THREE
JULIE TOOK A SWALLOW OF her tea and blinked hard. She’d always been an early riser, but five in the morning was early even for her. Poor Eric looked like he was going to fall asleep in the makeup chair. He was sucking down his grande double shot with his eyes closed while the studio makeup artist applied powder to his face.
The flight from Piedmont to Laguardia in the private jet took less than two hours and it wasn’t that late by the time they reached the gorgeous penthouse overlooking the city. Even with dinner at Fresh, Eric’s friend’s amazing restaurant, they still should have managed more than a couple hours of sleep. Or they would have if they could ever manage to go to bed and keep their hands off of each other. Instead of sleeping, they’d spent hours making love and now Eric was paying the price.
He hated getting up early; he always had. When the driver showed up to collect them that morning, he’d climbed in the back and taken her hand without saying a word for the ten block ride to the network building. He hadn’t seemed to notice Peter, the security Jackson sent with them, when he’d climbed into the passenger seat up front. She was beginning to wonder how he’d make it through his cooking segment if he couldn’t wake up.
“That should do it,” said the makeup artist, a pretty young woman with flawless skin the color of caramel and cat eye lined chocolate eyes that made her look like a South American pin up girl. “Unless you want something else. I’ve got a nude lipstick that would work for you.”
Eric opened his eyes and gave the young woman a wide awake smile, his gray blue eyes sparkling.So no need to worry about whether he’d wake up on time for the segment.It was like he’d thrown a switch and turned on his celebrity chef persona. The makeup artist grinned back before giving him a quick once over with a critical eye.
“No, you’re good,” she said.
Eric stood and offered the woman his hand. “It was nice to meet you…?”
“Mandy,” she said, shaking his hand. “It’s nice to meet you too, chef. My mom has all of your cookbooks. She’s going to flip when I tell her I got to meet you.” She paused as if she wanted to say more but didn’t.
“Do you want me to take a picture of the two of you together for your mom?” Julie asked.
“Would you? I didn’t want to ask, but she’d freak out,” said Mandy.
“Of course,” she said, glancing over at Eric praying he’d agree and wasn’t angry at her for offering.
He wasn’t mad. He beamed at her while Mandy dug through her bag for her phone.
“Crap. I must have left it upstairs,” said the makeup artist, looking crestfallen.
“It’s okay,” said Julie, motioning for the woman to stand closer to Eric. “I’ll use mine.”
Eric slung an arm around Mandy’s shoulder and grinned while Julie took her phone out of her back pocket and started to snap pictures of them.
When she was sure she had something good to send to Mandy’s mother, she opened her messenger program to send the photos and froze. There in the list of recent messages was the demand from the kidnappers.How the fuck had she let herself forget that was there?Her knees went weak and she locked them, determined not to give in to the rush of fear.
In a moment, Eric was at her side, concern etched on his face. He looked down at the phone in her hands, and his jaw clenched when he realized what had upset her.
“It’s okay, cher,” he said, his voice pitched low enough so that only she could hear. He took the phone from her hand. “You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Julie swallowed hard and then nodded, looking up to see Mandy’s confused expression.
“Is something wrong?”
“Nothing,” said Eric, keeping a reassuring hand on the small of Julie’s back and opening a new message. “Nothing at all. What’s your number? I’ll forward these to you.”
BY THE TIME the pictures had been sent, Julie felt a bit steadier, and it was almost time for Eric’s segment. Peter stayed behind them like a quiet shadow, and she’d started to forget he was there. The production assistant met them in the hallway on the way to the green room which Julie could see through the small window on the door was actually green.
“I think they’re about ready for you, chef,” said the assistant who’d introduced herself as Emily when they arrived. “I’ll go ahead and take you to the set.”
“Break a leg,” said Julie. She didn’t want to risk messing up Mandy’s work so she gave Eric’s hand a squeeze before turning toward the green room to wait for him to finish. Emily’s hand on her arm stopped her.
“You’re welcome to come up to the set to watch if you want. It’s kind of cool if you’ve never seen it before. Or maybe you have, I’m sorry I never asked what you do, Miss Blake.”
“Call me, Julie, please,” Julie said to avoid answering Emily’s question. Now that Caleb was out of the picture, she didn’t know what she did, but it sure as hell wasn’t tech security.
Eric jumped in to save her from having to answer and then threw her into the fire. “Julie is heading an aquaculture start up. When the project is up and running it will supply fresh fish to some of the best restaurants in the Piedmont region, including Comme Ci,” he said, looking so damn smug she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to kiss him or kill him.
“Really,” said Emily, giving her an appraising look. “Once you get your venture well underway, give us a call. Chef Auxtres’s people know how to reach me. Food security is a huge news issue this year and probably next. We’re always looking for stories about innovative production methods and aquaculture would be great. You’d do beautifully on camera, too.”
“She would, wouldn’t she,” said Mandy, coming to stand beside them. “I’d love to get my hands on that skin and look at her eyes.”
