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Collette held out her hand. “Charmed.”
Nina smiled as they shook hands. “Nice to meetyou.”
“Is this your first Tony?” Collette asked in charmingly accentedEnglish.
Nina heard an implication under the question:it must be exciting for you to be around such importantpeople.
She silently scolded herself. She was too old to be petty. Collette wasn’t theenemy.
“It is,” Ninasaid.
“Did you enjoyit?”
“It was amazing,” Nina said, and then just to prove she wasn’t as petty as she was feeling, “I love yourdress.”
Collette’s smile was patient, as if she’d been given the same compliment so many times she was tired of hearing it. “Thank you. Yours is nice too. I adoreMichelle.”
Now Nina was sure she wasn’t imagining the condescension in Collette’s voice:I’m on a first name basis with the designer of your dress. Can you say thesame?
“I don’t know her,” Nina said, determined not to engage in one-upmanship. She couldn’t compete with someone like Collette Rousseau. Nina’s honesty — her “realness” as Jack had put it — was all she had. “But she’s obviously verytalented.”
Collette gave her a chilly smile. Was she annoyed that Nina wouldn’t even try to play her game? That Nina wouldn’t fawn over the fact that Collette was famous and wellconnected?
“I should find Ben,” Collette said. Nina knew from the red carpet that “Ben” was the highest paid male actor in Hollywood. Collette leaned in, pressing her body to Jack’s. “See you soon, darling.” The kiss that seemed meant for his cheek landed instead on the corner of his mouth, something that Nina guessed was noaccident.
She swallowed her ire at Collette’s use of the word “darling.” It had always felt like a word Jack used just for her, but now she couldn’t help wondering if it was a generic term of endearment he’d employed on the army of women who’d come beforeher.
Collette turned to Nina. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Nina. I hope you enjoy the rest of theparty.”
As if she were a guest with no guarantee of a repeat appearance, which Nina had to admit was true. It was a tough realization to swallow, and she watched Collette sashay through the crowd, her taut, curvaceous ass a beacon for the eyes of every man in theroom.
Every man but Jack, who was looking down at Nina with an all-too familiarsmile.
It was a smile that said he could read her mind. A smile that said her human frailties both amused and delightedhim.
He bent his head and kissed her just below her ear. A shiver ran up herspine.
“Everything all right?” heasked.
“Everything’s fine.” She was determined to act her age and not like a high school mean girl who was so insecure she couldn’t be friendly with an ex’s girlfriend. “Why do youask?”
He grinned down at her. “Noreason.”
“Good.” She took his arm. “Can we find food? I’mstarving.”
“Of course you are,darling.”
She ignored her sudden annoyance at his use of the endearment and focused instead on the fact that he was leading her through the crowd toward a series of tables laden with everything from lobster to oysters to caviar to gourmet mac andcheese.
She was just hangry. She’d had too much champagne on an emptystomach.
Later, when they were finally seated and eating, making small talk with a producer and his writer wife, Nina spotted Collette on the dance floor. Even when she was being silly, she was the most beautiful and magnetic woman in the room, the ultimate coolgirl.
Nina had a sudden flash of Jack, his face a mask of barely restrained lust as he worked the scarlet rope. Except it wasn’t her own body she saw being tied, but the firm, young body of ColletteRousseau.
Had Jack done all the same things to Collette that he did to Nina? Had Collette been more adventurous? Willing even to engage in play at Jack’s sex club in Paris? Willing to watch other women go down onhim?
She didn’t know, but she finally had the answers to questions she’d been askingherself.
