A Black Tie Affair

by Sherrill Bodine

  “Drew.” She breathed his name, like she had earlier beneath him, her face flushed, her eyes glistening. She shifted closer, and he held her safe in his arms. He wouldn’t waste a minute of this.

  I don’t need to tell her now. Later. Later I’ll tell her I’m leaving.

  Drusilla Junior’s persistent meows and her rhythmic scratching at the gate woke Athena during the coldest part of the night.

  Beside her on the pillow, Drew slept through it all. In the dim light filtering through the curtains, his every feature made him look like an antique Greek statue, except with astonishing eyelashes.

  Where did they go from here? Did they need to talk about the future? What would happen when her father returned soon?

  No! I want nothing to mar this new beginning. Later. Later, we’ll talk.

  She snuggled closer, spooning their bodies together, and promptly fell asleep again.

  A tiny beeping sound made her open her eyes and blink. Had she imagined it?

  Another tiny beep and she realized it had to be coming from the watch on Drew’s wrist, positioned under her left breast.

  She glanced at the small clock on her bedside table and sat straight up in bed. “Oh, no, I’m late for Pandora’s Box.”

  He stretched, muscles rippling across his shoulders. “What time is it?”

  “Nine-ten.”

  “Christ, I need to be at Clayworth’s.”

  Both naked, covers tangled around their waists, they stared at each other. Drew had the strangest look on his face, almost disbelief. His eyes were definitely letting her in, and his lower lip looked so kissable she couldn’t resist nibbling on it.

  “Go! Shower is in the hall bathroom unless you want to join me in the tub.”

  “Yeah, I do,” he growled, nuzzling her neck.

  Trying to be mature, she gently pushed him away. “Can’t. Go shower. Meet you at the front door in twenty minutes.”

  She scurried out of bed, bathed, dressed, and met him in the hallway in record time. She didn’t know if she should be embarrassed, or weepy with joy, or if she should try to appear nonchalant.

  She’d always been the one who could say something witty in the middle of most long silences. But at the moment, words failed her.

  Drew solemnly uttering “We need to talk” broke the spell.

  Refusing to let anything spoil this moment, this pinch-myself-to-prove-this-isn’t-a-dream new beginning, she put one palm over his warm lips. “No. If you’re embarrassed, I don’t want to hear it. And I certainly don’t want to hear that you had a fine time but making love with me wasn’t all you’d thought it would be.”

  She knew it wasn’t true.

  He stopped her nonsense with his lips on her mouth. “Christ, Athena, you’re perfect. I’m worn out.” He chuckled against her ear. “However, I feel myself reviving.”

  “Far be it from me to deflate the vaunted Clayworth ego. You were pretty spectacular yourself.” Again, she forced herself to be mature and gently push him away. “Now go do good deeds. Call me later.”

  She watched him run down the steps and climb into his Porsche. Only when the car, with its low roar like a lion suffering a sore throat, rounded the corner did Athena go inside to turn her phones back on and reluctantly return to stark reality.

  An edge of concern bit into her bliss when she saw Venus had called her on both phones every five minutes between five and six last night. Plus she’d sent a text demanding to know what Athena was doing and where she was and why she wasn’t returning her calls about a lead on Bertha’s dresses.

  Of course the dresses were important. She shoved away the guilt. Just not as important as being with Drew.

  Half an hour later, Athena rushed into Pandora’s Box, welcomed by Venus’s look of stunned disbelief.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t race right over here when you got my message. I kept Mrs. Strong here for as long as I could last night.”

  “Sorry. I was buried under unfinished business.” She remembered the weight of Drew’s body pressing down on her, and hot desire curled through every cell of her body. She took a deep breath and blinked away the image. “What makes you so sure Mrs. Strong is a lead to the Bertha Palmer dresses?”

  “She practically described the champagne gown with the train when she was trying to explain what jewelry she wanted to purchase.”

