be disappointed in me,’ she started.

  ‘Disappointed!’ Guy exploded. A vein throbbed in his head and Delphine stared at it worriedly. ‘Disappointed doesn’t even come close to how I’m feeling right now, Mother.’

  Delphine inclined her head. ‘I know you don’t understand why I hired Yves – I mean, the private detective,’ she said hurriedly, realising the use of Yves’ name would be like a red rag to a bull for Guy. ‘But I really thought I was doing the right thing. My friend Cybille—’

  ‘Your friend Cybille is a poisonous old dragon,’ Guy growled, slamming his hand down on his desk. ‘She doesn’t care about you or about this family. All she cares about is her place in society. She’s nothing more than a social leech.

  Delphine was taken aback. ‘I hardly think that’s the case,’ she protested, her brows knitting together. It wasn’t true – was it? ‘She recommended the private detective and I hired him because I was worried about Cat Hayes. I thought she might have a secret, something that might help us if she refused to go. Or that
might damage the family in some way,’ she added, thinking that sounded better.

  Guy shot her a withering glance. ‘Blackmail?’ he asked, looking revolted. ‘Surely we haven’t stooped to that. Surely we haven’t become people who resort to these sorts of tactics, Mother. Those are the kind of people who usually target wealthy families like us.’

  ‘It’s not blackmail, it’s insurance,’ Delphine protested automatically, using Cybille’s words. ‘Cybille says—’

  ‘I don’t want to hear another word about Cybille!’ Guy roared, making her jump. ‘This is about Seraphina. I’m furious with you for bringing that pervert into our house but I’m more concerned about my daughter thinking she can sleep with men twice her age. Does the girl have no morals?’ He was ranting now and he couldn’t stop. ‘First she rides round her college naked and now this!’

  ‘Guy!’ Still stinging from Guy’s comments about Cybille, Delphine wasn’t going to let that one pass. ‘Seraphina does have morals and, for the record, she didn’t have sex with Yves.’ Guy winced. ‘I agree that we need to be concerned but have you thought about why she did this?’

  Guy let out a hoarse laugh. ‘I’ve thought about nothing else, Mother! Don’t you think I’ve asked myself why my teenage daughter wants to become a model? Don’t you think I’ve asked myself over and over why on earth she wants to hurt me by sleeping with a man in his thirties?’

  Delphine stared at him. ‘You think Seraphina did this to hurt you?’

  ‘Why else?’

  Delphine lifted herself out of her chair with difficulty. Contrary to Guy’s assumption that she had left her stick behind on purpose, she had actually taken a tumble that morning and broken her stick in two. Thankfully, nothing else was broken but it made getting around extremely difficult. Still, she wasn’t about to admit to such a thing – she was in a weak enough position as it was without adding physical frailty to the list. Delphine gazed at her son sadly. He really couldn’t see what was going on under his nose at the moment. Seraphina was acting up and doing things that were totally out of character all he could come up with by way of explanation was that she wanted to upset him.

  Delphine limped to the door. Someone needed to tell Guy to wake up and smell the coffee but she wasn’t sure the message should come from her and certainly not at this moment in time. He was too angry with her to take anything she had to say seriously and he was also playing the martyr, not that he knew it.

  ‘I’ll speak to you when you calm down,’ she said quietly. ‘And Guy, please take care of yourself. Think of your blood pressure. All this stress isn’t good for you.’

  Guy wondered when his mother had taken to stating the obvious. He didn’t want to feel this stressed, for God’s sake! He caught sight of Seraphina mooching around outside and felt furious all over again. He knew he needed to confront her and find out what she was playing at but he wasn’t sure he trusted himself not to strike her. Best to wait it out and try to calm down first.

  Gazing at the photograph of Elizabeth on his desk and feeling like a total failure, Guy put his head in his hands and wept.

  Locked away in his lab once more, Xavier’s emotions were all over the place and he was desperate for a cigarette. The last twenty-four hours had changed everything. Realising he had feelings for Cat . . . Angelique turning up out of the blue . . . Cat being behind the whole thing . . .

  Xavier held up a phial of his fragrance. It was the unfinished article and without the missing ingredient it was pleasant, certainly, but not good enough. He wanted this fragrance to be the greatest achievement of his career to date – his comeback, if you like. He knew it was very close to being a bestseller and one of those fragrances that would last for years to come. It was young, sophisticated and sensual, a playful, sexy fragrance that had real staying power and an intoxicating, heady afterglow.

  Xavier slotted the samples he’d created into a box. He’d created them so he could play around with the combinations and quantities once he had the missing element. Having got this far, he wanted this fragrance ready as soon as possible and he knew organising everything in advance would help.

  Thoughts of the night before flooded back into his head. Xavier knew he couldn’t be angry with Cat about it. She didn’t know about Angelique because he hadn’t told her. Even last night, he hadn’t mentioned her name. He vaguely remembered Cat trying to tell him something as he’d dragged her back up to the house and he guessed her rambling words had been an attempt to warn him about what he was about to be confronted with.

