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Carly made no response. After all it was true—but not in the way that Julia had meant. The payment she found unbearable was the knowledge that she was destined always to be an outsider, someone who did not quite fit in—anywhere.
Julia gave her another hug.
Pretty, brunette Julia, and gentle, tender-hearted blonde Lucy—Carly had envied them both, just as she had envied all the other girls at school: girls who knew beyond any kind of doubt that they were taking their rightful place in their own world. Unlike her. She had known she had no right to be there in that alien, wealthy environment. Everything about her had screamed out that she did not and could not fit in. She had felt so out of place—a fraud, a pauper, a charity case, someone whose life had been bought! And, of course, very quickly everyone had known just why she had come to be there.
‘Sometimes I wonder what on earth I’m doing in this business.’ Lucy exhaled as she came to join them.
‘Only sometimes?’ Carly teased her.
Lucy grinned.
‘We’ve got a major client scenario about to take place. Nick is on his way over with him right now.’
Carly looked away discreetly as she saw a small shadow touch Julia’s eyes. It had been Julia who had introduced Nick to Lucy, and sometimes Carly wondered if Nick, with his flashy pseudo-charm which she found so unappealing, hadn’t perhaps made Julia as vulnerable to him as Lucy had been. Was she being overly cynical in worrying that Nick had married Lucy more for her trust fund and her family’s social position and wealth than because he had genuinely fallen in love with her? For Lucy’s sake she hoped it was the latter, but it had all happened so quickly—too quickly, Carly felt. And now here was Nick, a man she didn’t like or trust, taking a very prominent role in the business.
‘How major?’ Carly asked.
‘Jules, call over one of the girls, will you?’ Lucy begged. ‘I’m dying for an espresso! Absolutely huge. Apparently he knows Marcus—and you can imagine how I feel about that!’
Marcus Canning was Lucy’s bête noir: a family friend who was also one of her trustees and who, against Lucy’s wishes, had insisted on being kept fully informed of every aspect of the business before he would agree to Lucy investing her trust fund money in it. Personally, Carly thought that Marcus Canning, with his well-known reputation for astute financial dealings, was a good person for them to have on board, and she had felt both proud and pleased when he had praised her at their last financial meeting for the way she was running the administrative and financial side of the business.
‘And, of course, if he does commission us then we’re going to make a bomb!’ she heard Lucy announcing enthusiastically.
‘Who is he, and what does he want?’ Julia chimed in.
‘He’s Ricardo Salvatore. He’s mega-wealthy, and his story is real rags to riches stuff. There was an article in one of the Sunday supplements about him a couple of months ago. He grew up in Naples and he was orphaned very young. But he ran away from the orphanage when he was ten years old and ran wild with a group of children who existed by stealing and begging, generally blagging a living. He’s a billionaire now, and he owns—amongst other things—three top-of-the-market exclusive luxury cruise liners. What he wants is for us to organise private parties and that kind of thing for people on these cruises at several villa venues throughout the world. He also owns the villas—and in one case the island it’s on.
‘He rang earlier, at a very bad moment. In fact, while we were still in bed at home.’ She pulled a face and then giggled. ‘Poor Nick was…well…Anyway, Nick’s just phoned to warn me that they’re on their way over here. Ricardo’s told him that before he makes a decision he wants to observe a variety of our already planned events, as a sort of unofficial extra guest.’
‘What? You’re going to let him gatecrash other people’s parties?’ Carly demanded, shocked. ‘Are you sure that’s wise?’
‘I can’t imagine many of our clients would refuse to have a billionaire as an extra guest!’ Lucy told her defensively. ‘Anyway, Nick has already told him it’s okay, and the thing is, Carly, it makes sense if you are the one to accompany him.’
‘Me?’
‘One of us has to go with him,’ Lucy pointed out. ‘And besides…’ She bit her lip. ‘Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’d have more in common with him than either of us, and he’ll feel more comfortable with you…’
It took Carly several seconds to catch on, and when she did she her face burned.
