‘You little minx!’ shouted Diana, grabbing Chloe’s arm sharply. ‘Look what you’ve done.’
Chloe started howling, clutching her arm as Martin jumped out of the pool and Tracey came running over, tottering in a pair of four-inch rope wedge heels.
‘My arm! Diana’s hurt my arm!’ screamed Chloe, going pink in the face.
‘Don’t move darling, you might have dislocated it!’ said Martin flashing Diana a filthy expression.
‘You stupid cow!’ screamed Tracey at Diana, curling a protective arm around Chloe. ‘What have you done to my baby?’
‘I’m so sorry, honey,’ said Diana kneeling down, trying to soothe Chloe, who flinched away from her, screaming.
‘Good with kids, are you?’ snarled Martin to Diana, moving Chloe and Tracey away from the gazebo. He put his arm across Tracey’s shoulders; she was now beginning to cry hysterically. All the guests had crowded round them and someone was already making a call to the local doctor. Karin touched Diana lightly on the arm.
‘Don’t worry, she’ll be okay,’ she whispered, but Diana’s eyes were filling with tears.
Martin announced that he was going to take Chloe to the hospital in Ibiza Town, while the waiters desperately tried to remove what remained of lunch off the floor. Diana meekly followed them to Martin’s four-by-four, where Chloe was helped into the back seat by her fussing mother and driven away. Diana stood there helplessly, watching them leave. As the car swung off the drive, Chloe turned and gave her a smug little smile.
Summer was on such a high, she thought she was about to burst with happiness. She was in love with a billionaire and now she was going to be a movie star! When she had received a phone call from Luc Balzac the day before, offering her the part of Marien in Krakatoa, she had assumed someone was playing a practical joke. Luc assured her he could not be more serious. She was one of the last principal parts to be cast, and rehearsals were due to start in six weeks; then there were four weeks of filming at Pinewood studios, followed by another eight weeks on location in Mexico.
‘Don’t let me down,’ he had purred in a sultry voice as rich and soft as warm brandy.
‘I won’t,’ breathed Summer, ‘I promise I won’t.’
‘Well, I hope you’re still going to talk to me after you’ve won your Oscar, Miss Movie-star,’ smiled Adam, rolling over in the emperor-sized hotel bed to look at Summer, her hair splayed out on the pillow, her naked body covered in just the slightest sheen of sweat.
Summer beamed, but shrugged modestly. ‘It’s only one role,’ she said, ‘let’s not get too excited just yet. But I can’t believe filming starts so soon. Two months in Mexico as well. Think of the tan.’
‘Mexico?’ said Adam, surprised.
Summer smiled. ‘I know, I know. Krakatoa is in Indonesia. But apparently Mexico always gets used as a location when the studios want somewhere hot and steamy.’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ said Adam, stroking his finger across her forehead. ‘I don’t want you to leave me for two months.’
Summer’s heart leapt; the man she loved wanted to be with her all the time. But her happiness disintegrated moments later as Adam glanced at his watch. Then again, what did she expect? When she had called Adam to tell him the news about Krakatoa, he had suggested meeting the following afternoon in a discreet boutique hotel in Knightsbridge: that was their relationship. Illicit, forbidden. She would spend days waiting for him to call, and would drop everything to go and be with him when he did. That was the price, she told herself, of being in a relationship with a busy billionaire – a busy billionaire who was in a relationship with someone else. But Summer couldn’t stop herself. Two hours in his company, being on the receiving end of his full attention and charm, was like a delicious drug that made her feel more beautiful and sexy than she would have ever dared thought possible.
‘Have you got to go?’ she said softly, reaching out to stroke his face.
He nodded. ‘I’ve got to be at the airport at three p.m. or we’ll miss the slot for Ibiza.’
‘So you’re away this weekend?’ she asked. He never told her his plans and she rarely asked.
‘I have to,’ he said, ‘it’s her birthday.’
Her. Karin.
‘You stay at the hotel as long as you want,’ he said, climbing out of bed and reaching for his clothes. ‘All weekend if you’d like. There’s a little spa. Get them to send me the bill.’
She nodded slowly and he saw the look of hurt on her face. ‘Look. I’ve got you something,’ he said, reaching into his overnight case and pulling out a delicate chain. He reached over and fastened it around her neck. It was an antique diamond pendant in the shape of a teardrop. ‘To say congratulations.’
Summer felt emotion choke her throat as she ran to the mirror to admire the chain. ‘I love it,’ she said. But she would have swapped it gladly for one more night together.
The sound of Adam’s bag thumping onto the limestone floor woke Karin up from an early evening siesta. She had been wearing just a tiny pair of bikini bottoms while she snoozed on the cool white linens, and she wrapped a towel around her body as she climbed off the bed; she didn’t want the housekeeper blundering in. Karin peeked around the bedroom door and grinned.
‘Adam!’ she cried, ‘you made it.’
Adam walked towards her and pulled the towel away, dropping it to the floor. ‘Of course I made it, birthday girl,’ he murmured, planting a warm kiss on the side of her neck. ‘Just look what I’m missing.’
She squealed as he picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom; they fell together back onto the bed, Karin wrapping her long legs around his body like snakes.