All That Glitters (33 page)

According to the newspapers, it was Johnny who suggested they start their kiss-and-tell scam. Sancho was always bragging about celebrities he knew to be playing away, and Johnny – who at this time was still trying to make it as a TV presenter – realized this could be his way to riches. They started off small at first, using glamour models who wanted to be famous, but as time went on they started to make millions from the photographs they sold. By this time Johnny was famous in his own right, and was bringing in a healthy income from his TV work, but Sancho, who’d obviously known Danny was gay for years, saw Ella as the ultimate celebrity to scam. Johnny volunteered to do the job himself. It had to be done right, and Johnny wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.

But he also fancied getting to know Ella Riding a hell of a lot better. Who wouldn’t?

As people opened up their morning papers and switched on their computers all anyone could talk about was what Johnny and Sancho had been up to. It was the scoop of the year as it had it all – celebrities, sex, money and power – and it was a story that refused to go away. Suddenly Ella was repainted as the victim, an innocent girl who’d been seduced for money and hadn’t stood a chance against Johnny and Sancho, and her face began to appear in trashy celeb magazines again – this time in a positive light.

Meanwhile Fairytale Productions announced that Johnny was suspended from
A Week in Wonderland
while they did an internal investigation over the claims, and after police raided the
SanchosWorld.com
office – investigating allegations of prostitution with intent to defame those in the public eye – the website shut down.

A week after the story broke, Johnny and Sancho went underground. Nobody knew where they were, and Ella was glad. She wanted both men out of her life for ever, and she hoped that they remained out of sight for good.

‘We brought them down,’ Chastity laughed gleefully, as she and Ella reread all the cuttings they’d acquired about Johnny and Sancho. ‘Not only did we find out why Johnny never phoned you back, we also found out something a lot darker, and we’ve stopped them from hurting anyone else ever again.’

Ella smiled. ‘We did it,’ she said, but she knew deep down she wasn’t as elated as she should be. Even though she was over Johnny, it still hurt knowing that he’d used her so callously. And what made it worse was that he was such a good actor, and that he was so believable. Or was it that she had so wanted to believe that Johnny was her Prince Charming that she’d fallen for him blindly? Had there been warning signs? Could she have spotted what Johnny had been up to? She didn’t know.

All she knew was that she’d fallen in love with someone who’d made his fortune doing the same thing to countless others . . . but unlike the others she’d stopped him from ever doing it again. If that wasn’t revenge, she didn’t know what was. The thought brightened her mood.

‘Here’s to us.’ Ella grinned, and this time her smile reached her eyes. ‘Here’s to two former WAGs showing everyone what they’re made of – and that we’re not the dumb bimbos people like to think we are.’

She and Chastity raised their cans of Diet Coke to each other, and each took a long gulp.

‘But now that we’ve taken down Johnny and our website’s running smoothly what do we do next?’ Chastity asked. ‘We can’t stop here. How about going public with the website and telling everyone we’re behind it? That’s the next logical step to take, isn’t it?’

‘We could go public,’ Ella said, ‘but I like having a part of my life that’s completely anonymous and isn’t linked to me in any way. I know that doesn’t make sense really, but do you know what I mean?’

Chastity nodded. ‘Totally,’ she said. ‘It’s like the website is successful because of the work we’ve done, rather than because it belongs to Chastity Taylor and Ella Riding, former footballers’ wives.’

‘Exactly. But I also like the idea of building upon that success,’ Ella continued, ‘and to do that we probably would have to admit that we’re behind it.’

‘We’ve got a lot to think about,’ Chastity mused, and Ella nodded.

‘We do, but right now all we need to do is sit back and celebrate. After all, we’ve not only become businesswomen, but we’ve also taken on the bad guys and won.’

‘To us,’ Chastity announced again. ‘To celebrating our Happy Ever After, and to deciding what we’re going to do next.’

Ella grinned. ‘To us,’ she echoed. ‘And even though I don’t know what comes next, I do know that whatever we decide to do it will be bloody good. It has to be.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘So how do you feel now everything’s out in the open and Johnny and Sancho have been exposed?’ Nash asked Ella as they drank champagne in her living room. She’d invited Nash over on the pretext of him sharing a celebratory, home-cooked meal with her and Chastity, but at the last minute Chastity had gone out for a few ‘quiet drinks’ with Adam, and the two of them were trying to roast a joint of beef together. Ella knew it was hopeless – she didn’t know why she was unable to cook any food except cupcakes – but they’d managed to put it in the oven at the right temperature, and now all they had to do was wait.

