Chapter
One
Indigo Elara stared at the logo on the door before turning to her friend and agent, Zara Walsh. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
Zara shrugged. “You’re about to be the face of a major jewelry campaign worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for world renowned designer Jeffrey Courteux. His first collection in years. You didn’t think you’d be touring around Western Australia without some sort of security following us to every shooting location, did you?”
“It’s not that. I understand all that. It’s the fact I’m going to be the face of a Jeffrey Courteux collection. That out of all the models around the world, I was chosen. I still have to pinch myself that this is my life.”
Her friend squeezed her arm. “It is, and you deserve it. You’ve worked hard for it. From what I found out, Jeffrey made it clear the person wearing his collection had to be Australian. He’s all about promoting home grown talent and Australian products.”
“A lot of what I’ve got is because of you. You’ve looked after me and have given me lots of opportunities I may not have gotten.” Indigo was living the dream for both her and Zara.
“We can stand here all day and blow smoke up each other’s asses by telling each other how wonderful we are, but we have a meeting to get to.”
That was another thing she loved about Zara, there was no bullshitting with her.
“Fine, let’s do this.” She pushed open the door and walked into the offices of Power Security.
“Good morning.” The receptionist smiled at them.
“Morning, I’m Zara Walsh and this is Indigo Elara. We’re here for a meeting with Steve Power and others.”
“Of course, we’re just waiting for some other people to arrive, but let me show you to the conference room. Can I get you anything to drink? Tea, coffee, water? There are also some pastries in the conference room for you to enjoy.”
“Great. I’ll take a black coffee, and Indigo, what would you like?” Zara always took the lead when it came to meetings like this. When the time came for her to speak up, Indigo would.
“I’ll have a green tea please, if you have it. If not, normal black tea will be fine.” Indigo tried to keep her caffeine intake to a minimum, but when it came to meetings, she liked to have something to wrap her hands around if needed, and tea was her preferred beverage in those circumstances.
“We’ve got green tea.”
“Fabulous.”
“I’ll get those for you.” The receptionist got up and came around her desk. “If you’d like to come with me, I’ll take you through.”
They followed her down a small corridor which led to an open plan office space. There were desks placed in groups, as if the employees wanted to work close to each other. She supposed if they wanted to discuss something, they could do so easily, but if she worked in an office, she would prefer to have her own space.
Not that she’d ever worked in an office; she’d been modeling since she was seventeen. The quintessential, unbelievable story of being plucked out of obscurity and thrust into fame. If it hadn’t been for Zara, she was sure she’d have given up long ago.
They were led to a large conference room that had a long table, along with a large television screen mounted to the wall. A bank of windows showcased a beautiful view of the city of Perth and the Swan River.
This was Indigo’s first time to Perth, and she was enchanted by the prettiness of the city, and she’d been to a lot of places around the world. Her home base was in Sydney, and even though she could afford a place with a view of the city and harbor, she’d chosen to purchase a small studio apartment in one of the outer suburbs. It was more of a place for her to lay her head, as she was always traveling from one city or another for a photo shoot or to walk in a fashion parade.
There was a man already seated at the table, his blonde head down as he studied the laptop screen in front of him before pushing his glasses up his nose, and then his fingers began to fly over the keyboard. There was a certain symmetry to his movement. Almost hypnotic. Her typing ability consisted of pecking at the keyboard like a bird pecked at seed. She used the dictation function on her phone more often than not to send text messages. Or she typed out one-word responses if she needed to do so quickly.
Was he someone who did personal security? Or did he just do the computer work for the firm?
His shoulders appeared broad, but it was hard to tell with him hunched over if the rest of him was muscular. Most of the security she’d seen and had been around were beefy, with arms the size of her thighs.
“Indigo?” Zara whispered, and she became aware that she was still standing in the doorway.
Jolted into action, she made her way into the room. The man didn’t look up, and she tried not to take offense.
Perhaps this man was so focused on his task, he had no idea they’d walked into the room. Otherwise, it was plain rudeness that he hadn’t acknowledged them. It wasn’t entitlement on her part, just common courtesy, because even though she’d come up with a feasible excuse, he couldn’t have missed her and Zara entering. It wasn’t her problem though, she doubted he would be the one who would be following her everywhere. He really did look comfortable in front of a laptop.
She took a seat right opposite him anyway, just to be contrary. She didn’t know why she was feeling this way about a complete stranger. She blew out a breath and directed her attention to the view behind the man.
Indigo had no idea how anyone got any work done looking at the vista every day. She would be constantly distracted. Maybe that was why he had his back to it, so he could concentrate on whatever held his attention on the screen.
