Divas

by Rebecca Chance

  ‘Evie, you’re a force of nature, ’ Lawrence said lovingly, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her back.

  ‘Right, ’ Evie said happily. ‘Oh! And I just had a really cool idea—’

  She unpeeled herself reluctantly from Lawrence and tilted her head to look down the steps, where Simon Poluck was just finishing up his press conference.

  ‘Wait for me right here, OK?’ she said, planting a quick extra kiss on his lips. ‘I won’t be long—’

  She pulled the elastic out of her ponytail, shaking her hair loose over her shoulders, dashed down the steps and wove her way through the mass of people to Simon Poluck’s side.

  ‘Hey!’ she said into the microphones. ‘My name’s Evie Lopez, but you all know me better as Diamond, the burlesque dancer. You know – Lola Fitzgerald and I had a catfight onstage during my Mermaid routine?’

  Gasps of excitement issued from the journalists as they jostled to get a good view of Evie, so small and pretty, her blonde hair tumbling around her heart-shaped face, her big dark eyes striking against her pale golden skin.

  ‘Since then, Lola and I have become really good friends, ’ Evie continued, ‘and I wanted to say that no one’s more happy than me that the justice system has finally realised that she’s totally innocent!’

  She flashed a dazzling smile at the massed paparazzi, tossing back her hair, a phalanx of cameras going.

  ‘And Lola’s come to be such a huge fan of my act, ’ Evie continued, ‘that she’s going to finance me to take it to a whole new level! I’ll be continuing my residency at Maud’s, but I’m working on a completely new act where I’m going to be covered in diamonds, and I’m going to take it on a world tour. With my signature look – real diamond pasties!’

  And, with a performer’s instinct for the killer theatrical moment, Evie whipped out the pasties and held them up so that every journalist and TV camera present could get a good look at them.

  ‘They’re worth a hundred grand!’ she said recklessly. ‘And I’ll be wearing them at special performances!’

  She beamed as the cameras whirred and clicked frantically, the journalists ecstatic at this extra twist to the biggest celebrity story of the year.

  And if someone tries to mug me before I get these back to the safe in the Plaza, she thought fervently, as the diamonds glittered blindingly in the sunlight, I’ll rip their heart out with my bare hands. I worked too damn hard to get these babies back to ever let someone take them away from me again!

  Chapter 44

  Everything in my life is changed, Lola mused as she floated face down, naked, on a lilo drifting gently on the huge infinity pool of the villa. Occasionally, the warm sea breeze would ripple over the bright blue water of the pool, nudging the lilo along till it bumped gently against one white stone edge, and then Lola would stretch out with an infinitesimal movement of a French-manicured toe or finger and send the lilo out again into the centre of the pool. That was pretty much the entire extent of her exercise for the day, apart from having energetic sex with Niels that morning. She smiled into the cushion of the lilo, remembering. And then they had wrapped themselves in robes and gone outside to sit on the white stone terrace to feed each other fresh mango and papaya, so soft and sweet it had been like eating melting ice cream from fruit shells.

  Everything in my life is upside down, she reflected, turning her head to the other side, away from the rays of the sun.

  Barely six weeks ago, I was on my hen night, and now I’m best friends with my ex-fiancé and his boyfriend.

  Barely six weeks ago, I thought Madison and Devon and Georgia were my best friends, and India was just a sweet girl who tagged along with us. And now, I’ve dumped Madison and Devon and Georgia for being traitorous cows, and India’s been a total rock of strength. None of my friends are who I thought they were.

  Barely six weeks ago, I had no idea my father had a mistress, let alone one my age . . . ugh . . . And now I’m not only friends with her, I’m giving her a ton of money to put together the most extravagant burlesque show ever . . . which I’m flying back to New York to see in a fortnight . . .

  Barely six weeks ago, my mother and I were hardly on speaking terms. And now we’re closer than we ever were.

  Barely six weeks ago, my father was alive.

