Mimi spoke with a gentle nod. ‘I was going to use one of Mum’s evening bags tonight. And I found this inside.’
She slid one of her hands out from Hal’s, drew a small snapshot of a slim, handsome man from her dressing-gown pocket and passed it to him. Hal glanced at the man in the photograph, looking for the clues that would tell him why she was so distraught. He was dark-haired with green eyes and was wearing the jacket lying on the bed.
‘It’s my dad. Mum ordered that jacket for him about a year before he died,’ Mimi told him as she dropped her forehead onto Hal’s shoulder.
‘I didn’t even know she had kept the jacket until I started looking for something to wear tonight which I might vaguely squeeze into.’
Mimi looked down at the photograph and stroked the crinkled, well-faded print.
‘As far as my mother’s family were concerned, my father was an outsider, you see. An outsider who was never going to be allowed to become a part of the Fiorini company, no matter how skilled and successful he was. And Mum didn’t see that until it was too late.’
Her head lifted and she stroked the hair back over Hal’s ears absentmindedly as her fingers lovingly caressed his scalp. ‘My mother spent years moving back and forwards between here and Milan. Sometimes she would be gone for a few weeks, then home for maybe a couple of months, but there would be another crisis and she would be called back. And she went; every single time. Because they were her family and she loved them.’
Her fingers slid lower until she was holding his face in her hands and her forehead was pressed against Hal’s, her breath warm on his skin.
‘But they didn’t love her enough to find room for my father. It was February, it was winter in the Alps, and he crashed on the way to bring her home to London. He died; he died, Hal. Trying to bring her home to be with me.’
Hal kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair before speaking.
‘I am so sorry. Did they try and make her move back to live there after he died? In Milan?’
Mimi nodded. ‘Of course. But Mum was in a terrible state and blamed them all for what had happened. The screaming and shouting went on for weeks. So we brought him home and we stayed here. And she never went back.’
Mimi pulled gently away from Hal and she reached up and stroked his face and tried to smile. ‘Seeing this photograph again out of the blue like this brought back all of the pain and the bitterness I felt back then; the accusations. The terrible things they said about the pathetic life she had made with her fat, ugly carthorse of a daughter and her loser husband.’
She raised her head and smiled at Hal who had hissed and stiffened his back in response to what she had told him.
Mimi looked up into his eyes. ‘It’s okay. I came to terms with how I looked a long time ago. My mum was so pretty, elegant and petite—but she was also a very clever woman. She made her own decisions. She could have said no to her family, but she didn’t. She wanted to be there. She loved her old life of luxury and wealth.’
She swallowed down hard but did not break eye contact. ‘Don’t you see? That was why she came back to wallow in the guilt of my father’s death. It was to punish herself! And the only way she could do that was to break any contact with the family and pretend they were the source of our problems.’
Hal wrapped his arm around her and held her tight as Mimi whispered the words into his shoulder. ‘Do you know the worst thing? I didn’t realise that until tonight. Just sitting here going through the clothes, then finding the jacket and the photo, it all just clicked into place and I finally understood the truth. And it is just so very sad, for all of us.’
‘You’re right,’ he replied. ‘That is sad.’
Hal held her in silence for a few seconds until an ornate mantle-clock sounded out the hour.
They were going to be late for their own party. And there was a car outside with the engine running, expecting Hal and his date to emerge any minute.
His brain processed his options at lightning speed. There was no way that he could leave Mimi like this. He had committed to making this fundraiser the best it could be, but if Mimi needed him to stay with her then that was what he had to do.
He blinked several times as the implications hit home.
Somehow over the past week Mimi Ryan had become a lot more important to him than the goal he had thought was the only thing that mattered. His driving ambition to make the show a success for Tom and the project he had started had been fuelled by his guilt and obligation. Only somewhere along the way Mimi had changed him.
Sitting here now, holding this amazing woman in his arms, he knew that he only had one goal which truly mattered: making Mimi happy. The charity and the show were secondary. And, strangely enough, he liked the idea. He liked it a lot.
