Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Boxed Set (63 page)

Natasha pressed her lips together to keep from giggling at the woman’s disgruntled expression. Spying an opening in the crowd, she grabbed the woman’s arm and with a nod of her chin, scooted them both out of the melee.

“Sweet freedom,” Natasha said with a laugh as they watched some twenty or so people converge on the booth.

“Thanks.” The older lady brushed herself off, gave a little shake as if to rid herself of the crowd cooties, then pinned Natasha with an intense look before smiling and holding out her hand. “Claire Crews, nice to meet you.”

“Natasha Stover.” Mid-shake she realized whose hand she was holding. “Claire Crews of C.C. and Company?”

“One and the same. Why haven’t we met already? Stover? What company are you with?”

“I’m the owner of
Sensual Supports
,” Natasha answered, glee filling her as she said the words aloud.

“
Sensual Supports
, hmmm? And you haven’t come to meet me yet? What’s the deal? You’re not interested in seeing your designs paraded around the world?”

Natasha was glad she’d let go of Claire’s hand, since her palm had suddenly become incredibly sweaty. She was standing before the Grande Dame of lingerie and Natasha had yanked her around by the shoulder. If she’d been eyeing Rufus Randal and Perfect Passion Lingerie as her brass ring, this woman represented the twenty-four carat, diamond encrusted one. Her alliance of accounts, as it was said she referred to them, consisted of European designers, some of America’s top lingerie companies and the hottest up and coming Australian manufacturers.

More to the point, she had a reputation for taking the occasional small company or designer under her wing and turning them into a global success. Which, as wonderful as it might be to dream of, was so far beyond what Natasha could ever imagine that she felt the sudden attack of intimidation wash away.

Until she realized the woman not only knew her company name, but that Natasha hadn’t pursued an appointment with her. Oh. My. God.

“Ms. Crews, I’ve admired your company’s success for quite a while now. I think a lot of your designers and products. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“You didn’t answer my question. I’ve looked over your brochure, checked out your company. You have some good ideas. Your fabrics are a little blasé, your colors could use a boost, but your designs are top notch. So while every Ann, Jane and Mary here has been dogging my steps, trying to gain a second of my attention, why would an innovative businesswoman like yourself not have at least dropped me your card and info?”

Natasha thanked God for her mother’s lectures on decorum, since that was the only thing keeping her expression calm when her insides were shaking like a rickety bridge over a wildly rushing river.

“To be honest, I’d have thought you’d be so inundated with cards and info that you wouldn’t even notice mine wasn’t among them.” Which sounded a hell of a lot better than
you’re way out of my league, lady, so why would I put myself through the torture of pitching when I know it’s not possible
? “But, now that we have met, I’d love to discuss my latest lingerie line with you. It’s an innovative twist that I think will take the market by storm.”

“I notice everything, which is why C.C. and Co is where it is. Innovative, hmm. We’ll see. Spiff up those fabrics, add some oomph to your palette, and send me a proposal.” Claire shot a look at the massage booth and shuddered. “I’m sure you can find my contact info, right?”

Stunned, Natasha could only nod.

“Then I’ll be on my way before that crowd gets loose again. Pleasure, Natasha.”

“Thank you, Ms. Crews. It was lovely to meet you.” Mentally numb, Natasha watched one of the biggest names in lingerie clomp down the aisle.

It took her another ten minutes to get to her own booth, since she kept getting lost in thought--and in the aisles. She did, however, find a booth that specialized in permanent lingerie, of the tattoo variety, and another that was hocking tee shirts and skirts silk-screened to appear like well-toned bodies showing through sheer fabric. She was so preoccupied thinking about Claire Crews, she couldn’t even wince at the tackiness.

Finally in the right aisle, she arrived at her own booth. Figuring it was pointless to worry about her soon-to-be-accepted-invitation-to-shoot-for-the-stars, she made a promise to give herself all the time she needed to freak out…later. Right now she had to relieve Lanie.

