CHAPTER EIGHT

Giorgio entered the room and watched as Penelope's manager stood in front of the adoring crowd and gave his most celebrated client a toast. Pen was smiling from ear to ear, charming the pants off her audience, making it clear that she was the woman of every hour of every day. They were in the ballroom at her parents' estate in Hudson Valley and all of her old money friends were out in force and happy for her. Giorgio stood in the back as Shelly Corcoran, her manager, went on and on about her.

"I knew when she first walked into my office that she'd be, not just a model, but a supermodel. The cream of the crop. But I never dreamed, in all my years, that she would grow up to not just be a supermodel, but the supermodel of supermodels and the supermodel of the year!" They all cheered.

If Giorgio heard him say supermodel one more time he was going to puke.

"And folks, she's only twenty-three. She's got many more of these awards ahead of her." He looked at her with that look Giorgio understood. Shelly was in love with Pen. "Congrats darling," Shelly said to his client. "You deserve it all."

And they all clapped as Penelope Winton took the award from her manager, kissed him on the cheek, and clasped his hand behind her back as the crowd continued to clap. But it was only Giorgio who saw the way she squeezed that hand.

"Thank you so much," Pen said to the crowd. "Thank you."

Giorgio stared at her. She had what it took. Shelly wasn't lying about that. But he didn't find her attractive at all. Used to be a time when women with her face and her body type was his one and only type. Now he preferred ladies with curves. He still bedded supermodels, that was how he got stuck with Pen, but most of the women he took to his bed were curvaceous. Which would surprise everybody who knew him. But that was his business.

But when Pen looked over and saw Giorgio in the back, she began jumping up and down in that youthful, Julie Roberts enthusiastic way everybody but Giorgio loved. "Giorgio's here!" she said happily. "Come up, Gio. Giorgio's here!"

And everybody turned and clapped at him too. But although he smiled, he waved for her to continue.

"Come up beside me," Pen continued. "You and your fabulous clothes are the reason I received this award. Come on up, darling!"

"Keep going," Giorgio said, still trying to smile but about to lose his cool if she didn't keep it moving.

"Ah, come on, Jonni!" decried Shelly. "It's her big moment."

"No, I'm good," Giorgio said.

"He is good, I'll tell you that!" Pen said happily and the crowd laughed. She was accustomed to his obstinance, so she soldiered on. But everybody in the room found it odd that he always seemed so checked out when it came to his own fiancée. "He's just shy, that's all," Pen added, and they really laughed at that. Giorgio shy? That was definitely a joke.

After her speech, and as the crowd surrounded her with good wishes, and as Giorgio, starved, grabbed a helping of caviar from the tray of a passing waiter, Pen, along with Shelly, came over smiling, as bubbly as could be. She held the supermodel of the year trophy in her hand. "Isn't it great, Giorgio? I am so happy!" Then she gave him a great big hug and kiss that wasn't reciprocated. Outward displays of emotion wasn't Giorgio's thing.

But Pen, being Pen , didn't even notice. "Isn't it every thing?" she asked as she held up the clear crystal trophy. "The girls are going to be so jealous!" That seemed to make her even happier.

"Congratulations," Giorgio said.

"You can do better than that, old man," said Shelly, who was ten years younger than Giorgio. "That's quite an honor for somebody as young as she is. She's only twenty-three after all."

Giorgio ignored Shelly. He knew it was nothing more than a dig because of the huge age gap between Giorgio and Penelope, something Giorgio knew better than anybody. He was still shocked that he asked her to marry him. It undoubtedly had something to do with the fact that she seemed to love him so much. Not exclusively, if the way she behaved around Shelly was any indication, but at least in addition to. She wasn't just after his money or what he could do for her. That was something.

And then there was that other thing.

"Why didn't you come up and support me?" Pen asked him with sincerity in her eyes.

"Shelly was holding your hand," Giorgio said. "You didn't need me."

They stared at each other. Pen was twenty-three and at the height of her powers already as a supermodel. Giorgio was forty-nine and a superstar designer for even longer than she'd been alive. It was a mismatch not made anywhere near Heaven, and he knew it.

But Pen, being Pen , broke the stare as she placed her arm around his arm. "Let's go mingle. People are here to celebrate me."

"Go right ahead," Giorgio said as he removed her arm from around his arm. "I'm good."

"That's what you always say."

"You disagree?" Giorgio asked her head on.

A sad look appeared in her pretty eyes. And then a frustrated look. And then she just walked away from him.

Giorgio looked at Shelly. "Go. Since being her nursemaid seems to be your calling. She needs you."

"No, my friend, it's you she needs," Shelly shot back. Then he shook his head. "Foolish girl," he added, and then left Giorgio's side too.

"More sir?" the waiter asked as he approached Giorgio with more caviar on his tray.

"No," said Giorgio. "I've had enough." Then he sat the caviar he hadn't finished eating on the tray.

The waiter, confused, bowed and left.

And then Giorgio looked across the room, saw a woman in her early forties staring him down. A most attractive, curvaceous woman. He was bored so she had his attention.

It took a few minutes, but she made her way to his side. "Hello, Jonni," she said as if she knew him, although he knew she didn't. He would not have forgotten a woman that hot.

"It's Giorgio," he said with a smile. "But Jonni? Only to my closest friends."

"I thought I was a friend," she said with a killer smile of her own. "But let us begin again. Hello Giorgio."

He smiled back at her. "Hello."

"So good to see you again," she said, which he knew was her excuse to hug him. And as she did, she whispered her hotel name and room number in his ear. She also took his hand and placed her hotel room key in it. "I'll be waiting for you," she said, gave him a smile that turned him on as they stopped embracing, and then she left the luncheon.

In his world, a great looking woman giving him a key to her room was nothing new to him. Everybody wanted a piece of his unparalleled success to advance their own agendas, and he understood that. If she wasn't so hot, he wouldn't have given her a second thought. But she was extremely hot.

He hung around the luncheon for half-an-hour longer, mainly watching Shelly as if he was Pen's prison guard, as they walked around that room side by side. Although sweet Penelope was mingling, Shelly was eyeing every man that was eyeing her.

Which was fine by Giorgio. Pen was out of Shelly's league, and he had to know that. But even unattractive men wanted what they wanted, and sometimes they wanted the prettiest girl too.

Gio wanted what he wanted, too, and in that moment it wasn't Pen. She was a sweet girl, but her youth and immaturity annoyed him more than it endeared him. That was why he gripped that key that was still in his hand. Remembered the hotel and room number. And without telling his fiancée he was leaving, which he knew would have her in her feelings to no end later, he just left.

But he didn't go to the hotel. The woman was hot, alright, and he knew he could enjoy her all afternoon if he wasn't careful, but he wasn't interested enough to go that far. He had too much work to do. Too little time on his hands. He went to his office instead.