  “Is she coming back?” Athena mustered interest for her once overpowering need to find the missing gowns. Of course she still worried that others might become infected, but the concern had been buried under her hot anticipation and desire to spend every free moment with Drew, thinking about him, making love to him. The intimacy of two consenting adults trying to build a meaningful relationship.

  “I told her I would bring in the perfect jewelry for her, so I could get a promise that she’ll be back tomorrow or the next day. I tried, but I couldn’t get an address or a phone number out of her. Are you all right?” Venus asked. “You look like you have a fever.”

  Her core temperature was still at a sexual high after hours of bliss, but she couldn’t share yet with Venus. She wouldn’t understand.

  Athena shook her head. “No, I’m fine, really. Just disappointed about Mrs. Strong. But I’m sure we’ll get another chance with her.” She looked away, straightening a piece of jewelry on the table, trying to appear nonchalant even though her heart pounded and her pulse raced.

  Loving Venus, I promise, soon, very soon, there won’t be any need for lies.

  CHAPTER

  16

  It had been the longest day of Drew’s life. Between Clayworth’s, overseeing the transport of his boat, and keeping in touch with Ed about the dead-end investigation into Bertha’s dresses, which yielded the fact that they probably would never find the thief, he hadn’t seen Athena. Clayworth’s would be in Connor’s capable hands. He had already changed all the alarms at the Secret Closet and dealt with the police. Drew was half convinced that Bertha’s dresses had been destroyed or hidden away somewhere and couldn’t hurt anyone else. And finally his boat was ready for its journey to England.

  By two o’clock Thursday morning, the mast was down and the keel removed off his Wally 80. His special license in the windshield, Drew followed the trailer to O’Hare Airport in the middle of the night as required by law.

  He watched his boat being placed into the belly of a Russian Tubeloff Transport to be flown to England, where it would be reassembled and made ready for the Fastnet.

  Tomorrow he’d be joining it.

  Today he’d be with Athena again.

  After the black tie dinner, they’d go back to her carriage house and make love in her bedroom. So like her. Her breezy charm, her passion for old-fashioned elegance in a sometimes inelegant world.

  Then he’d tell her everything. He’d tell her about the Fastnet.

  And then he’d tell her he loved her. Had always loved her but had been too young, too stupid, and too afraid to admit it.

  Athena sat listening to yet another voicemail from Drew apologizing for being too busy to see her until tonight. Makayla strolled into the Costume Collection office in the middle of it.

  Makayla lowered her eyebrows and shook her head so hard her ponytail slapped her on the cheek. “You guys need to talk. Maybe you should write in to ‘Ask Rebecca.’ I have a friend who did, and Rebecca gave her awesome advice about how guys will tell you anything to get what they want, but it’s their actions that show their real feelings.” Makayla’s eyes widened. “Unless you’re taking my advice, after all, and like making him fall in love with you and then dumping him.”

  Athena felt herself blush and prepared to say something profound. “As much as I appreciate your advice, I decided against it.” The extraordinarily determined glint in Makayla’s eyes worried Athena a little, but she couldn’t discuss the intimate details of her relationship with this young, impressionable girl. Although it was hard not to shout to the world, Thanks, Fates. Or maybe I kicked you in the butt—I’m where I
want to be. With the man of my dreams, the love of my life.

  She stopped herself, smiled, and uttered what she’d said hundreds of times to her sisters. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will work out.”

  Makayla nodded. “Right. Actions speak louder than words. You wait and see.”

  An hour before the black tie dinner, Athena and Makayla were both ready, waiting in the office to go downstairs to the exhibit hall, which had been transformed as she’d once tried to make Drew see. He still hadn’t arrived.

  What will he think when he sees me in my black dress? The one I’ve worn only for him?

  Happy Makayla had been here to get her into the dress, Athena smiled into the distance, dreaming about Drew getting her out of it.

  “Bummer. I forgot my speech for when Miss Keene wants me to say a few words about my scholarship. I left it in the large Collection Room.” Makayla jumped to her feet, looking very young and hip in all black and biker boots. “Gotta go get it.”

  Athena shook her head. “No, I’ll go. I’m so nervous I need to walk it off.”

