One Stolen Kiss (26 page)

“
This is Joan,” said Hannah. A small Thai woman wearing fuchsia pink salon overalls was setting out towels on the flat padded couch. She smiled at them in acknowledgement. “She lip-reads, and uses a smart-phone app to answer any questions. If you need anything else, or just want to sleep, let her know. Mr Maksimov says he will call you for dinner if you are not downstairs by the time it is ready.”

The elderly housekeeper left the stateroom. Christie ached after her long day, inside and out.

She’d be spending the night here, then.

Alone.

This must be Adrik’s idea of a test. He was not so unlike his father, she imagined. Two doors on the opposite side of the room facing the balcony led to an en suite and a dressing-room she hadn’t remembered, similar to the layout of Adrik’s bedroom in Holland Park. With a strange, knifelike sensation in her chest, she found herself wondering if the similarity was coincidental – or not.

“
Joan,” she said eventually, and the masseuse nodded, alert. “I’m going to have a shower. And then I would love a massage. Please.”

Joan smiled again, patted the pile of folded towels on the couch and beckoned.

* * * *

The gentle tinkle of a chiming bowl at the end of her massage awoke Christie, and feeling a little giddy, she lay for several minutes under the warm blanket until she was certain she was good to sit up, with Joan’s hands carefully guiding her. The masseuse showed her where her luggage from Lake Como could be found in the dressing-room, and then packed up her equipment quickly and discreetly. She was gone when Christie had finished dressing for dinner.

Christie pinned up her hair and applied a little mascara and lip-gloss, not wanting to disturb the frangipani-scented oil that was still being absorbed by her skin. She had just replaced her earrings when a text arrived from Adrik.

There’s a nice sunset outside – come downstairs if you are awake. X

Christie felt tears pricking at her eyelids, and covered her face.
Damn…

She wished again, from the bottom of her heart now, that this was all for real.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
.

Adrik was at the bottom of the stairs when she came down, having replied to his message that she was on her way, and something about her appearance took his breath away.

Maybe it was the massage, and the chance to have had a rest, giving her an inner glow. Or maybe the expression in her eyes, that suggested there was a razor’s edge she had been walking along in her mind, and she could see the end of it in sight.

On top of that – the dress she was wearing…

“
I think I know this dress,” he mused, as she approached, shyly meeting his gaze. “In my workshop. From the photo-shoot, under that long black coat you borrowed – is that right?”

“
It is,” she confirmed, looking down at the halter-necked silk satin Chloé number. “I knew I had worn it for one of the photos, but couldn’t remember which one.”

“
It’s the ‘bad Christie’ dress,” he reminded her, and smiled as she flushed, all over. “Bad in a good way. You left lipstick on my welding mask. And I still haven’t washed it off.”

She reached the bottom step, and he leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek. She was soft, and smelled like paradise.

“Think you can handle a mimosa before dinner?” he asked, reluctantly pulling himself back, and she smiled in turn. “Let’s go and sit outside. Watch the sun go down together.”

* * * *

He didn’t notice much of the sunset, except what he saw of it reflected off her. He couldn’t tear his eyes away.

She appeared to be nervous too, fidgeting with the stem of her glass.

“Having second thoughts?” he suggested.

He hated to see her bottling things up. Some of it he guessed she had reasons for. The rest he couldn’t fathom. Only suspected.

But she shook her head, and her gaze dropped to her hands.

“
No,” she replied. “I just…”

There was an eternal pause.

“What is it?” he asked, when the tension reached breaking point.

“
I have to tell you everything first,” she said, and to his pain, he saw her lip threaten to wobble.

“
Christie…” he answered, and reached out to brush her bare shoulder, lightly soothing. “I told you, I would wait for you to talk in your own time. No pressure. Just because we’re getting married sooner than you thought we would, it doesn’t change that part.”

“
No, I have to tell you,” she insisted, and raised a hand to wipe under her eyes. “Because. There’s a
because
. I have to tell you everything first, because…”

Lucas interrupted, from the doorway to the patio gardens. He had found a dinner gong, so the interruption was quite loud, and abrupt.

Concerned, Adrik retrieved her mimosa glass from her, and then took hold of both of her hands.

“
Let’s not lose our appetite,” he said, and kissed the backs of her fingers, willing some of his strength to pass into her. “Eat first. Talk after.”

