Skinny Dipping (The Au Pairs 2)

"The children are waiting for their breakfast. Am I correct in assuming you still work for us?"

"I'll be there right away, Anna," she said grudgingly, wondering where on earth Jacqui had disappeared to, and why the fuck she hadn't told her about Eliza and Ryan.

Some friends those two had turned out to be.

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babies cry when you take

away their candy

KARTIK HAD ASKED ELIZATO HELP MITZI WITH THE day-after wrap-up from the fashion show, so now she was back after only a few hours of sleep. The ground crew was stacking all the chairs, and empty goody bags blew through the tent like tumbleweeds. Eliza sat in a meeting with Mitzi and the other assistants, everyone yawning behind dark sunglasses and sipping from venti nonfat lattes, rehashing the gossip from the night before.

"Okay, so we need to messenger a goody bag to any celeb who didn't get one last night," Mitzi said, looking over her checklist. "Chauncey Raven's publicist called. Chauncey needs one."

Eliza nodded. That was so like a celebrity. She could have forty million in the bank, but she really needed that Kiehl's lip balm and Swarovski-crystal-encrusted Sidekick.

"We need to follow up on a couple of items today, too--we lent several girls a few dresses to wear, and we need to get them

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back. Just send the usual messengers. We do have a special case, however. Sugar Perry has a Chanel, and we need to get it back for Karl's show in Paris tomorrow. It's really important, since it's the only sample we have right now. Eliza, you know Sugar, right? Can you handle that personally?"

"Sure," Eliza said, trying not to roll her eyes.

Pulling into the Perrys' driveway, she was glad to see that Ryan's car wasn't there. Last night, Ryan had called her cell phone six times, but she hadn't picked up, and she'd deleted his messages without listening to them.

After throwing her drink at Ryan last night, she'd run out of the club in tears, and right into Jeremy and Carolyn. He'd tried to grab her arm, but she'd kept walking. It was funny how things worked out: All she'd wanted was to be with Jeremy this summer, and now here he was with someone else, and here she was, crying over a guy who wasn't even him. Except that on the ride home, the woods dark on either side of the car as she sped through night, she'd stopped crying about Ryan and started crying about Jeremy.

Eliza rang the doorbell and asked the butler for Sugar. She braced herself for a fight. Sugar Perry wasn't the kind of girl who would give up a one-of-a-kind couture dress that easily.

Sure enough, when Eliza walked into Sugar's all-white bedroom, the first thing Sugar said was, "Who let you in?" She was wearing a sheer T-shirt and boy-shorts, and the reality-TV cameramen were taping her every move.

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Eliza shrugged. "Mitzi wants the dress back."

"What dress?" Sugar asked innocently, doing back-bends. Sugar had been up since dawn, doing sun salutations. She always got up early, regardless of a hangover.

"The Chanel. It's the only one, and we need it for Karl's show."

"Oh, that one," Sugar said. "I don't know where it is."

"You lost it?" Eliza asked, incredulous. "I mean, you wore it home, didn't you?"

"I suppose." Sugar giggled. "I don't remember."

"Listen, Sugar, I really don't care. I'm just doing my job. Could we get the dress back? It's not yours, you know."

"Fine," Sugar said. She opened the door to her dressing room and rooted in the pile of clothes on the floor. She tossed a shredded silk rag at Eliza.

"Oh my God," Eliza said. "It's ruined."

"Charlie stepped on the train, and I think Poppy burned a hole in it with her cigarette. Sorry!" Sugar smiled fakely.

Eliza held up the pale pink Chanel dress to the camera. She couldn't believe anyone could be so reckless, even someone as spoiled as Sugar Perry. "You know Daria Werbowy is supposed to wear it on the runway tomorrow! Mitzi told you to be careful!" Eliza spat at her.

"I was careful. It wasn't my fault, okay?" Sugar said impatiently. "Besides, can't he just, like, make another dress? I mean, that's what designers do, right?"