Kris was in the bedroom, having just bathed and preparing herself for the evening meal. Daniel had insisted that she wear the sapphire necklace that he had bought her, and she was sitting naked before her dressing table, admiring it as it hung between her breasts, the large stones glittering in the sunlight that came through the window. She had just applied a little Hermes perfume, and was enjoying its floral scents, when she heard noise coming from downstairs. Removing the necklace, she placed it back in its box and left it on the top of the table.
Frowning, she turned to the bed and picked up the light, cotton blouse, an Armani as were the matching trousers. She had not bothered to wear panties beneath her trousers while they were in such a warm climate, and increasingly she had not bothered with a bra, but she also realised that she had no idea who had come to visit Daniel, and the sight of her voluptuous breasts beneath the sheer fabric of her shirt would perhaps not be a perfect sight. She wore a light lace bra that, she hoped, would not be too visible, and continued getting ready. Daniel always told her to call on the staff to help, but she preferred to get dressed alone.
Descending the stairs, she went out to the terrace where she heard the sound of talking. To her mild surprise, she saw Felix Coltraine sitting beside Daniel.
She recalled what she had read about Felix. He was considerably older than Daniel, being perhaps closer in age to Ronald Briskin. An article she had come across sketched the relationship between the two men: in the slightly purple prose of its journalism, she had read how the brilliant entrepreneur, Daniel Stone, who had taken Stone Enterprises to record-making profits in such a little time, had called upon the expertise and experience of Felix to help guide the company to a more stable footing.
And here he was, relaxing on a sun chair, one leg crossed over the other. His greying hair was neatly groomed and, as she went out to where the two men were sitting, he stood and faced her, his rather handsome face charming but, she realised, also completely superficial as far as she was concerned.
“Felix decided he would come and join us for dinner,” Daniel explained. Kris wondered if it was just her or there was something slightly wrong about his voice.
“The young lady from the evening at Lincoln Hall, if I remember correctly,” Felix said with an easygoing warmth, extending his fingers to take hers and lifting them to his lips in an act of apparent chivalry. “Daniel, I must say that you’ve exceeded yourself. Why have you been hiding this beauty from us?”
Kris blushed at this, but she was sure that the merest hint of a scowl passed across Daniel’s face. Nonetheless, he pulled himself together and replied: “Oh, I’ve always been one for keeping the brightest lights under a bushel—that way I can appreciate them all to myself.”
“Oh, you should share much more,” was Felix’s response. Taking this as simple gallantry, Kris felt herself redden even more but said: “It’s an awfully long way for you to come and join us for a meal, isn’t it?”
Felix raised his hands in an expression of mock resignation. “Unfortunately, there was business that required settling—though in any case who would not prefer to conduct business here than in back office in Canary Wharf?”
“I’m sorry,” Kris said. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Not at all, not at all,” the older man replied. Something about his manner, however, told him that the conversation was already passing for him. Daniel picked up on the atmosphere as well. Standing, he placed one hand on Felix’s arm and started to guide him inside. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly to Kris as the two men passed her by. “Something has come up. We’ll see you at dinner.”
Kris nodded, and sat down on the seat that Daniel had just vacated. The sensation of something not quite being right would not leave her and, after sitting down for just twenty minutes or so, she became restless.
Standing, she went into the interior of the villa. One of the maids was passing through to the kitchen and Kris asked her in Portuguese how long it would be until they were due to eat, receiving the answer that Daniel had asked for dinner to be prepared in the next hour.
Slightly at a loss, Kris realised that she could hear the sound of talking coming from the door leading to a study and conference room, one which Daniel had not had reason to use during their visit thus far, but into which he had evidently led Felix. Looking around, to ensure that the maid was no longer anywhere in sight, she placed her ear to the door.
“...it’s bloody stupid,” she heard Felix talking, his voice angrier than she would have expected. “You’ve been making some reckless decisions recently, and it’s getting harder and harder for me to justify them to the board, Daniel.”
This was followed by a lower response, the voice obviously Daniel’s though she could not make out the words. “We can put up with your occasional disappearance,” Felix responded. “But for God’s sake, Daniel, snap out of it. This stupid bitch may remind you of your wife, but you’ve got to get over that and stop wasting your time on a bit of fluff.”
Shocked, Kris drew back, reconsidering whether to eavesdrop any more. Deciding that, after all, she did not wish to hear any more, she went up to her bedroom. When Daniel joined her half an hour later, he found her seated by the dressing table, stroking the necklace while she looked out of the window absent-mindedly. He bent to kiss her, and the way she jumped made it clear that she had not heard him enter but had been many miles away in her mind.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. Shouldn’t it be?” was her hurried response.
This made him frown a little. And then he said: “I’m afraid my own vacation will be cut short. Felix is going to join us for dinner tonight, then unfortunately I’m going to have to return to London first thing tomorrow morning. There’s no need for you to rush back—you can still spend a few days here or in Lisbon, as we agreed.”
She raised her head to look up at him. Opening her mouth, she realised all her words were drying up and Daniel was frowning at her now.
“Is there a problem with that?” he asked a little sharply. “I’m sorry I can’t be here longer, but you must understand how it is.”