‘I see.’ She knew her voice was tense and edgy but she couldn’t help herself. ‘So what you’re saying is that he’s a self-made man, not out of the top drawer and not—’
‘Oh, rats. I knew you’d take it the wrong way.’ Lucy groaned. ‘Yes, he is a self-made man, Carly—and a billionaire self-made man at that—but that wasn’t what I meant! It isn’t anything to do with class! I want you to escort and accompany him because I know you’ll make a better impression on him than anyone else. Apparently he likes all that stuff you like—reading, museums, galleries. And it is desperately important that we do make a good him impression on him and secure his business.’ She paused, and then told them both, ‘I didn’t want to tell you about this, but the truth is that things haven’t being going as well as they were. We had that warehouse fire earlier in the year, which destroyed loads of our stuff…’
‘But we were insured!’ Carly protested.
Lucy shook her head.
‘No, we weren’t. Nick felt that the quotes you’d got were too high, and he asked me to hold off paying the premium until he’d checked out some other insurers,’ she told her unhappily. ‘I thought Nick had gone ahead and insured us with new insurers, but I’d got it wrong, and of course, unfortunately, the existing insurance lapsed.’
Carly frowned. Lucy looked and sounded strained and uncomfortable. She couldn’t help wondering if Lucy was trying to protect Nick by taking the blame for his negligence.
She ought to be grateful to this as yet unknown potential client for giving her the opportunity to escape—if only for a while—from her growing discomfort about the way Nick was using the business’s bank account as though it were his own private account. Since Lucy had made it clear that Nick was to have carte blanche to withdraw money from the account whenever he liked, there was no legitimate objection she could make. Nick had shrugged aside her concern about their growing overdraft by telling her that the deficit would be made good from Lucy’s trust fund, but to Carly it seemed shockingly unbusinesslike to waste money paying interest on an overdraft.
‘They’ll be here in a few minutes. God, I hope we get his business.’ Lucy yawned. ‘I am sooo tired—and we’ve got dinner with the folks tonight. How about you? Have you got anything on?’
‘Only my writing class,’ Carly answered.
‘I don’t know why you’re still going to that,’ Julia told her ruefully.
Originally they had decided to attend the writing group together, at Julia’s suggestion—mainly, Carly suspected, because Julia had been dating an up-and-coming literary novelist. But after a couple of weeks the romance had faded, and Julia had taken a period of extended leave to visit her sister in Australia, leaving Carly to attend the weekly meetings on her own.
‘Mmm…’
‘Well, it won’t hurt to miss one class, surely? Unless, of course, it’s Miss Pope’s turn to read one of her poems?’ Julia giggled.
Carly tried and failed to give her a quelling look.
‘They are pretty awful,’ she agreed, joining in her laughter.
‘What project has the Professor given you all to write about this time?’ Julia gave a small shudder. ‘It’s not litter again, is it?’
‘No,’ Carly confirmed carefully, ‘it isn’t litter. Actually it’s fantasy sex!’
It was amazing what the word sex could do, she reflected ruefully as both her friends turned to stare at her.
‘Fantasy sex?’ Lucy demanded. ‘What, you mean like…imagining sex with a fantasy man?’ She started to laugh. ‘Why?’
‘Professor Elseworth wants us to stretch our imagination and take it into a new dimension.’
‘Right now, any kind of sex is a fantasy for me,’ Julia remarked gloomily, before adding, ‘But I can’t imagine you writing about fantasy sex, Carly. I mean, you don’t actually do it at all, do you?’
Carly bared her teeth in a ferociously fake smile.
‘No, I don’t. And I won’t until I find someone worth doing it with!’
‘Well, okay—I mean, I don’t have a problem with that—but how on earth are you going to write about fantasy sex when…?’
Carly gave her a withering look.
‘I’m going to use my imagination. That is the whole point of the exercise,’ she told her with awesome dignity.
‘Rather you than me!’
