Ignite Me (The Annihilate Me Series) (28 page)

As we waited
for the elevator to reach our floor, Blackwell came over to me and took me
aside.

“You look
lovely,” she said to me.

“Barbara, I
can’t thank you enough for your kindness.
 
I thought I was here to just help out tonight.
 
I don’t know what to say.”

“So allow me to
do the talking.
 
I know I’ve been
hard on you, Madison, but it turns out that you were worth the effort because
you’ve risen above most of my challenges.
 
And because of that, you’ll soon be rewarded for it.
 
With your skills and education, you have
no business being anyone’s personal assistant.
 
Even mine.
 
And even though we had an agreement that
it would be a year before you advanced at Wenn, I already know that’s an
unnecessary waste of your time and your life.
 
So this week we’ll address that issue,
and with Jennifer and Alex’s assistance, we’ll find you a position at Wenn that
complements your drive, your goals, and your academic achievements.
 
You’ve waited for this moment for two
years, and I’m happy to tell you that it’s finally arrived.”

I’d spent so
long waiting to hear those words, I teared up.

“Really?” I
said.

“Don’t you dare
cry on me now—not after what Bernie has done to your face.
 
You’ll destroy everything.”

But I couldn’t
help it.
 
My eyes brimmed with
tears.
 
“I’m just grateful,” I said.

“Fine.
 
You’re grateful.
 
And I’m happy that you are.
 
But snap out of it, for God’s sake.
 
You’re about to see Brock, after
all.
 
Do you honestly believe that
he wants to see you looking like some stricken, weepy lass when those elevator
doors slide open?
 
Of course he
doesn’t.
 
He wants to see you
looking your best, so pull it together.
 
If seeing you dressed like this doesn’t put a stake in that man’s heart,
I don’t know what the hell will.
 
And if it doesn’t?
 
My suggestion is that you just move on
to the next man, because I have a feeling that you’ll be fending off your share
of them tonight.”

“I don’t think
that’s going to be an issue,” I said.

“Actually,
neither do I,” Blackwell said.

The elevator
dinged, and the doors slid open.

“Now, give us
an air kiss,” Blackwell said.
  
“Both of you.
 
That’s
right.
 
Madison, I’m warning
you—no tears.
 
And try to
forget about Bernie being hogtied, because that image will only distract you
with questions about ‘how’ and ‘why’ throughout the night.”

“It actually brightened
my
night,” Jennifer said.

“And that’s why
I adore you, Jennifer,” Bernie said.
 
“That night with Buck is something I return to often.
 
You know—when I’m alone.
 
And in my bedroom.
 
And have my privacy.”

“Oh, for God’s
sake, Bernie—really?” Blackwell said.

“Well, it’s
true.”

“Enough.
 
These two gorgeous women have two
handsome gentlemen waiting for them.
 
And believe me—I expect a full slate of details of tonight’s
events by tomorrow morning.
 
Now
shoo!”

*
 
*
 
*

Brock and Alex
were waiting for us just beyond the elevator doors when they whisked open.
 
When I saw Brock in his black tux and
caught the look of lust on his face as his gaze swept over me, I felt two
things—an undeniable thrill because of how handsome he looked and an
immediate sense of calm because I was near him again.
 
My fears that Alex might push him away
from me clearly had been for naught.
 

I had no idea
what to expect from a social event held within high society, but with this man
on my arm, I felt that I could conquer anything.

“Ladies,” Alex
said.

This was the
first time that I’d seen Alex in person, and God, if he wasn’t enough to take a
woman’s breath away, I wasn’t sure who could.

With the
exception of Brock, of course.

Jennifer was
first out of the elevator.
 
She went
over to Alex, who took her hand in his, twirled her around so he could get a good
look at her in her gown, and then he took her in his arms and planted a firm
kiss on her lips.

“Mrs. Wenn,” he
said.

“Mr. Wenn,” she
answered back.

“You look
flawless tonight,” he said.