The tone of his voice made her freeze, and she shook her head tersely. A bit of fluff. Maybe that was all she was—a momentary obsession that would soon pass.
“Oh,” he said as he started to walk out of the room. “Wear that necklace as well. I want to show you off to Felix tonight.”
And then he was gone.
Filipe drove the three of them to a restaurant in Cascais, a discreet building away from the tourists, tucked behind one of the narrow streets that ran through the old town. During the brief journey that was all too long for Kris, Daniel was pleasant but distracted, while Felix maintained a superficial charm, complimenting Kris on her appearance. She had decided to wear a long, light blue dress that reached beneath her knees but was cut low over her breasts, emphasising the necklace that she wore. She tried to be polite back, but she could not forget what she had overheard.
The restaurant itself was beautiful—not that she expected anything else—on the upper floor of a house covered with blue-painted tiles familiar from the old style of Portuguese design. Noting the colour of them, Felix had paid her another trite act of homage. “Truly you belong here,” he said. “Even the buildings match your dress, and that remarkable piece of jewellery you’re wearing.” If the latter was a pointed barb at Daniel, her lover feigned not to notice.
Inside, there were a few people already eating, but the waiter led them through to the terrace where they had a view of the evening sun across the dark blue waters of the Atlantic. As the waiter brought the menus to them, Daniel took Kris’s. “I know this place very well,” he explained to Felix. “The peixe espada is particularly good.”
She bristled as he spoke, but did not contradict him. Felix appeared not even to be paying much attention to her now, but was discussing the details of a deal that was in its early stages involving a Chinese technology firm. “We really need to get
out there and establish what the return on investment will be,” he remarked, playing with the glass of local Colares wine.
“There are still a couple of loose ends here that need tying up,” Daniel had replied.
“That’s all pretty much done, as far as I can see,” was Felix’s response.
Daniel shrugged. “There’s more here than I originally thought. Chiado has managed to maintain some pretty impressive links, despite the recent downturn. I suspect they keep a big chunk of Lisbon afloat at the moment—if you’ll forgive the pun.”
Felix grimaced. When she had first seen him, Kris had thought that the CEO had a pleasant face, if too self-assured, but this close to him she could see that he was an arrogant and vain man. “We both know Europe’s fucked, and Portugal more than most.” He looked around him. “It’s pleasant for a holiday—very pleasant, that I’ll admit—but there’s not much more to hang around for.”
Irritated, Kris suddenly decided to intervene. “Mister Escada projects at least two percent growth in turnover over the next five years, with profit margins easily clearing the five percent mark—and that’s on very conservative estimates.”
Felix picked up an olive and placed it slowly in his mouth, rolling it around his cheeks before swallowing it and spitting out the stone, almost contemptuously. “I remember the days when Daniel Stone wouldn’t get out of bed for five percent,” he sneered. She felt Daniel go tense beside her, but he said nothing.
Kris’s face was blushing now, but she maintained her silence, taking up her food as the meal was brought to them. Having felt that he had made his point, perhaps, Felix made no further effort to involve her in the conversation, and though Daniel occasionally looked towards her, he paid most attention to the man across from him. Despite the fact that she was sure her fish had been prepared in the finest tradition, her food tasted like ashes in her mouth.
Noticing at last that she was eating very little, Daniel looked at her with a frown. “Is there something wrong?” he asked. “I can call the waiter and complain...”
“No, it’s fine,” she said. “I’m just not very hungry.”
“Probably for the best, eh?” Felix said with a leer. She glanced up at him, her skin prickling and a carapace rising over her torso and limbs, a freezing over of her body despite the evening’s warmth. “After all, if you’re going to become an escort for the chairman of the board, we can’t have you putting on too much weight, eh?”
The tone was enforced jocularity, but she felt the animosity beneath it. To her shock, Daniel said nothing but merely laughed. Her armour was complete now. For a few moments she simply sat there, wondering whether this was weakness on his part or something deeper, something she had missed. After all, perhaps she was no more than fluff.
“Braganza,” she said, very quietly.
Felix looked at her as though she was an idiot, but Daniel stiffened immediately. “What was that?” he asked. There was a warning in his voice, something that had not been there for a long time.
“Braganza,” she repeated, more loudly this time.
“Are we about to get some pretty little discourse on the history of the region?” mocked Felix, but Kris was not looking at him. Instead, she was gazing directly at Daniel who was watching her warily.
“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” she told him quietly.
“I hadn’t realised we were playing games,” Felix remarked, leaning back on his chair and observing the two ironically.
“Oh, Felix, shut up for a moment!” Daniel had snapped, then his mouth was clamped shut, his jaw and cheek muscles working in repressed anger. Kris, however, had had enough. Standing from the table, she said: “Daniel, Mister Coltraine, I hope that you enjoy the rest of your meal.”
As she started to walk away, Daniel followed her and grabbed her arm. “Stay,” he pleaded. “Felix is like this sometimes, but I can’t...”
“Can’t what?” she asked, turning on him furiously. “Defend me? I know what he thinks of me, he gives it away with that look in his eyes!”