  Or see Drew a few minutes earlier than planned, dressed in black tie and coming up the staircase.

  She didn’t see him, but she still floated down the steps, holding her dress by the elegant loop and dreaming about the moment when she would.

  Drew, still fussing with his damn bow tie on the way up the staircase, saw Makayla waiting at the top.

  “Hello—you look very pretty tonight.” He smiled into her watchful eyes. “Is Athena in her office?”

  “No. Come with me. I know where to find Athena.”

  She said it in such a stern, almost angry voice, he worried something might be wrong with Athena as he followed Makayla down into the bowels of the museum, where they’d gone the night they found the first Bertha Palmer dress.

  Makayla opened the door, and he saw Athena obviously looking for something on the long table.

  He stepped in to help her and heard the door lock behind him. He looked over his shoulder. “What the hell?”

  Athena glanced up, a notebook in her hands.

  “I believe your young intern locked us in here.” Amused more than concerned, he strolled toward Athena. He’d rather be here with her than at any party.

  “Oh, no, she thinks she’s helping!” Athena rushed past him and tried the doorknob. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Makayla, it’s all right,” she called through the wood. “Mr. Clayworth and I need to get upstairs.”

  “You two need to talk first,” Makayla called back, the same note of urgency in her voice that she’d noticed earlier. “You have fifteen minutes before everyone arrives. I’ll be back in ten.”

  Athena sighed, shrugging her beautiful shoulders. “She means well, really she does. The switchboard is shut down. Do you have your cell? I’ll call Leonard and get us out of here.”

  “Now, why would I want such a thing?” Chuckling, Drew prowled toward her.

  Laughing, she backed away. “Drew, stop it! You know how long it takes to get in and out of this dress.”

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He swept a tangle of muslin off the table and lifted her up onto the edge, so they were gazing into each other’s eyes.

  He kissed her warm forehead, her fluttering eyelids, and the soft skin at her throat, breathing in her scent.

  “What is that perfume?” he muttered, nuzzling the valley between her breasts.

  “Jicky,” Athena breathed with a little catch. “Supposedly Jackie O’s favorite. I should have asked when I saw her at the Secret Closet.”

  His palms cupped the undersides of her breasts. Below the pit of his stomach, every organ tightened and grew.

  “I love it… I love…”

  The door creaked open and Makayla—crying, “I couldn’t stop them!”—rushed in, Venus and Diana on her heels.

  Athena sucked in a sharp breath, her fingers tangled in his hair, and he froze with his hand cupping her breast.

  “Athena, what are you doing?” Diana gasped.

  “That’s obvious!” Venus stalked toward them. “I’d say unhand my sister, but she appears to be enjoying it.”

  Prepared to handle this, Drew lifted Athena down from the table and held her protectively behind him, even through she struggled. “Venus, I want—”

  “No, Drew.” Athena pushed in front of him. “She’s right. I should have told them.”

  “I wish you had,” Diana sighed.

  Venus tossed her hair over her shoulders. “The road to perdition is paved with good intentions, or some such cliché. You didn’t, so now we have this mess, Dad coming home any day, and Leticia Strong in Pandora’s Box not half an hour ago purchasing two pairs of Eisenberg Original earrings for two gowns. Shall I repeat that? Two gowns. She doesn’t know which one she’s wearing tonight. Is anyone else feeling the pressure here?”

  He could get both gowns for Athena and protect Clayworth’s tonight before he left. He clasped Athena’s hand. “Yes. We’ll take care of it.”

  Athena looked up at him, and everything fell in place. Together, they were stronger than apart.

  “Yes, Venus, give me the address. Drew and I will take care of this.”

  “You can’t have all the fun,” Venus insisted. “I’m going with you.”

  “No, you’re not,” Athena ordered. “You and Diana are staying here to represent our family at the dinner.”

  “And Connor will represent Clayworth’s.” Drew joined in.

  “Joy!” Venus retorted, huffing and puffing and throwing her hair around.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll do it,” Diana promised.

