‘Run all you like, Jade Ferraro,’ he muttered as she spun away and disappeared into the throng of people surrounding the famous cosmetic surgeon. ‘But I will have you.’
Someone pressed a glass of champagne into her hand and her first impulse was to hold the moistly beaded flute to her head to cool her heated brow. She wasn’t sure what had happened just then, but the experience of meeting that intense dark gaze had left her almost reeling.
Then the orchestra started playing, and couples were swirling around, and suddenly it was too hot, too loud, and much too claustrophobic in the crowded ballroom.
She heard her name and snapped her attention away from the glass. ‘So, tell me how you think it went,’ Grace insisted, sounding impatient, as if it wasn’t the first time she’d framed the question.
‘Oh, absolutely wonderful,’ Jade assured her, kissing her mentor on each cheek, knowing the woman she admired more than anyone in the world would have been just that—despite the fact she couldn’t recall a thing beyond Grace’s thanks to everyone for attending the fundraiser. But then, it was impossible to remember anything aside from the prickly sensation that someone had been watching her, and the blast-furnace heat that had confronted her eyes once she’d found the source.
She took a deep breath, trying to dispel the lingering echoes of the strange sensation, trying to ignore the questions that remained unresolved in her mind. Who was that man? Why had he been watching her?
But someone else’s eyes were on her now, someone else was waiting for a response, and questions about the owner of one powerfully intense pair of eyes that had seemed able to pierce right through to her soul had to be shoved aside. Because tonight was all about the world-famous Dr Della-Bosca, and the foundation established in her name. Nothing should be allowed to distract her from that.
This time the smile she allowed herself was heartfelt.
‘The evening is a runaway success,’ Jade assured the older woman. ‘And you’re the star,’ she continued with more enthusiasm. ‘Funds from tonight will set up your Saving Faces Foundation for years.’
‘Yes,’ Grace finally acknowledged, with a smile echoed in one expertly shaped eyebrow as she cast her eyes around the celebrity-filled ballroom. ‘We must have done well.’
‘It’s a total credit to you, Grace,’ a gruff male voice cut in. ‘Our city could do with more corporate citizens like you.’
‘Mayor Goldfinch,’ Grace said with obvious delight as she was swept up into the distinguished-looking gentleman’s embrace. ‘And I thought our favourite foundation trustee wasn’t able to make it tonight.’
‘Knowing this night meant so much to you, how could I stay away? I pulled some strings and here I am.’
Jade allowed herself a smile as she made a tactical withdrawal, certain that neither would notice anyway. The widower Mayor had made no secret of the fact he was looking for a new wife, and with a fortune made from his property development business there was no shortage of candidates. But it was Grace who was most frequently pictured on his arm, and it was clear that whatever feelings he had for Grace were reciprocated.
And Grace worked so hard, Jade reflected, switching her champagne for a glass of mineral water from the tray of a passing waiter; she so deserved to find a partner. She deserved to be happy.
A swirl of red fabric across the room and a flash of firm cleavage caught her eye. Rachael Delaney, her mind registered instantly. Twenty-year-old Southern belle and regular client of the Della-Bosca Clinic, who’d spent the last two years taking the TV soap world by storm and was now making a play for fame and fortune in the big league. And, from the way her recently enhanced breasts were spilling out of the slashed-to-the-navel line of her gown in the direction of the producer she was courting, it was clear Rachael was hoping the results of her latest procedure might just get her the movie contract she hungered for tonight.
Good luck to her, Jade thought, as she sipped on her mineral water, given she’d invested so much money in making herself look good—from the curve of her plumped lips to the sparkle in her skilfully upturned eyes. Jade could tick off the changes the Della-Bosca Clinic had made like checking off inventory.