CHAPTER TEN
‘TELL me what you want to do,’ Hal said, speaking into her hair. ‘I am happy to stay right here if you don’t feel up to going out, but I have to tell you something: if we stay on this bed for much longer, your dad’s jacket is going to get very creased.’
Mimi’s face broke into something close to a grin, and Hal used his thumb to wipe away the last remnants of tears from her cheek.
‘Poppy would kill us if we didn’t turn up for the fundraising party, after all the trouble she has gone to in setting it up. And I suppose we are the stars of the show,’ Mimi replied with a thin smile.
Hal pushed his lips out in agreement. ‘That is a distinct possibility, I have to admit, but it would be worth it.’ His hands gently slid the knitted hair-band down over the back of her head and dropped it on the bedcover. ‘If it gave me the chance to prove to you what a beautiful and truly amazing woman you are.’
His reward was a knockout smile that sent him spinning. He squeezed her waist a little firmer and felt something rigid pressing back at him.
In an instant he was tugging at her dressing gown and trying to peer down the gap.
‘What are you wearing under that less-than-attractive garment? No offence, but it feels like body armour!’
Mimi chuckled and paused for a second before slowly untying the belt of her dressing gown.
‘You mustn’t laugh,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I was trying to get into one of my mum’s lovely dresses, but I almost burst the seams and ruined it. They were made to measure for a woman several inches shorter, and smaller where it matters. So it was time to take drastic measures.’
She slid the dressing gown at the back to reveal a pretty lilac corset—or rather most of it. The back seemed to be gaping open, and he sucked in a breath to help steady the sudden increase in temperature in the room when he caught sight of her bare back.
Her shoulders came up into a shrug as she pulled the dressing gown back into place and her lips quivered as she tried to smile at him. ‘Yet another reason to feel fat and frumpy. I can’t even close the zip on my old corset, never mind fit into one of her gowns! And, now the zip is stuck, I can’t even get out of the thing.’
She looked down at her hands and shook her head. ‘I have nothing to wear to go to the ball, and a day suit would be totally wrong. So, unless you have a fairy godmother handy, perhaps you should go on your own and send my apologies. I’ll be fine here; really! Just fine.’
‘A corset? You were trying to get into a corset so you could fit into a dress several sizes too small for you?’ Hal sighed for a moment, horrified at the very idea that Mimi thought that she was overweight and unattractive, and his connection moved to another level.
‘Do not mock. This is what girls do,’ Mimi replied, squirming on the bed.
‘Well, this is what boys do.’
Hal grabbed hold of his cane and pushed himself off the bed. Turning back to Mimi, he extended his right hand palm-up and, curling his fingers, took her hand in his.
‘Your dressing table awaits, my lady.’ He bent down and whispered in her ear. ‘You need to get out of that corset. I have some experience in unzipping zips—and, before you go there, please remember that I o
ccasionally share a flat with Poppy and her roommates and have done for several years. I am therefore familiar with various types of zips, and lacings, buttons and every other sort of fastening. In all kinds of interesting places. It is amazing how creative fashion photographers have to be these days.’
Pushing back his shoulders and slipping off his dinner jacket, Hal propped his cane on the bed, steadied himself against her chair and rubbed both hands together. He winked at Mimi as she looked back at him in the mirror on the dressing table. Her eyes were wide. Amazing. Tantalising.
She did not know what he planned to do but she was going to have to trust him anyway.
His heart sang. He had been right to ring her doorbell after all. And this was one Cinderella who was definitely going to the ball.
‘I have warm hands, and can close my eyes if you need me to, but that dressing gown is coming off.’
Mimi was biting her lower lip when he checked the mirror, and he smiled at her with raised eyebrows. Then she lowered her hands to the belt and released it little by little so that Hal could help her shrug the fabric down below her waist, exposing the top of her burgundy lace panties.