  Lola lay there, the lilo revolving slowly in the soft sea air, letting memories of her father flood into her consciousness. It was one of the ways she had been spending most time here on the island; it was lavishly stocked with books, plus the latest copy of every magazine and DVD they could conceivably want, but she had hardly even picked up a newspaper. Her head had been so full of everything that had happened to her since her hen night – Jean-Marc’s hospitalisation – her father’s coma – that it felt as if she had no room to take anything else in, not a single story, real or invented. She had spent the past week swimming, having massages in the open-air spa, with its covered gazebo trailing fragrant white jasmine and delicate yellow ylang-ylang flowers, eating fresh fish, having phenomenal sex with Niels, but mostly just lying here by the pool, listening to the waves lapping the beach and the waterfall that cascaded into the pool from a pond above, rich with floating pink and purple water lilies.

  Lola was remembering Ben Fitzgerald, and though from time to time the memories made her cry, mostly she found herself smiling, full of the love that she would always feel for him, and the love she knew that he had felt for her. She had even managed to be glad that he had found Evie, someone who had brought some happiness into his last few months.

  And she kept telling herself consolingly that her father had known nothing about what Carin had done to him. At least the video proved that. He had been asleep when Carin injected him, and after that had been in a coma, never aware of his wife’s treachery.

  Niels had kept Lola, at her request, almost completely isolated from the outside world; but he was checking messages regularly, working on various projects, and reading all the main financial papers, and Ranieri had rung him to tell him that Carin had been indicted for the murder of her husband. A plea deal was already being discussed. There was no way Carin was going to trial, not with that damning video evidence to show the jury.

  Lola still couldn’t believe how successful Niels’s efforts to save her had been.

  ‘Why didn’t you let me know you were trying to help me?’ she had blurted out as soon as Niels put her in the limo outside the courthouse.

  Niels looked embarrassed.

  ‘I only tracked down the PI yesterday, ’ he said. ‘We were watching the video footage all night and into this morning . . . and then you were in court . . .’

  ‘No, I mean before!’ Lola said. ‘You just disappeared after we flew back from Italy—’ she went pink, thinking of what had happened on board the LearJet. ‘I thought you didn’t want to be in contact with me any more. I mean, what was I supposed to think?’

  Niels looked genuinely amazed.

  ‘But you must have known I wouldn’t leave you to be convicted!’ he said indignantly.

  ‘No, Niels, ’ Lola said patiently, realising that she was going to have to do a lot of training him in women’s thought processes. ‘How would I know that? You never even rang to ask how I was doing! I’m not psychic.’

  ‘But—’ Niels ran a hand through his hair: ‘how could you think I would just walk away and not take care of things? I got a whole team of private investigators on the case immediately!’

  ‘So why didn’t you let me know?’ Lola persisted.

  ‘Because—’Niels looked baffled. ‘Because I’m not used to having to tell anyone what I’m doing, I suppose. Not until something produces results. I’ve never sent back bulletins on my progress . . .’

  He looked at her warily, and Lola thought that he resembled nothing so much as a large jungle animal backed into a corner, being made to apologise for having gone off hunting without telling his mate beforehand.

  ‘It would have reassured me so much to know you hadn’t just v
anished into thin air, ’ she explained to him, ‘and that you were on my side . . .’

  Niels nodded abruptly.

  ‘I get it, OK?’ he said, which Lola supposed was the closest he could manage to an apology.

  We’re really going to have to work on his communication skills, Lola thought ruefully. But it’s amazing how quickly everything’s happened. Barely six weeks ago, I didn’t even know Niels. I knew who he was, of course. Jean-Marc told me he had an older brother who ran everything, and was much too busy to do anything like come to our engagement dinner, and he sounded like such a bore I barely even remembered his name.

  And now . . . now, every time I think of Niels, every time I say his name to myself, I get wet. Every time I look at him, all my insides melt. I’ve never been so infatuated with anyone in my entire life. I didn’t even know that I could feel like this.