‘Something doesn’t feel right,’ Ella admitted as she fiddled with her champagne flute. ‘Chastity and I were celebrating the other day and looking at all the press coverage, and even though I’m pleased we uncovered Johnny, it doesn’t feel like the ending I was looking for. It’s not that it’s an anticlimax, it just feels like we’ve missed something . . . that a piece of the puzzle is still missing.’

Nash raised his eyebrows. ‘But we covered all the bases,’ he said. ‘And what we didn’t know the paper found out. It’s all there, in black and white, and millions of people have been reading about it.’

‘I know,’ Ella said. ‘But the story doesn’t feel over. Not yet. It just doesn’t feel like I’ve got my happy ending.’

Nash mused on this for a while. ‘Maybe what you’re looking for is an apology,’ he suggested. ‘Maybe exposing Johnny feels good, but what you need is for him to explain why he did what he did to you.’

‘Maybe. But I know why he did it. He knew Danny and I weren’t in a sexual relationship, and he knew that I’d be his for the taking. He also assumed – correctly – that he’d be able to raise his own profile by getting “caught” having an affair with me. Even if he apologised it wouldn’t make a difference. He wasn’t sorry when he was doing it, and he’d only be sorry now because he’s been caught out.’

Ella rested her head on one of her hands and gazed at Nash. ‘I just thought that once all this was out in the open I’d feel different. I mean, I should feel different, shouldn’t I? People now know that Johnny seduced me – and that I wasn’t the evil harlot who cheated on Danny for no reason – and as well as that I have my own successful business. So why aren’t I happier?’

Nash gazed into Ella’s violet eyes, but just as it looked as though he was about to speak he changed his mind.

Ella felt a tiny tug at her heart. Before her mother passed away she used to read stories to Ella where the happy ending involved a girl getting whisked off her feet by a handsome prince. Okay, so real life wasn’t like that, but after everything she’d been through, didn’t she deserve a decent man?

Didn’t she deserve someone like Nash?

The tug of longing grew even stronger, and Ella wished she could say something to him. But she couldn’t. How could she? Nash was one of the most important people in her life, and if she misjudged him and ruined their friendship her happy ending wouldn’t even be moderately cheerful. Just as she was trying to work out what to say the smoke detector in the flat started to screech loudly, and they both jumped to their feet and raced to the kitchen.

‘I think it’s done,’ Ella remarked, as she pulled the battery out of the smoke detector and then eyed the smoking tray she’d taken out of the oven.

‘It’s definitely done,’ Nash agreed, as they both stared at the meat. It looked like a big lump of charcoal. It was ruined.

‘I have a pizza in the fridge,’ Ella grinned. ‘Do you think it will go with the champagne?’

‘Darling, anything goes with champagne. But please put it in the oven soon; I’m starving. How long does it take?’

‘Um, about fifteen minutes,’ Ella said, as she flipped the pizza box over and read the instructions. ‘Don’t you miss those days of being at Castle House when gourmet suppers appeared out of thin air?’

‘Yeah, how
did
you manage to eat so well when you lived there? And how can you be so appalling at cooking now?’

Ella smiled. ‘I ordered all our meals from a personal chef,’ she admitted. ‘I don’t think Danny even knew. Or if he did, he never said anything.’

Nash raised his eyebrow. ‘So why didn’t you order in tonight?’ he asked. ‘Am I not worth impressing?’

‘You’re definitely worth impressing, Barnwell. But I thought I’d keep it real and try to do it myself. Only, I don’t seem to be very good at it. Plus getting meals from a personal chef is bloody expensive.’

Nash shook his head slowly. ‘You’re helping to improve the lives of thousands of women with your successful website, and you’ve just brought down Johnny Cooper and Sancho Tabora, but you can’t cook. You’re amazing.’

‘And that’s why you love me,’ Ella joked lightly, as she bent over and slid the pizza in the oven. But as soon as she said it she regretted it. The light-hearted atmosphere had turned into something else, something unidentifiable, and she wished she could take her words back.

