When She Was Bad... (8 page)

Not on the first date. Not if you’re playingfor keeps, said the little voice in her head. Her mother’s voice.

‘You’re worth every cent, and more. Besides…’ he gave her a wink ‘… it’s all on expenses. The ad is testing wohderfully. You’re going to be a huge star.’

‘So what are you doing in America, Rupert?’ Lira asked.

He smiled.

‘Would you believe that I’m marking time?’

She blinked. ‘You’re a major executive at B.enson Bailey.’ ‘That’s true,’ he said smoothly. ‘But I have interests in England.’ ‘With that title, you must be rich,’ Lita said, then regretted it. She didn’t want him to think she was a gold-digger. Silently she thanked God that the Costa 1Kica campaign was paying her two hundred thousand, all in. She had money of her own. Not in his league, of course, but enough to differentiate her from all the other hippy chicks and fortune-hunters that Bill said liked to hang on his every word.

‘There’s more to it than money. I have a place, a family house. It’s belonged to the Barons Lancaster ever since King James I gave us the title.’

His face darkened.

‘So … that’s good, isn’t it?’

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‘It would be, if the house were in my hands. There’s a small legal problem. But I’m having it resolved.’

‘That’s why you flew back to New York?’

‘Exactly.’ He ran his manicured thumb lightly over the palm of her hand. Lita’s nipples tightened instantly. She shifted forward, hoping he

hadn’t seen it, but P,.upert’s dark gaze was fixed on her chest.

‘It’s cold in here, huh,’ she said.

‘No,’ 1Kupert said, grinning. ‘Not particularly.’

Quickly she took a gulp of her wine, covering herself.

‘But let’s not talk about me. I’d much rather discuss you and your brilliant prospects,’ he said.

‘But I want to talk about you, P,.upert,’ Lita said earnestly.

Hell, she’s young, he thought. She made him want to lick his lips. What a glorious body she had. And almost certainly untouched. She was for too uptight to ever have gotten properly laid.

1Kupert was bored of the skinny-minnie coke junkies he took home from all the nightclubs. No tits, no ass, and nothing to say. This one was reasonably intelligent and, more importantly, was eminently pliable. Just eighteen. She carried herself well, too. He thought with a wardrobe from Chanel, some proper clothes from Dior, a string of pearls or two, nobody would really notice her background. She looked exotic, and wasn’t that all the rage in London at the moment? Of course, he’d have to get her voice coaching. But that would be easy to arrange. She had money, and the house - once he got it back - would need fixing up. He could parlay his grace and favour Benson Bailey job into four or five campaigns for Lira, get her into the multimillions, and then marry her. She’d get a title and he’d get mney, not to mention the finest ass he’d seen in five years.

It would be a lot easier because she worshipped him. Something she made no effort to hide.

But then again they all worshipped him.

He checked out the taut nipples under the silk beaded top. Gorgeous. He wondered if they were cherry pink or dusky rose. Mentally he flicked a tongue over them.

‘I want to talk about your love life,’ Lita persisted.

Rupert shrugged. ‘What love life, darling? Apart from meeting you,

my life has been a desert. A boring desert of work.’

‘My agent told me—’

‘Bill?’ Rupert waved his fish-knife at her dismissivly. ‘Bill’s a sweetheart. But he’s gay. He really doesn’t understand that straight men can have female friends without sleeping with them.’

‘He said you were really popular in the clubs.’

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‘It’s the title. I know it’s childish, but some girls seem so fascinated by

it. And it was only something I was born with, not something I’ve

earned.’

Lita sighed. He was so perfect.

‘I think that you should only be rated for who you are, not how you

were born. That’s one of the things that attracted me to you. Your drive. You burst into my office and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I

admire that in a woman. We need more girls like you around.’

‘Thank you,’ Lita said. She almost glowed.

‘Eventually you’ll get married and give the modelling up, I know.

But until then, you’re going to be a big star.’ ‘You think I have what it takes?’ Lita asked. l%upert gave her a slow wink.

‘Baby, I think you have everything it takes.’

After dinner, he drove her out to the Lions’ Den. It was the hot new

place in the East Village, packed full of minor rock stars and film executives, with girls in thigh-high minis three deep on the sidewalk, begging to get in. They exited the cab, and Rupert walked up to the gorilla of a doorman. Lita walked behind him, her heart thudding. This kind of place was something she had never tried before. Sally, another girl at the agency, had gotten turned away from this place just last week. She would never allow herself to be humiliated like that.