‘Now, that is a lot better,’ he groaned between his teeth. ‘The pearl necklace is a particularly classy touch. And you have great taste in lingerie, young lady.’
Mimi’s face had turned several shades of scarlet but she managed to mouth a ‘thank you’ between her blushes as Hal moved closer into her body. His weight shifted onto his good leg so that his hands could massage the stress out of her shoulders, before running down the centre of her back towards the top of her corset.
She was tensing up. Little wonder, considering what she was almost wearing. A thin layer of silk separated her sumptuous skin from his fingertips and he was trying with all his might to forget that fact.
‘It does make me wonder why you don’t want to wear your own designs,’ Hal said as he felt some of the tension ease away under his strong fingertips. ‘You have some beautiful evening gowns in your collection.’
She looked back at him from the mirror for a second before replying, ‘I just don’t have the experience or training the other designers have, Hal. I just know that I am going to humiliate myself—and you and Poppy in the process. It would be a lot better for the fundraiser if I didn’t go at all tonight.’
Hal moved his right hand down Mimi’s back and slowly released the zipper from where it had become snagged. Only he had to slide the fingers of his left hand under the fabric and onto her warm skin to do so. He felt the thump-thump of Mimi’s heart rate increase, at the same time as his own, at the shock of the sensation of skin against skin.
He slowly, slowly drew the zipper down the back of the corset until both sides were released. Only he did not let her go, but slid his fingers forward under the boned corset. His mouth moved against the right side of her neck as each hand circled the skin around her waist, releasing the fabric away from her body, moving in gentle caresses as he did so.
‘Go on,’ he whispered as she arched her neck back against his chest. ‘Tell me what’s changed. You were so confident this morning.’
‘I made the mistake of comparing my work against my family’s heritage.’ Mimi breathed in hot short breaths as her body swayed under his hands, her hands still pressing the corset bodice against her bosom. ‘And I don’t even come close to that level of craftsmanship.’
‘You are just as talented,’ Hal said as he started to kiss her ear before moving onto her throat, lifting up the pearl necklace with his chin and nuzzling underneath.
‘Hmm? Not so sure about that.’ Mimi tried to turn around but Hal turned up the heat, gliding his hands up and down her ribcage. Then his hands stilled, resting lightly on her waist as she held the front of her corset against her breasts.
‘Look at the girl in the mirror—the one in front of you right now,’ Hal murmured, his breath hot on her neck as his body pressed even closer to hers. He leant his chin on her naked shoulder so that he could look into the mirror at the same time as she did. ‘The girl I am looking at is beautiful, talented, funny and clever and so very, very attractive.’
She tried to answer but he shushed her. ‘This is why I am going to fight every manly instinct to lock the door and wreck your bed. Instead, I shall make the ultimate sacrifice and take you to the party tonight, wearing that blue dress you created, so that I can show you off as my date.’
He smiled at her reflection. ‘Now, you don’t get much bigger sacrifices than that! Have faith in me; I’ll take care of you. And you are not going to be humiliated. Okay?’
Mimi turned her head around so she could smile into those deep caramel eyes as Hal lifted a wisp of hair away from her face.
‘That blue dress? The one hanging up over there which I rejected three hours ago? And you are going to take care of me?’
‘That blue dress. Although…’
‘Although?’ Mimi asked, her eyes still lost in his.
‘Those pearls are amazing, but I still think you are missing one last thing to make your outfit complete, Miss Ryan,’ Hal said, and reached inside the pocket of his trousers. ‘I’m sorry if it got a little crushed on the way, but it is our first anniversary, after all.’
Mimi looked down at the velvet box Hal was holding out to her and breathed in.
‘I didn’t expect a present. Thank you, but you shouldn’t have. I…’ Then he opened the box. And there was the most stunning, perfect brooch she had ever seen in her life: a cluster of garnets had been formed in a silver metal into a flower vase. And in each of the three channels had been threaded a crimson-red, living rosebud. As he lifted it towards her, the scent of the roses seemed to fill the space between them. She had never seen anything like it.
