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?’
‘Er, yes…’
‘You must be very well organised if you can carry out those duties and still have time to accompany clients to their events.’
‘I don’t normally. That is, I stand in for the others sometimes.’
She was making it sound as though she had to be coerced into doing so, Ricardo thought cynically. Of course he knew better.
‘Carly, your mother’s telephoned. She wants you to ring her—Oh, I’m sorry.’ The young girl who had burst into the office came to an abrupt halt, her face pink, as she realised that Carly wasn’t on her own.
‘It’s all right, Izzie, I’ll ring her later. Thank you.’ But as she thanked the younger girl Carly’s heart was sinking beneath her professional smile. She already knew what her adoptive mother would want. More money.
Carly did her best, but the truth was that the woman had no real understanding of how to manage money. The fortune her adoptive father had once had was gone, swallowed up in lavish living and unwise investments. A stroke had made it impossible for him to do any kind of work, and so Carly found herself in the position of having to support them as best she could. But it wasn’t easy. Her adoptive mother ran up bills and then wept because she couldn’t pay them—like a small child rather than an adult. Their anguished unhappiness and despair made her feel so guilty—especially when…
She was so lucky to have friends like Lucy and Jules, Carly reflected emotionally. She might get on reasonably well with her adopted parents now, but that had not always been the case. Without Lucy and Jules what might she have done to escape from the misery and the wretchedness that had been her own childhood? Taken her own life? She had certainly thought about it.
Where had she gone? Ricardo wondered curiously, watching anxiety momentarily shadow her eyes before she blinked it away. He cleared his throat.
‘Right. Here are the events I wish to attend.’
Pushing back her private thoughts, Carly leaned over the desk to study the list he had tossed towards her.
He had selected three events: a private party in St Tropez on board a newly acquired private yacht, to celebrate its acquisition; a media event in the Hamptons to launch a new glossy magazine, to which old money, new names and anyone who was anyone in the fashion world had been invited and a world-famous senior rock star’s birthday bash at his French château.
Carly started to frown.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘The St Tropez yacht party is next weekend, and only four days before the Hamptons do. It might be difficult co-ordinating flights and all the other travel arrangements.’
She kept a tight rein on expenses—or at least she had done until Nick had started to interfere. They always booked cheap, no frills flights to overseas events if they weren’t being flown out by the clients.
Ricardo raised an eyebrow.
‘That won’t be a problem. We’ll be using my private jet.’ He gave a dismissive shrug of those powerful shoulders. ‘One of my PAs can sort out all the details. Oh, and they’ll need your passport, ASAP. I understand from Nick that your normal practice is to be in situ a day ahead of the actual event. That suits me, because that way I shall be able to see how things are organised.’
Too right he would, Ricardo decided.
He was standing up, and Carly followed suit. He was so tall—so big! She was suddenly aware of her reluctance to go through the doorway, because it would bring her too close to him. Too close to him? Get a grip, she mentally advised herself unsympathetically.
‘My PA will be in touch with you regarding flight times.’
She walked determinedly towards the door. She was almost level with him now. In another few seconds she would be through the door and safe. Safe? From what? Him pouncing on her? No way would he do that, she told herself scornfully.
And then she made the mistake of looking up at him.
It was like stepping through a door into a previously unknown world.
Her heart whipped round inside her chest like a spinning barrel. Against her will her head turned, her lips parting as her gaze fastened on his mouth. His top lip was well shaped and firmly cut, his teeth white and just slightly uneven, and his bottom lip…
His bottom lip. A smoky sensuality darkened her normally crystal-clear grey eyes as she fed visually on the promise of its fullness. How would it feel to catch that fullness between her own lips? To nibble at it with small biting kisses, to…
‘A word of warning—’ Ricardo began.
She could feel guilty colour staining her skin as her mind grappled with inexplicable thoughts.
‘It is imperative that full confidentiality as to the purpose of my attendance at these occasions is maintained at all times.’
He was cautioning her about the events—that was all! Carly exhaled in shaky relief.
‘Yes—yes, of course,’ she agreed quickly, as she finally made it through the doorway on legs that had developed a very suspicious weakness.
But she was unnervingly aware of him behind her.
‘And one more thing.’
‘Yes?’ she offered politely, automatically turning round to face him.
‘The next time you look at my mouth like that…’ he said softly, with a mocking smile.
‘Like what? I didn’t look at it like anything!’ Carly knew that her face was burning with guilt, but she had to defend herself.
‘Liar. You looked at it, at me, as though you couldn’t wait to feel it against your own. As though there was nothing you wanted more than for me to push you up against that doorframe and take you right here and now. As though you could already feel my hands on your skin, touching you intimately, and you were loving it. As though—’