Chapter 2

The women hanging off Chad's arms tittered into his ears and to each other. A twitter of giggles rippled through the women behind him. Ruby let her feet fall to the floor and pried herself out of Tom's hands. She smoothed her gown and passed her hand over her hair.

Tom straightened up and shrugged his jacket back into place. He took Ruby's hand, and they faced the crowd side by side. Through it all, Chad never took his eyes off the pair. He measured everything they did with his exacting gaze.

When the couple finally got themselves straightened out, another giggle went through Chad's entourage, but he never smiled. A moment later, the rapid-fire conversation broke out all over again, and his admirers whisked Chad away. The stairwell door slammed, and silence descended.

Tom let out a shaky breath. “All right. Let's get out of here. We can make out after I get home from work.”

Ruby shuddered. “I'm really sorry about this, Tom. I should never have....”

“Don't apologize. This is my fault for feeling you up in a public lobby. Come on. It's almost ten anyway.”

They reentered the dining hall and made for the door when another crowd of guests blocked the entrance. Tom and Ruby hung back to wait for an opening, but while they waited, Tom met a friend of his from work and started talking again.

Ruby listened for a little while, just long enough to find out the man was Eileen McFadden's date. In half a second, the two men became embroiled in a heated discussion on everything related to their jobs. They covered personnel politics, the pay scale changes, and even the formatting of the new time sheets.

Ruby shifted from one foot to the other. This gown was starting to get uncomfortable, she had no one to talk to. She hated these office parties. If only she could curl up on the couch in her pajamas, waiting for Tom to get home, she would make herself a cup of cocoa and watch some late-night movies on TV.

She waited, but the conversation kept going with no end in sight. She just worked up her courage to interrupt for the second time when Clarice and her friends raced over from somewhere. Clarice grabbed Ruby's arm and dragged her away from Tom. “Come on, Ruby. We're all going up to the roof.”

Ruby stumbled after her. “The roof! Why?”

Clarice hustled her toward the stairs. “They're saying there's a jacuzzi up there. Everybody's going. Come on.”

“But none of us has a suit!”

No one listened. People glutted the stairs and shoved upward. Ruby got caught in the stampede. She barely had to move her legs. The crowd hustled her along until it spilled out a door into the sparkling frosty night.

Clouds of steam blocked Ruby from seeing anything on the roof, let alone a jacuzzi. She already knew she wasn't going in. She had nothing to wear, and once she took this gown off, she wouldn't put it back on. It took her half an hour to get the zipper up when she poured herself into it just an hour before.

No one seemed to think of that. Voices shouted all around her, and the crowd rushed forward into the night. The steam vaporized to reveal a star-studded sky. The city lights lay scattered far below. The steam and the dark combined to envelope the scene in silent mystery.

The excited crowd caught the sense of magical anticipation. Their laughter and cries subsided into tense whispers. “Where is it?”

“I can't see anything.”

“Are you sure it's here?”

“It's freezing out here. I'm not taking my clothes off out here.”

“I'm going back down.”

“Shh!”

“Where are you?”

“Hold my hand.”

“It must be further along. I'm going that way.”

A bunch of people shoved into Ruby from behind. She stumbled forward a few steps and emerged from the steam into an open terrace overlooking the city. A wire studded with pendulous lamps dangled from a trellis to illuminate that part of the roof.

More steam rose from a pool of hot water under the arbor. It wafted around the lamps and drifted away to outline the scene with a fuzzy border. When she glanced back toward the door through which she just came through, Ruby could see no trace of the building, the stairwell, or anything else. She could have been dropped from space into a dream world.

The steam boiled out of a jacuzzi full of people, but Ruby only needed one glance to see everyone in that Jacuzzi was female—all but one. The same women from downstairs surrounded Chad Archer. More women wearing nothing but their bare skin slipped into the water to join the group. They sipped champagne from crystal flutes and murmured to each other in low voices.

Chad Archer sat with his back to the jacuzzi wall, but he didn't sip champagne or murmur to anyone. A woman sat straddled on his lap facing him, and her bare breasts hung in his face. She laid both hands on his shoulders and rocked back and forth to make the water splash over the concrete rim.

Ruby stared at the scene in shocked horror. Never in her life had she even imagined a scene like this, much less seen one with her own eyes. Chad lifted his face to kiss the woman on the lips. Their lips lingered in a languorous kiss, and their tongues lashed back and forth between their locked lips.

In front of Ruby's eyes, he broke away and dropped his face between the woman's cleavage. His hands broke the water's surface to cup her breasts into his mouth. The woman's head lolled back, and her lips parted to let out a ragged moan. The other women in the jacuzzi murmured encouragement to the couple, and the woman on Chad's lap rocked faster and harder. Her cries rose into the night.

People all around Ruby whisked here and there. Whispered exclamations touched her ear, but she couldn't make them out. Some people hurried back down into the stairwell. Tanya came forward, slithered out of her party dress, and slipped into the water with the others.

