The dessert was a true work of art, with gold sugar, hand-painted lace flowers, and braided fondant cording embellishing each tiny masterpiece. There were birds draping sugared floral garland around the princesses and woodland creatures composed of marzipan.
“The princess is going to be thrilled with this,” Louie said as he prepared it for delivery.
“We can only hope,” Sawyer said. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on anything in my whole life.”
“It shows, boss,” his colleague said.
“Whatever you do, treat this with the utmost care,” Sawyer said. “I’d die if something happened to it at this point.”
“Not to worry,” he said with a broad smile. “It’s in good hands.”
~*~
Isabella arrived early for the party despite Clementine’s insistence that the guest of honor not help set things up.
She was dressed in a fabulously sexy, gold Hervé Leger bandage minidress with stretchy fabric and a plunging V-neck along with strappy gold sandals.
“Guess you didn’t pay attention to the fact that it’s below freezing outside,” Clem said, giving her friend a two-cheek kiss and holding her out at arm’s length to admire the outfit.
“Please,” Isabella said. “Door-to-door service, who needs to worry about the weather. I was going for sexy princess—what do you think?” She spun around to show Clementine the full look.
“I think there are going to be men with their tongues hanging out of their mouths once they get a look at you.”
“Perfect,” Bella said. “They can see what they’re missing out on.”
Clementine laughed. “You’re such a weirdo. As if you need to advertise.”
“No, but I might as well look my best, just in case some guy gets up the courage to not fear me. I mean didn’t you tell me they’re all intimidated by me?”
“Not after they see you in this dress.”
“Then my mission is accomplished. Now, put me to work,” Bella said.
“It’s your birthday party, Bell. I don’t want to make you do stuff.”
“Seriously, don’t be ridiculous. It’s my fault you’re having this thing so let me lend a hand.”
“Except that you’re having it to help me out professionally. But since you’re here, I’ll take you up on your offer. I think someone from DaVinci’s is going to be here any minute—can you help direct him on what to do with the cake? But don’t you dare take a look at it!”
“Ooh, keep me in suspense, why don’t you?”
As if on cue, a fifty-something looking man with a black chef’s coat that barely covered his protruding gut and a white apron tied just beneath his ample waist, showed up.
“I’ve got a big delivery here,” he said, wiping his hands on his pants before reaching to shake hands and introducing himself as Louie, clearly not realizing he was in front of the princess, for whom a bow was in order.
Bella whispered to her friend. “Is this the hot new chef? He looks a little long in the tooth. Not to mention broad in the belly.”
“Thank goodness, no,” she said. “The guy I met with was handsome. And young. And thin. Kind of dirty blond hair and gray-blue eyes. If Sebastian weren’t in the picture, I’d have made a play for him. So maybe he’s yours.”
Bella shrugged. “I guess you never know. I’ve never gone after a chef before. Although that could be tragic for my waistline.”
They both laughed. “Please, Bella,” Clem said. “You could eat your brothers under the table with ease and not gain a pound.”
“In which case, maybe a chef would be perfect then.”
The less-than-handsome chef standing before them cleared his throat, so Clem motioned to Isabella where the cake was to be positioned, atop a platform in the front of the ballroom, awaiting the big reveal, and went off to put finishing touches on decorations.
The man retrieved a large wheeled cart, draped around all four sides and on top with black canvas-type fabric. It was tall as if the cake was of a skyscraper or something. He pushed it ever so carefully to the staged area.
“Ooh, my curiosity is piqued,” Bella said, batting her eyelashes. “Can’t I take just a teensy little look?”
He shook his head. “’Fraid not,” he said. “Chef made me promise. He was up all night finishing this and wanted it to be a big surprise for the princess.”
Isabella pouted. “I guess then the princess will just have to wait. Thanks for your efforts!” She loved that the man didn’t even know who she was.
If she was the sneaky sort, she’d have tried hard to get a look at the thing, but it was fairly well protected from prying eyes, and she didn’t want to risk knocking something down and ruining it. That would be embarrassing to explain.