“It’s all
Blackwell and Bernie.”

“The hell it
is.”

“And what about
you?” she said.
 
“You know what
seeing you in a tux does to me—let alone a suit.
 
Right now, I just want to skip the party
and go home with you.”

When she said
that, the elevator doors started to slide shut, but Brock was quick.
 
He held out an arm, stopped the doors
from closing, and then he took me by the hand and pulled me toward him.

Before he could
say anything to me, Alex came over to introduce himself and shake my hand.
 
“I’m Alex,” he said.
 
“It’s nice to meet you, Madison.
 
I’ve heard a lot of great things about
you from Barbara and Jennifer.
 
Barbara might have already told you this, but in case she didn’t, this
week, we’ll talk about a proper position for you at Wenn.
 
Barbara hasn’t just agreed to let you
go, she said that she didn’t want to stand in the way of your success at
Wenn.
 
So we’ll find you a
professional position that suits your talents.
 
How does that sound?”

“Like a dream
come true?
 
Thank you so much, Mr.
Wenn.”

“It’s Alex,” he
said.
 
“We’ll get to know each other
more tonight and over the coming weeks and years, I hope.
 
I’ve heard that for some reason you’ve
had a difficult time of it since you came to New York.”

“I’ve managed,”
I said, not wanting to emphasize how terrible the past two years had been for
me professionally.
 
“But now I’m
here, and I couldn’t be happier.
 
For a whole host of reasons,” I said.
 

When I said
that, Brock took my hand in his own and squeezed it—my man didn’t miss a
beat.

I turned to
him.

“I’ve missed
you,” I said.
 
“I know that sounds
ridiculous because we only kind of, uh, spoke for a brief moment this morning,
but you didn’t return any of my texts.
 
I wasn’t sure if I’d done something wrong.”

“And I worried
about that,” he said.
 
“But when I
found out this morning that Alex and Jennifer were gracious enough to ask us to
be their guests at Peachy’s party, I was asked to keep all of it a
surprise.
 
I hope you don’t mind now
that you know what we’ve had up our sleeves, because all of this was intended
to make the end your day land on a high note.
 
That was our intention.
 
I hope we came through.”

“You have no
idea what all this means to me.
 
Wearing this gown and these jewels?
 
Having my hair and makeup professionally done?
 
And the spirit that was in that room
tonight while Jennifer and I were preparing to get ready?
 
It was so much fun, I can’t tell
you.
 
But I’m not going to lie to
anyone.
 
I’m not used to anything
like this.”

“Barbara would
say to get yourself in line and suck it up,” Jennifer said.
 
“But that’s just Barbara.
 
As for me, I hear you, Madison.
 
When you come from humble roots, as each
of us has, all of this probably seems like a Cinderella story to you.
 
It certainly did for me, especially when
Alex and I fell in love.”

“And now, if
he’ll have me, I have my own prince,” I said.
 

When I said
that, Brock took me in his arms, and despite the fact that Jennifer and Alex
were looking on, he kissed me so deeply and held me so closely against his
body, that I felt almost faint.
 
We
were meant to be together.
 
As
unlikely as it seemed, I knew in my heart that it was true.
 
I was in love with him.
 
Did he feel the same way about me?
 
I had no idea.
 
All I could do was hope that he did, and
that we would carry on with our lives together.

“You look
dashing,” I said when our lips parted.

“I told him
that he needed to trim his beard,” Alex said.
 
“Bernie came here before he spent time
with each of you and took care of that.
 
He also gave Brock a haircut because I thought that he needed one.
 
But that’s just his older cousin
speaking.
 
What do you ladies
think?”

“Don’t even get
me started on the subject of facial hair,” Jennifer said.
 
“You know that your stubble is the end
of me, Alex.
 
Always has been, always
will be.
 
And look at Brock?
 
His beard not only suits him, but it’s
masculine in ways that are clearly thrumming through Madison right now.”

“Oh, I love the
beard,” I said.