Except Lanie wasn’t there.

Natasha frowned at the man sitting casually on her display table, apparently not caring that his gorgeous butt was squashing her satin chemises.

“Drew? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Lake Mead today?” She looked around again, although it was obvious that unless she was hiding under the table curtain, Lanie was definitely missing. “Where is Lanie?

This wasn’t the time to see Drew. She’d planned it all out during her break. They’d have a quiet dinner, just the two of them, in her room. She’d order champagne, chocolate and serve it herself in a sheer negligee. And she’d tell Drew all about buying
Sensual Supports
, all about her plans and hopes. Then she’d seduce him, and while he was reveling in the afterglow of their lovemaking, she’d let him know she planned to make regular visits to Auburn.

But she didn’t intend to put her plan into action until tonight. And she wasn’t prepared to ad-lib.

Drew hopped down and Natasha had to roll her eyes. Leave it to him, she thought as the chemises he’d been sitting on slid to the floor in a puddle of pastel satin. Oblivious, he took the two steps necessary to reach her and slid his hands down her arms in a smooth, shivery light caress that sent Natasha’s mind into overdrive. The fabulous touch of his ever-so talented hands, and the way they felt on her bare skin hadn’t been far from her mind all day. It had been an incredibly long ten hours since she’d been naked beneath those fingers.

“Hey, Babe. How was your nap? All rested up?” He leaned close to brush a soft kiss over her mouth. It might have passed for casual and friendly if not for the quick slide of his tongue over her bottom lip. “If I’d known you were gonna slip away, I’d have hung out instead of going sightseeing.”

“Since I needed to catch up on some sleep, its probably just as well that you were sightseeing,” Natasha said with a laugh as she leaned into his body. She loved the feel of him. His broad shoulders, hard but welcoming chest and the delicious length of his legs. How was she going to wait until evening to be with him again? Her body was definitely ready right now.

With that in mind, she ignored the fact that there were people milling around and that Drew’s sister was probably in the booth across the way snickering at them. Instead, she leaned in to take his mouth with hers, doing her damnedest to give him a kiss so hot, he’d be able to think of nothing but her. More a wild promise than the fulfillment of lust, she nibbled at his lower lip then soothed her tongue over it before pulling away.

And suddenly, she was lost in the rich depths of his chocolate-hued eyes. Lust gave them an extra gleam, and his wicked grin quirked up on one side. The ultimate temptation. Natasha might have given in if she hadn’t caught sight of the puddle of lingerie he’d knocked to the floor. Instead, she squeezed his hand and moved around him to pick up the chemises.

She quickly smoothed out the wrinkles and started returning the pieces to their place on the display before looking over her shoulder to see Drew admiring her backside. With a smirk, Natasha tried to put as much shake into her hips as she was giving the garments. From the way Drew’s eyes glazed over, it seemed to be working.

“So,” she said, waiting until his eyes left her hips and met hers before continuing. “You didn’t tell me why you’re here and Lanie isn’t.”

“She had to go to the bathroom. She did a crazy little ‘have to pee, have to pee’ dance for about fifteen minutes before I was able to convince her to let me watch the booth while she took care of business.”

Natasha started to laugh at the image, then frowned as she looked at the display table.

“What? Is it a problem that I told her to go? I swear, I watched over things. I even got you a few more business cards for your mailing list.”

Barely listening, Natasha bent down to look under the table. Nothing. She started shifting lingerie, carefully at first, then grabbing each piece one at a time to shake it before making a discard pile.

“Tasha? What’s up?”

“It’s missing.” Ignoring the fingers of panic moving through her belly, she scooted across the booth to shuffle through the lingerie on the opposite table. It had to be here. It had just been moved, that was all. Natasha forced herself to go slowly, to make sure she checked everything.

“What’s missing? What are you looking for?” Drew stood by helplessly, obviously having no clue about what had happened.

