a struggle she forced her could-have-been lover out of her mind and brought her focus back to the shopping basket of cosmetic goodies Grace was outlining. It was an impressive list; Pia had obviously been doing her homework.
‘Jade,’ Grace said at last, ‘would you agree that’s the best way to proceed? For you to do the minor laser surgery components before I’ve done the breast augmentation?’
Jade drew in a weary breath and looked at the young woman sitting opposite—a teenager, certainly, but hardly flat-chested. She suppressed a sigh. This was one of the things that really grated about this business. It was one thing for the clinic to be helping people retain or reclaim their youthful looks, but it seemed another thing entirely to start with major remodelling of the looks of someone barely out of puberty.
‘Pia,’ she said gently, ‘are you sure you’ve thought this all through? A breast augmentation isn’t something to take lightly. Are you sure you really need it?’
Pia’s expression dropped like a stone. ‘But I have to do something. Kurt says the only thing wrong with me is I don’t have enough up top.’
Jade glanced over her notes. ‘Then why the liposuction?’
‘Kurt hates fat.’
It was hardly a surprising answer. Kurt hadn’t liked her nose or her lips either, when Pia had first appeared on the clinic’s doorstep six months ago, a newlywed with a massive inferiority complex and a demanding would-be celebrity husband. Without a doubt the failed reality TV contender had had more than a little to do with her recent cheek implants as well.
‘And what do you like? What do you really want, Pia?’
‘I want to keep Kurt.’ Her words came out like a sulky child threatened with the loss of her favourite bedtime toy. Which was probably how she felt, given the rumours that Kurt was already tiring of his hastily arranged Las Vegas marriage.
‘And of course you will,’ crooned Grace, sending daggers to Jade as she shifted next to Pia on the couch, taking her hand and stroking it gently. ‘And we’ll do everything to help you. Won’t we, Jade?’
‘What was that all about?’
Jade was just collecting her purse and jacket when Grace paced purposefully into her office. ‘It sounded very much like you were trying to talk Pia out of surgery back there.’
Jade rubbed her brow and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m sorry, Grace. I just think she’s too young to be doing all this. Especially when she doesn’t need it. If it wasn’t for Kurt—’
‘Kurt’s her husband. Of course she wants to please him! Our job is to give the clients what they want. Not to talk them out of it.’
‘But she’s so young—’
‘She won’t be young for ever. Satisfy her now and we’ll have a client for life.’ She arched one eyebrow high, accentuating her bright eyes. ‘Think about that. Your future is with people just like Pia. Sow the seeds now, and reap the harvest for life.’
Jade recoiled at her words. When had Grace become so cynical?
‘I didn’t think the clinic was so desperate for money that we had to go recruiting teenagers.’
‘She came to us. We didn’t “recruit” her. And don’t sniff at the money. It pays you well enough, doesn’t it? I’ve tried to make you feel welcome here, and I’ve tried to support you while you become established. Haven’t I opened my home up to you, giving you your own space? I thought you enjoyed working here,’ she continued. ‘I thought we were part of a team. But then, if you’re not happy…’
The older woman’s eyes clouded over suddenly, and her unfinished sentence was enough to sting Jade with remorse.
Grace was right, of course. Grace was more like a fairy godmother than a colleague—making her dreams come true not just once in her life, but twice.
Because it had been Grace’s removal of her ugly facial birthmark that had given Jade the inspiration and the courage to enter the same field and pursue the quest for excellence. She wanted the chance to make such amazing differences to other people’s lives too. She wanted the chance to put something back. And Grace had given her that opportunity too, when she’d approved her application and given her a place at the clinic.
She owed everything to Grace—her job, her success, and most of all the chance to be accepted as a normal human being. Nobody had ever done so much for her. Nobody else had made her life so worthwhile.
So Jade wouldn’t let her down—especially not now, when it was clear that Grace was already in for a rough ride when she discovered the truth about Mayor Goldfinch.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Of course I’m happy working here.’
‘Then don’t let me hear any more about you trying to talk people out of surgery. You have a gift, and these people need you. They’ll do anything to look better.’ Grace reached out and grasped her forearm, squeezing it so hard her acrylic nails bit deep into Jade’s flesh. ‘You, more than anyone, should appreciate that.’
She’d been so close. If he’d taken her somewhere else, if he’d found somewhere private, she would have been his. Even now, leaning against the door of her champagne-coloured Mercedes convertible in the palm-tree-lined car park behind the Della-Bosca Clinic, he could still feel her in his arms, feel her shuddering response to his touch.
She’d wanted him that night!
She’d melted into his arms like warm syrup and he could have had her. If it hadn’t been for the Mayor and his young bimbo beating them to it, he would have had her. She’d been his for the taking. Ripe and luscious and so hot to touch that he was aching to have another chance to unleash the passion he knew was lurking beneath that polished exterior.
He smiled to himself as he pocketed his sunglasses. If she thought her rapid departure meant she’d escaped him, she had another think coming. He wasn’t done with this strategy just yet.
So far he’d accomplished none of the things he’d set out to do to comply with his father’s request to keep his sister safe; he’d found out none of the information he needed to pull the rug out from underneath Dr Della-Bosca’s Manolo-clad feet. But there was still no better way to find out what he needed to than to coax it out of her young colleague.
And next time he’d make sure there was no chance for her to change her mind. Next time she wouldn’t get away.
His body hummed with anticipation of the hunt. The information couldn’t come more enticingly gift-wrapped. The idea of extracting what he needed to know couldn’t possibly give him more of a charge.
She might be as plastic as the industry she worked for, and the celebrities she practised on, but at least she was making his quest more entertaining than he’d ever imagined possible.
He pulled one hand from his pocket and glanced down at his watch, but it only confirmed what the sun was already telling him as it dipped lower in the sky—the doctor kept long hours. The nip and tuck business was obviously booming.
Then a movement at the side door caught his eye. It was her. As she stepped from the door her