Ruby couldn't move. She couldn't think. She could only stare at this...this horror. What in God's name was going on here? She didn't have to ask. She could see perfectly well what was going on. They were doing it in the jacuzzi. The past two hours played out in front of her eyes. They must have come up with the idea of taking a midnight soak. Priscilla Connor must have whispered that into Chad's ear at the bar and sealed it with her tongue.

All these people walked in on her and Tom making out in the lobby. They were on their way up here to get it on in the starlight. Word spread, and now everyone rushed up here to join the fun. Ruby's stomach turned, but she couldn't stop her body reacting to the sight. That woman sat on Chad's naked lap. She undulated in open lust. She was doing it with him right now, in sight of everyone.

Ruby wanted to revolt in horror, but in her secret heart of hearts, she couldn't stop the excited pleasure titillating her all over again. Tom's hands, Tom's lips and tongue, Tom's hard-on between her legs—it all came together at this moment.

She felt his hands around her bare breasts. His lips sucked her nipples. His rock-hard manhood plowed into her from below. Her hips swayed to meet it in glorious, life-giving pumps.

Dear God, what was she thinking! She burst out of her reverie and raced back to the stairwell. What was she doing up here? She had to find Tom and get the devil out of here. What kind of pervert screwed multiple women in a hot tub on the Mackenzie Castle roof? What kind of wicked sluts would get naked and line up to take their turns with him? What came over her, that she stood there with her mouth open and fantasized about him doing it to her?

She didn't fantasize about him doing it to her. She fantasized about Tom doing it to her. Him? Never! He was a prick. He was a playboy and a charlatan and a womanizer and a toad. She would never look sideways at him, much less fantasize about him. She hated him. He was everything she hated in a man. He had no respect for women. He had no idea what real love could be. All he cared about was sex.

She dashed down the stairs. One thought dominated her mind: Tom. He would save her from this abomination. He would wash her clean and replace those terrible images haunting her mind. She would put himself into them so she could think about giving herself to him instead of...

She wouldn't think about it. She wouldn't think about it. She wouldn't think about it. It never happened. It didn't exist. Chad Archer didn't exist. That jacuzzi never existed. No naked women dipped in and out of that pool in notorious arousal.

She hit the lobby and started searching every face for Tom. He must be here somewhere. She burst into the dining hall. She hurried from one cluster of people to the next. She found Clarice in up to her neck with Peter Roslin. “Have you seen Tom anywhere?”

Clarice didn't even look at her. “Haven't seen him. Sorry.”

Clarice went back to flirting with Peter. Ruby tripped on. Her gown slowed her down. She couldn't walk as fast as she wanted to, and most people at this party had no idea who Tom was. She finally found Eileen MacFadden's date. “Have you seen Tom?”

“He said goodbye. I think he left.”

Ruby gasped out loud. “He left! How could he leave? I don't have a ride home.”

She raced on through the crowd in search of Tom. He couldn't have left, not after they agreed to meet at ten-thirty and leave together. She cursed herself for every going up to the roof. She came to the bar and flagged the bartender. “Hey, what time is it?”

He checked his watch. “Eleven-fifteen.”

Ruby let out a stifled curse. Curse this Christmas party and curse the freakin' jacuzzi and curse Chad Archer most of all! How long was she up on that roof? Tom must have waited as long as he could, but when she didn't come down, he had no choice but to leave without her. He couldn't be late for work.

She blasted through the entrance doors and raced into the night, but it was no use. More cars and limos pulled up in front of the castle. More people got out and bustled inside. None of them was Tom, and he wasn't coming back anytime soon. She paced back and forth in front of the curb. She kicked herself. She cursed herself and everyone else. She swore she'd never let herself in for this again as long as she lived.

While she fumed and ranted under her breath, a valet came over between open the car doors. “Is anything wrong?”

“Wrong? What could be wrong? It's just my date left without me and I have no way to get home.”

The skinny boy smiled at her. “I'll take you home. I get off at two.”

Ruby snorted. “Thanks a lot. I'd rather walk.”

Just then, Clarice came out. She hugged her arms over her chest and rubbed them with her hands to get warm. “What's going on, Ruby? Did you find Tom?”

Ruby rounded on her with her hands balled into fists. “No, I didn't, and thank you so much for dragging me up to that den of vipers on the roof. While I was up there, Tom left without me. Now I have no ride home.”

Clarice shrugged. “That's no problem. I'll take you home.”

Ruby threw up her hands. “That's just great. So I get to stand around and watch you stick your tits in Peter Roslin's face, and when he dumps you, you wind up sobbing and puking in the bathroom. That sounds like the most fantastic evening imaginable.”

Clarice frowned. “You don't have to get nasty about it. It's not my fault you missed your rendezvous with Tom and got ditched. You should have been watching the clock.”

Ruby wrung her hands. “I'm sorry. It's just this is the worst Christmas party ever. I wanted to leave, and we were on our way out the door when Tom got distracted by someone, and then I went up to the roof, and now he's gone. I didn't mean to lash out at you. I'm just so upset right now, I don't know what to do.”

Clarice touched her arm. “Come on back inside. I'll be ready to leave soon, but it's too cold to stand around out here whining about it.”

Ruby didn't turn around. “You go ahead. I'll be there in a second.”