The Accidental Mistress (2 page)

Zuri ignored them both, addressing her
father. His private jet could be scheduled to take them back to
Martinique at anytime based on his wishes.

“
Père
, I want to take you to Harold's. They have better barbecue
chicken than anything JP can do at home.”

“
Please,
père
! Let’s stay another
day!” Joi chimed in.

“
Ma
petite
. I want to know your plans.” Her
father's voice broke over the excitement and silenced her sister's
enthused gushing. He addressed Zuri only.

She glanced up from her plate into his eyes
again and felt three years old. “Sir?”

“
Your return home of
course. I’ve paid your lease up for two months. That’s enough
transition time. We can fly back in June for your commencement
ceremony.”

“
Not now, Claude,” her mom
whispered.

Zuri’s eyes flipped from
her mother to her father, wide with alarm. It was worse than she
feared. They didn’t want to discuss it. They had decided her future
for her. “I just graduated,
père
. I’m considering law schools; my
LSAT scores come in next week. So, I… I haven’t decided
anything.”

“
Exactly. You’re
considering law school, but you must learn French law not American.
I'm proud of you, but we have a family business to run. I'm
thinking of expanding to Fort de France and making you manager
there.”

“
Père
, don't. Leave Zuri alone. It's her birthday. Can we talk
about this later?” her sister demanded. Zuri was a mama's girl. Joi
was all her father's. She could always be counted on out of the
Baptiste women to rein him in. Her father looked from Zuri's hurt
stare, to her mother's disapproving one, and then back to his
youngest daughter’s pleading eyes. He smiled.

“
Je suis désolée.
We can talk about this later. Yes, Joi, we can
stay another day or two. I want to make my girls happy.”

“
Pardon
,” Zuri mumbled, in desperate need of a breath.

“
Zuri,
chérie
!” her mother called after
her.

Zuri bolted from the table, nearly bumping
the server in her haste. She blinked away angry tears. Quickly she
rounded the dining room for the bathroom. If she had been of clear
mind, she would have seen him step into the hall in front of her.
Instead, she ran up against the wall of his chest.

Zuri's heart pulsed so hard, she felt as if
she'd been struck. In her clumsy attempt to flee, her feet tripped
under her. With one hand he caught her elbow and steadied her. To
keep her balance, she grabbed the front lapels of his suit
jacket.

Mortified, Zuri's head slowly lifted and
eyes so blue they were almost violet, attached to a tanned face,
stared down at her. She found him quite simply striking in its
masculine beauty. Sharp brown brows, chiseled cheeks and short dark
blondish-brown hair that curled around his ears added to the
firepower of his gaze. Even with his face devoid of expression,
she’d been charmed all the way down to her toes. “Careful, you
okay?” he asked.

“
Huh? Who? Me? Oh.
Accident. Um. Sorry.”

I sound like a stuttering idiot.

He chuckled. “Accident's happen.” He
released her arm and she slowly loosened her hold on the lapel of
his suit jacket.

Zuri couldn’t tear her gaze from his. From
the way he matched her stare, she wondered if he were waiting for
her to swoon, because that's what she wanted to do, swoon and bat
her eyes at him. The moment passed. He winked, then turned and left
her standing there dazed, leaving the rich, testosterone packed
spice of his aftershave behind.

***

Christophe returned to his table and to
those impatiently waiting for him.

“
Mr. Montague, we were just
discussing how Ventura Resorts could ease this transition if you
were to keep our executive staff in a few key
positions.”

“
I believe I've heard
enough,” Christophe announced, smoothing his tie down as he took a
seat.

The youngest of the three men (who had moved
quite a bit to bring him to the meeting), he wasted no time in
making sure they knew he was in control. The men shot each other
worried looks.

Christophe, normally amused by the
discomfort of others since his mother's retirement, found it ironic
that tonight he was the one twisting with dread and regret.

He cleared his throat and spoke, “On
December twentieth, the acquisition will be complete. Ventura
Resort & Spa will officially belong to the Montague franchise.
From Ventura's branding, to its staff, it will be Montague. That's
simply how it's done. As for your concerns, I will make a decision
on executive management of the corporate offices then. Now, instead
of selling me on why you need your jobs, how about you enlighten me
to as to why Ventura's market share is less than twenty percent of
what you've put in your shareholder reports.”

All three men began to squawk at once.

Unconcerned, Christophe's interest shifted
and so did his gaze. It swept over the bland faces of the mostly
haughty diners to a more appealing one. His flustered little
sparrow that bumped up against him had emerged. She gracefully made
her way out of the loo, headed hopefully for a table and not the
door. He was right. She stopped before a table where a more
seasoned woman and yet another younger one waited with a man. He
shut out everyone and everything, but her striking beauty.

From his vantage point, he saw little of her
face. Christophe didn't need to see her face. How could he not
remember those eyes? Round and seductively ringed in dark lashes,
she had the sexiest eyes on a woman. They caught him off guard.

She was a vision. She wore a black dress.
The skirt shifted around her brown thighs. He imagined her in
softer colors, yellow, pink and light blues. She looked too exotic
and vibrant to have her beauty silenced by a muted dark garment.
His eyes, however, narrowed on her and he suffered an unexplainable
bout of lust from the way her hips swayed.

Watching her rejoin the others, he felt a
small sense of satisfaction that they would continue to share the
same place. Her head turned and she sat to address the only man at
the table. Finally, he was rewarded with a weak smile that tugged
at the corners of her full lips as she said something to him, and
he reached over and touched her face. Not like a lover, but like a
caring father.

Christophe kept her in his line of vision
for the remainder of the evening until she and her family took
leave. She was far more interesting than all the matters before
him, including his battered heart.

