He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed heavily. He would have the main protagonist shake the truth out of someone or put all the guilty parties together and watch as they'd enlightened him—everything would fall neatly into place.
Who said art couldn't imitate life?
"Raine," he cracked his eyes opened. "Want to come to a dinner party at my place next Sunday?"
Raine looked at him sharply. "A dinner party?"
"Yep." Noah smiled. "You will be one of several employees there, mostly the top brass from Levy Industries group of companies but you head up a company. You should be there."
"Oh...okay." She nodded. "I guess."
Chapter Nine
Raine spent most of the week after her time at Villa Sunshine feeling nervous and jittery, she was going to a dinner party at Noah Scarlett's house. If his mother's villa was anything to go by, his house was going to be pretty spectacular. She had heard Bradley say more than once that it was nicer than any hotel he'd been to.
At first when Noah had invited her she had been shocked. She had actually thought he was asking her on a date. It was kind of a let down when she found out that it wasn't. She had enjoyed the days she spent with him at the villa and their overlong lunch dates at the Beach Cafe.
He was good company and slowly she had forgotten that he was supposed to be off limit to her.
She had underestimated how very good Noah Scarlett was at listening and drawing people out. He was really good at being attentive and now she had a stupid trailer sized crush on the poor guy.
Who could blame her? He was handsome and rich and seemed to have a good personality. Now which woman in their right mind wouldn't start building castles in the sky especially as he seem so interested in her.
She could be rambling about the mundane and Noah seemed just fine with it, he'd even ask questions, which meant he was actively listening.
She had never had a person in her life who was so easy to talk with. Couple that with his looks she wondered now, how on earth he was still single. The guy did not have any discernible flaws.
"You heard that?" her classmate Nicole whispered to her. "Which hotel are you hoping to get for your four weeks?"
Raine looked across at Nicole feeling dazed. She hadn't heard a word that was said. She had walked into class half dazed with her head full of thoughts of Noah Scarlett.
Nicole looked at her knowingly and shook her head. "Practicum. Four weeks at a hotel. The list will be on the notice board with the available internship positions."
"I used to work at a hotel." Raine whispered back. "I should be exempt from this."
"You used to work at a hotel in house keeping, "Nicole said slowly, "you have never worked in marketing or sales have you?"
"No." Raine squinted at her. "Oh, I get it, I have to choose marketing and sales."
"Yep," Nicole said anticipation in her voice. "I am looking forward to it."
"I am not, Raine muttered, "I have a job already. What am I supposed to do, take four weeks off?"
Nicole shrugged. "I am a free agent. Besides it's only four hours per day. How hard can it be? You won't be doing classes here, so use the time there."
Raine nodded. "That makes sense."
"You need to pay attention." Nicole winked at her. "What had you so distracted? That guy hasn't come back into your life, has he?"
Raine groaned. She was glad that they were at the back of the lecture theatre and that the lecturer, was quite content to ignore them as she droned on and on about sales parameters.
"Nicole..."
Nicole adjusted her glasses and smiled at her sweetly. "Tell me, is it him, the cute guy who you said was your ex from high school?"
"He is dead." Raine gritted out. "So, unless he was a ghost, I doubt he'd be back in my life."
"Dead." Nicole widened her eyes. "He was so good looking!"
Raine rolled her eyes and turned around trying to concentrate but Nicole's sniffing was a distraction. The girl actually had tears in her eyes.
Raine gave her a sharp look. "Stop it, you didn't even know him."
"I know, but I cry easily." Nicole sniffed. "You remember the night he came here waiting for you with a bunch of flowers. He looked so adorable and contrite. You never did say what he was apologizing for?"
"None of your business," Raine muttered.
"I thought you guys had gotten back together and all." Nicole shook her head.
"No, we hadn't." Raine was happy when the lecturer turned off the projector and glanced at the clock.
"Please indicate your preferences tonight." She stressed. "Or you might be left with an area that is not your area of expertise."
Before she could finish speaking students were rushing to her desk to get the papers she was holding up.
"Come on," Nicole said forgetting the tragic stance she took a few minutes before. "I need to work at a five star all inclusive hotel. I hear they allow their interns to eat free. That means I can save my lunch money for four weeks."
Raine grinned as Nicole knocked over a few chairs to reach the front. Raine only got up when the crowd thinned out. Nicole dragged her to one side. "I wrote your name under mine."
"For where?" Raine asked in dismay. She had wanted the chance to peruse the list.
"Five star hotel. All Inclusive. Sand Prints, baby." Nicole grinned. "You can thank me later. Right now, I am going to meet my boo for dinner."
Raine nodded. "Thanks Nicole."
Nicole nodded and then tears came to the corner of her eyes. "And cheer up Raine. I know the death of a loved one can be devastating. I mean when I lost my dog, Henry, I was so torn up inside."
Raine shook her head. "I am okay, Nicole. Remember your date?"
"Yes." Nicole waved at her and hurried through the lecture hall doors.