He helped her to her feet, cursing internally to himself.

She had cracked. Already.

Which meant, he was next.

* * * *

It would really have been a crime to miss the dinner Lucas had prepared. Christie remarked that the white chocolate and raspberry mousse with blood orange syrup drizzle made her want to weep.

“It does taste like I imagine an angel’s tears would taste,” Adrik agreed thoughtfully, watching her lick the end of her spoon until every trace of the dessert was gone. He sighed. “You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not ready to, you know.”

She replaced the spoon very precisely on her empty plate, and seemed to be girding herself.

“Yes,” she replied. The candlelight flickered in the depths of her eyes as she glanced up at him, and he could see that she was trying to hide her unease. Her insecurities. “I do.”

“
Because…?”

“
Because…” Her voice broke a little, and she averted her eyes as he knew his cousin Roksana to do, reaching for a glass of water to help her regain and settle her composure. After a sip, she cleared her throat. “What do you want to hear about first? The diamonds – or my recent past?”

Adrik sat back in his chair across the table from her, trying to increase her breathing space a little. Reduce the pressure.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and she nodded, putting her glass back down. “Your past.”

“
I was dating Derek Goldman – the PR man,” she said. “For the last two years. A real privacy freak. I wasn’t allowed to be seen with him, stay overnight, attend public events as a couple, or be photographed anywhere that he was. I was good at hiding from cameras, and not stealing his limelight. I never questioned him. I played by all of his rules. We never went out for coffee, or to eat, or to a show, or even to a movie. I wasn’t allowed to call him or text him first unless it was strictly business-related. In fact all of our dates were disguised as business meetings. We never slept together. And yet – he led me to believe that I was the only prospect for a serious relationship that he had.”

“
You never slept together?” Adrik repeated. He had guessed the day before, almost for sure, that Derek might be the individual concerned. But this part was a bolt from the blue. “Meaning – you didn’t stay overnight, or that you never…?”

“
We never had sex.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she blotted it away with a napkin angrily. “He said he was ascetic… it means someone who denies themselves the physical in favour of the spiritual, or something. But also that he was saving himself for the future, once he found a relationship that the Press wouldn’t be able to crush. He was obsessed with the power of the media and how it could be used and manipulated. I knew that in the past he had used it to his advantage to deal with anyone who had offended or upset him. When he didn’t answer his phone to me on that night in Manhattan two weeks ago, I knew he had added me to his blacklist. But I only knew for certain when he came up to us with Olga Rose in tow yesterday, and all that stuff about a misunderstanding with her came out into the open.”

Adrik listened while she related everything the supermodel had shared with her in the bathroom at Eileen’s villa – including the hint that Goldman apparently had no qualms about casually sleeping with Olga. And then the follow-up telephone call from him, today in the car on the journey into Switzerland.

“I know he’s only faking his amnesia, and is planning something to try and destroy me,” Christie said, helplessly. “Destroy
us
.”

“
We don’t know that for certain, yet.” Adrik leaned forwards. “I know you’ve seen other cases that he’s influenced. But most likely he’s only a jealous, petty little control freak who didn’t know a good thing when he had it.”

He had to reach for his own water, to prevent other choice descriptions for the man that his mind was currently providing him with from adding themselves to the list.

“I don’t have any evidence,” Christie shook her head. “No witnesses that there was ever a situation between us, or that I have any dirt on him. I can’t prove anything I would ever try to claim – and he knows it.”

“
Nonsense,” said Adrik. “There’s Doug’s driver, who took you up to his place in East Hampton. Probably still got that grubby garbage sack that your stuff was thrown out in tucked away in the trunk of his limo. Meaning I’m also a witness, by proxy.”

Christie stared at him, and he saw a tiny bit of hopeful colour emerging on her cheeks.

“Forget about Goldman,” Adrik continued. “He can’t hurt you. Or either of us. Tell me about the diamonds.” His tone became gently goading. “I know you’ve been looking forward to that part even more.”

She nodded.

“I think I need something stronger first.”

“
Coffee with a brandy in it?” he suggested, and reached for his phone as she confirmed. “Lucas – special coffees, please. Dessert was amazingly decadent. They must have a ‘Wanted’ poster for you already circulating in hell.” He heard Lucas’s evil laugh before hanging up. “I got that line from my uncle. I don’t think it’s meant as a compliment, though.”

