Chapter Five #2
Once all the fuss had died down, she’d give Rio Zaccarelli the boot. Or should that be ‘the stiletto’?
Either way, she was seriously looking forward to that day.
Rio fastened the sleeves of his dress shirt. Normally he relished the challenge of a difficult situation. On this occasion the stakes were too high to make the whole issue anything other than stressful. Adding an evening of Christmas celebrations into that mix simply increased the stress.
Get it over with.
There was no sound of activity from the bedroom and Rio wondered whether he should have checked on Evie. She’d been in there all day and they were supposed to be leaving in fifteen minutes. Was she still asleep?
Or was she still sulking over the Christmas decorations?
He was just walking towards the bedroom doors when they opened suddenly.
‘Don’t say a word. Not a word.’ A dangerous glint in her blue eyes, she stalked barefoot across the carpet.
A pair of silver shoes dangled from her fingers.
‘Every time you open your mouth you say something nasty so, unless red eyes are the latest “must have” accessory on the celebrity circuit, then it’s safer if you say nothing. ’
Rio was pleased she’d instructed him to say nothing because, for once, the power of speech appeared to have deserted him.
He’d been present when she’d tried on the dress—he’d approved it—but clearly he hadn’t devoted his full attention to the task because he had no memory of it looking quite this good.
Or maybe it was because he’d seen the dress in daylight and it was definitely designed to dazzle at night.
The fabric sparkled with every turn of her body and the effect was incredible—it was as if she were illuminated, each sensuous curve lit up and accentuated by the shimmering fabric.
Her hair she’d scooped up and secured to the back of her head with silver clips, the slightly haphazard style both kooky and sexy.
‘You look incredible.’
‘Wholesome?’
He ignored the sarcasm in her tone. ‘Sexy and wholesome. It’s an intriguing combination. It would look even more effective if you could stop glaring at me.’
‘I’ll stop glaring at you when we’re in public.’ She was as prickly as a porcupine. ‘Our deal doesn’t include having to like each other, does it?’
Rio clenched his jaw. ‘If I offended you, then I apologise.’
‘If? There is no if, Rio. Of course you offended me! You criticised my work and then you criticised me. You’re trying to turn me into a clone of the type of woman you date and then you get irritated when I’m not doing things right.’
‘That isn’t true, but—’
‘No!’ She lifted her hand like a policeman stopping traffic. ‘Don’t say anything else. You’re incapable of speaking without being offensive.’
Unaccustomed to having to work so hard with a woman, Rio drew in a long, slow breath. ‘It’s snowing outside and that dress has no back to it. You’ll need something to keep you warm—’ He handed her a large flat box and she looked at him suspiciously before taking it with a frown.
‘Now what? A cloak with a hood so that you can cover my face? A—oh—’ she gasped, and then her face lost its colour and she dropped the box containing the snowy-white fur onto the carpet. ‘I can’t wear that. I won’t wear fur.’
‘It isn’t real.’ Wondering whether every interaction was going to result in confrontation, Rio stooped and retrieved it. ‘It’s fake.’
Evie stood with her hands behind her back. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Positive.’ He draped it around her shoulders. Her skin was warm and smooth against the backs of his fingers and he felt the immediate flash of chemistry. Her breathing was shallow and fast and for a moment she stood rigid, a faint bloom of colour lifting the pallor of her cheeks.
‘Is that what you do when you offend someone? You buy them an extravagant gift rather than say sorry? Does it work?’
‘You tell me. Your hair looks amazing against the white fur.’ He saw the pulse beating in her throat and knew that she was feeling exactly what he was feeling.
‘Don’t think that just because I’m wearing this, I’ve forgiven you. I can’t be bought.’
A woman who couldn’t be bought.
Rio gave a faint smile at that concept.
‘It does feel gorgeous against bare skin.’ She wriggled her shoulders in an unconsciously seductive movement that sent his libido into overdrive.
Incredibly aroused, he drew her against him.
‘You could remove the dress,’ he suggested silkily, ‘and just wear the fur.’ Even without touching his fingers to her wrist, he knew her pulse was racing and Rio saw something in her eyes seconds before she looked away.
Desire. Programmed to identify that look, he was about to suggest that the fur would be comfortable to lie on, when she shoved at his chest.
