Chapter Forty-Seven #2
‘Lumi,’ Walter said, his voice almost like butter. ‘And you know my daughter Vivian, I’m sure.’ He proudly presented her, keeping a palm on her back.
‘Hello,’ Vivian said graciously, smiling and genial. Vivian kissed Lumi on each cheek, then shook Viktor’s hand and gave him a judicious smile as if to say, I haven’t forgotten how rude you were in my restaurant.
Lumi was always entranced to see Vivian up close at her party.
The baby she knew had grown into an alarmingly beautiful woman.
She wondered if Vivian might remember her loving touch as the motherless infant cried in Lumi’s arms. Lumi’s heart broke for a second, while Vivian felt the intensity and awe of her gaze.
‘This is beautiful,’ Vivian said warmly, as she stroked the shoulder of Lumi’s powder-blue Oscar de la Renta gown. Her hand landed near Lumi’s Cartier panther bangle. ‘And this too!’
‘Thank you,’ Lumi said, shooting Walter a look. ‘You look stunning, as ever.’
Vivian smiled modestly.
‘And my son Lysander is here from New York …’ Walter looked around. ‘Over there somewhere.’
‘Well, do come in,’ Viktor said. ‘Make yourselves at home.’
When Anastasia Steinherr Diamandis turned up alone in red Valentino and a fur coat, just gone 3.
30pm, Tiago spotted her first. She snatched a flute of champagne from a tray Gerard was circulating with and knocked it back, placing the damp and empty glass on top of the Steinway.
Gerard looked horrified and deftly removed the glass as the pianist played ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ with a frown.
‘Shit,’ Tiago muttered to himself, wondering whether he should let Cat know, or whether she would be best not knowing from the sanctuary of the kitchen. Anastasia already looked half cut, and she looked like a woman on a mission.
‘Lobster roll, ma’am?’ Tiago said, proffering the slate.
‘No,’ she said.
‘Well, will you let my colleague take your coat?’ Tiago nodded to a maid, who came over with a plush hanger.
Tiago realised that buying time was a bit hopeless when she’d just sunk a glass of champagne without letting it touch the sides.
Anastasia took off her fur and almost dropped it at the maid’s feet.
‘Thanks,’ she slurred, as she continued into the party with a bitter and predatory gait.
‘Ah, there you are!’ Dimitri said, looking at his wife with flaccid concern. Anastasia scanned the room with hooded lids, barely acknowledging her husband. ‘Everything alright?’ he asked, looking for someone carrying a tray of water.
Anastasia shot him a reproachful look.
‘Mummy!’ cried Ophelia, running over. ‘There’s a games room! Orfeas got to meet a grizzly bear on the VR!’
Anastasia looked at her daughter almost without recognition, but she patted her head.
‘That’s nice,’ she said, with disinterest.
‘Why don’t you see if you can see the bear, sweetheart,’ Dimitri said softly.
Ophelia smiled and ran off.
‘Where’s my father?’ Anastasia spat at her husband. Dimitri looked around the vast open room, which was now full of the great and the good of Kristalldorf mingling over drinks.
‘He was chatting with the Sommars last time I …’ but Anastasia had stalked off before he could finish.
‘Lysander it’s so wonderful to see you back in town!’ Lexy Harrington fawned in a fluster. ‘How is New York?’
Lysander couldn’t remember for the life of him who this woman was, but he responded to her questions and asked benign ones in return, so as not to give himself away.
She kept talking about Bill this and Bill that – obviously her husband was someone important – and how she had been to New York several times with work when she lived in London.
‘I love New York,’ she cooed. ‘It’s electric!’
Lexy tried to ignore the fact that Lysander Steinherr was looking over her shoulder for most of their conversation, but he did pay a little more attention when she said how much she loved working out of the Alpenrose with his father and Dimitri.
‘I’d say of all the Steinherr properties, the Alpenrose is my favourite,’ she gushed. ‘I didn’t like Vitreum much anyway …’
During a pause in the canapé production, somewhere between the chickpea crostini and the beef sirloin teriyaki, Gerard insisted Tiago and Emme help do a sweep of empty glasses while he and Lydia continued to offer guests full ones. Emme looked to Cat for confirmation.
‘You’ve got five minutes, vamos!’ Cat called, as Emme and Tiago headed out with empty silver trays.
‘I’ll go this way and hit the games room and cinema,’ Tiago said, his bow tie waning a little now.
‘You go that way and do the study and lounge …’ Tiago and Emme swept out in opposite directions, collecting empty glasses as quickly as they could so as not to mess with Cat’s precise timings.
Emme headed left, through the main throng to the library, where empties sat on Viktor Kivvi’s desk and bookshelves.
Harry Harrington was sitting on the study’s plump leather sofa looking at the screen of the boy next to him.