‘No talking about sex during working hours,’ Lucy began mock primly, and then stopped as, to Carly’s relief, their newest recruit arrived with Lucy’s espresso.
In all honesty she would be only too happy to have an excuse to miss out on her writing class and its assignment. She certainly didn’t want to write about fantasy sex—or indeed sex of any kind. She knew there was a barrier between her and the potential enjoyment of her sexuality. But how could she ever give herself freely and openly, to a man and to love, when she could never imagine being able to reveal her emotional scars to him? How could there be true intimacy when she herself was so afraid of it? So afraid of being judged and then rejected? Didn’t events such as the one she had attended last night confirm all that she had always thought and feared? Giving yourself in and with love to another human being meant giving yourself over to being judged as not good enough, not acceptable, not worthy, and ultimately to rejection. And she had learned very young just how much that hurt.
Her game plan for her life involved focusing on emotional and financial security: building her career, enjoying the company of her friends, ultimately travelling—if she could afford to do so—but always ensuring that she never made the mistake of falling in love.
She had decided that she was only going to have a sexual relationship if she met a man she wanted physically with intense passion and hunger—a man with whom she knew she could share the heights of physical pleasure in a relationship that carried no health risks. A serial male sexual predator was not an option. And at the same time she would also have to feel one hundred per cent confident that she would never be at risk of becoming emotionally involved with him. Add to that the fact that she wasn’t even actively looking for this paragon, and it seemed a pretty foregone conclusion that she was likely to remain a virgin indefinitely.
Not that the prospect bothered her.
CHAPTER TWO
‘AND you’re sure my requirements won’t be a problem for you, Nick? I know you don’t have a large staff,’ Ricardo said blandly.
‘Absolutely not. Lucy said that Carly jumped at the chance. In fact she begged for it.’ Nick laughed. ‘And I don’t suppose anyone can blame her. After all, when you’ve been used to the best of everything all your life and suddenly it isn’t available any more, and you’re a decent-looking woman, I suppose you’re bound to look forward to spending time with a rich man.’
‘She’s looking for a rich husband?’
Nick grinned.
‘Who said anything about marriage? Anyway, come up to the office and I can introduce you to her.’
‘I think you said earlier that she is your wife’s partner?’
‘Employee. The three of them—Lucy, Julia and Carly—were at school together. Neither Julia nor Carly have put any money into the business, though.’
‘So financially the partnership is—’
‘Just me and Lucy,’ Nick informed him.
‘Carly normally does all the financial and administrative stuff, but to be honest I don’t think she’s up to the job. You’d be doing me a favour by taking her off my hands for a week or two, so that I can get the financial side of things sorted out properly. Lucy’s a loyal little soul, and devoted to her friends—you know the type, all breeding and no brains.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t want to say too much to her. Anyway, having Carly with you won’t be too much of a hardship—she’s a good-looker, and obliging too, if you know what I mean—especially if you treat her generously. Like I said, Carly has her head screwed on.’
‘Are you speaking from personal experience?’ Ricardo asked him dryly.
‘What? Hell, no. I’m a married man. But let’s just say she let me know that it was available if I wanted it,’ Nick boasted.
He was well aware that Carly didn’t like him, and it amused him to think of what he was setting her up for. Discrediting her wouldn’t do him any harm in other ways either, he congratulated himself. For one thing she wouldn’t be able to go tittle-tattling to Lucy.
‘Carly is very good at getting other people to pay her bills for her—as both Lucy and Julia already know. She’s even managed to blag a rent-free room in Julia’s flat. If she can’t find a rich man to finance her, then the lifestyle that working for Prêt a Party gives her is the next best thing. All that first-class travel and accommodation provided by the clients, plus getting to mingle with their guests.’ He winked at Ricardo. ‘Ideal for her type of woman. Once I’ve introduced you, I’ll get her to go through the list of our upcoming events with you so that you can cherry pick the ones you want to attend.’
