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Jenna watched him disappear into the crowd and then spun back to her best friend. “Oh, wow. He’s a little too slick, Janey.”
“I know.” She frowned. “He scares the pants off me.”
“Sounds promising,” Jenna responded with an exaggerated wink. And though champagne might have been for wimps, she took great delight in tipping the rest of the bottle into their two glasses and pressing Jane for gossip as she went.
Carter arrived empty handed, only a moment later. Far too swiftly for Jane to relay any of the truth of her predicament to her best friend. As he walked across the elegant room, she had time only to whisper, “I don’t want him to know too much about me, okay? I met him through an assignment. I’m still… making up my mind.”
Jenna tapped the side of her nose. “’nuff said.”
“Thanks.” She flickered her gaze to Carter. Their eyes locked, and she felt the sizzle of awareness travel right to the heart of her soul.
“Drinks are on their way. I’ve taken the liberty of reserving a table upstairs, too, for dinner in an hour.”
Jenna looked suitably impressed, whereas Jane had the sense that she was being pulled against the tide, deep into a dark, swirling ocean. “That’s not necessary. We were just going to grab a hot dog on the way home.”
“A hot dog?” His face was rich with displeasure. “We can do that, too. But it’s your birthday.” Beneath the table, he put a hand lightly on her thigh. And though it sent a pulse of heat flashing through her, the strangest part of the contact was that it also felt totally right. That it felt natural.
“Jenna, are you in the same line of work as Jane?”
Jenna grinned good-naturedly. “I wish. We can all agree I don’t quite have the looks for it.” She pulled a self-deprecating face as she looked down at her slim figure. “Nothing so exciting for me. I’m a school teacher. What about you, Carter?”
“Family business,” he said with a sidelong glance at Jane.
“What kind of business?”
“Sure you’re not a journalist?” He asked, in response to her barrage of curious questions.
She held her hands up. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Of course.” His fingers began to trace invisible patterns over the material of her dress, causing Jane’s breathing to become erratic. “We’re in the media.”
“The media?” She pulled a face. “The way you say it, that sounds like the mob.”
Jane bit down on her laugh. “Jenna,” she said warningly.
“It’s okay.”
“She does have a point though,” Jane smiled at him, her face bemused, with a mixture of shyness and amusement.
“We’re in the media,” he repeated, with his best, worst mobster accent.
A waitress arrived with a tray of cocktails and placed them on the table. “Mr Mann-Hughes, the table is reserved upstairs for any time you’re ready.”
“Waitaminute,” Jenna exhaled, as the waitress disappeared. “You’re Carter Mann-Hughes? Of Silverlight?”
“The penny drops,” he said with an exaggerated grimace.
Jane knew who he was. At least, she’d known who Hank was through the research notes she’d been given, prior to undertaking her assignment at his birthday party. It hadn’t occurred to her to mind the disparagement in their position until she saw Jenna’s reaction.
“Holy shit, Jane. He’s practically royalty. How did you not say anything?”
Because he’s going to use that fabulous money to buy me. But only for a while. Only for a time. Her smile was false, but only Carter saw it.
“Jane really didn’t want to see me again.”
“Well, I know that can’t be true,” Jenna said with a shake of her head. “I had to drag her kicking and screaming to any kind of birthday party. So if she invited you, then…”
The words hung between the three of them, as Jenna looked from one to the other. Jane burst out laughing at the same time Carter shook his head slowly from side to side.