  Lola was spinning off into a vivid recollection of the way she had woken up that morning, with Niels’s head between her legs, his stubble grating deliciously on her skin, so that the first thing that had issued from her lips that morning had been a scream of pleasure, when she was interrupted by Niels’s deep voice saying:

  ‘Aren’t you going to go for a swim?’

  She looked up, but couldn’t see him. Paddling with her hands to bring the lilo round, she swivelled to find him, standing by the edge of the pool, hands on his hips, damp with sea water, his swim shorts dripping onto the white stone edge of the pool.

  ‘I’m feeling really lazy, ’ she said, shading her face with her hand and smiling up at him. ‘I can barely even be bothered to turn over.’

  Niels grinned devilishly.

  ‘Well, let me give you a hand with that—’

  ‘No! Niels, no – I don’t want to get wet yet, I’m sunbathing—’

  But Niels had already jackknifed and dived into the pool. He came up under the waterfall, shaking his hair back, his eyes gleaming and his skin lightly tanned from a week of sun. Niels’s fair Scandinavian skin needed a lot of sunblock, and Lola had found a great deal of pleasure in carefully applying it to the tips of his ears, his nose, the back of his neck, as he grumbled and pushed her away and pretended to be annoyed, while actually enjoying tremendously having her minister to him.

  ‘So, ’ he said, wading towards her with evil in his eyes, ‘you need some help turning over—’

  ‘No! Niels, no!’ Lola screamed with such relish that the butler and maid on the terrace above could hear her squeal even over the tumbling waterfall below. The two members of the villa’s extensive staff had been arranging orchids along the marble table in the shade of the veranda where Niels’s and Lola’s lunch would be served; but now they looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and retreated back inside the villa again to give the couple privacy.

  ‘At least they’re not doing it inside this time, ’ the maid said in relief. ‘I’ve had to change the sheets once already this morning.’

  ‘No!’ Lola protested happily, wriggling back on the lilo as Niels approached, grabbed the rubber rim, and dragged it high in the air.

  She had a glorious view of his flexing biceps, and then he twisted the lilo and, despite her efforts to hold it flat, she spun off it, flying into the warm, soft water, coming up giggling and pummelling him as he caught her and held her, pretending to fight him, letting him catch her hands and hold them behind her back with both of his while he kissed her so hard it took her breath away.

  She tasted salt on his mouth from the sea. Her naked body was pressed tight to his, and even though they had spent the past week mostly naked together, being underwater gave it even more of an erotic charge; she could feel how hard he was already, his cock pressing insistently up between her legs, fully erect, and she went limp in his arms with pure desire, kissing him back with everything she had, trying to get every inch of her body in contact with his, floating in the water, wrestling her arms free from him so she could wrap them round his neck and twine herself around him and kiss him forever.

  And then Niels was spinning her round, pushing her against the side of the pool, his hands leaving her momentarily to strip off his swim trunks and throw them impatiently onto the pool edge. She braced herself, so ready for him she could hardly bear it, moaning in excitement as Niels’s feet caught hers and nudged them apart, her eyes closed to feel the sensations better, suddenly so desperate for him that if he didn’t fuck her then, that instant, she knew she would explode with frustration.

  She felt his cock behind her, parting her buttocks, and then she screamed in surprise as Niels eased it up inside her, the first time he had done that, one hand guiding it slowly, the other one coming round to finger her so she writhed in pleasure even as the shock of him doing what no one had even tried with her before made her cry out again, not knowing whether she wanted it or not.

  ‘Is it all right?’ Niels said in her ear, the first time he had ever asked her permission for anything, and she opened her mouth to say that she wasn’t sure, knowing that if she expressed any doubt at all, he would stop instantly. But just then his clever fingers made her come, and simultaneously his cock slid up her another inch, hurting her, but somehow so exciting, so forbidden, so shocking that she found her body pushing down on it, trying to take him in even further, amazing herself with her own abandon, and Niels groaned against her, biting her earlobe, making her moan with sheer delight as he kept going, licking and biting her ear, driving his cock still higher inside her till she could feel his balls pressed right up against her bottom, fucking her slowly but surely, making her come again and again, till by the time he cried out and slammed into her with a series of fast hard finishing strokes, she was crumpled on the edge of the pool, overwhelmed with sensation, unable even to stand up any longer, the combination of pain and pleasure like a drug that had sapped every ounce of strength and will from her, everything but her ability to feel ecstasy.