Lucas brought the coffees, and cleared away the dessert plates.

“Well?” Adrik prompted.

He had to admit to himself – he’d been looking forward to hearing her version of events from that night in particular…

“You were right about your father testing you,” Christie said, and she seemed more uncomfortable talking about his family than about her own past. “But I think he wanted to ensure a real challenge. He knew that my parents – who were running the finishing school back then – had put me into classes alongside paying students. I was a tearaway. They’d given me an ultimatum – finishing school, or a U.S. military-style boot camp. I only turned down boot camp because at the time I didn’t want to leave Europe… So, one day I was called to the office to meet Maksim Senior – your father – under the pretence of being assigned to look after Roksana at the debutante ball. My parents liked it when I was called up on favours like that. It was a way of me earning my place in classes that could have been taken by a paying student. And of course, it meant everything was strictly confidential, keeping the good name of the school. Over the weeks I’d tracked down jewellery that girls had stolen from one another, found one student keeping a missing gardener as a sex-slave in her closet, and another was dealing speed hidden in designer chocolates. I was a regular campus private detective. If any of their parents came to mine with problems that they felt could be better investigated by a fellow student, I was the patsy that had to do it.”

“
So what did my father really want to speak to you about?” Adrik asked.

“
It was another secret. He had planned a small mission for you to come to Switzerland, to prove some worthiness of taking over his business in the future,” Christie continued. “I think he had a number of such schemes planned. Maybe you had already passed some earlier ones. He knew that you would most likely take the opportunity to visit your cousin Roksy – Roksana – and as a bit of a notorious gatecrasher at the time, any news of a ball would be enough to tempt you.”

Adrik nodded wryly.

“Bang to rights, as the saying goes,” he admitted. “Go on.”

“
All he said was that you would be transporting some diamonds of his to put into a safety deposit box in one of the Swiss banks, but you would most likely want to show them off to Roksana first. He asked if I was willing to establish if you could be distracted enough for them to be stolen. He wanted to know if you had your priorities right, when it came to family property and family business. So I said I would give it a shot. I knew he basically meant, flirt with you. He didn’t set any guidelines about how far things should go… but on the night of the ball, you saw me first before I even had the chance to see you coming…”

Adrik forced himself not to smile. Seriously, Christie was going to have to learn to listen to herself at times. But he was intrigued, and still paid her his undivided attention as she continued.

“He had set only one rule,” she said, and her face became distant and worried. “He said, not to kiss you… I thought it was a strange rule. He told me that corporate thieves aren’t widely known for kissing as their method of distraction, and that I would have to be more artful than that.”

Adrik said nothing, but his mood became a fraction grimmer. He knew his father’s thoughts on that matter.

He attempted not to let it show.

“
And you broke that rule,” he reminded her.

“
It wasn’t like that…” Christie hid her face for a moment. “I didn’t feel as though I was doing anything. You were flirting with
me
. It was too easy. And I liked it… I would have let you kiss me on the beach, but we were spotted by a security guard and ran back inside. Then we were playing that game of looking for missing couples sneaking off together, and we ended up in that room, upstairs… I don’t know how you got the key, but you locked us in… and I was afraid things were going too far and I was enjoying it a bit too much and trying to remember at the same time that I had a job to do, so I… played along, and… used my stockings, to tie you to the bed. I don’t remember what the blindfold was…”

“
Gloves,” Adrik recalled, and his own voice surprised him by sounding hoarse. He cleared it slightly, and gestured at his own arms. “You had these long gloves on, that went up above your elbows…”

“
Of course, yes. The stupid gloves.” Christie was twisting and wringing her hands in front of her now, as if remembering tugging them off. “So I blindfolded you and was going through your pockets and found the jewellery case, and I peeked, it looked like a bunch of diamonds, so I knew I had the right one. But it also looked like trouble, and I realised at once what I was doing was getting you into trouble, but you kind of deserved it too, you were definitely a bad boy from what I could tell. And suddenly I wanted to kiss you, as if that would make it better… so I stole a kiss, as well.”

Adrik’s hand was now over his brow as he leaned back in the chair, his eyes closed.