Page 67 of All the Drama from New York

Ryan cleared his throat. “I think you’re procrastinating Camille. No one needs to go all the way to France for silk. Though if you offered to put me in First Class, I’d go— actually no, I can’t. Not yet.”

He’d confessed about not having a passport. And she’d immediately insisted he go online and apply for one. With the wait time for a new passport currently sitting at over six weeks, Ryan wouldn’t be leaving the country anytime soon.

But when he gets his passport, I want to take him somewhere special for his first international trip.

“I could call Karl Thomas and see what silks he has on hand that might suit the Cinderella in the City theme,” suggested Ryan. He came to her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Camille offered him her lips for a brief, tender kiss.

“As always, you are full of clever ideas. I might have a think about what I’m wanting, and then talk to Karl.”

And if that failed, she’d just have to play true to the one thing which people like Julia Spence were more than happy to judge her for being part of a family of billionaires. She’d take the Royal Resorts private jet, fly to Knoxville, Tennessee and sweet-talk Karl’s private fabric designer into making a new range just for her.

Ryan spent a few hours idly scrolling through the website for Karl’s Fabric Emporium. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, which meant having to occasionally stop and check the Post-It note he’d stuck to the kitchen counter top. On it he had penned a few random words.

Cinderella. Fairytales. NYC. Princess. Concrete jungle.

On the other side of his laptop lay a notepad and pen. Whenever he got bored looking through the fabric samples, Ryan would scrawl another doodle on the paper. Soon the page was covered in his drawings.

“Oh my god, that’s perfect!” squealed Camille.

Ryan was certain his heart had just stopped. And now it was threatening to jump out of his chest. “Where did you come from? You scared the life out of me.”

One minute Camille had been working near the window laying muslin pieces over the dressmakers model; the next she’d somehow snuck up on him and was now peering over his shoulder.

He turned to her. But instead of finding a contrite Camille ready to apologize for scaring him, she was dancing around the room, and whooping with joy.

When she finally stopped her happy dance, she returned to his side. Pointing at the doodles on Ryan’s notepad, Camille gushed. “That’s exactly what I need. The princess and the yellow cab.”

Huh?

Checking his drawings he quickly realized what was making Camille so excited. He’d drawn a rough outline of a woman wearing a fairytale gown, and sporting a crown. Next to her he’d sketched a New York City cab.

Camille clasped her hands together. “That’s it. Prince Charming is a cab driver. We can build a whole storyline around the theme of Cinderella having fled the ball, and the prince is searching the city for her.”

His thoughts fell in with hers. “You could have Cinderella catching a cab then leaving her glass slipper behind.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes!” said Camille racing over to grab her sketchbook from off the table. “We could have various models dressed in the collection pieces, but all wearing crowns or tiaras. There would be a dozen Cinderellas, lost all over the city.”

“What about the cocktail dress?” he asked.

“It could be taxi gold and we could play with the traditional black and gold checkerboard trim, and put it on hem. Or something. I’m not sure if I would put it into full retail production, but it would be a fun piece for the show to go with the Prince Charming in a cab theme.”

The smile on her face was nothing short of breathtaking. If Ryan hadn’t already fallen for this woman, he would have lost his heart to her as he watched Camille come alive with excitement.

“If I can come up with some concept pieces and email them to Karl, he might be able to get one of his print designers to make up a rushed order of a few bolts of the fabric, and have them sent to us. Oh Ryan, this is exactly what I needed. Thank you.”

He grinned as she pressed her body against him, his breath growing shallower as her smile turned from one of joy to lustful mischief. Ryan closed his eyes and gladly suffered her kisses.

Camille’s hands roamed over his chest, then lower. She toyed with the front of his shorts and softly purred. “And you thought you didn’t have a creative bone in your body. Now let’s see how creative you can be in bed.”

“What about the drawings for Karl?”

“He closes the emporium at noon every day, turns off his cell, and then takes a long walk in Central Park. We have plenty of time for other activities before he’s back in the store. Karl can wait.” She cupped his balls through his pants. “But I can’t.”

Ryan gave up his feeble protests. After scooping Camille into his arms, he carried her upstairs and into their bedroom. As soon as they were both naked, he showed her all the ways he could be creative.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Camille emailed Karl some preliminary drawings later that day. Within an hour, he’d called offering to move heaven and earth in order to get her design printed onto silk. As she set down her phone at the end of the call, a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.

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