The Ultimate Playboy(5)

                ‘Are you sure?’

                ‘Of course I am. Narciso will be there.’

                Ruby froze, then glanced into one of the many roped-off VIP areas. Two women dripping in expensive jewellery and designer dresses that would cost her a full year’s salary sat sipping champagne.

                Unease at her shameless eavesdropping almost forced her away but desperation held her in place.

                ‘How do you know? He didn’t attend the last two events.’ The blonde looked decidedly pouty at that outcome.

                ‘I told you, I overheard the guy he was with this evening talking about it. They’re both going this time. If I can get a job as a Petit Q hostess, this could be my chance,’ her red-headed friend replied.

                ‘What? To dress in a clown costume in the hope of catching his eye?’

                ‘Stranger things have happened.’

                ‘Well, hell will freeze over before I do that to hook a guy,’ the blonde huffed.

                Statuesque Redhead’s lips pursed. ‘Don’t knock it till you try it. It pays extremely well. And if Narciso Valentino falls in my lap, well, let’s just say I won’t let that life-changing opportunity pass me by.’

                ‘Okay, you have my attention. Give me the name of the website. And where the hell is Macau anyway?’ the blonde asked.

                ‘Umm...Europe, I think?’

                Ruby barely suppressed a snort. Heart thumping, she took her phone from her tiny clutch and keyed in the website address.

                An hour and a half later, she sent another Hail Mary and pressed send on the online forms she’d filled out on her return home.

                It might come to nothing. She could fail whatever test or interview she had to pass to get this gig. Heck, after discovering that she was applying to hostess for Q Virtus, one of the world’s most exclusive and secretive private clubs, she wondered if she didn’t need her head examined. She could be wasting money and precious time chasing an elusive man. But she had to try. Each day she waited was another day her goal slipped from her fingers.

                The alternative—bowing to the pressure from her mother to join the family business—was unthinkable. At best she would once again become the pawn her parents used to antagonise each other. At worst, they would try and drag her down into their celebrity-hungry lifestyle.

                They’d made her childhood a living hell. And she only had to pass a billboard in New York City to see they were still making each other’s lives just as miserable but taking pleasure in documenting the whole thing for the world to feast on.

                The Ricardo & Paloma Trevelli Show was prime-time viewing. The fly-on-the-wall documentary had been running for as long as Ruby could remember.

                When she was growing up, her daily routine had included at least two sets of camera crews documenting her every move along with her parents’.

                TV crews had become extended family members. For a very short time when it’d made her the most popular girl at school, she’d told herself she was okay with it.

                Until her father’s affairs began. His very public admission of infidelity when she was nine years old had made ratings soar. Her mother publicly admitting her heartbreak had made worldwide news. Almost overnight, the TV show had been syndicated worldwide and brought her parents even more notoriety.