  The trouble was, even though Xavier knew it wasn’t Cat’s fault, he still couldn’t go near her at the moment. She might have been oblivious of the fact that Angelique had been the woman who’d changed everything in his life a few years back but she had still brought the source of all his pain back to the forefront.

  He pulled his fragrance notes towards him and stared at them blindly. Xavier knew it was pointless trying to work but he didn’t know what else to do. Last night in the stables, everything had seemed perfect . . . the chemistry between himself and Cat had been electric. Their mutual passion had astonished both of them. They had more or less confessed to falling head over heels in love with one another, which made Angelique’s arrival all the more disruptive. Tearing off his lab coat, Xavier headed round the side of the lab for the much-needed cigarette. Drawing on it sharply in an attempt to steady his nerves, he sensed someone behind him and tensed. He smelt her before he saw her, the pungent aroma of jasmine seeping under his nostrils like creeping smoke.

  ‘Angelique.’

  She was wearing a black sundress that plunged almost down to her navel, revealing her luscious breasts. Angelique’s mouth curved up bewitchingly. ‘You lied last night,’ she said, running her eyes down him in what could only be described as a possessive manner. God, but she had forgotten how sexy he was, Angelique thought, feeling her groin respond the way it always had around him. Those dark, dark eyes like melted chocolate, the almost black hair that looked particularly gorgeous when it was tousled the way it was now. That taut, toned body . . .

  Why on earth had she left him back then? Pulling herself together, she put that thought aside. She knew exactly why she’d left him. It hadn’t been guilt, exactly, so much as the realisation that she wasn’t ready for what he had to offer. She had made mistakes – one notable one that would remain dead and buried forever – and she had allowed her life to spiral out of control.

  Angelique flicked her hair over her shoulder. That was the past. Now she was back and she was more than ready for Xavier – Xavier and everything that came with him. She caught sight of the box of perfume phials, sure it must be the new fragrance. Was she the inspiration behind it? Angelique was sure she must be. She moved closer.

  Xavier glared at her, furious that she was in his lab. He was moved by her presence and he hated himself for it. Angelique had always been a stunning woman, with her Brigitte Bardot-style blond hair and curves like a sex kitten. She was sex personified. She was nothing like Cat, who had a raw, natural beauty that was breathtaking. Angelique was like a fantasy woman . . . a sexual overdose. But who the fuck thought it would be a good idea for Angelique to feature in the ad campaign for his new fragrance? Xavier thought angrily. She was undoubtedly beautiful but she was too overtly sexy for what he had in mind; he would have chosen someone with a more restrained beauty.

  ‘Admit it,’ Angelique purred, moving closer. ‘You lied to me last night. You said you didn’t miss me but I don’t believe you.’

  Xavier wanted to shove her away from him but his brain and his groin were confused. Part of him wanted to tell Angelique to leave, to go back to her pornographic films and her glitzy, movie-star life, and part of him wanted to feel her again, to throw her into bed and revisit the place of so many dark but disturbingly sensual memories. He didn’t trust her and he never would again but could he honestly say he hadn’t missed her over the past two years? He’d be lying if he said her presence wasn’t affecting him now.
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  As if sensing his weakness, Angelique moved even closer. Her heels scraped on the floor and the noise jarred on Xavier’s already frazzled nerves. ‘So you did miss me. You thought about me as much as I’ve thought about you.’ She ran a scarlet-tipped fingernail along his shirt sleeve. The gesture seemed provocative, but then Angelique could make drinking a cup of coffee seem obscenely suggestive, Xavier thought wryly. He pushed past her, needing some air. Outside, he immediately lit a cigarette, inhaling gratefully.

  ‘I’ve moved on,’ he sniped at Angelique, who had followed him outside. It was true, even if it had only happened in the past few weeks. Remembering Cat’s luminous, aquamarine eyes, Xavier felt a pain in his heart. He wanted to go to her, to feel her warm, sexy body against his . . . he wanted to block Angelique from his mind forever but he didn’t know what to say to Cat, not yet.

  ‘There’s always room for a replay, isn’t there?’

  Xavier almost laughed. ‘Is that what you think? That you can just come back here and pick up where we left off?’

  She shrugged. ‘Why not?’ She smiled. ‘Look, I know we had our problems but we had such a good time, didn’t we, Xavier? Remember the sex.’ She licked her lips suggestively. ‘Remember how good it was?’

  Xavier did. As he caught a waft of the jasmine oil she always wore, memories washed over him and he was blinded by vivid images of himself with Angelique. He shrugged them off because they made him feel sick.

  ‘You’re making fragrances again,’ Angelique said, changing the subject abruptly. ‘And I am the face of the ad campaign. What could be more perfect?’

  ‘That was nothing to do with me,’ Xavier snapped. ‘Trust me, no one asked me if I thought you were the right person for the brand.’ She wasn’t. Xavier knew it would be a mistake to use her and he would do whatever it took to remove her from the campaign. But she had always had the ability to mess with his mind and she was doing it again.