Daniel’s facial tic was still there. “I’ll call Filipe,” he said at last.
“Oh, don’t bother!” she almost cried, feeling hot tears of anger welling up in her eyes. “I can walk.” She pulled her arm free and turned away from him.
“You’re... you’re not safe!” he cried out after her, but she knew what he meant—and also that his concern at that moment was less for her than for the chain around her neck.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The walk back to the villa had taken her longer than she had anticipated. Although little more than a mile away, the route was up hill and the sun was now setting across the ocean so that Cascais was quickly plunged into darkness. Her heels had been the worse possible footwear she could have worn for such a journey, however, short, and eventually she pulled them off and flung them over a hedge, walking the rest of the way barefoot. Hot tears of anger sometimes fell from her eyes, and the stinging pain of the cobbles against her soles was fitting penance for her state of mind.
She had also started to appreciate the full import of what Daniel had said, even if his concern was not as much for her as she would have hoped. A couple walking by had eyed up the barefoot woman in a light blue dress with a glittering necklace around her neck. Although their glances were not malicious, it was clear that the jewels attracted their attention and Kris began to walk more quickly, placing her hands around the cold, hard sapphires on their chain. They felt heavier and heavier as she walked, a burden that she had to drag up the hill with her. She dared not throw them away like her shoes, yet at times nothing would have given her greater satisfaction.
It was not long after that Daniel arrived and came to the bedroom where she was lying. She had been crying, more out of self-pity and anger than anything, and after taking off the necklace, which she flung onto the dressing table, she had thrown herself still clothed onto the bed. She refused to look at him as he entered the room, so he was faced with the dirty soles of her feet. With a shock, he realised they had been cut and blood was mingled with the grime, marking the white sheets on the bed, but she had not even noticed.
As he came forward and sat beside her, she rolled onto her side. Her blue eyes glittered more brightly now than any sapphires as she glared at him.
“Has he come back with you?”
“Felix? No... no. He thought it better to stay in a hotel after your little demonstration.”
“My... little... demonstration.” She forced the words out and turned away.
Daniel sat there quietly for a moment. “I’m sorry about Felix,” he said at last. “He has even less tact than me sometimes. I’ve... I’ve made a few bad decisions recently, which he took great pleasure in reminding me.”
“Am I one of those bad decisions?” she asked, bitterly.
“No! Not at all... it’s just that... some of the other board members are creating problems. I have to go back... surely you understand?”
“Oh, I understand.” Her voice was fierce now. “Real life calls, doesn’t it. And you can’t waste your time with a worthless bit of fluff.”
Daniel was silent at this. “I’m sorry you heard that,” he said at last.
She pulled her legs away from him and half sat on the bed. “You didn’t even defend me, Daniel. Just one word! That’s all it would have taken!”
“Like Braganza, you mean?” He immediately regretted the sarcasm in his tone. She looked away from him in disgust.
Reaching across, he took hold of her wrist, so small and delicate in his large hands. She tried to pull away but he refused to let go.
“I have to go, just for a few days. That’s all.” He was trying to be reasonable now, but his own emotions were turbulent inside him.
“Just one word,” she said. “One word would have meant more than anything. Can’t you understand?” Her eyes were filling with tears again, and he attempted to pull her her closer to him. She still resisted, however, and when he half lifted her
by her wrist, the skin turning and burning in his grip, she cried out and suddenly slapped him.
The blow stung. It was what he deserved and he did not move, but nor did he let go. Flailing a little, kicking out with her legs, she tried to hit him again, her whole body bucking in his grip.
“Fuck you, Daniel! Fuck you!” she shouted, her cheeks and her neck becoming blotchy as her rage started to mottle her skin. “Let me go! Just fucking let me go!”
But he did not. Instead, inexorably, he pulled her closer, ever closer to him. He could smell her perfume, the floral echoes of the Hermes scent. Stray fronds of her dark hair had fallen to her neck, and on her lips were flecks of spittle as she shouted and cursed him. Her eyes, so blue, were burning now, all tears gone, rage filling them instead. Looking down, he saw the strap of her dress had fallen from one shoulder, the shadow of her cleavage. Her nipples were hard, and her chest rose and fell rapidly. As she pulled against him, he used all his strength to hold her there and pressed his lips to hers.
She resisted. Her mouth clamped shut. He did not force himself any more. It was just that he knew words were useless, so he wanted to use his mouth to express his desire for her, his love for her, in the only way left for him. This was no bruising assault. Instead, he waited patiently.
He felt the tenseness beginning to dissipate from her body. Her lips parted slightly. His own mouth was open a fraction, and her tongue began to explore his sensitive lips, brushing against his teeth, entering him. He let go of her hands and she grabbed hold of his neck. Her teeth were sharp, digging into him as she kissed him—no, devoured him, her head moving from side to side as she lifted up her body and forced herself deeper inside him. He let him fall back on the bed.
Stretching one thigh across him as he lay there, looking up at her face, not letting his gaze move from her eyes, he felt her hands fumbling with the belt to his trousers, reaching inside. He was stiffening, growing harder all the time.
“I need you,” he whispered. She nodded.
Fractured Crystal: Sapphires and Submission Page 22