“A bra,” Natasha said quietly as she slid the suitcase she’d just checked back under the back table. Her jaw aching from the effort not to scream, she turned her gaze to Drew. “One of my bra designs. It’s missing.”

“Missing? Like gone? Misplaced? Do you think Lanie did something with it? Maybe she set it somewhere and...” His words trailed off as his eyes took in the mess Natasha had made in her search of the booth. It was pretty obvious anything misplaced would have been found. “Maybe you didn’t bring it back with you?”

Natasha shook her head. She’d brought it back. She had each day’s display solidly planned out, and today’s was to include the pink-ice satin and lace demi-bra. She’d personally put it on display this morning when she and Lanie had set up. Natasha felt her stomach churn.

“Tasha, maybe you should sit down. You don’t look so good.”

She didn’t feel so good. Natasha dropped into the folding metal chair Drew held out for her and let out a shuddering sigh.

“Lanie will be back any second now,” Drew assured her in a male ‘please don’t think about crying when I’m here’ tone. “She probably knows what happened.”

Sick to her stomach at the idea of her design being in some stranger’s hands—or worse, a stranger who was also a designer—forgotten, Natasha glowered at Drew.

“Lanie didn’t lose anything.”

“I didn’t say she lost it,” Drew said quickly, his tone placating.

“Lanie is as careful as I am about watching the booth. I trust her implicitly. There is no way she’d lose a bra. Women don’t just go around losing their bras, for God’s sake.” She flew to her feet so she was right in Drew’s face. Hysteria put a slight edge on her words, but Natasha didn’t care. Nor did she care that Drew was looking at her like she had three heads and a Mohawk. So he’d never seen her upset before. What? The man expected her to be calm and together at all times except bed?

“Then someone lifted it.”

“A bra thief?” That sick feeling returned to her stomach and Natasha dropped back to the chair so hard it clanked as the legs scraped the cement floor.

“Whatever, it’s gone. Don’t get all freaked out over it, okay? I’m sure it wasn’t personal. Audra mentioned she’s had a few things stolen, too. People around here seem to think the undies are like grapes in the grocery store. Sampling a few is part of the game.”

“My bras aren’t a bunch of grapes, Drew. Dammit, this one is a special design and I have a patent pending on it. I don’t want it out there, available for someone to copy.”

“If you have a patent pending, what’s the worry?”

Natasha shot him her
you’ve got to be kidding
look. “This is a huge market, Drew. Whoever took it could sell it out of the country. Or they could make minute changes to the design and sell it here. Heck, if someone wanted to, they could sell several bras based on the design on the Internet and make
beauucoup
bucks before anyone realized what they were doing.”

“Huh, so why don’t you sell it on the Internet and make beaucoup bucks?”

Natasha wanted to hit the man. She’d just lost one of the prototypes. The prototype design she’d based her little shoot-for-the-moon pitch to both Ruf and C.C. Crews on. The prototype that was supposed to launch her newly committed-to design career and save her newly purchased boutique. And he decided this was the time for jokes?

“It’ll be fine,” Drew said. He moved closer to rub her shoulders. “I’m sure it was some panty-happy dork boy who is collecting underwear and stuff for cheap thrills. There’s no pointing overreacting. Report it to the convention hosts, make a note of the design and keep an eye out for it.”

As he worked at one of the stubborn knots in her shoulder, Natasha let his words sink in. As much as she hated to let it slide, Drew was right. There really wasn’t a damned thing she could do about it.

“Tasha?” Lanie sounded out of breath as she entered the booth. From the bits of confetti in her hair, she’d obviously been caught in the same kind of booth-celebration Natasha had been in earlier. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you got back, I really had to tinkle. I figured you wouldn’t mind if Drew watched your panties for a while though,” she added with a giggle.

Then she got a good look at Natasha’s strained face and frowned. “What’s going on? Tash?” Her gaze shot from Natasha to Drew’s face and back again and her eyes rounded in concern. “What happened?”