And pretty much
everything else about Brock.

“We should go,”
Alex said.
 
“Peachy lives not far
from here on Park.
 
Tonight, Cutter is
driving us, because apparently Tank and Lisa are having a date night.”

“I heard about
that,” Jennifer said.
 
“Dinner and a
movie.
 
And then whatever follows
from that, which Lisa was pretty certain would lead to some sexy time.
 
And if I know those two, that’s exactly
what will happen.”

She turned to
me in an effort to include me.
 
“Lisa is my best friend, Madison.
 
We’ve known each other since we were kids, and together, we made the
move from Maine to Manhattan just over a year ago.
 
Her fiancé Tank—who literally is
built like a tank, thus his nickname—is not only the head of security
here at Wenn, but also an absolute sweetheart.
 
You’ll meet both of them soon.”
 

When she said
that, a thought seemed to occur to her.
 
“And, hey, maybe the three of us girls can go out shopping
together?
 
And for theatrics, we
could even bring along Blackwell.
 
Just think of the histrionics that would come from that alone.”

“I could handle
it,” I said.
 
“And even though I
can’t exactly afford the kind of shopping spree I think you’re talking about,
I’d still love to go.”

“You’ll soon be
able to afford it, Madison,” Alex said.
 
“We’ll be talking.”

“Then it’s a
date,” I said.

“Speaking of
dates,” Alex said as he moved forward to press the down button on the
elevator.
 
“We’ve got one.
 
So let’s go and see what the night has
in store for us.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

From what
Jennifer told us on the drive over, Peachy Van Prout lived in one of the few
remaining mansions on Park Avenue.
 

It was on
Sixty-Eighth Street, and when we came upon it, I noticed that it was much wider
than the townhouses on either side of it.
 
I thought that it was gorgeous.
 
It was a brownstone, eight windows across and five stories high, with a
black iron gate in front and two topiaries on either side of an open mahogany
door.
 
It was at once elegant and
understated.

It was
surrounded by a well-dressed set of people stepping through the front door
while lights from cameras flashed all around them from a clutch of
photographers gathered on the sidewalk.

“Isn’t her
house amazing?” Jennifer said.

“I can’t even
imagine owning something like this,” I said.

“Wait until we
go inside.
 
Sensation overload.”

“Why are the
press here?” I asked.
 
“I thought
this was just a party.
 
Is it
something more than that?”

“Since Peachy
knows everyone—and since those people are the kind of people the
paparazzi tend to care about—they show up whenever she has a party so
they can photograph who’s wearing what, who came with whom, who looks as if
their on the verge of death, et cetera.
 
You’ve seen the rags.”

“Is there
anything else that I should know about Peachy?” I said.

“Just what
you’ve already heard.
 
She’s every
bit as kind as her name suggests.
 
You’ll adore her the moment you meet her, and she’ll instantly take a
liking to you.
 
I already know it,
because that’s just who Peachy is.
 
She loves everyone who hasn’t crossed her.
 
Her husband Robert is the former CEO of
Citibank.
 
He’s a nice man, but he
doesn’t have Peachy’s spark, so if you feel as if he’s had a lobotomy, that’s
just who he is.”

“Jennifer,”
Alex said.

“Well, it’s
true,” she said.
 
“You’ve got to
admit it, Alex.”

He grinned when
she said that, and then he shot her a glance.
 
“OK, kind of.”

“It’s just that
when he’s next to Peachy, who is the life of the party, he comes off as
boring.
 
That said, if Peachy
decides that she wants to adopt you on the spot, you probably should expect
that too.
 
What I love about her is
that, because of her stature at the top of New York society, she could be a
total bitch if she wanted to be, but she isn’t.
 
Far from it.
 
I can’t wait to see her.
 
It’s been too long since I’ve seen her.”

“How are you
tonight, Cutter?” Alex asked as the car nudged forward.
 