‘Excellent.’ Inwardly, Ricardo decided that Nick sounded more like a pimp than a businessman. Or in this business did the two go hand in hand?
They had reached Prêt a Party’s office, and Nick pushed open the door for him.
‘Ah, there’s Carly,’ he announced. ‘I’ll call her over.’
There was no way she could pretend not to be aware of Nick’s summons, Carly had to acknowledge reluctantly, and she walked towards him. She was wearing her normal office uniform of jeans and a tee shirt—the jeans snugly encased the slender length of her legs but irritatingly, the tee shirt skimming the curves of her breasts had pulled free of the low waistband of her jeans. It was a familiar hazard when one was almost five foot ten tall, give or take one eighth of an inch, and it exposed the flat golden flesh of her taut stomach. Whenever she could, Carly ran—mostly on her own, but sometimes with a group of fellow amateur runners—and her body had a sensuous grace of which she herself was totally unaware.
Long thick hair, honey-brown, with natural highlights, swung past her shoulders as she walked calmly towards Nick—and then missed a step as she saw the man standing to one side of him.
If she were in the market for a man—sex-wise, that was, because she would not want one for any other reason—then this was definitely a man she would want. She could feel the power of his sexuality from here; she could breathe it in almost. And it was very heady stuff. Far more potent than any champagne, she thought dizzily.
A vulnerable woman—which, of course, she was not—would find it almost impossible to resist such a man. He was a living, breathing lure for the whole female sex. Except for her. She had exempted herself from such dangers.
Ricardo frowned in immediate recognition as he watched her walking towards them and coldly came to two very separate decisions.
The first was that he intended to have her in his bed, and the second was that she embodied everything he most disliked about her class and type.
She was stunningly beautiful and irritatingly confident. And he already knew from listening to Nick that she was a woman who judged a man by his wallet and how much she could extract from it. A gold-digger, in other words.
‘Hello, gorgeous. Let me introduce you to Ricardo—oh, and by the way, Mike Lucas rang me to tell me how much he enjoyed your company last night,’ Nick told Carly, as he put his arm round her shoulders and drew her close to his side.
Pulling herself free, Carly extended her hand to Ricardo and smiled at him with genuine pleasure. After all, he was going to be releasing her from the unpleasantness of Nick’s unwanted company.
Well, she certainly didn’t believe in wasting any time, Ricardo thought cynically as he took the hand Carly had extended and shook it firmly.
‘Ricardo wants to have a look at our upcoming events so that he can decide which ones he wants to attend. You can use my office, Carly,’ Nick told her benignly.
His office? Carly had to look away. ‘His office’, as he called it had, until he had come onto the scene, been her office. In fact it still was her office, she reflected, since she was the only one who did any work in it. Nick’s only appearances in it were when he came in to ask her to countersign another cheque.
Carly smiled as she led the way to the small sectioned-off cubicle where she worked. Ricardo had lost count of the number of women who had smiled at him the way Carly was doing right now—with warmth and promise—especially women of Carly’s type. Upmarket, privately educated pampered women, contemptuous of the very idea of supporting themselves, whose goal in life was to find a man to financially underwrite their desired lifestyle.
His gaze narrowed. Female predators were a familiar risk to any man to whom the press attached the label ‘wealthy’; he had discovered that a long time ago. He had been twenty-two and merely a millionaire the first time he had encountered the type of well-bred young woman who believed that a man like him—a self-made man who had come up from nothing—would be delighted to spend lavishly on her in exchange for the social cachet of being connected with her.
