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“My position as a cop?”
“No.” Jess smiled, reading her reaction perfectly. “As Roarke’s wife.” Oh, she didn’t care for that, he thought, amused. This was a woman who wanted to stand firm, on her own. “Your husband has a great deal of influence, Dallas.”
“I know what Roarke has.” It wasn’t precisely true. She didn’t have a clue as to the full extent of his holdings and operations. She didn’t want to. “What do you want from him?”
“Just a party,” Leonardo said quickly.
“A what?”
“A party for Mavis.”
“A splashy one,” Jess put in, grinning. “A busting one.”
“An event.” Leonardo shot Jess a warning look. “A stage, so to speak, where Mavis can mingle with people, perform. I haven’t mentioned the idea to her in case you objected. But we thought if Roarke could invite . . .” There was obvious embarrassment now as she only stared at him. “Well, he knows so many people.”
“People who buy performance discs, go to clubs, look for entertainment.” Not embarrassed in the least, Jess smiled winningly. “Maybe we should get you some more wine.”
Instead, she set the barely touched glass aside. “You want him to give a party.” Wary of a trap, she scanned both faces. “That’s it?”
“More or less.” Hope sprang in Leonardo’s chest. “We’d like to run the demo during it, have Mavis give a live performance as well. I know it’s an expense. I’m more than willing to pay—”
“It won’t be the money that concerns him.” Eve considered, tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair. “I’ll talk to him about it and get back to you. I guess you want it soon.”
“As soon as possible.”
“I’ll get back to you,” she repeated, then rose.
“Thank you, Dallas.” Leonardo bent in several places to kiss her cheek. “We’ll get out of your way.”
“She’s going to be a huge hit,” Jess predicted. “She just needs a liftoff.” He took a disc out of his pocket. “This is a copy of the demo,” he told her. A specially doctored copy, he thought, just for the lieutenant. “Give it a try. See what we’ve come up with.”
She smiled at it, thinking of Mavis. “I will.”
Upstairs, alone, Eve programmed the AutoChef and came up with a steaming plate of pasta and what was certainly fresh sauce from garden-grown tomatoes and herbs. It never ceased to amaze her what Roarke had access to. She wolfed it down while she ran a bath. As an afterthought, she tossed in some of the foaming salts he’d bought her in Paris.
She thought they smelled like her honeymoon: rich and romantic. She sank into a tub the size of a small lake and sighed greedily. Blank the mind before thinking, she decided and popped open the control panel in the wall. She’d already loaded the demo in the bedroom unit and switched it to play on the recessed screen in the bathroom.
She settled back into hot, frothy water, a second glass of vintage wine in her hand, and shook her head. What the hell was she doing here? Eve Dallas, a cop who’d come up the hard way; a nameless kid found in an alley, abandoned and abused, with a murder on her hands blocked from her memory.
Even a year before, that memory had been patchy and her life had been one of work, survival, and more work. Standing for the dead was her business, and she was good at her job. That had been enough. She’d made it enough.
Until Roarke. The glitter of the ring on her finger continued to puzzle her.
He loved her. He wanted her. He, the competent, successful, and enigmatic Roarke, even needed her. That was the biggest puzzle of all. And maybe, since she couldn’t seem to solve it, she would eventually learn to simply accept it.
She brought the wine to her lips, sank a little lower into the water, and hit the remote.
Instan
tly, color and sound exploded into the room. In defense, she lowered the volume before her eardrums burst. Then Mavis swirled across the screen, as exotic as a sprite, potent as straight whiskey. Her voice was a screech, but it was appealing, nonetheless, and it suited her as well as the music Jess had designed to showcase the vocals.
It was hot, ruthless, and raw. Very much Mavis. But as Eve soaked it in, she realized that the sound and the show had more polish. Oh, there had always been flash and sparkle when it came to Mavis’s work, but now there was a thin sheen of gloss she had lacked before.
Production values, she supposed. Orchestration. Andsomeone who has the eye to recognize a rough diamond and the talent and willingness to help buff it up.
Eve’s opinion of Jess took a step up. Maybe he’d looked like a cocky boy showing off on his complicated console, but he obviously knew how to make it work. More, he understood Mavis, Eve realized. He appreciated her for what she was and what she wanted to do, and he’d found a way for her to do it well.
Eve chuckled to herself and lifted her glass in toast to her friend. It looked like they were going to have a party at that.
