by Suzie Nelson
Danica could feel her eyes getting heavy with sleep but she didn’t want to drift off without finding a way to make Shelby and Blake realize that they were made for each other. “Well, perhaps we could help them out?”
“I don’t think talking to them is going to be a good idea. Blake told me all of this in confidence, I wouldn’t want him to feel like I had betrayed him.” Jordan stroked the top of Danica’s head as they lay in each other’s arms.
“We don’t have to talk to them about it, we just put them in a situation where they have to deal with it.” Danica had already devised the whole plan in her head before the words had even left her mouth. “Like in Mexico?”
“Mexico?” Jordan could see that Danica wasn’t going to give up her scheme but he had no idea why it involved Mexico.
“Yeah. We and Blake are going there next week to launch the youth center. I could talk Shelby into coming with me and we could ensure that they have some alone time together.” Danica’s eyes sparkled as she envisioned the two lovers finally coming together because of her matchmaking skills.
“I think that would be too obvious, she needs to have a real reason to come otherwise she won’t want to be there,” Jordan spoke out loud as he thought and Danica couldn’t fault his reasoning.
“Well, she’s a designer, isn’t she? The project is all about encouraging the arts; she can come along and oversee the fashion department. To be honest, I would feel much more comfortable doing my job there if she was by my side.” Danica kissed Jordan’s soft lips hoping that they could finally stop talking and rest their eyes.
“Hmmm, that could work. I’ll talk to Blake tomorrow and pass the idea to him. I can’t see why he would refuse to have Shelby in Mexico with us. You can smooth things over at Shelby’s end?” Jordan looked down at Danica and knew that he had already lost her attention as she was quickly drifting off. Gently, he kissed her forehead and spooned himself around her delicate frame ready for the night’s sleep.
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Captivate Me
Chapter 1
“If I have to stand here and wait for you one minute longer, I’m going to make sure that you never see another photo shoot ever again!” Clarissa Cox shouted at her assistant, Lorry Formby, in the middle of the studio. The photographer, make-up artists and lighting guys all stared at Lorry as she hurried from the clothing rail over to her boss. Even though everyone was staring, this was not an uncommon sight when working alongside Clarissa.
“I’m so sorry Clarissa, here is the gray tie you asked for.” Lorry handed over the silvery gray tie as Clarissa cut her eyes down at Lorry full of anger.
“I don’t know how you managed to get this internship but it certainly wasn’t with any skill or intelligence.” Clarissa pulled her hand away sharply and walked over to one of the manikins.
Lorry tried hard to keep her calm as she thought that Clarissa didn’t get her job with charm. It had only been a month since Lorry Formby had started her unpaid internship at Class, one of the most successful women’s magazines on the news shelves, and she hated every second. As a teenager, she had poured over the pages of Class admiring the gorgeous models in designer clothes and reading all the fascinating articles about current events and female issues. It had been Lorry’s dream for as long as she could remember to be a stylist; to be the person that picked the latest trends and dressed all the famous models in Gucci, Dior, and McQueen. She had studied, graduated and earned a position at Class which she hoped would become a full time paid job once she had proven her ability, but she had never considered that she would have the boss from hell. Since stepping through the doors at Class, Clarissa Cox had made Lorry’s life miserable, ordering her around like a slave and complaining about everything she did.
“The gray doesn’t work. Get me the navy blue ones,” Clarissa barked at Lorry but she was already a step ahead, ready to hand over the blue ties. Lorry knew that she should be grateful for any opportunity to be working at Class and Clarissa was regarded as the best stylist in the business but that didn’t lessen the fact that she was a complete nightmare to work for.
“Now, I want the lighting to be really bright.” Clarissa jerked her head towards Lorry and looked at her with glowing green eyes. “Check with Sally what shade of foundation she is using. I don’t want his skin flushed out by the lights.” Lorry nodded her head in acknowledgment and rushed over to the back of the studio where Sally, the make-up artist, was preparing her workspace.
“Hey Sally, Clarissa would like to know what shade of foundation you’re using?” Lorry took a moment to tie back her long brown hair as Sally finished emptying her make-up box.
“I heard her, Lorry,” Sally looked up with a sympathetic smile knowing full well how demanding Clarissa could be. “She doesn’t want our billionaire bachelor ‘flushed out’ by the lights.” Sally mimicked Clarissa’s bitter tone and Lorry couldn’t help but giggle. “I know what I’m doing, it will be fine.”
Sally and Lorry had instantly clicked when they met a few weeks earlier at another shoot. Clarissa had been shouting at Lorry about a cold cup of coffee when Sally helpfully distracted her with a make-up question. Since then they had been friends and the only small bit of joy that Lorry got from her job.
“Have you seen Mr. Hughes yet? He’s cutting it a bit fine, isn’t he?” Sally lifted her head and looked around the room for the object of the photo shoot. Silvester Hughes was one of the richest bachelor’s in New York, the heir to his father’s news corporation but also independently wealthy from aggressive investing.
