Heaven Scent (64 page)

Cat blushed. ‘It was amazing, wasn’t it? I didn’t imagine it . . .’

‘You didn’t imagine it,’ he told her firmly. Leaning down, he kissed her. Taking her face in his hands, he kissed her again. Gently at first and then with increasing urgency. Feeling her heart flip over, Cat wound her arms round his neck and kissed him back as though her life depended on it. God, she had missed him! Loving the feel of his warm hands in her hair and feeling her body respond as he kissed her, Cat tingled all over.

‘Did you . . . did you kiss me when you saved me that day,’ she asked as they broke free for a second. ‘The day of the riding accident?’ She had to know the truth.

Xavier nodded. ‘Not really the done thing, as Ashton would say, but I couldn’t help myself. I was so relieved you were alive and I couldn’t believe I’d nearly lost you.’ He traced a finger over her mouth. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘About everything. For being angry with you about Angelique when you didn’t even know her name . . . for not speaking to you before I kept dashing off everywhere. It’s just that . . . making the fragrance, it was something I had to do . . . I had to finish it and you were in my mind the whole time.’

Cat grinned; that actually made her feel much better.

‘You have . . . brought me back to life,’ he told her in a jerky voice. ‘Not just me, my whole family.’ Xavier looked down at her hands, bringing her fingers to his mouth to kiss them. ‘When my mother died, everything changed, all of us changed, and not for the better. And after Olivier’s death, I don’t think any of us knew how to function, not even Grandmother. And then you came along.’ He smiled as Cat slipped her arms round his waist. ‘You came along and you turned all of us upside down, and now I can’t imagine La Fleurie – or life – without you. The way you went after Max like that . . . you’re so brave. You . . . you grab life with both hands and it’s taken me ages to realise it’s the best way.’

Cat felt overwhelmed with happiness. She wanted to say something but she couldn’t. Anything she could think of felt inadequate; besides, after all the confusion, she didn’t want to jinx anything.

Xavier thought her silence meant she needed more convincing. ‘Look, you’ve saved all of us . . . my father, Leoni, the twins. Me. I was a mess . . . after my mother’s death, after Angelique, I didn’t know how to feel any more. And you have to know that what I feel for you is more powerful and more real than anything I ever felt about Angelique. Trust me, I’ve had long enough to figure it out.’

‘But you never said anything . . .’

He looked stricken. ‘I know. I’m so sorry I shut you out when Angelique arrived. I was so confused . . . she kissed me once and I thought for a second that I wanted her back. Just for a second. And then I knew it was all just in the past . . . and deep down, I knew it was you I wanted.’ He smoothed a lock of hair out of her eyes. ‘It hit me like a thunderbolt in the stables that night and then it hit me all over again in Morocco.’

Cat reached up and kissed him. She was glad he’d told her about the embrace with Angelique; it meant there was nothing hanging between them that was unsaid.

Xavier pulled back. ‘You changed me, you’ve breathed life into all of us. And don’t you dare say you have no right to be at La Fleurie again. Because if you do, I swear I will take you to the top of the Eiffel Tower and I will do a Tom Cruise . . .’

‘Oh my God, was that some sort of proposal?’ Cat punched his arm. ‘Because if it was, it was
rubbish
.’

‘No.’ Xavier stood up. Leaning down, he scooped her up in his arms, carrying her easily. ‘When I propose, I’m going to do it when you least expect it. But I warn you, it’ll be soon.’

‘Really?’ Cat clung to his neck, feeling absurdly happy.

‘Yes.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘But right now, we need a taxi.’

‘Why?’

Xavier pretended to look innocent. ‘Because we need to get to the hotel.’

Cat sank her hands into his dark hair and pulled his mouth down to hers. ‘Well, in the absence of a stable . . .’

‘Exactly.’ Xavier yelled for a taxi.

 

Hurrying away from the new Ducasse-Fleurie store in disgrace, Angelique kept her head down to avoid the camera flashes that recorded her early departure. She knew there would be a story about her in the papers tomorrow, about how her ad campaign had been scrapped and about her swift exit but there was nothing she could do about it.