‘May I?’ Hal asked. Mimi could only nod as he stepped back, slipped the blue silk chiffon cocktail dress from its hanger and draped it in front of Mimi so that she could hold it against her body on top of the corset.
His smooth fingertips gently caressed the upper outline of her breast before swiftly piercing the chiffon, fastening the pin and locking it in place.
Mimi stared in amazement at her reflection in the mirror. He was right; the blue dress was perfect. The pearls and the garnet brooch should not have worked together, but they did. And it was exactly what she needed. He stood behind her, his head on her shoulder, arms clasped around her waist. It was one of those precious moments she wished would go on for ever.
‘How did you know?’ she eventually asked in a whisper. Hal released her and stroked her hair between his fingers.
‘Only garnets will work with this hair. Beautiful. And so are you,’ Hal replied, and then saw the time on his watch. ‘And you are going to be very late for your own party, and Poppy’s spies are going to report back that I held you up. Shall we go? Make our entrance? I only hope someone has a camera good enough to capture how stunning you look.’
‘Only if you promise to hold my hand, all the way, and not let go until everybody has seen us.’ Mimi grinned as she turned to very gently graze her lips against his.
‘At this precise moment, I’ll promise you anything you want,’ Hal said as she released him and headed towards the door. ‘You look amazing. Simply stunning. That colour is… Wow.’
She could not help but laugh back at him.
‘You’re forgiven. And you don’t look too bad yourself,’ Mimi added with a nod of appreciation.
Hal gave her one fleeting kiss. ‘You have ten minutes to get ready to go to the ball. Your carriage awaits. I just hope it doesn’t turn back into a pumpkin by the time we get there.’
Hal was joking about the pumpkin.
But not the ten minutes.
Mimi barely had time to wash, apply a slick of make-up and throw a lipstick and hairbrush into one of her mother’s evening bags before Hal grabbed her hand firmly in his and whisked her out of the apartment and into the back seat of a luxurious chauffeur-driven car, courtesy of Langdon Events.
Luckily, th
e speed with which she was able to descend the stairs down from her apartment in her amazingly beautiful but impossible-to-walk-in sandals just about matched Hal’s one-foot-at-a-time gait, so they were able to cling onto one other, laughing all the way down.
It was Hal who wrapped a Fiorini short swing jacket over her shoulders at the very last minute as they left. He must have searched through every garment in her mother’s wardrobe while she was in the bathroom to find a large midnight-blue opera jacket that was a perfect match to her own dress—and which she could fit into with ease.
It was a magical touch she had not even thought of and would have rejected as being too Fiorini and not enough Ryan—but with the rest of the outfit…
And with Hal by her side…
It was perfect. He was perfect.
It was Hal who opened her car door and handed her out onto the pavement outside a stunning London hotel that Poppy had secured for the celebrity party.
Mimi had no need of a red carpet or flashing cameras and screaming fans. She was already walking on air.
It was Hal who pointed out her reflection in the floor-length mirrors as they walked hand in hand and step by slow step up the spectacular circular staircase to the party room on the first floor, and winked in appreciation as she grinned and slunk tighter against his side.
And it was Hal who whispered how beautiful she looked, and made her giggle with pleasure just as they walked into the room, so that everyone within a ten-yard radius turned around to look at them as they waltzed in hand in hand.
It was Hal who she clutched tight hold of as he guided them haltingly through the clusters of people of all shapes and sizes who had packed the room. Mimi recognised some of the mountaineers who had volunteered at the indoor climbing wall, and greeted them with a wave. Many of the guests were in day clothes, obviously just come from their work place, yet they did not seem in the least intimidated or embarrassed by being surrounded by other men and women in dinner suits and elegant evening-wear. She envied them that casual demeanour and self-confidence, yet some of it was rubbing off on her.
Her Moment in the Spotlight Page 13