Red (30 page)
Abruptly I pulled Nate to a halt. “This was a mistake,” I told him. “No one’s going to talk to us. They all think I’m a joke. And they’re right. This isn’t me. I don’t belong here.”
Nate lifted my chin with the knuckle of his finger and forced me to meet his gaze. “You’re just as beautiful as any of these women, no matter what you’re wearing. And I know we’re here to find out more info, but would it kill you to have a good time for a little while? Relax. I promise I won’t let these harpies rip you to shreds.”
“I’d be more worried about the harpies, if I were you.” I gave him a saucy grin, then turned my head to the closest offender and pegged her with a knowing gaze. “’Cause if I hear one more catty remark, I’m going to shove my fist down somebody’s throat.”
When the woman and her companion started and scurried off to rake someone else across the coals, Nate laughed loudly. “Ah, yes,” he mused, slipping an arm around my waist. “There’s the Red I know and love.”
I swallowed hard. There was that word again. He’d used it twice now. I was trying to assure myself that it didn’t mean anything, that I was reading too much into an innocent remark, when my thoughts were sidelined by the sudden blare of trumpets announcing the arrival of our esteemed hosts.
On cue, James and Cinderella Charming ascended to the stage set up at one end of the room, all smiles and slick manners. Cindy was easily four inches taller than her Prince and cut an impressive figure in her brilliant red sheath evening gown as she took up the microphone and handed it to her husband, her smile wide and well rehearsed.
“Thank you all for coming,” James said. His voice surprisingly lacked the deep timbre one would expect from a man who’d become one of the most formidable movie and TV producers in the world. “Cindy and I are delighted to have you as our guests. Please, enjoy yourselves!”
With that, he handed the microphone back to his wife, offered a wave to the crowd, then descended the steps to greet a pair of pretty ingenues, tucking one under each arm. Cindy’s smile faltered a little, but then she gracefully stepped away from the stage to make way for the band and busied herself saying tremulous hellos to her guests.
“Looks like there’s some trouble in paradise,” Nate observed.
A loud snort on the other side of Nate made me bend forward to see who was listening in. Lavender stood at his elbow, weaving a little as she grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. “Trouble in paradise doesn’t even scratch the surface,” she slurred.
My brows lifted, sensing an opportunity. “You don’t say?” I maneuvered around Nate and slipped my arm through Lavender’s. “You look like you could use something a little stronger, Lav.”
Lavender rolled her eyes. “God, yes!” She glanced around, then leaned toward me conspiratorially. “Come with me. I’ll show you where they keep the really good stuff.”
I cast a grin over my shoulder at Nate as Lavender led me away. Maybe the night wouldn’t be a total waste after all.
Chapter 36
I blew out a puff of air and glanced at the clock. I’d already been sequestered in the upstairs sitting room for the better part of an hour, listening to Lavender’s drunken ramblings about her life with the fabled Prince and Princess, and all indications were that she was far from finished.
“I’m so sick of being treated like a servant!” she seethed. She tossed back a shot of tequila and slammed the glass down on the table where we sat. “That bastard thinks he’s still a prince, thinks he can order everyone around. It’s always ‘Whip up a spell for me, Lavender;’ ‘Cast a quick curse for me, Lavender;’ ‘Find the next starlet for me to bang, Lavender.’”
My eyes widened a bit. “James sleeps around on Cindy?”
Lavender’s answering expression assured me I was a naive idiot. “Are you kidding? He’s getting a new piece of ass every week. And Cindy just turns a blind eye, pretends he’s the paragon of virtue she married. Paragon of bullshit, maybe. It makes me
sick
when I think about what I went through to bring them together. She would have been better off married to a nice farmer—or maybe a footman. Anyone’s better than that arrogant asshole.”
sick
when I think about what I went through to bring them together. She would have been better off married to a nice farmer—or maybe a footman. Anyone’s better than that arrogant asshole.”
“It looked like something was eating at Cindy tonight,” I pointed out. “Maybe she’s not ignoring his extracurricular activities as much as you think.”
Lavender poured another shot, sloshing some of the liquid onto the table. “She’s worried about her little pet, Caliban. Word is he OD’d on fairy dust earlier today.”
I shifted a little in my seat at the reminder. “So I heard.”
“I told her he was bad news—once a monster, always a monster—but she wouldn’t listen to me. No one listens to Lavender.” She turned around to face the door and bellowed, “I’m just a fairy
freaking
godmother—what the hell do I know?”
freaking
godmother—what the hell do I know?”
I glanced nervously toward the door, but when no one came rushing in to respond to her outburst, I said, “I’m betting you know a lot more than they give you credit for.”
Her face brightened and she leaned over to give me a sloppy hug. “I knew I liked you,” she gushed, her face so close to mine the stench of tequila on her breath made me cough a little.
