The Dark Glamour (666 Park Avenue 2)

and Jane felt a deeply pervasive desire to stay. But she had more pressing things to focus on than romance – or lust – and so, she reluctantly stood and brushed the lace layers of her skirt smooth. ‘I hope I will see you again while we are here,’ André told her, his black eyes following her movements intently. ‘It would be a crime to ignore
all
pleasure in favour of . . . business.’
    Jane smiled; he had a point. She really couldn’t spend every moment stalking the Dorans, anyway. ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ she told him sincerely before turning on one heel and sauntering towards the elevators, allowing her long legs to pull her hips into a gentle sway that she knew he would be watching. As the doors closed behind her, she felt a smile tugging at her lips.
Being Ella has definite perks.

Twelve
    ‘S O
THEN
HE acts like he doesn’t even remember me telling him about the opera – not just that it was that Friday, but
at all.
But if he really didn’t, then why did he think we weren’t going to that vapid Nathan girl’s insufferably dull soirée in the first place? But that’s just the way he thinks:
his
plans are important, and if he didn’t make them then he must not have any. No, no; if we’re not going to his precious Nathans’, then he must be free on Friday, so he can get smashed with those frat-boy friends of his and wake the whole house up on his way back in.
And
very nearly damage some antique sideboard thing that’s been in the family for about a gazillion years.’
    ‘And
that’s
how he fractured his shin?’ Jane asked hopefully. It wasn’t that Laura didn’t have valid complaints about her husband’s behaviour. She just had a
lot
of them, and Jane was beginning to realize that she’d only ever heard the tip of the iceberg during her stint as Laura’s soon-to-be second-cousin-in-law. They had barely started the main course and Jane could already feel her eyes glazing over. She had come to dinner prepared to Be a Good Friend to Laura, but hadn’t realized that nodding and making sympathetic noises was virtually all that would be asked of her.
    That and eating well,
Jane admitted to herself, twisting a couple of strands of squid-inked linguini around her fork. The restaurant Laura had chosen featured five-star cuisine, twenty-seven varieties of vodka, and the priciest commodity in Manhattan: elbow room. The high, vaulted ceiling emphasized the sheer extravagance of the space around them, which was dotted with tables with yellow tablecloths set just far enough apart to seem truly private. Although she was aware of the low buzz of conversation around them, there was really nothing nearby enough to compete with the long string of Blake-bashing coming from her dinner companion.
    ‘So he says,’ Laura snorted inelegantly, taking a sizable sip of her cabernet.
    Jane, who had no idea what her new friend’s scepticism was even implying (was the shin not fractured? fractured in some other way?), fought the temptation to do the same. She had, after all, started unusually early with her Manhattans, and she needed to stay relatively sharp now. ‘Men.’ She sighed ambiguously, rolling her eyes and hoping that the gesture would be enough to prove she had been listening. A woman in a low-necked blue dress about a hundred yards away looked faintly familiar, and Jane amused herself by trying to imagine her striking features framed by tabloid headlines.
Game-show hostess? Reality-show personality? Weather girl?
    Laura’s Nars-glossed lower lip stuck out in a sudden moody pout. ‘I know,’ she agreed dejectedly, ‘but I really just don’t know what else I could do.’
    She really didn’t, Jane realized sadly. Even with Ella’s (fictional, but empowering) example, it would never in a million years occur to Laura to simply pick up and leave Blake Helding. Jane had always assumed that she stayed for the money, or the connections, or even out of fear of Belinda Helding. But now she was seeing a new side of Laura: one that thrived on the drama. She might find a happier relationship than her current one, but that happiness could never make up for losing her licence to complain and curry sympathy from her friends. And since, as far as Jane could tell, Blake felt roughly the same way about his wife, they were pretty much stuck with each other.
    As if responding to some cue only she could hear, Laura straightened up sharply, her whole face brightening at once. ‘So tell me about
your
love