****
Raine wasn't as all right as she was letting on to be that night, so she realized when she got home. Nicole had stirred up the one memory of Marcus she wished to bury. That night, last year, almost a year ago when Marcus had showed up at her school with flowers in hand and a sheepish smile on his face.
She slumped on her bed not even bothering to turn on the light.
She had no idea he knew where to find her. She hadn't seen or heard from him in years.
"I had to come and look you up," he had said to her, his voice still smooth and velvety.
Marcus hadn't changed much. He looked harder, leaner, more sophisticated. He had worn a dress shirt and pants. He was clean cut and looked like a million bucks. She had hugged him quite spontaneously, because he had looked familiar yet better and it was Marcus.
"I don't really use Marcus anymore he said after updating her with his life in St. Mary. I go by Dean now since Dad died, no need to differentiate anymore." He had looked at her, his brown eyes glowing.
"I sold the farm."
"You what?" Raine had asked.
By that time he had offered to take her home since her car was in the garage. She had asked Nicole to drop her home earlier and Nicole had stood around and watched the play between her and Marcus like a round eyed romantic.
"Sold it." He reiterated, "lock stock and barrel and I am moving out of St Mary. As you said, it had gotten a bit claustrophobic."
Raine looked down on her hands, feeling awkward she had mentioned claustrophobia in the break up speech.
"You still remember that?" Raine had tried to laugh it off.
But Marcus...Dean... just looked at her.
"I have never forgotten you. I am not saying that I never had relationships after. I have. It's always been you, Raine, Firmly and totally lodged in my heart. Maybe it will always be you till the day I die. No matter what."
He had looked serious when he said it too.
Raine rolled over and closed her eyes tight.
Happy thoughts Raine. Think happy thoughts.
Instantly, Noah Scarlett's smile was in her mind's eye and then the anxious thought that she didn't know what to wear to his dinn
er party!
****
Noah knew the second that Raine stepped onto the patio. She wore her hair down and around her in thick bouncy curls and she had on a green dress that looked demure in the front but showed a little bit too much skin in the back.
He looked around for the other players, in his hastily thought out piece. Bradley was standing by the bar with one hand in his pocket, the next curled around a drink. He was laughing with Garrick Feathers, the chief executive of the Sand Print hotels. Garrick was in mid sentence with Bradley eagerly listening so he hadn't spotted Raine yet but his sister had seen her and Whitney was looking at him across the pool with a look of horror in her eyes.
Noah got up from where he was sitting and headed for Raine but Whitney reached him first.
"In your study, now!" Whitney growled and with strength he didn't know she possessed she dragged him into his study.
"Tell me you didn't!" Whitney said as soon as the door closed behind her. "Tell me, that you didn't invite that girl here to a function that I arranged. It has to be you; no one else in their right mind would do it."
Noah opened his mouth.
"Shut up!" Whitney squealed.
Noah watched as she paced from one end of his study to the other.
"Why is she here?"
Noah cautiously answered. "Because she works for me at the book store. We invite the senior personnel of the businesses under Levy Industries..."
Whitney flashed him a look of disbelief. "You kept her on? Seriously Noah?"
"She is qualified..." Noah defended weakly.
"I know what this is," Whitney growled, looking at him her eyes shooting sparks of anger. "You have always been jealous of me. I was the one who took the attention from poor little sick Noah when we were little so now you are getting back at me."
"It would be a really late revenge," Noah said sinking in his office chair. "Besides, I liked the fact that when we were little you were around to take some of the attention off me. I hated being little sick Noah the one to be cosseted because any minute his heart would stop beating. I am not jealous of you, Whitney. And believe it or not I didn't invite Raine here to hurt you."
Whitney sank down across from him in the chair, her expression stricken. "I am so sorry I said that!"
Noah sighed. "I invited Raine because I need some information from her and Bradley. I want them in a room together and they are going to tell me things about my heart donor."
"Huh?" Whitney looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
"They both know him." Noah insisted. "Bradley is from the same place Raine is from in St. Mary and so is my donor. I don't know what it is but there is some connection there. Some secret."
"And you said your imagination was lying dormant!" Whitney exclaimed. "You know what you are going to do Noah Scarlett?"
"You are going to march out there and you are going to keep my husband's ex mistress as far from him as possible. And then, as soon as it is polite you are going to escort her home."
Whitney got up she sounded as if she was breathing shallowly. "You have lost your cotton pickin' mind!"
"What do you know about Bradley's childhood?" Noah asked before Whitney could leave.
"What do you know about this family? His friends? Surely you don't think he just dropped from the sky! And wouldn't you think it curious that Raine, Bradley, Dean Long- the guy whose heart I have all come from Paddington, St. Mary. Both Raine and Bradley are ultra secretive...If I could get them both in a room I could find out who Cassandra Green is. "
Whitney paused. "Now I know you are going crazy. There is no Cassandra Green. You imagined that name. Maybe, the guy who's heart you have, watched a movie and that was the name of the actress..."
Noah shrugged. "I doubt it."
"Of course you would." Whitney jeered, "because since you did the surgery you have become a little know it all. You know what? Maybe there is some truth to what you said about your heart changing you because my old brother would not have invited somebody to a dinner party, that I am attending, whose very presence is hurtful to me.
