by Nikki Wild
“Nothing. You just look very nice,” I said, trying not to make an awkward situation any worse. I had to remind myself that I had made the decision to be an adult and go through with this scheme of mine, even though I’d like to feel myself buried in Gwen in the next five minutes, I knew that if I ever wanted to inherit my father’s title than I would have to keep my hands to myself where my stepsister was concerned from now on. If anyone had found out about what the two of us had done already there would be hell to pay.
“Thank you,” she said, though the tone to her voice was colder than I remembered. Was she upset with me? “Are you ready to get down to business?”
“What? No wine first?” I asked, beginning to pour myself a glass from the rather expensive bottle I had ordered. “I asked for one of your favorites.”
“How in the world would you know that?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
“It’s the one that’s littered around your kitchen, Gwennie,” I said, chuckling as I took a long drink. “I’m not a mind reader.”
“None for me,” she said, her eyes narrowed as she pulled out the pictures of a graceful looking young woman. Aside from a few minor details I could have mistaken the woman for Gwen if I didn’t know any better. “This is Denise Halbrook. She’s the daughter of a Member of Parliament and part of the aristocracy. I think that she might just be the perfect match.”
“Pretty enough,” I said, almost upset that Gwen was so focused on doing her job and eager to marry me off. The more I listened to her talk about this woman the more I wanted Gwen instead. I knew I shouldn’t—that I couldn’t—but watching her from across the table was almost its own brand of torture. “You really think that she’s right for me?”
“From the information that I have and what you want to achieve? Yes, absolutely,” Gwen said, laying out a few papers across the table as the waiter stood by waiting to take our order. “She’s got all the clout that you’d need to pacify your father’s inspection. She’s got it all—education, social standing, she even does charity work and keeps a rather low media profile. I have to say I’m impressed.”
I mulled the thought over as I gave the young man our order and sent him on his way, glancing down at the pictures that were strewn across the table. Sure, she was pretty, in that old money fashion, but there was something about her that didn’t seem totally on the nose. Something in her eye felt so familiar, but I couldn’t’ quite put a name to it.
“She sounds like a bit of a bore,” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair in frustration. I wanted someone with a little bit of excitement, someone that I could possibly use to take my mind off of the woman I couldn’t have. Some aristocratic daughter of a nobleman would never be able to keep my attention long enough to stop me from finding someone more interesting to play with—or, even more disastrous, wandering back into Gwendolyn’s bed.
“Bore or not, you’re going to start running out of options sooner or later, Tristan,” she said. “There are only so many failed dates you can have while you’re dating within your station. The upper class are a small group, and when you botch a few dates within that circle people tend to take notice. You already have a reputation as it is that we have to break through. Be lucky anyone is interested in you after those escapades when you were younger.”
“Youthful indiscretions,” I said, waving the thought away as though it were nothing.
“Yes, I remember how little those things actually meant to you,” she shot at me quickly, her eyes narrowed in a blood-chilling glare. Admittedly, I deserved that. My younger self had been what I affectionately called a royal pick, and it was only fair that the person I’d hurt the most back in those days take her revenge. “While most of the rest of the world likes for certain things to hold a special meaning.”
It was at that moment that I caught the flash of a camera in the corner of my eye and a crowd of dirty looking men peeking in through the restaurant window, a mix of cameras and cellphones all fighting for a better angle to snap a picture at the two of us.
“Damn,” I whispered, pushing my chair back as I made ready to get out of there as quickly as possible. “Get up, we’re leaving.”
“What is it?’ she asked, turning to follow my gaze. She wasn’t used to the media following her around, so I knew it would be up to me to make sure she didn’t get cornered.
“Buzzards,” I said with no shortage of venom in my voice. I took her hand and lead her farther out of sight from the large front windows of the restaurant, slowly making our way to the kitchens. “Let’s go out the back, I’ve already covered the check.”
With a well-placed twenty-pound note, Gwen and I were smuggled out through the kitchen and out the back of the restaurant. I quickly phoned for a cab to get us both the hell out of there. Gwen’s driver Franklin wouldn’t be expecting us for another hour at most and we needed a quick escape. In a pinch the cab would do, if the paparazzi didn’t find us back here first.
“The cab should be here any moment,” I said the two of us huddled close in the alley behind the restaurant. I could feel her body so warm next to mine, looking down into her face and into those sparkling eyes. Even in the dimming light of a back ally, Gwendolyn shone like a star in the heavens, one that I coveted more than anything else in the entire world. She was a star that I wanted to hide from the world so that only I would be able to see her shine.
“Seems like no matter who I’m with, my dinner plans never seem to work out,” I chuckled, raising an eyebrow at her.
I managed to draw a smile from her as she shook her head, leaning herself back against the red brick of the restaurant’s exterior. I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she was.