Since I didn’t
know Alex at all, it was nice to see him connect on a personal level with
Cutter, who’d once driven Blackwell and me to Bergdorf and then to Le
Salade.
 
Whatever ideas I might have
had about him and Jennifer before coming to Wenn—that they were a power
couple and might come off as such—had officially been shattered.
 
They seemed like normal people to
me—not billionaires—which made me feel at ease with them.

“I’m great,
Alex,” Cutter said.

“I was sorry to
hear from Barbara that things didn’t work out between you and Susan.”

“Not an issue,”
he said.
 
“She had a job offer in
Chicago that she couldn’t turn down.
 
Since a long-distance relationship is something neither of us wants at
this point in our lives, we decided to part ways as friends and move on.
 
It was completely amicable.”

“I had no
idea,” Jennifer said.
 
She leaned
forward and placed her hand on his shoulder.
 
“I’m sorry, Cutter.”

“I appreciate
that, Jennifer.
 
But it’s fine.
 
The good news is that we’d only been
seeing each other for six weeks or so, so going our separate ways made it
easier than it might have been otherwise.”

“You’ll find
someone else, Cutter,” Jennifer said.
 
“Even if I have to meddle.”
 

When she said
that, I saw him glance up at the rearview mirror and smile at her.
 
My the clear takeaway from that exchange
is that if you were part of the Wenn family, Jennifer and Alex treated you as
such.
 

And now, I had
to wonder.
 
Could it be that I’d
finally found my place in New York?
 
After the day I’d been treated to—let alone the night that was
ahead of me—I had to believe that I had, and I was beyond grateful for
it.
 
I thought of Rhoda at that
moment, and wondered just how much of this she’d already seen.
 
Given how we’d left things when I saw
her last, I had a feeling that she knew plenty.
 
But all of it?
 
Doubtful.
 
But I’d fill her in on everything when I
saw her.

“We’re here,”
Cutter said to us.
 
“And as Jennifer
and Madison already pointed out, so are the paparazzi.
 
How would you like me to handle this?
 
I can usher all of you straight inside,
or you can have your photographs taken, and then I can take you inside.
 
Whichever you wish.”

“They’ll be
angry if we don’t stop for a moment,” Jennifer said.

“I agree,” Alex
said.
 
“We can’t ignore them.
 
It’s suicide if we ignore them.”

“So let’s just
go through with it,” Jennifer said to Cutter.
 
“Three minutes.
 
Then the party.”

*
 
*
 
*

After an
onslaught of photographs—the lot of which went to Jennifer and Alex, who
knew exactly how to address the photographers and pose for them as their names
were called out—Brock and I also were asked to turn to the cameras before
Cutter intervened and maneuvered all of us inside Peachy’s mansion.
 

He turned to
Alex.
 
“Call me ten minutes before
you’re ready to leave?” he asked.

“You’ve got
it,” Alex said.

And with that, Cutter
was gone.
 
And the moment he was
gone, Brock’s hand reached out to take mine.

“Kind of crazy,
huh?” he said.

“To say the
least.
 
I understand why you were
photographed.
 
You’re not only a
Wenn, but you also should be on a billboard for Calvin Klein underwear in Times
Square.
 
But I’m a nobody.
 
What happened back there made zero sense
to me.”

“You really
don’t know how beautiful you are, do you?”

Since my body
always betrayed me at moments such as this, I naturally blushed when he said
that, because not only was it a compliment from a man I was in love with, but
because tonight I really did feel beautiful.
 
And why shouldn’t I?
 
I’d been gifted with an outrageously
expensive gown, I’d been treated to Bernie’s magic, and I was wearing
Jennifer’s jewels, which were so stunning, they were beyond compare.
 
Tonight, I felt like I was the luckiest
girl in the world, and to hear Brock compliment me again made my heart swell
with affection.

When we moved
deeper into Peachy’s mansion, the energy was electric.
 
I looked ahead through the crowds of
people and saw that they were moving toward the grand mahogany staircase that
was at the opposite end of the room.
 