"And before you continue with your conspiracy theories against my husband, yes I know he was born in St. Mary. He never lived there. His mother moved to Kingston soon after he was born.
"As for him having family. No, he doesn't have any family in Jamaica. He is an only child for both his parents, his father died when he was young. His mom and aunts are in the States and as for friends, Bradley's closest guy friend is Garrick Feathers, they spend a lot of time together playing golf. Satisfied?"
Noah raised his eyebrow.
Whitney didn't wait around for him to speak. She walked out of the study leaving a cloud of perfume behind her.
He hurriedly got up and went to find Raine. Maybe Whitney was right, his original plan was ill thought out—he had to adjust it.
****
Raine looked around the pool area for Noah. She felt slightly overawed by the luxurious atmosphere and the obviously well dressed guests. Some of them she knew only because they were featured in the Montego Bay Mirror or she had seen them on television.
She was way out of her league. She took a drink from the passing waiter and nursed it in her hand wondering why on earth she had not pleaded sickness and not bother to show up.
Why had she agreed to come?
She felt like a plain wren in the midst of chattering peacocks. She spotted empty stone benches a slight distance from the gathering guests and she headed for them—passing people and giving a bright uncomfortable smile.
She felt awkward. Even more so when she spotted Bradley in the distance—well she heard his laughter first.
He was surrounded by a group of people who were laughing with him. Would it look odd if she went home now?
Nobody would know that she had even been there. She paused her walk to the benches and spun around. She was mad to accept Noah's invitation. Had she known that Bradley would be here she wouldn't have come.
There was a brick path to the side of the house that led away from the crowd. She would take that path. The place was huge but how hard could it be to find the front?
She headed there, then realized that she still had the drink in her hand. She would have to leave it by the edge of the bar. She sighed and made a veto for the bar instead.
"Raine!" She almost stumbled when she heard her name. And then she relaxed when she saw Garrick Feather's grinning face.
She had met him twice before at the bookstore, she remembered thinking that he was a nice guy. How unfortunate that he was Bradley's friend. She was sure that he was only befriended because he was wealthy.
She hadn't known that he was a Levy employee.
Maybe a top executive? He looked like it. He carried himself like one. He was tall and handsome, in an understated way. The two times she had seen him he was in casual clothes, but this time he was in a tuxedo that fit him well.
He headed to her now and gave her a polite hug.
"How are you?"
"I am good." Raine smiled. "How are you?"
"Busy." Garrick winked, "if I didn't have this annual dinner I would be in bed snoring."
Raine nodded. "I can relate. I have school and work."
"Ah, you are finishing up university this year aren't you?" Garrick nodded. "What were you doing again?"
"Marketing and Sales," Raine said politely.
"You should give me your resume." He reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a business card.
Raine took it and glanced at it, Managing Director, Silver Prints Hotel Group.
She just barely squelched a gasp. He was the head of that hotel chain? It belonged to the Levy's?
"Thank you," Raine said, the excitement in her heart spilled over into her voice. "I definitely will send you my resume."
He winked at her. "We might have an opening mid-year. Bradley promised he'd take you to dinner at my place one night."
"Bradley and I are not..." Raine swallowed. "Not together an
ymore."
"Oh," Garrick looked disappointed. "I was working myself up to inviting your roommate to join us. What's her name again?"
"I ...er...we don't live together anymore." Raine swallowed nervously when she saw that Bradley was heading over to them with a scowl on his face. He changed directions when he saw that Noah was heading in the same direction.
"There you are, Raine." Noah's voice squeezed into her sudden paralysis and then he appeared at her side. "Hi Garrick."
"Noah." Garrick smiled and changed the subject thankfully. "Are you joining us for the game in February?"
Noah frowned. "What game?"
"Bradley didn't tell you?" Garrick looked shocked. "The Masters tournament."
"Oh." Noah shook his head. "That weekend I am going to be out of town."
"Ah, that's a pity. We wanted you to play for our team." Garrick looked at Raine. "He has a killer swing. Anyway, I'll leave you two to it. We should talk some more, Raine. My number is on the card. Call me."
"Yes, thank you again." Raine nodded.
Noah took a glass from the passing waiter and sniffed it.
Raine laughed. "What are you expecting, poison?"
"No." Noah sipped the drink. "Just a little quirk of mine. I smell test everything."
He glanced at her. "You are looking lovely this evening."
"Thank you."
He pointed to Garrick's card. "You are networking?"
"Yes! Well I didn't know that I was. I met Garrick at the store. I didn't know he was the head of a hotel group. Your hotel group."
Raine couldn't help but admire him while she spoke. He looked very good in his tuxedo, with the top buttons of his white shirt unbuttoned, it gave him a casual rakish air. His hair seemed longer, curlier. She just realized that his eyelashes had a tinge of brown to them, just like his hair.
"Will I do?" Noah murmured, holding up his glass to her and laughing.
"Sorry," Raine felt her self-flushing. "You look different in a tux. Very much like a rich playboy."
Scarlett Heart (The Scarletts Page 7