‘Come in, your lordship,’ the gorilla grunted, and removed the red

velvet rope. The crowd outside howled, but Rupert, ignoring them, whisked Lita inside and up a flight of steps.’

‘You forgot to pay.’ Lita gestured at the booth.

‘Don’t be silly, darling. I never pay. Ah, Alessandra, cara, good to see

you.’ Rupert kissed the air at the side of a woman’s cheeks. She wore a sheer white dress in chiffon, dotted with flowers. She was nude under the dress. Lita bit on her cheeks to suppress a gasp.

‘Rupert, dahling. I have the lounge all ready for you. And your

woman. Who is it this time?

Rupert’s smile didn’t fade. ‘This is Rosalita Morales, a big star at

Models Six.’

‘Wonderful. I was a model, too.’ Alessandra didn’t even glance at

Lita. She was heavily made up, and her boobs were sagging. Lita guessed the woman wasn’t far shy of fifty. A shiver of fear ran through her. Was this what awaited the ex-model? lefusing to realize you were over the hill? Displaying a beauty that wasn’t there any more?

That’s not going to happen to me, she vowed silently. She’d have to

find something else to do. She was quitting on her twenty-fifth birthday.

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‘You were the model, sweetheart. And now you own ths tabulous place.’

‘Si. Come, dabling. Your table is waiting, like always.’ She turued on one of her teetering stilettos and led them up a flight of metal stairs. There was a velvet-covered door at the top, with another gorilla outside it. Alessandra swept through the crowd as the heavy pushed the door open.

Lita breathed in sharply. Two rock stars she recognized, with teenage blondes draped over them, were doing lines of cocaine openly off a glass-topped table. There was a daytime soap star on a plush maroon bench, feeling up the tits ofa gameshow ‘assistant’ Lira had seen once or twice. Pappy was a fan. She lifted her eyes from the girl’s exposed nipples, trying to hide her shock. She didn’t want to come off as some little naive kid.

‘Here, my angel.’ Their hostess gestured to a corner table, mercifully dark, with a bottle of champagne already chilling on it. She sat down and realized that one wall of the VIP room was a pane of tinted glass. They could see the crowd dancing and sweating below, but none of

them could see in. It was weird. Lira slid into the booth.

‘Thank you,’ she muttered.

Alessandra ignored her and kissed Rupert on the cheeks. ‘I see you later, baby, OK?’

‘Rupert.’ A young girl bounced up to their table, wearing a white crocheted minidress and no knickers, from what Lira could see of her bony ass. ‘Baby, baby, it’s been too long. At least a—’

‘Poppy, hi.’ Rupert cut her off, shaking her hand. The girl looked disconcerted. ‘Have you met Lita Morales? She’s with Models Six.’

‘I’m with Ford,’ Poppy said, looking at Lita coldly. ‘Are you a friend of Rupert’s?’

Lita felt a sudden wave of jealousy crash right through her. She hated this skinny white girl with the platinum dye job, dressed like a total slut. The old hag was bad enough, but this bitch had to be even younger than she was. Jailbait with a crush on IKupert. In Soundview, the girls didn’t sit around and let other women make an open play for their men.

‘No, I’m not his friend, I’m his girlfriend,’ she snapped. ‘Nice to meet you, OK, Poppy, but could we get a little privacy? We’re trying to have a romantic evening here.’

She ignored the soap star maneuvering the dolly bird front and centre on his lap. Poppy looked at Rupert, enraged, but all he did, Lita was glad to see, was shrug.

‘Run along, Poppy. I’ll see you soon.’

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Tears formed in the corner of her eyes. ‘You fucking bastard, Rupert,’ she wailed.

‘We don’t want any scenes,’ he said coolly, but he glanced over at the security guard. Both girls saw it, and Poppy straightened up.

‘I’m going,’ she said. She looked at Lita. ‘You poor bitch.’ Then she

flounced off, the crochet rising dangerously high on her bare ass. ‘Who was that?’ Lita demanded.

Rupert shook his head, gently. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that, darling. She’s a girl from another agency who’s been after me for quite some time. I let her down as gently as I could, but whenever she sees me around she propositions me.’

‘Oh,’ Lita said, feeling foolish.