I wasn’t sure how it happened, but before I knew it I was pressed against her body, pushing her back against the wall of the restaurant as I tilted her head up to receive a slow, passionate kiss. For a moment I felt her body relax underneath my touch, that soft gasp escaping her lips before I felt her push me away.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, her eyes wide with shock. Despite her protest I could see the reddening in her cheeks, the rising and falling of her soft breasts inside of her blouse. I knew she’d wanted more, if only I could make her understand how much I needed her, despite what I’d said. I couldn’t stop myself.
“I need you, Gwen,” I said, sounding as though the breath had been stolen from my lungs. My stepsister stared at me as she shook her head, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.
“No, Tristan,” she hissed, looking over her shoulder for any camera men who had found their way to our hiding spot. “We can’t do this anymore! This is no time to play out your childhood fantasy. You hired me to find you a wife, and that’s what we agreed to. That means you’re a client and I cannot be caught sleeping with a client. Let alone my own stepbrother!”
The cab pulled up into the alleyway, just enough to keep his back end from staying out in the street. Smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe, giving the alley a more polluted atmosphere. Gwen held up her hands in defeat as she took a step away from me until she reached the cab door and opened it.
“There’s no room in this cab for you, Tristan,” she said. “You’ll have to call another.”
“Gwen, wait!” I called, but she just shook her head.
“I can’t keep doing this with you, Tristan,” she said. “I just can’t do it.”
I watched her step into the cab, her gaze cast off into the street as the taxi pulled out into the back street, then sped off into the night. I stood there in that ally trying to process everything that had happened. It felt like no matter what, my life would always lead me back to Gwendolyn. It wasn’t like me to believe in the vague idea of the supernatural, I would have sworn that the two of us were fated to be together—whether we liked it or not… if only I could make her understand.
55
The next day, I barricaded myself in my office and refused to speak with any of my clients. I was an utter wreck after that fiasco of a dinner
the night before. That kiss had brought my heart right into my throat and my cheeks to a deep burning red hue. All the thoughts I had tried to repress of the night we’d spent together all came flooding back to me in that moment. It was too much for me to handle at once. I had to get out of there. I had to escape.
My world felt like it was all crumbling in on itself, the very foundation on which I’d built my life felt like it was crumbling and all because of that stupid boy I’d wanted all those years ago. I wanted to curse his name and kiss him all at the same time. Damn him.
I was more than thankful I had a woman like Tina in my corner—I could never trust anyone else with the running of the business when I just couldn’t handle the stress of the world around me. It was because of her I could make it through the mess of sorting out the love lives of countless of people, she knew everything there was to know about this business, and if I ever thought of handing the reins over to anyone it would be her. She was an absolute wonder.
Except when it came to my mother.
“Marm,” she said, poking her head into my office around the noon hour, “your mother’s on the first line for you. She told me not to put her on hold forever like I tried to do last time. I think she’s getting wise to us.”
“So she is, Tina,” I sighed, trying to muster up a smile to reassure her that all was well. “I’ll take the call in just a second.”
Once the door was closed and I was bathed once again in the relative dark of my office I pressed the blinking button on my desk phone and put my mother on speaker phone.
“Good afternoon, Mother. What can I do for you?”
“Gwendolyn! Dearest, how are you?” my mother asked, her voice too chipper to be anything but suspicious. “I’ve missed the sound of your voice.”
She wanted something. I could tell just from the break in her voice as she tried to give some indication that she gave a damn about anything, especially how I was doing.
“Is there something I can do for you?” I asked again, my tone much more forceful this time.
“What in the world makes you think I want anything, dear?” she asked, doing her best to sound offended. “I just wanted to know how you were doing, and perhaps why you happened to be emblazoned across the gossip section of this tabloid across my table?”
I frowned, a pit forming in the bottom of my stomach. What had they seen? Were there pictures of Tristan and I in bed together? My heart started to race at the possibilities of how all of this could go wrong. By the time this whole ordeal with my stepbrother was over, I’d need to be on at least two different anxiety medications.
“I’m sure I haven’t a clue what you mean, Mother,” I said, trying to sound as innocent as I could.
“Well, right here it says ‘Matchmaker Stepsister Making a Match for Playboy Stepbrother,’ ” she read aloud, still trying to feign confusion. “Is that true, dear? Are you trying to set up our Tristan with a woman?”
“He came to me to find himself a more stable relationship, yes,” I admitted, though I didn’t like the way my mother was prying. She never took an interest in who I did business with, let alone what Tristan got up to in his spare time. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I was just wondering how wise that would be,” she said. “Tristan isn’t really a man for stability, now, is he? I wouldn’t have thought you would have taken on such a hopeless cause.”
“Tristan seems very set on settling down, Mother. He wants to stop being seen as the brash party boy that he was for all these years. I’m rather proud of him,” I said, a defensive tone to my voice as I sat forward in my chair. Who was she to tell me whether or not one of my clients was worth my time or not, regardless of whether they were Tristan or the Queen herself.