Clem showed up minutes later, flutes of champagne in hand.
“Okay, birthday girl, it’s time you drank up.” They clinked glasses. “To an unforgettable birthday party.”
“No doubt a night to remember.”
If only she knew.
Chapter Four
To Isabella’s great delight, three absolutely gorgeous transgender women did show up at the party, dressed more like Academy Award nominees than princesses. Clem and Isabella couldn’t believe how beautiful these women were.
“Geez,” Clem said, watching them dance as she and Isabella filled their drinks at the bar. “This sort of doubles down on the competition. These women totally kick my ass in the looks department.”
Isabella shook her head. “Not that you have to worry about competition now that you’ve got Sebastian. As for me, well, that’s a whole other story. But honestly, I’d love to get in on some of their beauty secrets, that’s for sure.”
“Like look at that one,” Clem said, pointing to one dressed in a clingy floor-length silver gown that fit like a second skin. “Seriously, no cellulite. If I had that on you’d see every lump. That’s really not fair.”
“Maybe what’s less fair is that they were born in the wrong body,” Bella said. “I don’t envy them that. But I’d guess it is a fairy tale come true for them to show up at the princess’ birthday party dressed as they are without getting any grief for it. I’m happy for them. But now, I vote for getting away from anyone who looks more gorgeous than we do, and let’s go find the gang. PS, Clem, you don’t have any bloody damned cellulite on that perfectly lean body of yours.”
She grabbed Clementine’s hand and started working her way through the crowd. They found Pippa, Topher, Zander, Andi, Adrian, Emma, Caroline, Darcy, Sebastian, and Luca at a large table laughing and joking.
“Well if it isn’t the Bella of the Ball,” Pippa said as she got up to give her friend a hug, eying her figure-hugging outfit. “You look scrumptious.”
“Great bash, Isabella,” Sebastian said, giving up his chair to the party girl. “Clem, you’ve outdone yourself as the party maven of Monaforte.”
“Being that you’ve been back in Monaforte for all of what, three minutes, you’re certainly qualified as the world’s foremost expert,” Topher said, clapping his cousin and good friend on the back. “Sorry, mate. You know I’m just giving you shit. We’re all glad you’re back home where you belong.”
Isabella looked around at her family and friends, pointed her finger at them, and started counting off in twos. “Well, crap,” she said. “Don’t I feel like the biggest loser? I’ve just realized pretty much the whole bloody lot of you are paired off, with the exception of me.”
Zander lifted his hand and pointed his finger toward their littlest brother. “No worries, Bella. We’ve still got young Luca here who’s single. Though that would be sorta weird if you and he ended up together.”
Isabella winced. “Illegal, too. Not to mention creepy. Even though I love my baby brother.” She gave his cheeks a big squeeze.
“That did happen in the monarchies back in the old days,” Andi said, to everyone’s groan. “Seriously. All that inbreeding. Isn’t that how royals got diseases like hemophilia?”
<
br /> Zander pretended to cut himself. “Ack! I’m bleeding!”
“Oh stop, you goofball,” Andi said, giving him a shove.
“Aw, I wish we had someone for you, Bell,” Pippa said, changing the subject.
“I told her I have half a mind to hook her up with the caterer. He’s gorgeous, smart, and from what I hear bakes a mean cake,” Clementine said.
“Bake me a cake as fast as you can,” Caroline said, pretending to do patty-cake with her friend Emma.
“You guys, stop it!” Isabella said. “This is a party, not a roast! I’m perfectly fine without some random guy. It’s just that now you’re all together, I’ll be the odd man out. Or woman. Whatever.”
“It’s okay, sis. We’ll hire you to watch the dogs at our new place,” Adrian said.
“That’s reassuring, Adrian. I can be the spinster dog lady. Call me anytime.”
The group talked for a while as waiters passed by with trays of appetizers and cocktails.
“Speaking of the baker, here he comes,” Clementine said.