Would Xavier really go to the press about what she’d been up to? Angelique wondered as she tried to catch her breath. If it was any other member of the Ducasse family who’d made the threat, she would take it with a pinch of salt, but one thing everyone said about Xavier was that he was as good as his word. And he was furious, which would make him even more determined to stop her from getting what she wanted.

Letting out a frustrated cry, Angelique realised she had been defeated. After biding her time and missing out on a Hollywood opportunity, she had ended up with nothing. Turning a corner without looking where she was going, she crashed into someone. She was gripped by two enormous hands and found herself staring up at Mason.

‘W-what are you doing here?’ she stammered. Her eyes were dazzled by another loud tie; this time, a bright pink one with white flecks. God, he’s so
brash
, Angelique thought crossly.

‘Has your dream been shattered?’ he demanded, his nasal tones sounding guttural in the cool, Parisian air.

Angelique swallowed, her eyes travelling from his hooded eyes to his hooked nose before settling on his wide mouth. ‘My . . . my dream?’

Mason shook her slightly. ‘The Ducasse family. Have they sent you packing?’

She went limp in his arms and turned her head away. ‘Yes. How did you know?’

Mason gathered her up, wrapping his big arms round her waist. ‘Because I knew they’d want nothing to do with you in the long run.’ He stared down at her. ‘You’re not one of them, you don’t belong there. Didn’t I tell you that?’

Tears ran down Angelique’s face. ‘I’ve been so stupid. I wanted this perfume thing and the Ducasse family because I thought it would bring me respect. I wanted to be taken seriously, Mason!’ She beat her fists on his broad shoulders but the blows were puny against his vast size. ‘I’ve done some terrible things . . . you wouldn’t want to know me if you knew.’

Mason ran a finger over her ripe red mouth, enjoying the way she fought against him. ‘I do know. I know about the marriage and about the abortion.’ Feeling her start in his arms, he held on to her. ‘I always investigate my clients, Angelique. Always. I’ve known about you for a long time. And the press have been sniffing round you for years. I’ve been protecting you . . . it’s cost me a fortune.’

Angelique gasped. ‘Why . . . why didn’t you tell anyone?’

Mason stared at her. ‘Don’t you know?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Christ, for a smart broad, you’re so dumb at times.’ He tightened his grip.

She shook her head.

‘Look, you’ve just got to know who you are, baby,’ he said in an exasperated tone. ‘Who gives a shit about perfumes and respectability? You’re going to be the biggest export France has ever seen in Hollywood soon.’

‘Hollywood?’ Angelique’s head snapped up. ‘Is the deal still on the table?’

‘Of course it is! What do you take me for? I told them you were messing about with some ad campaign but that you’d rip your right arm off for the part once you were done.’

Angelique was overjoyed. ‘So . . . so why have you been protecting me from the press for all these years?’ she pressed, for some reason needing to know the answer.

Mason stroked her hair away from her face. ‘Take a guess.’

‘Because you’re a good agent?’ she offered, not really believing it.

He laughed. ‘I’m the best, but no, that’s not it. You’re different, you’re . . . special.’ Mason looked uncharacteristically emotional for a moment. ‘You mean everything to me, Angelique. That’s why I’ve spent years protecting your secrets from the press. And why I’ve put up with your shitty attitude when I should have kicked your ass into touch a long time ago.’ He grinned.

Angelique’s eyes widened. She had no idea why she felt this way and it wasn’t just because of what he’d just said, but she wanted to kiss Mason. She actually wanted to kiss the man, to kiss him and not let him go again. ‘But I hate you,’ she said in a low voice. She felt genuinely confused by the fact that she was attracted to him. ‘You’re . . . you’re repulsive.’

‘Thanks,’ Mason said without an ounce of hurt. He growled. ‘I told you, you and me are the same, built from the same mould. We go after the things we want and we don’t apologise for it.’

‘And what is it you want?’ Angelique asked Mason, although she thought she already knew. All thoughts of Xavier, Olivier and the Ducasse family were slipping away and suddenly she no longer cared about any of them.

