“My God,” he said, “there must be a couple of hundred people packed inside this room.”
Eve frowned, shook her head and leaned closer.
“I can’t hear you.”
Of course, she couldn’t. The music was blasting away, the beat so loud that Zach could feel it vibrating through the floor. He drew her closer to his side.
“I said,” he shouted, “I’ve never seen so many people in one place in my life, except maybe on a subway train at rush hour.”
Eve laughed and said something, but it was Zach who shook his head this time. She rose on tiptoe and put her lips close to his ear. Her breath was warm, and he felt a ripple of electricity dance along his skin as she spoke.
“It’ll be better once we get out on the terrace,” she told him. “It’s never as crowded outside as it is inside.”
He drew back and gave her a puzzled smile. “I thought this was supposed to be a barbecue.”
“Sure. But it’s still early.” Eve grinned. “It takes a while before people are desperate enough to trade the air-conditioning for the mosquitoes.”
A white-coated waiter edged through the crowd toward them, paused and said something. Zach couldn’t hear a word but the tray the waiter held out, filled with flutes of champagne and rounds of caviar-heaped toast, spoke volumes.
“Eve?”
She nodded, and he took two glasses of champagne and handed her one. He reached for the caviar, too, but she put her hand lightly on his arm and shook her head.
“I never eat the stuff.”
She was smiling at him, her eyes as blue as a tropical sea, and Zach felt his throat constrict.
“I couldn’t hear you,” he said, lying straight through his teeth, but it was worth it. Eve leaned towards him, stood on her toes again and brought her lips to his ear.
She said something about knowing it was silly but not being able to get past the thought that caviar was just a fancy name for fish eggs. Zach laughed, because he was supposed to, but all he could concentrate on was the feel of her breath against his skin and the scent of her rising to his nostrils, a sweet fragrance that was composed of equal parts spring flowers and luscious woman.
She drew back, laughing, and after a second he laughed, too, because he figured that was what he was supposed to do, and he wondered how in hell he was going to go on standing here like this, packed in so tightly against this woman that he could feel the press of her breasts against him, without losing his mind.
“…do you think so far?”
He cleared his throat. The music had dipped to a level with only slightly fewer decibels than the SST on takeoff and conversation had suddenly become possible.
“Sorry,” he said, “I missed that.”
“I said, what do you think of a simple poolside barbecue, Hollywood style?”
Zach smiled. “Well, I haven’t seen the pool.”
“Trust me. There’s a pool. And it’s Olympic-size.”
“You’ve been here before?”
“No. But I’ve been out here long enough to know how the rich and famous live. Their houses are spectacular, their pools can float the QEII, and the parties they throw would make Nero jealous.”
What would make Nero jealous, Zach thought, was Eve. In this room filled with beautiful women who made their fortunes by being beautiful, she was the only one any man worth the name would notice.
And they had noticed. He could see the glances that kept coming her way, the interested assessments being made by all those masculine eyes…
“Eve!”
A man was pushing through the crowd toward them. He was tall, with the rangy good looks of an Eastwood or a Connery.
“Dex,” Eve said in surprise, and then the man gathered her in his arms and kissed her.
Zach felt his entire body tense with fury. He watched as Eve’s head fell back, as her hands flattened against the man’s chest. Was that how she’d looked when she’d kissed him? Zach’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the man. You son of a bitch, he thought, I’ll kill you if you don’t let go of her.
“Dex,” Eve said again. She had stepped back, still in the circle of the man’s arms. Her face was flushed.
Look at her, Zach thought, hell, look at her.
“You look gorgeous as always, Eve. But where have you been keeping yourself?”
“Dex.” She looked at Zach. “I’d like you to meet Zachary Landon. Zach is——”
“Eve’s employer,” Zach said. “Her boss. The one who makes the decisions at Triad now.”
Eve’s face went blank. “Yes,” she said, “that’s right. Zach’s come out here to run things.”
“Is that so?” Dex smiled politely. “Well, welcome to Hollywood, old man.” He chucked Eve under the chin. “You’re fortunate, having Eve to show you around.”
“Yes.” Zach’s lips drew back from his teeth. “Yes, I’m sure I am.”
“Yeah,” Dex said absently. He looked over Zach’s shoulder, smiled and waved his hand in the air. “There’s Steven,” he said. “I want to talk to him about his next film. Give me a call, Eve, will you?”
“Yes,” she said politely. “I will.” He bent to kiss her and she turned her head so that his mouth brushed her cheek. “Take care, Dex.” As soon as he was gone, she looked at Zach. “What was that all about?”
He could feel the stiffness of the smile that curved across his lips.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “You’ve got some high-visibility scalps hanging from your belt.”
Eve’s face whitened. “Maybe you’d like to clarify that remark.”
Zach shrugged. He could feel his hand tightening around his champagne glass.
“I’m just impressed by the variety of friends you have, Eve, that’s all.”
“Just remember something, Zach. It wasn’t my idea to come here tonight, it was yours, just as it was your idea to ask me to come back to work at Triad.”
He took a deep breath. What was the matter with him? She was right. And anyway, her relationships with men were her own business. She could sleep with every actor in Hollywood, for all he gave a damn.
“Okay. I was out of line.”
“I may work for you, Zach,” she said, her voice taut, “but I don’t have to take your insults.”
“Look, I apologized. Now, let’s forget about it, Okay?”
The music suddenly swelled, the beat of drums and guitars drowning out everything, a
nd Eve took refuge in the noise.
She knew what she ought to tell Zach to do with his lukewarm apology.
It was insane, to do anything less.
She knew him for what he was, an egotistical, too-handsome, too-rich-for-his-own-good rat. He’d made up his mind about her before he’d even met her. As far as he was concerned, she was a tramp who’d traded her favors for a career and could never be trusted not to go on trading them for whatever else she might want.
Eve took a shuddering breath. That his touch could excite her, that his kisses could turn her to flame, only made the situation worse. It was like discovering some awful weakness within herself, one that was as fascinating as it was frightening.
But it would be even worse to walk away from Triad now, with the prize so near at hand. She had spent her life trying to prove herself, and now here it was, the chance to show all the Zach Landons of this world who she really was and what she could accomplish…
A roar of laughter rose over the music. Startled, Eve looked up.
“What’s happening?” she said.
Zach put his arm around her waist as the surge of the crowd pressed them closer together.
“I don’t know. I can’t——” He stood on his toes and began to laugh. “I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t believe what?”
“There’s a chimpanzee wearing tails and a top hat in the next room. It looks as if he’s handing out party favors.”
“Believe it,” Eve said with a weary smile. “The first party I went to out here, a seal jumped into the pool and played water polo with the guests.”
Zach drew her more closely into the circle of his arm. “Will you look at that? Somebody left us an empty corner.” He grinned as he tucked Eve safely against him. “There must be all of two square inches here, and it’s all ours.”
Two inches wasn’t much of an exaggeration, she thought. She was standing so close to Zach she could hardly tell where his body began and hers ended.
No. Her breath caught. That wasn’t true. It was easy to tell. He was hard where she was soft, big where she was small. His hand lay lightly on her waist but she could feel the power of it, and the heat…