“But where will that get him?” she asked, doing her best to sound as unassuming as possible and failing miserably. The more she talked the more I was convinced that her motives were far from pure. Tristan had mentioned the argument he’d had with his father a few days before, about how he’d known that Tristan and Patricia had been out having dinner with one another. Was this another one of his attempts to gather intelligence? “He’s not the kind of man who’s suited for married life—certainly not for a life of duty and service to his country.”
I felt myself tense in anger as I listened to my mother go on. This wasn’t just some time to gossip about my goings on, she was trying to convince me to give up on my case with Tristan. She wanted to be the mother of a duke, the child of noble birth that she’d always craved since before I was ever born. I never got her what she’d wanted, and now she had her chance and wasn’t about to give it up.
“And who would be a better heir, mother? Your fetus?”
For a moment the line was silent as my mother realized that she’d been found out. She never reacted well to her manipulations being called out into the light, and any moment I was expecting the kinds of verbal attacks I’d always gotten when I was a girl.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” she sneered. “Even an unborn child could hold your stepfather’s position with more grace and dignity than Tristan ever could.”
I felt the heat rising in my face as I sat there in silence, my muscles twitching. I only wished my mother had had the courage to come here herself so I might have the chance to slap her across her smug face. I hated her with every fiber of my being, and if she intended to stand in my way then I was going to make sure that she regretted it.
“I’m afraid I don’t agree, Mother,” I said, my tone icy. “Over these last few days Tristan has shown me that his time in the Army has changed him for the better. He’s become a dedicated man who has learned to put his duty over his own desires and I’m proud to say that I will continue to help him in the foreseeable future. Your fetus be damned.”
“You’re going to regret this, Gwendolyn,” she said in a low hiss. “If you throw your hat in with that bastard then you’ll share his fate. We’ll cut you off from this family just like your bastard stepbrother and forget all about you like the garbage you are.”
“At least we know where we stand,” I said adamantly. “Perhaps I’ll see you at Tristan’s wedding, mother. It should be quite the affair.”
“I should have had you torn out of me when I had the chance, you horrible little bitch—”
I ended the call, my breath coming out in hard bursts. I almost expected to see steam rising from my nostrils. I made a promise to myself right then and there that I would do everything in my power to have Tristan married and make sure that child never saw their privileged ass in that seat.
I opened up my computer and found Denise’s number. My stepbrother had better be on his damned best behavior this time.
56
I sat idly in the dining room of Desrosiers, waiting for my date to arrive.
I’d seen the pictures, read over the notes that Gwen had taken on the things that I should bring up over the course of dinner, but the more I thought about it the more nervous I became. It wasn’t so much whether or not I would like the woman—I couldn’t have cared one way or another at this point—but I honestly worried whether the more I dated the more of a wedge would be driven between my stepsister and I.
I had slowly been coming to terms with the fact that whatever the two of us had together would never actually work out—despite how much I knew we wanted one another, the fallout of our relationship would cause too much of a uproar for either of us to live quietly ever after. It had to be this way, whether I liked it or not.
I noticed her out of the corner of my eye at first, a gorgeously graceful woman gliding toward me in a glimmering silk dress. She almost floated across the floor as she walked, and if I hadn’t seen her feet, I’d have sworn they were at least an inch off the ground. She was a stunning woman by any standard, and I couldn't deny that I was enraptured as she took her seat, the waiter pulling out from behind her before she arrived and pushing it before departing.
“Tristan, I presume?” she said, a coy grin spreading across her face as
she set her small clutch in her lap. “I’ve been told a great deal about you—not all of which from your sister.”
“All good, I hope,” I said, smirking as I took a sip from my wine glass.
“Hardly,” she said, raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “You have a reputation for being a bit of a…”
“Playboy?” I prompted, hoping to draw some kind of reaction out of her other than that disgusted look on her face. This wasn’t off to a good start, and I didn’t like the odds of it getting any better.
“An idiot,” she corrected, her tone severe. “And if you intend on continuing any manner of liaisons with me, I will insist than such embarrassing behavior ceases at once.”
“You hardly know me,” I said, “Perhaps it would be best to leave your assumptions elsewhere while we have our first dinner together.”
“That will be for me to decide,” Denise sneered, and already I knew what had thrown me off about that expression—the look in her eyes that I’d seen in all those other photos Gwen had shown me—that was the same look that my father had on his face constantly. That overconfident, pompous sneer, looking down their noses at those they see as less fortunate than they.
She was everything that my father might have looked for in a wife, and for that reason alone I already despised her. But I knew that I would need to be civil for Gwen’s sake; I didn’t need to anger another of her clients, one who was more than willing to spend her money for what she wanted, especially if what she wanted was a man.
“Your sister says that you have a love of literature,” Denise said. “What manner of literature would that be?”
“I enjoy the classics, mostly,” I said, not at all wanting to discuss my favorite books in with such a snobbish woman. I was hoping something awful might happen to save me, like a monsoon or an earthquake.
“I see,” she said, her words clipped. “As broad and elusive as you are, apparently. You at least gets points for keeping yourself mysterious.”