‘You, you dumb bitch,’ Mason said, crushing his mouth to hers. Kissing her hard, he ran a hand down her quivering body and thrust his groin against hers. ‘And don’t you ever forget it.’

Clinging to Mason’s enormous shoulders, Angelique realised they were indeed made of the same mould. In fact, as he scooped her up like a rag doll and headed towards their hotel, she had a feeling they were going to fit together perfectly.

In Xavier’s seventh-floor suite in the George V, a room which apparently had artwork dedicated to Napoleon and Josephine, Cat shivered as Xavier’s mouth brushed her neck. Leaving the curtains open so the jaw-dropping view of Paris by night was still visible outside, he reached up and undid her dress. She bit her lip in ecstasy as he left a trail of kisses down her bare back. The wait had been excruciating but now that she and Xavier were finally together, Cat wanted to linger on every, sensual moment.

By the time he’d reached the cleft of her spine at the bottom, she was a quivering wreck. As she felt her dress slither to the floor and she stood in front of him in a black lace bra and thong, Cat slowly eased his dinner jacket off. Tossing his phone on to a nearby table, he allowed her to undress him, his eyes fixed on hers. Standing in a pair of very tight, black boxer shorts, his tanned torso looming over her, Xavier pushed Cat up against the wall and they were both transported back to that erotic night in the stables. They both jumped as a text arrived on Xavier’s phone, sending it twirling all over the table.

‘What . . . what does it say?’ Cat said as Xavier groped for it.

He glanced at it briefly, then tossed it out of sight. ‘It’s from Max. He said that Dad destroyed the second set of legal papers but, get this, Grandmother hid the third set.’

‘Really?’ Cat gasped as Xavier’s tongue tickled her in a very rude place. ‘Oooh, that’s . . . that’s really. . .’ She hooked her thumbs into his boxer shorts and slid them to the floor.

Xavier groaned. ‘I know . . . it’s . . .’ His eyes glazed over with lust as Cat’s hands wandered. ‘Don’t stop . . .’

‘Amazing,’ Cat murmured as he dispensed with her underwear with agonising slowness. ‘And there I was thinking . . . thinking . . . that Delphine didn’t . . . like me.’ She really couldn’t concentrate when he was touching her there, she thought, her head spinning.

‘She’s adores you, trust me.’ Xavier threw Cat on to the bed and flung himself after her. ‘And she can’t wait to host a wedding at La Fleurie.’

Cat sank her hands into Xavier’s hair. ‘Was that . . . ?’

Xavier nodded. ‘Yes, that was a proper proposal, Cat. Now, could you possibly shut up while we get down to something a bit more spontaneous?’

Cat smiled and pulled Xavier closer. ‘Definitely,’ she murmured happily.

So many people to thank! As ever, general thanks to my family and friends for being so supportive and excited about my novels. A big thank you to all the fabulous people who have contacted me to tell me how much you love my books … it’s great for my ego, obviously, but on a more serious note, it really spurs me on and makes the tougher writing days easier to bear.

 

I must thank my brother, Paul, for his assistance with the French language parts of the novel, even though much of it disappeared in the edit! Richard and Julie Crompton at Monster Creative, for all their help with the advertising and branding information – your enthusiasm and time was much appreciated, and all the fascinating details made a difficult part of the novel much easier to illustrate. As always, thanks to my best friend Jeni, for being there with positive words and laughter, no matter where she is in the world.

 

Very special thanks must go to my lovely mum, who looked after Phoebe when she had chicken pox during deadline week, as well as plenty of other times when I needed to get my head down. And a big kiss to Phoebe for sleeping so well during the day and allowing me to get precious writing time in.

 

Thanks to my fantastic agent, Diane Banks, for her continued enthusiasm, encouragement and support, and to the wonderful Sherise Hobbs at Headline, who patiently wades through my manuscripts and makes sense of them. Thanks to both of you for being so genuinely delighted about pregnancy news, even when it might affect writing deadlines. And to the lovely team at Headline who make the whole experience such a pleasure.