‘You having fun there?’ Emme asked the boys as she swept up as many empties onto her tray as she could. Harry nodded vaguely, lost in the screen.
‘Let’s go back on the VR,’ the other boy said, conversing with adults was so boring, so they ran out, bumping into a man in the doorway.
‘Easy tigers!’ said the familiar voice, sexy, deep and South African, which sent a shiver down Emme’s spine. She turned around.
He’s here.
The boys giggled and ran around Tristan, off to the games room on another floor. Emme steadied her tray on Viktor’s desk and froze, as she looked up at him standing tall, and if she wasn’t mistaken, slightly sheepish, in the doorway.
‘Tristan …’
He walked in, gently, champagne glass in hand, a raspberry fizzing at the bottom of it.
‘Hey you – I, er …’
For a supposed charmer he didn’t have many words. He looked apologetic, which only made Emme want to get in there first.
‘Hey, don’t worry about it.’
Tristan looked confused.
‘Look, I’ve been away, in Geneva, then I went to London …’
Talk of London suddenly made her homesick. She wanted to be in London right now, and not here at a party with Tristan Du Kok looking sharp and beautiful in a suit – trying to make excuses for fucking her and running, even though she had done it too.
‘Please, it’s fine, I know how it is,’ she looked over his shoulder, to indicate that she was cool about Vivian. She didn’t want his pity and she would never say a word.
Tristan shook his head.
‘Know how what is?’
‘You and your girlfriend. Honestly, I won’t mess anything up for you.’
Tristan got nearer, shaking his head gently.
‘Mess anything up?’
‘Yeah. I knew what I was getting into. You’re a fuckboy!’ She tried to give a laugh, but it came out slightly shaky. She hoped he didn’t notice.
Emme remembered her vow to herself. Tristan was beautiful to look at. He might even help her get over Tom. The sex in the gondola was blissful. But she wouldn’t do it again. She’d felt too guilty seeing Vivian on her doorstep.
‘I’m single. It’s over.’
Emme took a step back.
‘Since when?’
‘Since before we …’ he looked at her blisteringly.
‘What?’
For two weeks Emme had felt sensational yet treacherous, and yet there was no need. Still, she knew what Tristan was capable of. She’d seen it with her own eyes.
‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,’ he confessed.
Emme looked at Tristan’s lips and wanted them so badly again on her skin. What the hell was going on? Why wasn’t he with Vivian Steinherr? Why was he interested in her?
Tristan drained his drink and took the raspberry from the base of the glass, licking the droplets off it and putting it to Emme’s mouth.
She parted her lips and let the sensation of champagne and the taste of the berry linger on her tongue.
She took his thumb in her mouth and suddenly they were back in the gondola, his huge cock penetrating her from behind.
She moaned softly as she sucked him, their gazes not shifting, their bodies drawing closer together like metal shavings to a magnet.
They could do it again. She looked at his suit trousers, their bodies drawing together as he gently withdrew his thumb but pressed his hard cock into her little black dress.
‘So why didn’t you –’
‘Oh Emme!’ said a shrill voice from the doorway. ‘It’s you in here!’
Emme and Tristan drew apart quickly. She smoothed the bow in her hair; he put his free hand in his pocket.
Lexy Harrington was standing in the doorway, a showbiz smile suppressing her rage. She shook her empty flute accusingly, as if Emme had failed her.
‘More champagne?’ she suggested, saccharine with a bite.
Emme flushed red.
‘Right on it …’ she said, as she picked up the tray and gave Tristan the briefest of looks as she went on her way. Lexy put her empty glass down on Emme’s tray as she passed her. ‘I’ll bring it over to you,’ Emme said, her deferential tone just about overriding her annoyance.
Back in the kitchen Cat was plating up beef sirloin teriyaki and duck hoisin rolls onto slates while Tiago looked concerned.
‘As the English say, she’s hammered,’ he said, almost apologetically.
‘Who’s hammered?’ Emme asked, as she placed the tray of empties next to Lydia, who was stacking dirty glasses in the glasswasher.
Cat shook her head. She did not have time for this.
Tiago looked at Emme. ‘Anastasia Steinherr, she’s hammered. Avoid her with the drinks, she looks muito bêbada. She needs water.’
‘Got that,’ Emme said.
Cat tried to ignore the feeling of impending catastrophe and focus on her work.
‘OK, Asian round is ready, vamos! Then we move on to desserts.’ Cat clapped her hands twice.
‘Yes boss!’ Emme and Tiago chimed, stifling a laugh, but Emme’s heart was still racing from having seen Tristan.
Mika Kivvi walked into the kitchen, eyes like pinpricks.
‘Hey man, can I just get a bag of chips?’ he asked Tiago.
‘No Mika!’ Cat snapped, and he retreated into the pantry.