“His people said that he would turn up only moments before the allotted time. He doesn’t like to wait around apparently.” Lorry had heard Clarissa complaining earlier about the difficulties she had heard confirming the interview with Mr. Hughes but it was still a major compliment to the magazine that he had even agreed as he was a very private person.
“Well if he doesn’t turn up soon, Queen Clarissa over there is going to blow a casket.”
Lorry glanced over at Clarissa knowing that she only had a few seconds before her boss would start shouting about something. “Yeah, but it won’t be Mr. Hughes that receives the brunt of her rage.” Lorry took a few sips from her water bottle and prayed that she could just get through one more day of work.
The studio double doors suddenly blew open and several people stepped through all dressed in business suits and holding cell phones.
“Mr. Hughes! Welcome, welcome,” Clarissa instantly switched personality and opened her arms wide hoping to embrace the handsome billionaire.
Mr. Hughes handed his phone over to his assistant and looked over Clarissa with a critical gaze. He wasn’t at all what Lorry had expected. She had assumed he would be some pale, round, boring man that they would need to dress up to look interesting. However, he was anything but boring. He was average height but had the stance over a confident man and an athletic build. He wasn’t cleanly shaven but had a slight shadow which added to his overall rugged look with slicked back caramel hair and crystal blue eyes. He was in a light gray suit and white shirt. He didn’t have the top buttons fastened which made him look slightly casual.
“Where do you want me?” He didn’t offer a smile or even a handshake but simply wanted to get the photo shoot over and done with.
Clarissa stepped back, slightly uneasy with his direct approach and she pulled a loose strand of her ginger hair away from her face. “Oh, yes. Very good, let’s get straight to it. We will need you over at make-up first.” She reached out her hand and pointed over to where Lorry and Sally were still standing and they made their way over. “Sally here is going to put some foundation on you, just so that you don’t look too pale under the lights.”
Silvester Hughes gave a small side smile at Sally and then sat himself down on the black leather chair in fro
nt of the mirror. Clarissa leaned over his shoulder and talked to him in the reflection. “Once we have you touched up we can pick out an outfit.” Clarissa lightly put both hands on his shoulders and tried to smile in a flirtatious manner which Lorry thought was obnoxious.
“This is what I’m wearing,” Mr. Hughes shrugged his shoulders so that Clarissa would move her hands.
“Oh, but we have some lovely silk suits for you to pick from that will match the backdrop.” Clarissa’s eyes opened wide as she tried to get Silvester to agree with her.
“I’m wearing this. I don’t have time to change. Take it or leave it.” Mr. Hughes was completely un-phased by the tension and was obviously used to getting his own way.
Lorry watched, knowing that her boss would be boiling over inside and yet, was completely unable to do anything.
“Very well. You can wear that,” Clarissa spotted Lorry standing nearby and couldn’t bear to be undermined even by the likes of Mr. Hughes. “Lorry, don’t just stand there. Get Mr. Hughes a drink or something!”
Lorry snapped into action and came up beside his chair. “Can I get you a coffee or a water, Mr. Hughes?” Lorry caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and was horrified by her disheveled state. Her hair was tied back with an elastic band while her bangs looked wild and her plain black top had somehow become marked with an unknown white substance.
“No thank you, I’m fine,” Mr. Hughes smiled at Lorry with a warm and disarming smile. He had been serious and cold since he walked in the door but for some reason, he was now looking cheerful. “Are you one of the stylists?”
Both Lorry and Clarissa were surprised by his random question but there was no time to answer it. “Oh God no…she is just one of our interns.” Clarissa leaned in closer to Mr. Hughes and put up her hand to whisper something that Lorry could still here. “She’s not very good, I don’t think she will last long.”
Lorry couldn’t believe that her boss was belittling her to a complete stranger in front of her face and if she hadn’t desperately wanted a job at Class she would have put Clarissa in her place right there. “You can go back to the office, Lorry. There is nothing for you to do here.” Clarissa looked down at her like she was a bug and just waited for her to leave.
“Certainly.” It took everything Lorry had to just take in a deep breath and walk away all the while feeling the eyes of Silvester Hughes on her back.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe she said that to him. That bitch!” Sally threw her coat over Lorry’s desk chair and placed her make-up box on the desk. Lorry was just coming back from the printer as Sally entered back from the photo shoot. “I don’t know how you didn’t just sock her one right in the nose!” Sally playfully threw her arm into the air as though she was throwing a punch at Clarissa.
“Now Sally, you know violence doesn’t solve anything.” The pair giggled together but Lorry completely understood Sally’s frustration. Clarissa had routinely humiliated her but now she had openly mocked her in front of the richest man in New York. Lorry had come away from the shoot feeling ashamed although she had done absolutely nothing wrong.
“I know you would never keep your job if you did, but...oh…wouldn’t you just love to see the look of shock on her pointy face after you gave her a good whack?” Sally was still fired up with adrenaline but Lorry had had several hours to calm down back at the office.
