Kept at the Argentine's Command

She raised her eyes to find Gigi looking so doubtful she almost confessed the truth—she’d made it up to get the other girls off her back.

‘I didn’t believe you,’ Gigi admitted. ‘I thought you’d made it up.’

‘Honestly.’ Lulu fiddled with her sleeve. ‘I can be sexually liberated, Gigi.’

‘No, you can’t—well, you haven’t been until now. Why aren’t you seeing him again?’

‘It’s not that sort of thing.’

Gigi’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is that what he said?’

‘No, it’s what we decided together.’ Of course that wasn’t strictly true either, but the truth stuck in her throat—I was a coward… I insulted his pride… I messed up.

Gigi was quiet for a moment. ‘You don’t want Alejandro to know about your panic attacks,’ she said quietly.

Lulu opened her mouth to deny it, but what was the point? Gigi knew her too well. ‘It’s not his business.’ She looked her best friend in the eye, willing her to disagree. ‘It’s not anyone’s business but my own.’

Gigi squeezed her shoulder but was smart enough not to push. A little part of Lulu wished she would push.

Wedding talk eased them away from the difficult subject, but at length Lulu couldn’t help circling back in on the thing that mattered most to her and asked, ‘Did Alejandro say anything earlier? When I passed out?’

‘He was pretty concerned, Lu. But Félicienne told him you had a little medical condition.’

‘What?’ Could it get any worse?

‘You’re going to have to tell him something.’

No. No, she wouldn’t be telling him anything.

*

The other bridesmaids filled her in as they dressed for the wedding rehearsal dinner.

‘He’s like a polo god,’ explained Susie. ‘He’s won everything, and people pay a mint to watch him play.’

‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw him getting out of that helicopter,’ added Trixie, fanning herself. ‘I knew he was coming, but in the flesh he’s just so much more.’

‘What about that footage of him taking a string of ponies into the surf on that Patagonian beach last year?’ said Susie. ‘No shirt. Just muscle and horseflesh. It melted the internet.’

There was a hum of appreciation which left Lulu feeling cross.

‘How would you feel if someone took a picture of you at the beach and put it on the internet so that desperate men could salivate all over it?’ she grumbled.

Susie laughed. ‘It’s just publicity, Lu, and he’ll be used to it…what with his father and all.’

‘His father?’

‘Ferdinand du Crozier—international playboy. He broke up a famous Hollywood actress’s marriage years ago and then he was seen a week later cruising the Med with her children’s nanny! All while he was married to Alejandro’s mother.’

‘Any publicity is good publicity,’ dismissed Adele. ‘Anyway, nowadays Alejandro is virtually a brand. You can buy luggage with his polo team’s imprimatur on it. How do you think he bought himself a state-of-the-art helicopter?’

Lulu had assumed it was leased. It appeared she’d assumed a lot of things. She was still trying to wade through all this information and work out if it was Alejandro or his father who had seduced the nanny…

‘Booooring!’ sang out Susie from the bathroom. ‘Who cares about what he’s worth? He’s a sexual athlete. I would have nailed him.’

A sexual what? Lulu’s chest hollowed.

‘Women throw themselves at him. I know he’s gorgeous, but it’s demeaning, don’t you think?’ said Trixie. ‘Pushing yourself on a man…him knowing it’s because he’s famous?’