Some were already climbing it.
 
Despite the din, I could hear faint sounds of an orchestra coming from the
second floor.

In no time, I
was beyond Robert, a tall, gray-haired man who was just as cordial and dull as
Jennifer had promised him to be, and then I met Peachy, a tall, thin blonde who
was likely pushing seventy, but whose plastic surgeon had skillfully lifted her
face back to fifty.
 
She was wearing
a sequined champagne-colored evening gown that fell to the floor and glistened
in the light.
 

I thought that
she was beautiful.
 

“Hello,” I said
as I approached her with an extended hand.
 
“I’m Madison Wells.
 
I work
for Wenn Enterprises.
 
Alex and
Jennifer invited me as their guest tonight.”

“Of course,”
she said as she took my hand in her own.
 
“They called me earlier about adding a plus two, and I couldn’t be
happier to have you here tonight, Madison.
 
It’s a pleasure.
 
I’m
Peachy—literally and figuratively.
 
You’ll come to find that out soon enough.
 
And I have to say, my dear, that
you
are a knockout.
 
That dress of yours
alone is out of this world, not to mention your jewels.”

“The dress is a
gift from Alex and Jennifer,” I said.
 
“And the jewels are Jennifer’s, not mine.
 
She was kind enough to lend them to me.”

“Whatever the
case, you still look smashing.
 
So
far, you and Jennifer are the best-dressed women I’ve seen here
tonight—and I mean that.
 
You’re
lovely, Madison.”

“Isn’t she?”
Brock said.

When he said
that, she looked over at Brock, who had his hand pressed against the small of
my back, and then her face lit up in recognition.

“Look at you,”
she said.
 
“Is this really the boy I
remember from so long ago?
 
You’re
as handsome as your cousin, Brock.
 
Now give us a kiss.
 
That’s
right.
 
Each cheek.
 
How I love the beard!
 
And now Peachy needs to know—how
long have you two been a couple, because I have to tell you that you look
perfect together.”

“Well,” I
said.
 
“We haven’t—”

“This week,”
Brock said firmly.
 
“Madison and I
became a couple just this past weekend.”

And now I
really am going to faint.
 
A
couple?
 
When had we discussed this?
 

Not that I
minded.
 
Given that the way he’d
said it was so direct, I found it kind of thrilling.

“So this
relationship is
new
,” Peachy said.
 
“Well, congratulations, my darlings.
 
And may it be long-lived!”
 

“It will be,”
Brock said.

When he said that,
he said it so definitively that Peachy tilted her head to the side and studied
us for a moment before she lowered her voice and motioned for us to come closer
to her.
 
“You know, I do believe
it,” she said discreetly.
 
“The
energy coming off you two is as palpable as it is refreshing.
 
I’m also old enough to know that it’s
rare when such a thing happens.
 
So
enjoy the run, my loves—and may you turn that run into a marathon.”

She
straightened.
 
“Enjoy tonight.
 
I’ll catch up with you later.
 
Cocktails are on the second floor.
 
And given the looks on your faces, I’d
say that you each need one right now.”
 
She winked at us.
 
“
N’est-ce
pas
?”

*
 
*
 
*

When we left
Peachy, Brock reached for my hand again as we joined Alex and Jennifer, who
were waiting for us at the end of the receiving line.

“Second floor,”
Jennifer said.
 
“That’s where the
ballroom is.
 
You can probably hear
the orchestra now.”

“It sounds
lovely,” I said.

“So let’s
go.
 
Alex and I need a martini.
 
You two can have whatever you’d like.”

With Brock at
my side, I raised the front of my gown as we climbed the ornate staircase to
the second floor, which was so massive, it stretched out in front of us in such
a way that I couldn’t see the end of it—the room was that large.

Paneled in dark
wood and warmly lit in a way that would flatter a corpse, it was packed with
people.
 
I leaned toward Brock.
 
“Look at this space,” I said to
him.
 
“Who lives like this?”