  “And I’ll represent the Costume Collection, right?” Her brows lowered, the tiny diamond barely twinkling, Makayla gazed at Athena. “Are you, like, mad at me?”

  Athena’s grip on his hand tightened, and the loving smile she gave Makayla spoke volumes.

  “Like, I’m not mad, either.” Drew laughed, happier than he’d been in, Christ, he didn’t remember how long. “Now we’ll go find Bertha’s dresses and get them here where they belong.”

  Leticia and Bertrum Strong lived in a crumbling mansion in the midst of overgrown, once magnificent grounds on Lake Michigan, only a few blocks from the Clayworth Compound in Lake Forest.

  Athena and Drew had probably sailed past it dozens of times when they were young.

  Before knocking on the door, she turned to look up at Drew beside her. Her partner. Her love. “If Leticia Strong has the gowns, we’ve found them all and no one has gotten hurt.”

  “I know,” He pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ve notified Lewis. Lake Forest Hospital is ready when and if I give the signal.”

  I’ll never be alone again. We’re stronger together than apart.

  Knowing it made her tingle all over as she pounded once with the brass knocker.

  An older man answered the door, swinging a stunning pair of heavily jeweled Eisenberg Original earrings in one hand, and in the other he grasped the summer dress—black corded gauze with green and pink stripes over green taffeta that Athena had first examined in the top-secret closet.

  Standing in the towering foyer, too stunned with relief to speak, Athena felt Drew sigh beside her.

  A sound from above caused all of them to look up.

  Leticia Strong glided down the sweeping staircase, wearing the champagne velvet gown Athena had lain beneath for an hour to become intoxicated with truthfulness.

  Glassy-eyed like Shelby had been, Leticia appeared not to see anything but Bertrum, who gazed at her with complete and utter adoration.

  “Bertrum, I love you. I’ve always loved you, but I was too stupid to know it. I want to be together again.”

  Bertrum, visibly shaken, muttered, “Leticia, you haven’t looked at me like this for seventeen years.”

  Leticia threw out her arms. “Honey bunny!”

  Letting the earrings and dress drop to the floor, Bertrum stepped toward her. “Twinkle-toes! Shall we go u
p the golden staircase together again? It has long been my fondest wish.”

  “Yes!” Leticia threw herself into his waiting arms.

  Tears stung Athena’s eyes. Really, she should do something, but she wanted them to have this moment of bliss.

  “I know, Athena, I want them to have this moment, too,” Drew whispered as if he’d read her mind, shared her feelings. “But we should do something.”

  With real regret, Athena tried to get their attention. “I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t be doing this in those clothes.”

  Leticia, her chest heaving with emotion, turned absolutely clear eyes on her. “My dear child, this is exactly what we should be doing. Life is short, and our fates are in our own hands. We can’t recall our past choices, but we can learn from them. Seize the day, dear child. Seize the day! I certainly plan to do so from this moment on. Honey bunny,” she murmured, throwing herself back into Bertrum’s waiting arms, and they embraced with all the gusto of lovers half their ages.

  The ambulance sirens were right outside on the circular driveway. Drew opened the door for them.

  “We’ve dealt with this before,” Athena told the paramedics, who were staring at Bertrum and Leticia locked in a passionate embrace. “Just give us the gloves and masks and stand back.”

  She threw a set to Drew, who, grinning from ear to ear, suited up and surrounded the couple with her.

  “Leticia, we must go to the hospital now,” Athena called loudly, trying to get her attention.

  Bertrum looked up, Leticia’s red lipstick smeared all over his face. “Are we playing dress-up again?”

  “Yes.” Drew gripped his arm. “You lie down here on this stretcher and watch.”

  “And you be the nurse over here.” Athena, holding Leticia’s hand, helped her onto the second stretcher. Athena placed the blanket over her. “We need to change your dress now, Leticia. Here, let me help you.”

  Athena got the heavy champagne gown safely in plastic. Drew had already wrapped the black dress Bertrum had dropped on the floor.