Chapter Seventy-Nine
‘What are you doing here?’
Tristan stood broad in a checked shirt and sherpa-lined trucker jacket, his tanned face looked ashen.
‘Emme please …’ he reached out a hand.
‘Get away from me!’ she hissed, narrowing the door.
Tristan looked devastated.
He put his arm in the door so she couldn’t slam it on him.
‘Please.’
Emme didn’t know he’d spent the week in South Africa thinking about her; telling his mother about her; and shunning every old flame because he had only one person on his mind.
‘What’s happened? Why are you staying here?’
Emme stayed silent. She was so furious and so hurt, she couldn’t speak.
‘We talked every day, look, I don’t understand. But when you didn’t call me back yesterday, you didn’t answer my calls, I knew something was wrong. What’s happened? What’s changed?’
He had returned to Kristalldorf within twenty-four hours.
‘You can’t work it out?’
Tristan looked vague and panicked.
‘You and Lexy Harrington. You and my fucking boss.’
He hung his head and looked at his feet, before letting out a huge sigh.
‘Of all people! Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Please, let me come in, I can explain …’
Emme opened the door and walked away from it, towards the window, her arms folded, her heart broken.
Tristan reached an arm out, desperate to touch her.
‘Genuinely, it was nothing.’
‘Nothing? You two go way back! How long have you two been at it?’
‘Seriously, she’s hit on me ever since she moved here …’
‘You were here first?’
‘Yes – her kids were really little and they were new in town. Of course she knew I was here – she knew what had happened to my father. Our mothers are friends. But I swear … I took them out for dinner and since then she has been relentless.’
‘Gross,’ Emme spat.
Tristan told Emme about the surprise on Lexy’s face when she and Bill turned up to that one dinner. Tristan still owned Vitreum then, and Lexy’s jaw almost dropped to the floor to see the boy Tristan Joubert, manly and ripped, in the restaurant of his spectacular hotel.
The last time they had seen each other Tristan had been fourteen, with fluff around his top lip and a skinny body – as a teen he hadn’t dared look Lexy in the eye.
Tristan had welcomed Lexy and Bill with a hug and a handshake. He had always thought of Lexy as a much-older cousin, pin-up hot, but the pretty redhead was now a little tired from the ravages of parenthood.
‘My, how you’ve grown!’ she’d said with an avaricious smile, as she pressed her body into Tristan’s, before pulling back, tilting her head to one side and saying, ‘So sorry to hear about Charles.’
Tristan stroked his temples in despair as he told Emme how she’d plagued him ever since.
‘She’s been like it for years, hounding me at any opportunity, until I finally thought fuck it.’
‘Nice,’ Emme scowled.
‘But I swear, it only happened once. A one-night thing after a wine event got crazy. I suppose my teenage self got the better of me …’
Emme shook her head.
‘I explicitly asked you!’ she said, tears stinging her cheeks.
‘No you didn’t.’
‘I did!’
‘You didn’t!’ Tristan said more firmly now, an obstinate twitch in his stubbled jaw. ‘You asked me about a Jenny, I didn’t sleep with Jenny.’
‘Oh right but you conveniently omitted that you had fucked Lexy.’
Tristan shook his head.
‘It was before I even knew you existed. I would never …’
‘Why didn’t you tell me then?’
‘And compromise your job?’
‘Oh fuck off!’ Emme shouted. She’d had enough. ‘You’re toxic. Is there anyone in Kristalldorf you haven’t slept with? Oh yeah, Cat, but you had to fuck up everything for her too … Jesus Christ what is wrong with you Tristan?’
As she said it, she looked at him and felt such a raging passion she wanted to be back in Vitreum, the two of them, naked on the bearskin. She felt like such a fool who couldn’t control her own body and mind.
‘I swear Emme.’ He put his palm to his heart. ‘I have not been able to think about anyone but you since I’ve been home. My mom said I look like a different person – she’s dying to meet –’
Emme cut him off and raised her chin.
‘I genuinely cannot believe anything you say, and now I’ve lost my job, and I’m holed up here, and –’
Tristan approached her and put out his hand.
‘Don’t!’ she scolded, and he stopped.
‘I was a fool to think you looked at me any differently.’ Emme said.
‘I do, honestly.’
‘Get out of here, leave me alone.’