Rupert reached up and gently traced a fingertip on her cheek. ‘I loved how you handled that, though. Especially the part about you

being my girlfriend. I was thinking I’d have to talk you into that.’ Lita smiled.

‘We’re going to be so good together,’ he said. ‘You’ll see.’

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Lita didn’t even remember losing her virginity. Not much of it, anyway. Her life with Rupert was a whirl of activity, ad glamour and pure, glorious romance. The Costa campaign bowed to heady sales, and Lita was in demand. Rupert seemed to be on hand with every job she booked - Tasty Tuna, the Mama Assunta Spaghetti Sauce and Nestl4 coconut milk. Bill glowered, but he had to suffer his presence. Benson Bailey was still a big client and, besides, he couldn’t afford to upset Lita. The dollars were flowing into her account like a waterfall crashing into a pool. Bill noticed that his client no longer saved every dime or even

demanded an accounting of her rates. She was too busy for that. Lira Morales was head over heels in love.

Rupert took her everywhere. He introduced her as his girlfriend, his love, his soulmate. They went to Upper East Side dinner parties, and nobody condescended to her even once. In fact, all the bankers’ wives and doctors’ fianc4es wanted to be her best friend. They took her shopping, they took her out for manicures. They fawned on her, and Lira loved it.

It was heady, because she knew what they were thinking. They were utterly transparent. They wanted to be buddies with a future English peeress. Goddamn snobs. She hated that, and she loved Rupert for admiring her for herself, not who she’d been born. Lita thought it was ironic that Rupert was so much less snobby than the people who hung around him.

But she let herself be fawned on. Why not?

Lita didn’t want to admit it, but she was mostly doing it for her lover. His effortless polish and sophistication were qualities she sometimes felt she could never match. Rupert hated any kind of a ‘scene’, and Lita wasn’t about to make one because some of his friends were stuck up. The weather turned cold. For Thanksgiving, Lit-a invited Rupert home. To her surprise, he accepted.

Rupert was welcomed into the house in Queens by a glowing Maria, a glowering Chico and a glum Carlos. Maria had refused to allow him to drink before the meal in case he embarrassed her in front of the lord, as

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she continued to refer to Rupert despite Lita’s silent pleas with her eyes to stop. Chico had been forced into an ill-fitting suit and stared at lKupert, saying nothing.

‘Are we gonna watch the game?’ Carlos demanded, as 1Zupert was manfully chewing his second helping of overcooked turkey.

‘Of course not.’ His wife looked shocked. ‘The lord don’ watch no football.’

Carlos went a shade of puce, but said no.thing, glancing at his daughter. These days he was almost scared of her, the way she ran the family’s lives at eighteen, but Thanksgiving was Thanksgiving. Even though his wife made every other mother in the neighbourhood miserable by telling them her daughter was about to become a Marquesa, and he liked to see her bursting with pride, Carlos wasn’t about to let some limey ruin his Thanksgiving.

Lita took the hint and stood up, thanking God for her escape. ‘Mama, actually, Rupert and I have to be getting back to the city.’ ‘Yes. I’m taking 1Kosalita out for dinner. We’re going to see a play. And if I stay here, Mrs Morales, I’m afraid I’m going to eat all your delicious turkey, and you’ll have none left to make soup.’

Maria giggled and smiled. Wait till she told Gloria down the block that the English lord loved her cooking. ‘I wish you could stay.’

‘Oh, so do I.’ Rupert managed to look heartbroken. ‘But unfortunately the curtain up won’t wait for us. So goodbye, Chico—’ ‘Later, man,’ Chico muttered.

‘Goodbye Mrs Morales, and thank you foe the wonderful dinner. It was sublime. And goodbye, sir,’ forcefully shaking hands with Carlos, who managed a smile. The English lord called him Carlos Morales, sir. Very respectful. That was good. And he was leaving, so Carlos got to watch the game. That was even better.

‘Goodbye. I show you out,’ Carlos said, with a rare burst of manners. He watched his daughter grab her coat at lightning speed and leap for the door. His wife hurried to get up and shake hands as Rupert left, all smiles, closing the door behind him.

Maria jumped up and down with pure joy.

‘He loved us, querido. He’ll be back for more of my cooking. Maybe we’ll invite some people over.’

‘We’ll never see that man again,’ Carlos replied flatly. He could read 1Kupert better than his wife. ‘We’re not his kind of people.’

‘Our Lita is, though,’ Maria said stubbornly. ‘We’ll see him because of her.’