Isabella looked up, but a couple passed in her line of sight and she missed him.
“Don’t call for him, Clem,” she said. “If he comes by, that’s one thing but it would be so awkward for you to single me out to meet him.”
“That’s one way to never find someone,” Clem said. “Be a shrinking wallflower so you never even meet a guy.”
“I think it’s a shrinking violet.”
“Whatever. Just stop shrinking.”
“I’ll work on that.”
~*~
So far, the evening had gone off without a hitch, and Sawyer felt himself almost relax. He’d had a big pep talk with his staff before the party got underway. He was all about making sure his staff was happy, but he also expected a lot from the people he paid so well for their efforts. Sawyer knew he was being demanding but he had a lot riding on this night and it had to run perfectly. If he saw any member of his waitstaff standing idly he made a point of nudging them to clear glasses, napkins, and stray dishes. He wanted everything bussed back to the kitchen before any guest could notice it was littering the place.
And if hot food was stacking up in the kitchen, he wasn’t above taking a tray of hors d’oeuvres out to pass himself. During one of those delivery rounds, he noticed Clementine, who’d hired him for this gig. He wanted to thank her again for bringing him the business, so he approached her table, smiling.
“Sawyer,” she said, waving her hands at him to get his attention. “Come over here. I’ve got someone for you to meet.”
He got distracted when he noticed the stunning sapphire-eyed woman sitting next to her, her wavy, long dark hair softly dusting her bare shoulders, her gorgeous smile brightening up the room when she laughed at something someone at the table said to her. She took his breath away. Just as he reached Clementine and the mystery woman, a waitress accidentally cut past him, causing Sawyer to knock into her tray of Cosmopolitans, which tumbled toward the dark-haired woman.
“Oh, God, I’m so, so sorry,” Sawyer said as he rushed to her, quickly untying his apron to use it to sop up the sticky liquid, much of which seemed to spill right down her cleavage. “Please, let me help,” he said, stammering, his hand dabbing between her breasts before he realized what he was doing and awkwardly tried instead just to hold the fabric near them to mop up the mess.
“Oh, Sawyer, this is no way for you to meet Isabella,” Clementine said. “Bella, not quite as I’d planned, but this is Sawyer, the caterer I told you about.” Clem grabbed a nearby napkin and tried to help but was just getting further in the way.
~*~
Isabella had already been trying to push the man away—bad enough she had sticky cocktails dripping down her boobs, but to have a complete stranger pawing at her, even if he was trying to be helpful, was not what she wanted. But then she looked up at his face, and her annoyance was instantly eclipsed by rage.
“You!” she said, her voice going high and loud. She’d recognize that face anywhere, carved into her memory as it was.
Sawyer’s eyes opened wide, and he pointed at himself. “Me?” he said, a look of confusion on his face.
Isabella looked at Clementine with accusatory eyes. “You mean to tell me this is the man who is catering my birthday party? I’d have been better off if you’d hired Satan.”
Chapter Five
Clementine stared at Bella, clueless about why she was freaking out.
“Honey, I know you’re upset about the drink being spilled, but that’s no excuse to be rude,” Clementine said.
Isabella pointed at him. “Oh, no. I’m not the one who’s rude,” she said. “That would be him. He is the meanest, most loathsome, dirty, rotten sonofabitch.”
It was loud enough with the music playing in the background so that only those nearby really saw the drama unfolding at the moment. Most of the party guests continued about in ignorance, but for the friends and family at the table, who were glued to the situation.
“You’re crazy-talking here, B,” Clem said. “Sawyer’s just the hardworking guy who’s prepared the food for this party and he made you a really nice cake, sweetie.”
“He’s the one who made my special birthday cake?” Isabella said as the caterer tried yet again to dab at her breasts, which were barely covered by that clingy, stretchy gold dress, leaving very little to the imagination now that it was wet. “Get your grubby paws off of me,” she said, flapping her arms and batting at him.
“Bell, get a grip!” Adrian said as he stood up and reached toward her to help. “You’re making a scene. And you’re being rude to the man. That’s not like you.”