  Niels collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily, the weight of his torso pressing her down, hot and wet, water trickling down from the sides of his body, his damp head pressed into the nape of her neck, his hips still jerking slightly from the aftershock of his orgasm.

  ‘That was amazing, ’ he said fervently.

  ‘Mmm, ’ Lola agreed, barely able to talk.

  ‘Were you—’ he cleared his throat. ‘Was that OK?’

  She smiled drowsily, her cheek pressed against the warm stone.

  ‘That was the first time anyone ever did that, ’ she admitted.

  ‘Really?’ Niels sounded unbearably smug.

  ‘You love that, ’ she accused him. ‘You love that you’re the first man ever to do that to me.’

  ‘First and last, ’ Niels said possessively, biting the back of her neck and making her shiver under him. ‘Will you marry me, Lola?’

  ‘Niels!’

  She got her hands underneath her and, with every trace of strength she had left in her body, she managed to shove herself upright, pushing him off her, backing him away till he slid out of her. He grabbed for his discarded swim trunks to clean himself up as she turned to face him and said indignantly:

  ‘Did you just propose to me while you were still inside my—’

  ‘I’m sorry!’ Niels raised one hand in the air in apology, the other still wrapped round his cock. His tough, craggy face wore such a hangdog expression that she burst out laughing at the sight of him; he looked more ashamed of himself than she had ever imagined he could be. ‘That wasn’t how I planned it at all—’ He was bright red now. ‘It was supposed to be tonight – I had a special meal arranged, the ring was going to be floating on an orchid in your champagne glass . . . It’s full moon, I was going to wait till the moon was up and do it then—’

  Lola was still giggling at the sight of Niels van der Veer, international tycoon and multi-millionaire, one hand wiping off his penis, the other flailing in the air helplessly. He came towards her, bunching up his swim trunks and throwing them by the pool again, taking both her hands, looking down into her eyes w
ith such sincerity, such love, suddenly, that the laughter dried up in her throat; her mouth went dry as she met his gaze.

  ‘Lola, this wasn’t how I planned it at all, please believe me. It just – it just came out, I couldn’t hold it back, ’ he was saying. ‘And that’s why I want to marry you. Do you remember in the plane coming back from Italy, when you asked me why I was single? This is why. You’re the only woman who ever does this to me. You’re the only woman who’s ever made me lose control, do the things I really want to do, say the things I really want to do. I’d built a life for myself that was so controlled, so regimented – you’re the only woman who’s ever made me feel free.’

  He looked imploringly at her.

  ‘I don’t know how you do it, but you’ve set me free to be myself. Please, say yes. I need you, Lola. I need you more than you can possibly imagine.’

  Niels’s words were so beautiful, so heartfelt, that Lola was temporarily tongue-tied with sheer happiness. She wanted desperately to remember every word he had just said, to save this moment forever, never forget the way he was looking at her with his whole heart in his eyes.

  Niels misunderstood her silence, and panicked.

  ‘Lola—’ he said urgently, ‘if you’re not sure because of Jean-Marc, all of that, believe me, Jean-Marc knows – he’s happy for us—’ He swallowed. ‘He told me on the courthouse steps, remember, he whispered in my ear? He said, “Let Lola take care of you.” God knows, I’ve spent my life making sure no one ever needed to take care of me. But somehow I actually like it when you look after me – Lola, please say yes!’

  ‘Of course I will!’ Lola said, finding her voice, watching his expression turn to sheer joy. ‘Of course I will, you big idiot!’

  And then she screamed as Niels picked her up and threw her high in the air, catching her as she splashed back into the water, hugging her tightly to him, her face buried in his neck, kissing and kissing his salty skin, her arms wound round him, her fingers twisted in his hair.