She had been the sister of the thrusting young entrepreneur with whom he’d had business dealings. Initially he had thought he must be mistaken, and that she couldn’t possibly be coming on to him as openly as she’d seemed to be. He had indeed been naïve. There had been an expensive lunch to which she had invited herself, he remembered, and an even more expensive afternoon’s shopping, when she had pointed out to him the Rolex watch she wanted. Like a besotted fool he had gone back to the shop and bought it for her the moment she had left him to return to her brother. He had then, even more besottedly, booked himself out of his hotel room and into a huge suite, had ordered a magnum of champagne and the most luxurious meal he could think of, and then wasted more time than he cared to think about dreaming of the pleasure that lay in store for them both. He would make love to her as she had never been made love to her before, and then, in the morning, he would kiss her awake and surprise her with the watch…
He had very quickly been brought back to earth when, instead of relishing his tender caresses, the object of his adoration had told him peevishly to ‘hurry up’, and then pouted and sulked until he produced her watch. The final blow to his pride, though, had been unwittingly delivered by her brother, who had informed him that his sister was as good as engaged to an extremely wealthy older man. Fortunately, although his illusions had been shattered, his heart had been left intact, and the whole experience had taught him what he considered to be a valuable lesson: the only difference between spoilt, pampered society women and the prostitutes of Naples was that the prostitutes had no option other than to sell themselves if they wanted to feed their children.
He had yet to meet a woman whose desire for him did not go hand in hand with her desire for his money, no matter how much she might initially deny it. Indeed, if he hadn’t been so fastidious he knew that he would have found it cheaper to hire the services of a professional than to satisfy the financial demands of the society women who had shared his bed. The discovery that the last one to do so had been contemplating being unfaithful to him with an elderly billionaire old enough to be her grandfather had confirmed his cynical belief that no woman was too beautiful or too well born to be above using her ‘assets’ to secure financial security.
He would take Carly to bed and he would ensure that both of them enjoyed the experience, and that would be that. Why shouldn’t he take advantage of what she was? She was a beautiful woman, and it was a very long time since he had last had sex, but her social standing cut no ice with him, and nor was he impressed by it—quite the opposite, in fact.
‘Here’s a list of our upcoming events and their venues,’ Carly announced a little breathlessly, after she had printed it off from the computer.
She hadn’t expected to be so acutely aware of Ricardo’s powerful and sensually invasive sexual aura. She wasn’t used to this kind of man, and there was an unfamiliar flutter in her stomach and a hyped-up sensation of excitement in her head. She felt both excited and apprehensive, as though somehow her whole body had moved up into a higher gear, a more intense state of awareness. It was simply her hormones responding to his hormones, she told herself prosaically. Her office was way too small for the two of them.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw that he was removing his suit jacket, and she discovered that she was sucking in an unsteady breath of reluctant female appreciation. Beneath the fine cotton of his shirt she could see the muscular hardness of his body. She had recently read an article in a magazine about the new fashion for men to wax their chest hair. He obviously didn’t subscribe to it.
The author of the article had propounded the theory that women found the abrasion of male body hair unwelcome against their own flesh. Carly’s tongue-tip touched her lips. A fine mist of sensual heat had broken out on her skin. Beneath her tee shirt her bra-covered breasts suddenly ached, her nipples pushing against the restraining fabric.
How could she be having such intensely sexual thoughts about a man she had only just met? It must be because she had been talking about sex to Lucy and Jules. Yes, that was it; her mind was obviously more focused on sex than usual.
He was still studying the list she had given him, plainly oblivious to what she was experiencing, and of course she was glad about that—wasn’t she? After all, she had never been the kind of woman who felt piqued because a man didn’t show any interest in her.
Because until now she had not met the right kind of man?
‘Perhaps if you were to tell me what kind of event you are thinking of having I might be able to pick out the best events for you to attend,’ she suggested hastily.
‘I haven’t made up my mind as yet.’
Carly looked blankly at him. She had naturally assumed that, like their existing clients, he must have a specific event in mind.
Ricardo permitted himself a small cynical smile. If his plans went ahead as he expected, the first event Prêt a Party would be organising for him would be a party to celebrate his acquisition. But of course he wasn’t going to tell Carly that. She, he had already decided, would be one of the first surplus-to-requirements ‘assets’ of the business to be offloaded.
‘I understand you are responsible for the administration and accounts of the business?’
