Dangerous Pleasures (5 page)

“Thank you,” Annie replied. A suite, no less. She turned, and coming across the lobby toward her was a vaguely familiar woman, her hands stretched out in welcome.

“Annie, do you remember me? I’m Nora Buckley, and for the interim I’m the general manager here at the spa. I wanted to welcome you officially as the grand-prize winner of our contest. With all the entries we got, it’s amazing that a woman from Egret Pointe itself would win.” She smiled.

Nora Buckley. Of course, Annie thought. There had been some sort of scandal a few years back. Nora and her husband had been in some kind of fuss over their divorce. Nora had fallen into some kind of mysterious coma, but she had recovered. There had been another woman involved, Annie recalled. The husband had ended up in the local poky after an altercation with the girlfriend, and he had died in the night. The gossip had been all over the country club. Everyone had said the husband was a shit and Nora was victimized, but in the end it had all worked out for her.

“Of course I remember you,” Annie fibbed. “The club, right?”

Nora Buckley nodded, a faintly amused smile on her lips. She was a beautiful woman with one of those ageless faces, that flawless pale, creamy skin that redheads seemed to possess, and limpid gray-green eyes. “Yes, the club,” she replied.

“Didn’t you used to work at that antique shop in town?” Annie asked.

“Yes, I did, but then I was offered a job with the Channel Corp. It was too good an offer to turn down,” Nora responded. “I don’t recall ever seeing you there.”

“Too pricey for me,” Annie told her, “but my sister met you there several times. She’s a lawyer, and has the income for antiques. I remember she always said the owner of the shop was very knowledgeable, and very dishy, if I may quote her.”

Nora laughed. “Yes, Kyle is very dishy. I did love the place, but when opportunity knocks it’s always smart to answer. I did find him a lovely older lady to assist him. Kyle has an eye for women, and it wouldn’t have done to have some young thing in there with him. She would have spent more time on her back than at the front desk.” And Nora laughed again. “Bad for his business,” she noted. “But enough of my past. I’d like you to have dinner with me tonight, Annie. Part of the perks of being our grand-prize winner. It will give me a chance to answer all your questions about the Spa.”

An efficient young woman hurried up and said, “Ms. Buckley, the press limo and the other guests are just coming through the gates.”

“I must go,” Nora told Annie. “I’ll see you tonight at dinner. Eight o’clock. Devyn will bring you to my private dining room.” Then she hurried off.

“If you’re ready to go now…?” Devyn said, and she nodded.

He led her to a small open elevator, ushering her inside and closing the gate behind them. “You’ve been given the penthouse suite,” Devyn said. “There’s only one here at the Spa. Most of the rooms and other suites are in the wings of the main building. They did a really terrific restoration. You should see the before pictures. They’re on display in the library.” The elevator stopped, and, opening the gate, Devyn led the way across the carpeted corridor to a large double mahogany door with brass fittings. “This is your key card,” he said, showing her how to insert it. “Don’t even think about it. Just put it in and get it out quickly.”

Annie heard a faintly audible click, and the door swung open. It was then that she noticed it had no knob. “Where’s the doorknob?” she asked Devyn.

“Isn’t that just the greatest security measure?” he said. “The door opens when you use the key card. You can’t open the door from the outside without that card. We’ve got terrific security, but places like this attract all kinds.” He preceded her into the suite.

Be cool,
Annie told herself as her gaze swept the room.
Try not to behave like a geek.
“Oh, my!” she said softly.

“Yeah,” he echoed her admiration. “It really is pretty neat, isn’t it?”

Annie laughed. “How old are you?” she asked him.

“Old enough to work at the Spa,” he told her, grinning. “Why?”

“You remind me of my son,” she lied. “First job?”

“Yeah, first real one,” Devyn admitted. “After I graduated college I backpacked around a bit. But it was time to find a job. I majored in English, of all things in this day and age. Didn’t want to teach, and then a friend of my father’s said that the Channel Corp. was hiring. My brother says that even though they’re a privately held corporation they’re solid, and a foot in the door is a foot in the door. They gave me and the rest of the guys they hired a quick course in hotel management and manners, and here we are.” He moved across the living room in which they now stood with her bag. “This is your bedroom,” he told her, flinging open a door. “I’ll put your luggage here. Would you like me to send a maid to unpack for you?”