“Okay, okay,” I said, patting her on the back. Then, extricating myself from her hold, I asked, “So, how does James feel about Caliban?”
Lavender made a face and rolled her eyes. “He can’t stand him. Thinks he’s an arrogant jackass and he sure as hell didn’t want to back his TV show, but Cindy kept badgering him until he caved.”
“Seems like Cindy is pretty concerned about Caliban’s future,” I observed.
“Well, she would be, wouldn’t she?” Lavender said, tossing back her shot. “Can’t have her lover being just another chef, now can she? That wouldn’t be good for her image.”
I blinked rapidly in surprise. “Lover? I thought Caliban was involved with his assistant, Sebille.”
Lavender laughed. “He is—well, to some extent. That’s part of the problem. Cindy and Sebille have very different ideas about Caliban’s career trajectory. Cindy wants him to be respectably famous. Sebille wants to build an empire and place herself at the helm. That conniving bitch sees Caliban as her ticket to power and control. It’s all about control with Sebille. I pity anyone who tries to wrest that control away. . . .”
“Dear God,” I breathed. “It all makes sense now.”
Lavender pulled a disgusted face. “Glad it does to someone! Nothing in this freaking place makes any sense to me.” She met my eyes, her own filled with sadness and heartbreak that went far deeper than the maudlin ramblings of drunkenness. “I’d give anything to go back, Red. To put things right again. Wouldn’t you?”
I stared at her for a moment, considering the question. “No,” I said finally. “No, I wouldn’t go back to my story. I like it much better when I can write my own.”
Lavender’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I want to write my own, too,” she confided. “But I don’t even know where to start.”
I stood up and offered Lavender my hand. “Come on. Why don’t you start by sleeping this off?”
Lavender allowed me to pull her to her feet and put her arm around my shoulders as I led her from the sitting room and into the hall. “Then what?” she asked. “When I wake up in the morning and am still trapped in the same shitty story?”
“Then you scrap it all and start over.”
I closed Lavender’s bedroom door behind me and made my way down the hall to where I assumed the stairs would be. The sound of the band playing downstairs filtered up to the second floor, filling the hallway with music, so I figured I had to be heading in the right direction. I came to an intersection of hallways and paused to listen, trying to get a feel for which way I should go.
“Freaking rich people,” I mumbled. “Why do they have to build such damn big houses?”
Suddenly, a door behind me flew open and the sound of angry voices seeped into the hallway.
“You son of a bitch!” a woman yelled. “You never can admit when you’re wrong!”
“That’s because I never am!” a man roared back. “I told you that jackass was going to screw up. I told you he was on D, but you just
had
to help him. You just
had
to keep nagging me to push him out to Hollywood. If he’s fried his brain on the dust, I’m out
millions
!”
had
to help him. You just
had
to keep nagging me to push him out to Hollywood. If he’s fried his brain on the dust, I’m out
millions
!”
I couldn’t see who was talking, but based on the topic of conversation, it had to be James and Cindy. I glanced around me, trying to figure out where to go. The last thing I wanted was to be discovered roaming around their house. The voices grew louder, and I saw Cindy backing out of the room into the hallway.
I cursed under my breath and dove for the nearest door. A small lamp on a desk across the room was the only light in what appeared to be a study. I closed the door most of the way, leaving it open just a crack so that I could hear the rest of the argument.
“It’s always about money with you, isn’t it?” Cindy demanded, her voice thick with tears as she stormed down the hall toward the room where I was hiding. “You don’t give a damn about how I’m hurting.”
“Hurting about that loser you’re screwing?” James shot back. “Are you kidding me?”
“Don’t pretend you care about anything I do,” Cindy screamed. “All you care about is making the next business deal or nailing the next piece of tail!”
“This conversation’s over,” James said, standing just on the other side of the door. “Go down and play princess with your friends. Maybe they’ll give a shit about your pathetic problems.”
“You asshole,” Cindy sniffled. “I’m through with you.”
“You know how to find the door.”
I heard Cindy sob and hurry off down the hall. James sighed and muttered something under his breath, then grabbed the doorknob and started to push the door open. Panicked, I backed away into the shadows and held my breath, but the door didn’t swing in any farther.
“What are you doing here?” I heard James say to someone else in the hall. “I told you not to come here again.”
I heard a low voice, a woman’s voice, but it was too quiet to place. James let out a frustrated huff in response to whatever she said.
“Fine,” he said tersely. “But this is the last time.”
I crept back toward the door and listened, straining to hear their receding footsteps.
“That was a close one.”
With a startled scream, I spun around, my heart racing. The shadows around the desk parted as Nate leaned forward with a grin.
“What the
hell
is wrong with you!” I hissed. “You scared the shit out of me!”
hell
is wrong with you!” I hissed. “You scared the shit out of me!”