“Don’t tempt me. I don’t even have a job yet. This is just an internship. Giving Clarissa what she deserves won’t get me a paid position here…will it?” Lorry dipped her chocolate brown eyes down at Sally with a serious look.
“I guess you’re right but she’s just so annoying.” Sally picked up her coat and threw it over her shoulders in the same fashion that Clarissa wore her coat and then she started to prance around the desk. “Lorry where is my cappuccino? I wanted freshly ground coffee beans from the hills of Columbia and cream milked from a cow fed on an organic diet…Now Lorry, now!” Sally put on her best Clarissa imitation and they laughed until their sides ached.
“Where is Queen Clarissa anyway? Isn’t the shoot finished by now?” Lorry was keeping a close eye on the hallway just in case her boss suddenly appeared from nowhere.
“Yeah, it finished hours ago. She was swooning all over Mr. Hughes like mud on a pig but he was having none of it. At one point she tried to give him her telephone number but he said all business requests could go through his assistant. You should have seen her face! She went so red I couldn’t tell what was her skin and what was her hair!” Sally laughed to herself as she recalled Clarissa’s attempt to flirt with Silvester.
“He’s better looking in real life, though, than just his pictures. Isn’t he, Lorry?”
“Mr. Hughes?” Lorry didn’t want to admit it but he had been her main thought since getting back to the office. “Yeah, he isn’t exactly what I thought he would be.” Lorry could feel the butterflies in her stomach flutter as she thought about the way he looked at her. His eyes had a level of intensity that she hadn’t expected from a one-off encounter. “Did you get to talk to him much?”
“Not really with Clarissa breathing down his neck. He didn’t seem like much of a talker anyway but he did ask if you would be coming back to the shoot?”
Lorry shot her eyes up at Sally surprised to hear that Mr. Hughes would show any interest in her after she was expelled from the studio. “He did?”
“Yeah. Clarissa was over with the photographer and Mr. Hughes asked me if you would be coming back. He seemed a little concerned – I guess because of how Clarissa ordered you to leave.” Sally removed the coat from her shoulders again and held on to it.
“What did you say?” Lorry was eager to hear anything of Mr. Hughes but she didn’t really know why.
“I said it wasn’t likely you’d be back after Clarissa sent you away. I would have said more about Clarissa being evil but you never know how these rich types are going to act. He might have told her and then we’d both be out of jobs.” Sally offered Lorry a sympathetic smile knowing that there was nothing they could do about the malicious Clarissa.
“Oh, I didn’t expect you to explain it to him. What would he care about me fo?, I’m just a silly intern that he will never see again. He just seemed different somehow.” Lorry could picture his cool blue eyes watching her and she wished that she could see him again in completely different circumstances. “Oh shit, you better take the side door. Corella Devil is back.”
Sally grabbed her make-up box and was just about to make a quick exit out of the side door when Clarissa entered through the office glass doors in a flurry. “Ar...Sally, just the person I wanted to see.” She threw her fur-lined coat onto Lorry’s desk and turned to face Sally. “Tomorrow we have the animal print shoot and I wanted to go over the make-up for the models.” Clarissa twisted her hand indicating that Sally should join her in her office. “Come, let’s talk in my office. Lorry, get us two coffees and I want fresh cream, not the chemical stuff they keep in the fridge.”
Lorry was about to go to the staff kitchen when a smartly dressed courier walked through the doors. The courier was dressed in a plain black suit and her dark hair was pulled back into a bun but she was holding two large white boxes. Clarissa and Sally both waited at the entrance to Clarissa’s office while they waited for the courier to deliver her package.
“Can I help you?” Lorry thought that the courier was unusually dressed but assumed that the packages were for Clarissa.
“I’m looking for Clarissa Cox’s assistant I have a delivery from Mr. Silvester Hughes.” The courier looked around at the three women while Clarissa practically leaped forward to whip the boxes out of the woman’s arms.
“I am Clarissa Cox. Those must be for me!” Clarissa immediately brightened thinking that her plan to seduce Mr. Hughes had worked. Out of pure excitement, she started to mutter to herself as the courier stepped back clutching tightly onto the boxes. “Oh, I knew that we had a connection. An immediat
e and electric connection…I knew he couldn’t deny our attraction.” Clarissa leaned in toward the courier eyeing up the boxes and wondering what treasures were inside them. “You can hand them over, they are for me.”
The courier took another step back and turned her gaze towards Lorry and Sally. “I have strict instructions to talk with Miss Cox’s assistant only.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous. Lorry, tell her you’re my assistant,” Clarissa shot Lorry an annoyed look.
“Yes, I’m Miss Cox’s assistant. I can take delivery for you,” Lorry stepped forward and reached out her hands to take the boxes as the courier started to read from a piece of paper.
“Can you provide me with your name please?”
“Oh for goodness sake!” Clarissa folded her arms in frustration as she waited impatiently for the courier to complete her duties.