“No, thank you,” Annie said, swallowing back a giggle.

“This is for you,” Devyn said, handing her a small gold button. “It’s my call button. You can clip it to whatever you’re wearing. Just press it when you want me. I’ll give you an hour to unpack and get yourself acclimated. Then I’ll be back to pick you up. I’ve scheduled a manicure, pedicure, facial, and massage for you this afternoon.” Then with a quick smile he was gone out the door of the suite, closing it behind him.

Annie stood very still and looked all about her. The living room of the suite was beautiful. The thick carpet was cream colored. So was all the upholstered furniture, a couch, and two extra-large club chairs, one with an ottoman. The fabric on them appeared to be a nubby textured silk. And there were large multicolored pillows in purple and green, both solids and patterns. There was a fireplace on one wall of the living room. The tables and the chests were of the same beautiful Brazilian rosewood she had seen in the lobby. The lamps were ceramic, palest green, with floral designs. She slid out of her shoes. It seemed almost sacrilegious to walk about on this carpet in shoes.

A pair of louvered doors caught her eye. Walking over to them, she folded them back to discover a little wet bar, a microwave, and a small fridge. Curious, she opened it. Inside she found six small bottles of San Pellegrino water, a round of Brie, a little net of Gouda, and a rectangle of extra-sharp cheddar. The cabinet above held a single box of whole-grain crackers and some white plates and crystal glasses. Annie closed the fridge and then the painted louvres.

On the coffee table was a crystal bowl of fresh peaches, plums, and apricots. On a small sideboard was a vase of pale lavender roses. She saw a card with the roses and, reaching for it, opened it.
Congratulations to our winner! Enjoy your stay with us!
The card was signed,
Mr. Nicholas, CEO, the Channel Corporation.
The card smelled faintly of sandalwood.
My goodness,
Annie thought.
Wait until I tell Lizzie about all of this.
Annie smiled. She’d save the card to show her sister.

A wall of windows ran across one end of the room. There were draperies on either side of the expanse of glass, cream silk with a tiny green sprig, and delicate sheer curtains that she discovered could be drawn aside, which led her to a door. There was a terrace beyond the door and, stepping out on it, she found it was at the top of the front facade of the temple-like building. The terrace was furnished with wicker furniture with green, white, and rose cushions, glass tables, and great pottery urns with trees and flowers. The view was spectacular. All of the bay was visible to her eye.
God,
Annie thought,
this is paradise for certain
. She turned and went back inside. It felt strange to be in a beautiful place and not besieged by five kids. She quite liked it, Annie decided.

Having inspected the living room, she decided to check out the bedroom. As in the living room, the carpet was cream colored. A chair rail divided the wall. Below it the wall was painted pale green. Above the chair rail was a beautiful hand-blocked wallpaper with a cream background and pink lilies with green leaves. The windows were hung with Jefferson swags in a fabric that matched the wallpaper, and sheer cream curtains in a check pattern. The furniture was country French provincial in a warm golden brown walnut. The bed was king-sized, and canopied in pale green watered silk, its bed curtains a pale green and cream stripe. There was a small pink marble fireplace opposite the bed, and a door opened onto the large terrace outside her windows.

Slowly Annie unpacked her suitcase, utilizing both the elegant bureau and the closet. Then, taking her little toiletry case, she went into the bathroom. It was huge. It had a sunken bathtub, a commode, a bidet, and a large glassed-in shower. A beautiful shell-shaped sink was set into a marble countertop; her little case looked shabby on it. The floor was tiled in large squares of dark green porcelain.

A large gilt mirror hung over the counter and sink. Curious, she opened the sink cabinet’s drawers and discovered a supply of everything she could possibly want or need. Creams. Lotions. A natural toothpaste. A toothbrush. A beautiful carved wooden comb and a boar’s-bristle hairbrush. Then she noticed a small card on the counter. It read,
Please Accept These Toiletries as Our Gift
. Was there anything she needed from her own case? Annie queried herself. And then she put the little nylon case back in her suitcase.
Why not?
she thought.
I’m the grand-prize winner, aren’t I?