***

The ride to The Elysian had been a short one
from the restaurant, and silent. Zuri sat pushed up against the
passenger door with her elbow resting on the inside jam and her
chin planted in the palm of her hand.

She fumed as flashes of streetlamps,
buildings and parking garages zipped by. All were part of a city
she had longed to make her home. This was her time. Her liberation.
Why should she give it all up now, to run a boring resort hotel on
the island filled with pampered sunburned tourists and drunken
college students?

The valet opened her car door and then her
mother's. Zuri stepped out in a full pout. Joi hurried around the
back of the car and slipped her arm around Zuri's. “Let's go for a
walk.”

“
Walk?” Her mother looked
over at them alarmed.

“
Just over there to the
Walgreens. I need to get some things. Besides, I want some alone
time with Zuri. It's okay. Isn’t it,
père
?”

“
Zuri, you needn't drive to
your apartment. Stay here at the hotel with us. You girls don't be
long.” Her father said in approval.

The Elysian, located in downtown Chicago,
was doors away from the bustling traffic of the city. A block north
of the hotel the red neon sign for Walgreens beckoned. Joi loved to
buy nonsensical things. There was no telling why she wanted to go
into the drugstore at this hour.

“
Yes,
père
,” Zuri said.

“
Go on now!” Joi shooed her
parents along.

Her mother leaned in and
kissed Zuri on the cheek. "See you in the morning sweetheart," she
whispered in her ear. "Stop pouting. I'll talk to him,
chérie
."

Zuri sighed. "Night,
mère
."

They watched their parents
go inside. Joi then turned on her. “Okay, if you want
père
to stop treating you
like a baby, I suggest you stop acting like one.”

“
What?”

“
C'mon.” Her sister took
her hand and pulled her across the street. They darted to the
sidewalk out of the way of oncoming traffic. “I'm saying that if
you want to stay in Chicago, then just say so. He'll understand.
You flip flop too much.”

“
I do not!”

“
Yes you do.”

“
Right, it's all up to me.
Like he understood me wanting to go to Northwestern in the first
place. Took mom a year to get him to agree. He won't even let you
leave.”

“
That's not true.
Père
isn't keeping me at
home.” Her sister hurried in through the automatic glass doors. She
plucked a green plastic basket from a metal rack with a Walgreen’s
flyer lining the bottom. Zuri sighed and followed. Her sister
squealed at the cheap wall of cosmetics. Joi grabbed her a load of
florescent colors in fingernail polish.

“
Why are you buying all of
that?” asked Zuri.

“
Because at home we don't
get the colors like here. You know that. Now find me a yellow
eyeliner,” Joi grinned.

Zuri gave in. She fingered through the
Revlon sticks of eyeliner and other lesser known brands. “I've done
everything they wanted. Hell, I haven't lifted my head out of a
book since I got here. No dates, no drinking, no smoking...”

“
No fucking,” Joi
mumbled.

Zuri chose to ignore the comment. “I got an
apartment and I've only had my study group over and two friends.
Now I'm free. I want to spread my wings.”

“
Then do it,” Joi
shrugged.

“
Père
won't let me.”

"I've had it!" Joi turned
on her. "Do you hear how you sound? What twenty-one year old waits
until she is legal to take her first drink? Who goes to college in
a rad city like Chicago and only sees the city when her parents
come to town? You can do whatever you want, Zuri.
Mère
and
Père
aren't holding you
back. You are."

"Lower your voice." Zuri looked over at the
cashier who was watching them closely.

"
Arrêtez!
Stop blaming us for your
lame life. Have you lost your virginity yet?"

Zuri rolled her eyes. "As if I would give
mine away like you did."

She didn't want to fight with her, but Joi
always pushed a nerve. Her sister had lost her virginity at sixteen
to a local boy vacationing with his family out of France. A boy who
she still can't stop daydreaming about. Zuri was jealous of her
sister's spirit, envious actually. There’s a lot more freedom in
the world when you looked at it through her sister's eyes. Joi
turned down the aisle and plucked a box of condoms. Magnums! Zuri’s
eyes bulged.

"Your mission is to find a guy, give him a
little conversation, and then make him break you off some."

"Are you insane?"

"Nope, just helping my sister out. You're
getting these!" Joi shoved a black box of 24 on her. "Now help me
find some glitter lip-gloss. They have to have some here."

Zuri paid for her sister's load of tacky
girl things and the box of condoms she was certain would dry rot in
her lingerie drawer. Together they headed back to the hotel. She
missed her little sister fiercely but not the teasing. It’s hard
enough being confident in her beauty in the shadow of her regal
mother and her over confident sister.

“
You coming up?
Père
said so.” Joi
mocked, with a sly smile. She stepped through the parting elevator
doors.

"No, you go ahead. I think I'm going to go
back to my apartment. I'll meet you guys for breakfast."

"You sure? We can paint each other’s toes
and I can tell you about Sebastian. He's my new hottie. I can give
you some pointers on how to hook that Asian boy you were blushing
with early today."

"Who, Jin? He was a study partner; he's
going to law school. We're just friends."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways,
Sebastian and I are getting serious.
Père
gets hives when he sees him, but
he doesn't know why. I think he has a sixth sense when it comes to
me and my boy toys," Joi winked. She threw out her arm to keep the
elevator door from closing. "C'mon up. You can wear something of
mine."

“
I'll see you in the
morning, I got to make some decisions.”

Joi nodded. “Well call that Asian geek...
see if he can fill those magnums!” The doors started to close and
her sister grabbed something from her bag. "Catch!" she yelled
out.

Zuri caught the box of condoms. The elevator
shut with her sister giggling.

Mortified, Zuri shoved the box down in her
purse. Joi always had to have the last word. She shook her head and
chuckled to herself.