‘You just can’t help yourself, can you? We’re supposed to be stopping the photo looking sleazy and all you want to do is stay in and make the whole situation even tackier. Or is this deal suddenly not important to you?’
Rio froze, horrified by the realisation that for a few precious seconds his mind had been wiped of every thought except for one and that was the erotic possibilities of fur against Evie’s pale skin.
‘You’re right. Let’s go.’ Seriously disconcerted by the fact that she was so together while he was locked in the savage grip of rampaging hormones, he faced the lowering fact that, had she not stopped him, he would have tumbled her onto the rug in front of the fire and followed his instincts with no thought for anything except the demands of his own super-sized libido.
Exasperated with himself and seriously unsettled, Rio snagged his jacket from the back of the chair and urged her towards the elevator. ‘The premiere starts in about fifteen minutes.’
‘Great. So we’ll be last.’
‘That was the intention.’ He pressed the button for the ground floor. ‘We show ourselves in public when the crowd is at its maximum.’
‘Why not? If I’m going to humiliate myself, it might as well be in a big way.’
Evie walked gingerly up the red carpet, relieved that the silver shoes were so much more comfortable than the red ones, her fingers gripping tightly to Rio’s rock-hard biceps.
Despite the falling snow, there was a huge crowd waiting in the hope of seeing the stars and Evie felt like a fraud as she heard the cheering.
‘They’re going to feel short-changed when they see me. What am I supposed to do?’ She hissed the words between her teeth, her smile never faltering as what felt like a million camera lenses were pointed in her direction. ‘Do I flash the ring? Do I look at you adoringly?’
‘Just act normally.’
Evie felt a rush of exasperation that he had so little idea how she felt. ‘I don’t normally walk along red carpets in high heels pretending to be engaged to a very rich man I barely know. Some help here would be appreciated.’
‘I’m by your side. That’s all the help you need.
’ He paused to talk to a couple who seemed vaguely familiar.
Relieved to see at least two friendly faces and trying to work out where she knew them from, Evie smiled and chatted, finding them surprisingly approachable.
She definitely knew them from somewhere.
As Rio led her away into the foyer, she was still smiling. ‘They were nice. I know I’ve met them before somewhere—I can’t think where—I don’t know that many people in London. Do they work at the hotel? What are their names?’
When he told her, she stared at him in mortified silence. ‘Right. Both of them Hollywood stars. The reason I know their faces is because I’ve seen them both in the movies. Now I’m embarrassed. Oh, my God—they must have wondered why I was grinning at them like an idiot.’
‘You were charming and not at all star-struck. And you didn’t ask for their autograph, which is always refreshing.’
‘That’s because I didn’t actually recognise them.’ Evie tightened her grip on his arm. ‘Do you think they realised? What if I offended them?’
‘They enjoyed talking to you and the fact that you were so natural with them suggests that our relationship is an already accepted fact in some circles. You did well. There’s no need to make holes in my arm.’
Evie slackened her grip. Determined not to make the same mistake again, she spent the next ten minutes glancing furtively around her, trying to put faces to names.
The foyer was crammed with glamorous people, all of whom seemed completely comfortable in their equally glamorous surroundings.
They looked like elegant swans, she thought gloomily, whereas she—she felt like an emu.
Tall, conspicuous and horribly out of place amongst so many delicate, beautiful birds.
Watching her face, Rio sighed. ‘You look as though you’re about to visit the dentist. Try and relax.’
Finding the mingling in the foyer desperately stressful, Evie was relieved when they moved into the cinema for the showing of the film. Her spirits lifted still further when she discovered that it was a Christmas movie.
More comfortable in the dark, she slipped off her shoes and settled down in her seat, looking forward to a couple of hours of seasonal entertainment.
Watching elves dance across the screen, she was just starting to feel Christmassy when she became aware that Rio was emailing someone on his BlackBerry.
‘You’re supposed to switch off your mobile.
’ The moment she said the words she realised how stupid she sounded.
This wasn’t a commercial showing. It hadn’t escaped her notice that the other guests had been vying with each other in an attempt to exchange a few words with him.
It was obvious that he was the most powerful, influential guest here. Who was going to tell him off?