Finished unpacking, Annie went out on the terrace and sat down. She had never in her whole life known luxury like this, and she liked it. She liked the peace and quiet. She liked not being importuned by her children or the animals they had. She had never in her entire life taken a vacation alone. Until she went to college, vacations were always family affairs at their cottage down at the shore, except, of course, for those few summers she and Lizzie had spent at Stoneledge Lake Camp for Girls. But they didn’t count. Being at camp with your younger sister wasn’t a vacation. And after her freshman year in college Annie had come home and spent the summer helping her mother get Lizzie ready for college; and after that she had just come home every summer. Lizzie didn’t come home.

Lizzie went to Europe with friends the summer between her freshman and sophomore years. She did a two-month bicycle tour across New England the following summer. And the last summer she was in college, before law school, Lizzie was the au pair to the children of the man who was the senior partner in the law firm in which she now was a partner. While in law school she didn’t come home except briefly at Christmas. Yet she was still their mother’s favorite.

So Annie never went anywhere alone, because Phyllis cried that she couldn’t let both her girls leave her, and because Annie was the oldest she had to stay home with her mother. Her father had rolled his eyes in sympathetic amusement, but Bill Bradford had learned long ago to save the battles for the important stuff. Annie would have to fight for herself. But Annie had been content to remain at home. Or had she? she wondered now. Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to fight with her mother. Phyllis never fought fair. She flung threats and guilt about with wild abandon. “But this is my summer, thanks to you, Lizzie,” Annie said softly.

“Mrs. Miller? It’s Devyn. Time to get going.” He came out onto the terrace. “Hey, you aren’t ready.”

“Sure I am,” Annie said. “What are we doing?”

“You’re not in your Spa robe,” he told her. “It’s in the bathroom closet, ma’am.”

“Unless there’s some rule about it, call me Annie,” she said. “That ‘ma’am’ is a killer, kiddo. Okay, give me a minute. What should I wear beneath the robe? I don’t want to make a faux pas.”

“Just briefs and your Spa slippers will do,” he told her. “I’ll wait in the living room for you.”

Just briefs?
This really was going to be an adventure, Annie thought, amused. Dressed in what was considered appropriate, Annie followed Devyn to the elevator. “Tell me I’m not going to have to walk through the lobby in this getup?”

“Nah,” he said. “We’re going to the terrace level. The house is built on the hillside, and so we can utilize what would otherwise be a basement. The treatment rooms all look out on the gardens and lawns. Ah, here we are.”

Her soft Spa slippers, which were emitting the smell of lavender, didn’t make a sound as she followed him down a subtly lit carpeted corridor. Devyn stopped before a door with a brass number one on it. Opening it, he ushered her inside, where two pretty young Asian women waited.

“Mei and Pei,” Devyn said. “They’ll be doing your mani and pedi. I’ll get you something to drink. It’s important to keep the toxins flushed from your body.”

“I think the toxins got me long ago,” Annie said with a chuckle. She settled herself in a large chair.

Almost instantaneously Mei and Pei began to work on her. The toenails on one foot were pared and filed before being smeared with cream and her foot plunked into a stone basin of perfumed hot water. Annie winced.

“Too hot?” Pei wanted to know, and when Annie nodded the girl reached for a china pitcher of cold water and poured a little into the basin. “Better, yes?”

“Better,” Annie agreed as Pei took up her other foot and began to work on it as Mei was following a similar program with Annie’s hands.

Devyn set a cut-crystal goblet next to Annie. “Pomegranate juice,” he said. “It’s excellent for the heart. Your mother has a small heart problem, and those things are hereditary, you know.” He stood attentively by her side.

“How do you know my mother has heart disease?” Annie asked him, surprised.

“The contest entries asked for a brief health history,” he told her. “It’s the kind of thing we need to know in advance. Anyone making reservations at the Spa has to fill out a health history so they can be treated accordingly. We’re not a one-size-fits-all establishment. Each of our guests is treated individually.”

Annie was silent.
Interesting,
she considered,
and very smart marketing
.

“The reason I booked your first spa treatments today is that I knew you would be having dinner tonight with Ms. Buckley. You’ll want to look your best, Annie.”