Nash stared at Ella’s back, and then he came up behind her. He circled her with his arms and pulled her so she was leaning close against him. He gently kissed the top of her head, and Ella was just about to spin on her heel to place her lips on his when he stepped away. She turned around and looked at him.

‘That’s why I love having you in my life,’ Nash said simply, and then he gave Ella such a dazzling smile that she couldn’t help but grin back.

‘Don’t lie,’ she said as calmly as she could, as if kissing him was the furthest thing from her mind. ‘You only like having me around because you know you’ll never eat well and you’ll eventually lose weight.’ She prodded a finger into Nash’s rock-hard stomach and turned back to the pizza before he could see the lust in her eyes. If Nash was ever going to kiss her, that had been the moment.

And he hadn’t.

Perhaps they were best suited to being friends, after all.

‘What’s that noise?’ Nash muttered, as Ella sat bolt upright in bed. Her head was pounding, her skin was clammy and her mouth was dry. She reached for her glass of water and took a big gulp. It made her feel like she was about to be sick and she knew, without a doubt, that she had the hangover from hell.

‘It’s the intercom,’ she managed to say, as she took in the scene of her bedroom. The air was stuffy, and even though she was normally pretty neat, the room looked like a bomb site. Designer clothes were strewn across the floor – Ella vaguely remembered Nash asking her to give him a fashion show of some of Chastity’s more ridiculous, pre-divorce outfits – and there were several empty champagne bottles lying on their sides. Nash was on top of her bed, fully dressed in jeans and a shirt. He looked as rough as she felt, and Ella felt a wave of disappointment run through her. He’d slept over, but he hadn’t even kissed her.

Ella pulled herself out of bed, grimaced as her hangover headache pounded through her body, and slowly walked towards the front door. Chastity hadn’t come home last night, and Ella half expected to see her face peering up at her through the video intercom. When she glanced at the screen properly, her heart gave a little leap. It wasn’t Chastity; it was Danny.

Ella smiled to herself and pressed the button to let him up to the flat.

‘God you look like shit,’ Danny announced as he walked in and looked around. ‘Are you ill?’

Ella bit her lip and shook her head. ‘Nash came over for supper and we had a bit too much to drink,’ she said, as Nash walked out of her bedroom and joined them in the hall.

Danny glanced at him and back to Ella. ‘Am I interrupting something?’ he asked suspiciously, as his eyes twinkled.

‘God no!’ Ella exclaimed. ‘It’s nothing like that! Nash just crashed here because he was too drunk to get home . . . I think.’ To be honest, she couldn’t really remember getting to bed, or when Nash had decided to stay the night. She had a fleeting memory of her resting her head on his chest in the middle of the night, and of him draping his arm over her body, but just as she tried to remember it properly the memory vanished.

‘Yeah, you’re definitely
not
interrupting anything, apart from my beauty sleep.’ Nash winked, and Ella shot a look at him. He was running his hands through his light brown hair and even though he had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, he looked amused at the thought that anything would ever have happened with him and Ella. She felt disappointed again, but was determined not to show it.

‘You know Nash is like my big brother . . . just like you’re like my younger one,’ she said as pointedly as she could. ‘Anyway, forget about that – it’s so good to see you!’ Ella held her arms out and Danny enveloped her in a huge bear hug. She realised at that moment just how much she’d missed him.

‘Why has it taken you so long to come and see me?’

‘Why has it taken you so long to issue an invitation?’ Danny replied, and then he rolled his eyes. ‘To be honest Aaron told me I was never allowed to see you again, and I thought he was right – at least until the dust settled. But then you found out all that stuff about Johnny and Sancho and I figured Aaron couldn’t be angry with you any more, so sod it. Here I am. Do I get a tour of your amazing penthouse apartment? I still can’t believe you live with Chastity, you know. Is she still a bitch?’

Ella washed her face and brushed her teeth, and then led Danny around her flat. Okay, she was still dressed in a pink T-shirt and bright orange cotton knickers, but it didn’t really matter. Danny knew her inside out and it very obviously didn’t make a difference if Nash saw her bottom or not. He wasn’t into her like that. She got it.

‘Wow, it’s the very opposite of Castle House, isn’t it?’ Danny remarked as he stood in her living room. He looked at the incredible panoramic view of the rest of London and then sat on the fuchsia sofa with a sigh.