Free When She Was Bad... by Louise Bagshawe Page A

Something she made no effort to hide.
    But then again they all worshipped him.
    He checked out the taut nipples under the silk beaded top. Gorgeous. He wondered if they were cherry pink or dusky rose. Mentally he flicked a tongue over them.
    ‘I want to talk about your love life,’ Lita persisted.
    Rupert shrugged. ‘What love life, darling? Apart from meeting you,
    my life has been a desert. A boring desert of work.’
    ‘My agent told me—’
    ‘Bill?’ Rupert waved his fish-knife at her dismissivly. ‘Bill’s a sweetheart. But he’s gay. He really doesn’t understand that straight men can have female friends without sleeping with them.’
    ‘He said you were really popular in the clubs.’
     
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    ‘It’s the title. I know it’s childish, but some girls seem so fascinated by
    it. And it was only something I was born with, not something I’ve
    earned.’
    Lita sighed. He was so perfect.
    ‘I think that you should only be rated for who you are, not how you
    were born. That’s one of the things that attracted me to you. Your drive. You burst into my office and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I
    admire that in a woman. We need more girls like you around.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Lita said. She almost glowed.
    ‘Eventually you’ll get married and give the modelling up, I know.
    But until then, you’re going to be a big star.’ ‘You think I have what it takes?’ Lita asked. l%upert gave her a slow wink.
    ‘Baby, I think you have everything it takes.’
    After dinner, he drove her out to the Lions’ Den. It was the hot new
    place in the East Village, packed full of minor rock stars and film executives, with girls in thigh-high minis three deep on the sidewalk, begging to get in. They exited the cab, and Rupert walked up to the gorilla of a doorman. Lita walked behind him, her heart thudding. This kind of place was something she had never tried before. Sally, another girl at the agency, had gotten turned away from this place just last week. She would never allow herself to be humiliated like that.
    ‘Come in, your lordship,’ the gorilla grunted, and removed the red
    velvet rope. The crowd outside howled, but Rupert, ignoring them, whisked Lita inside and up a flight of steps.’
    ‘You forgot to pay.’ Lita gestured at the booth.
    ‘Don’t be silly, darling. I never pay. Ah, Alessandra, cara, good to see
    you.’ Rupert kissed the air at the side of a woman’s cheeks. She wore a sheer white dress in chiffon, dotted with flowers. She was nude under the dress. Lita bit on her cheeks to suppress a gasp.
    ‘Rupert, dahling. I have the lounge all ready for you. And your
    woman. Who is it this time?
    Rupert’s smile didn’t fade. ‘This is Rosalita Morales, a big star at
    Models Six.’
    ‘Wonderful. I was a model, too.’ Alessandra didn’t even glance at
    Lita. She was heavily made up, and her boobs were sagging. Lita guessed the woman wasn’t far shy of fifty. A shiver of fear ran through her. Was this what awaited the ex-model? lefusing to realize you were over the hill? Displaying a beauty that wasn’t there any more?
    That’s not going to happen to me, she vowed silently. She’d have to
    find something else to do. She was quitting on her twenty-fifth birthday.
     
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    ‘You were the model, sweetheart. And now you own ths tabulous place.’
    ‘Si. Come, dabling. Your table is waiting, like always.’ She turued on one of her teetering stilettos and led them up a flight of metal stairs. There was a velvet-covered door at the top, with another gorilla outside it. Alessandra swept through the crowd as the heavy pushed the door open.
    Lita breathed in sharply. Two rock stars she recognized, with teenage blondes draped over them, were doing lines of cocaine openly off a glass-topped table. There was a daytime soap star on a plush maroon bench, feeling up the tits ofa gameshow ‘assistant’ Lira had seen once or twice. Pappy was a fan. She lifted her eyes from the girl’s exposed