Page 35 of His Last Gamble

CHAPTER NINE

Charmaine watched Jinx slip back out through Payne’s office door and slink away like a cat that had not only had the cream, but the odd canary or two as well.

She bit her lip and tried to concentrate on what Coral was saying, but found it almost impossible. They were doing the final shots inside the casino, and she was wearing a shimmering bronze silk creation that worked wonders with the red lighting Phil had set up.

But her mind was far from work.

What had Jinx been up to in the office with Payne? True, she’d gone in there without an invitation, that much she’d been able to see for herself, but he’d hardly thrown her out within ten seconds flat, had he?

‘Fizz, you’re up next,’ the photographer called, and Charmaine sank back into one of the few armchairs scattered about the casino’s main gambling room, her eyes straying broodingly to the closed office door again and again. What had they talked about in there? Why had Jinx looked so pleased with herself?

Had Payne got bored with her already? And if so, who could blame him? From his point of view, she blew hot and cold, one minute egging him on, the next pushing him away, and who needed that in their lives?

Time dragged.

It had seemed to drag ever since that awful afternoon on his yacht. She’d been pathetic! Crying like a baby, just because she couldn’t have something she wanted. It was shameful. Except that she knew, deep down inside, that it wasn’t, not really. Because she wasn’t being denied a new car, or a flash holiday, or the latest in designer earrings. She was being denied the man she loved, and her heart was breaking because of it. And if you couldn’t cry over something like that, what could you cry over?

There was no way around it — she was in a world of hurt, and trying to pretend it was all some minor inconvenience that she’d grow out of one day was not helping one little bit.

Neither was Payne’s attitude towards her. Ever since they’d got back from that ill-fated afternoon’s snorkelling, he’d been aloof and distant. Oh, not obviously so — he still paid her attention, and looked the epitome of the attentive boyfriend. But she knew differently. She could see it in his eyes. He was holding back, playing a role, probably as a prelude to letting her down gently. And why not? He probably still thought that she’d had a fit of the vapours over one little harmless shark, and in this day and age, what man wanted a shrinking violet for a partner?

Certainly not a man like Payne. A man who bet hotels on a turn of the card! He’d want a woman as wild and free-spirited as himself, not some damp squib of an English rose.

And she couldn’t tell him differently, that was what was so frustrating. To be in love with someone who didn’t love you was one thing. To be in love with someone you knew you couldn’t and mustn’t have was yet another. But to be in love with someone who thought you were wet and pathetic was something else altogether!

She bit her lip to prevent more tears of self-pity forming in her eyes, and forced herself to concentrate on the photoshoot. The stunning black model who was draped across an art-deco bar and sipping an outrageous cocktail was wearing one of Jo-Jo’s designs in beige suede. She was flirting with Phil’s camera as if it were the man of her dreams. Charmaine was sure that Fizz would never disappoint a man.

Oh stop it, she told herself morosely. She would just have to lump it. Other women got over broken hearts and lived to tell the tale. She would do the same.

Just then the door to his office opened and Payne walked out, and she caught her breath painfully. He was wearing a black tuxedo and red bow tie, and looked stunning.

Of course, this was the night when friends and invited guests were going to join the shoot as background ‘extras’. She supposed it amused the island’s great and good to be an accessory in a glossy photoshoot. It was probably all part and parcel of their glamorous lifestyles — dinner in Paris, Royal Ascot, the film festival at Cannes, oh yes — and helping out their good friend Payne, by being photographed in his casino by a famous fashion house.

Some had already arrived and were sipping cocktails at the bar further along, the men eyeing her openly, while their women appraised her gown with envy.

It all felt so empty. So pointless.

She saw Payne scan the room, his eyes finding hers and lingering for just a wonderful, wonderful moment, then moving on. She let out a long, harsh breath, and wished she didn’t have the whole evening still to get through.

Half an hour later, Payne was still mingling with his friends and guests when Phil called her name.

She was aware of being the centre of interest now, and forced her bare shoulders back and put a sway into her walk. After all, she was putting on a show, nothing more. Nobody in this room, with the exception of Jo-Jo, probably even thought of her as a person. To the men, she was just a beautiful model — someone to brag about meeting perhaps, over a dinner at the club. To the women, she was merely a clothes horse, someone to show how the gown she was wearing might look on themselves.

Her hair was done up in a complicated top knot, allowing platinum tendrils to curl down past her ears, her neck, and rest lightly on one shoulder. With the gown she wore simple beaten copper earrings and nothing else. The dress was very much the star.

‘All right, I think we’ll have you by the backgammon table,’ Phil said, thinking immediately that Charmaine was oozing class, and backgammon was the game most people associated with the upper crust. She certainly looked as if she could be married to some earl or playboy prince.

‘Now, I want you to look off a little to your left and look wistful,’ Phil instructed and Charmaine nodded, doing as she was told. And found herself looking straight at Payne, who was sandwiched between an obvious husband-and-wife couple who were both talking to him at once. What was worse, he was obviously talking about her, but in that throwaway, off-hand kind of way that you talked about mere acquaintances.

If he was trying to make it clear to her that he was distancing himself from her, he couldn’t have done a better job if he’d taken out an ad.

‘Great, wonderful,’ Phil enthused, snapping away. ‘Now, I want you to look amused, as if something entertaining is happening just in front of you.’

Charmaine couldn’t help but smile at that. Something entertaining was happening right in front of her, she thought helplessly. If you counted watching your whole world crumble as such.

‘Fine, fine. A little more aggro now. As if you want to hit out.’

And so it went on. Finally she was allowed to go, and Dee-Dee took over. She began to make her way towards the dressing room, although there was no hurry to change, when suddenly the wife of the couple called her over.

---