He chuckled softly. “Sorry. I couldn’t exactly say anything when you popped in unexpectedly, what with James and Cindy right outside the door.”
“What are you doing in here?” I asked, still whispering.
Nate shrugged. “Snooping around. When you didn’t come back, I decided to do some exploring.”
I lifted my brows. “Find anything?”
Nate pushed a document forward on the desk pad. “Found the bill for Dave Hamelin’s exterminating services.”
I took a look at it and whistled softly. “Damn. I’m in the wrong business.”
“You and me both. What did Lavender tell you?”
I quickly filled him in on my conversation with the forlorn fairy.
Nate shook his head. “Just goes to show the rich can be just as screwed up as the rest of us.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I said, looking over my shoulder at the door. “I don’t want to get caught where we shouldn’t be.”
“Works for me.”
We quickly made our way out of the room and down the hall without incident. The band was still going strong and the partiers were deep in their cups at this point, their voices loud in the crowded ballroom.
“This place is giving me a headache,” I called out to Nate over the din.
Nate nodded and pointed to a set of French doors leading to a garden. “Let’s go outside.”
The moment we stepped outside, I inhaled deeply, letting the night air fill my lungs and clear my head of all the dissonance so that I could think clearly.
Nate came up to stand beside me, resting his forearms on the waist-high garden wall as he stared out into the darkness. We stood in silence for several minutes, the strains of lively big band standards and the fragrance of early spring flowers drifting to us on the breeze, reminding me that sometime within the last couple of days we must have crossed into April. The realization that I’d been so consumed by recent events that I’d lost track of the days made me feel nostalgic for the time when I only had to worry about sex offenders, drug dealers, and thieves.
I leaned back against the wall, watching the partygoers through the glass doors. They danced and laughed as if there was no evil in the world, no wickedness stalking them at every turn. Just once I would’ve liked to be that ignorant and naive again.
“I’d offer a penny for your thoughts,” Nate said, “but I have a feeling they’re worth more than that.”
“Sorry,” I replied on a sigh, offering him a distracted smile. “I was just wishing . . .” I shook my head, leaving the thought unfinished, not wanting to let on how lost and lonely and tired I felt.
“Wishing what?” Nate pressed.
“Nothing,” I said, waving away his question. “Never mind.” I pushed off the wall and headed toward the doors. “Why don’t we take off? I think we got what we came for.”
He grasped my hand, pulling me back toward him. “I didn’t.”
I swallowed hard as he pulled me close, cradling my hand up to his chest while his other arm went around my waist. His hand splayed across the small of my back as he pressed my body up against his.
“What exactly
were
you after?” I asked, liking all too well how nicely my curves fit against his in all the right places.
were
you after?” I asked, liking all too well how nicely my curves fit against his in all the right places.
Nate’s mouth hitched up in one corner. “I was hoping to share at least one dance with you tonight. It
is
a party, after all.”
is
a party, after all.”
I averted my gaze, trying to hide the blood rising in my cheeks. “I’m a lousy dancer,” I murmured, attempting to extricate myself from his hold.
His grasp on my waist tightened. “Don’t worry. I’ll lead.”
He pulled me in a little closer so that every inch of our bodies pressed together, then began to sway ever so slightly, letting me get a sense of how his muscles felt with each step, his hip nudging mine just enough to indicate which way I should move.
“That’s not so bad, is it?” he asked softly.
I shook my head, finding it hard to breathe. “No, it’s not bad at all.”
We moved together in silence until Nate began to hum quietly with the music, his deep rumble bringing goose bumps to my flesh. I tried to ignore the heat building in the pit of my stomach and follow Nate’s lead, but it was growing increasingly hard to concentrate. Suddenly assaulted by a treasonously libidinous image of tearing open Nate’s shirt, I stumbled, coming down hard on his toes. He chuckled as we tripped over each other and nearly careened down the stone steps that led into the garden.
“Sorry,” I groaned. “I’m not used to letting someone else take control.”
Nate’s gaze locked with mine. “Trust me, Red,” he said, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it before. “Just close your eyes and let go.”
I nodded, then tucked in closer to him, resting my head against his chest and closing my eyes. The steady hammering of his heart kept time with mine as we began to sway again, moving in a slow, meandering path. For a moment, wrapped in Nate’s arms, I felt a perfect peace. There was a quiet stillness in my soul like none I’d ever known. And when the final blast of horns signaled the end of the song, I didn’t pull away, and Nate’s hold on me didn’t lessen.
The next song started—a jazzy, upbeat number that was twice the tempo of the one before, but Nate and I remained still but for our increasingly ragged breathing. And when I could no longer deny the tension between us, I turned my face up to his, anxious to see if he sensed it, too.
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