“If you only knew,” Bella said. “God, he made the dessert! What is it, a poop pie maybe? Brownies laced with laxatives? I wouldn’t put it past him. As if he hasn’t already done enough in my lifetime to make me miserable, the rat bastard.”
Everyone remained silent at the table, not knowing what to say.
Clementine turned to Sawyer. “I am so very sorry,” she said. “I have no idea what’s gotten into the princess. I promise you, she’s normally not haughty like this.” She turned to glare at Bella. “And trust me, I’ve spilled plenty of drinks on her—normally she’ll just dump one right back onto me and we’re even.”
“You all don’t know the half of it,” Isabella said, turning to Sawyer and pointing a finger into his chest for emphasis. “Let me just warn you: you’d better not have fucked up this cake, or trust me, you’ll pay for it.” With that, she grabbed Clementine’s hand and stormed off to the bathroom to tidy up.
~*~
“Holy crap, you’d better have one hell of a good reason for that public display of complete embarrassment,” Clementine said once they got to a restroom. “If your mother gets wind of how you were to him you will get an earful.”
“Believe me, you’ll be in my corner when I tell you what that miserable little pipsqueak did to me.”
“You don’t even know the man! How could he have done anything to you? I’m sure you’ve got him confused with someone else.”
Isabella started pulling paper towels from the dispenser and getting them wet, wiping deep into her cleavage to get rid of the remaining sticky residue from the drinks. Clementine helped blot the fabric from the outside.
“I think once this dries a little, no one will be the wiser,” she said. “Besides, it’s dark in there, and everyone’s dancing and sweaty so you’ll just look like you’ve been having a good time.”
“Which I was until he showed up.”
“Well, don’t hold me in suspense any longer. I want to find out what has you so crazed.”
“That—that—that miserable little shit,” she said. “Boarding school. I was fourteen. You likely don’t recall what I was like at that age. I was a bit homely, my skin broken out in spots. I hadn’t gotten my braces off yet. I was a mess. And I was perfectly happy to just remain quiet and undetected, thank you. It didn’t help that there were all of these gorgeous,
sophisticated girls from all over the world who somehow missed adolescence altogether and skipped straight into sexy and beautiful. Well, nothing could have been further from that with me. I used to wonder if that was why my mother shipped me off to boarding school—so she wouldn’t have to look at me all the time, I was so grim.”
“Bella, I don’t think you were at all homely,” Clem said. “I mean not like I hung out with you or anything, but I’m sure I’d remember if my brother’s best friend’s sister looked like a troll!”
“Trust me, a troll looked better than I did. The only thing missing on me was maybe a long, gnarly beard. Anyhow, I remember it as if it happened yesterday. I was in the middle of a biology exam. There were probably thirty people in the classroom. The room was perfectly silent—all you could hear was the sound of pencils on paper.
“And then, everyone heard this loud buzzing sound that kept erupting repeatedly. It would start then stop, start then stop. The entire class had lost focus on their tests, and everyone was looking around the room, trying to determine where the noise was coming from.
“And then someone looked down at my backpack as the noise began again, and my backpack was literally shaking. The thing was moving. The teacher, Monsieur Henri, who was a very stern man, not one for ever cracking a smile, rushed to my backpack, unzipped the front pocket, and pulled out a vibrating penis.”
Clementine’s eyes went wide. “A dildo?”
Isabella nodded. “A bloody damned vibrating cock, right there in the pocket of my backpack. And this thing was no ordinary size. I can tell you now that I’ve seen life-sized versions for my very own. It was mammoth.” She held up her hands wide apart to demonstrate.
“What in the hell did you have a vibrator in your backpack for? You should’ve kept that thing under your bed for safekeeping.”
Bella rolled her eyes. “Are you daft? It wasn’t mine. I was a nerdy barely teenage girl. I hardly even knew what a dildo was, except you couldn’t practically not know what it was for, taking one look at the thing.”
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