One Stolen Kiss (27 page)

“I’m still listening,” he murmured.

“
But then I had a problem. I couldn’t find the key to the room anywhere, I didn’t know what you’d done with it. So I had to throw down my shoes, climb over the balcony, and down the trellis in my bare feet. I grabbed my shoes, went back inside, and cleaned myself up a bit – a few of the other girls by this time also looked as though they’d had a roll through a hedge and were too busy trying to sort themselves out – luckily nobody noticed I’d lost my gloves, or my stockings, the dress was long enough to hide that. Your father Maksim arrived later to collect Roksana on behalf of your uncle, and I slipped him the jewellery case. Neither of us said anything – Roksy wasn’t in on it, so we couldn’t discuss what had happened. But he just gave me this
look
, and said thank you. I got the feeling he was very disappointed in you. I was kind of glad for your sake that you were tied up in that room and he was unlikely to run into you imminently. I came back soon as I could the next morning, before breakfast at the school – but there was no sign of you, so I guess you’d escaped. The cleaning staff had been round already too. I only realised what value those things possibly had when Roksy told me later that you’d shown her some Bolshevik diamonds, which you were taking to the bank. I had to look them up. No wonder – your father was bound to be mad. Flashing something like that around when technically they ought to be locked up in the Kremlin Armoury…”

“
Did my father pay you?” Adrik asked.

He glanced up, as Christie shook her head.

“No. He did send quite a large donation to the school. My parents assumed I’d done a good job of looking after Roksy, and bought me a car to take to University in France. I never told them what had happened either.” She stared into her empty coffee cup. “I always hoped that you and your father would have settled things, if I ever ran into you again. Not that you assumed for all this time that I really had stolen them.”

“
Do you think he’d have managed to keep me working in the shipyards for nine years, if he admitted he’d set me up?” Adrik queried.

“
I guess not.” Christie was scrunching her napkin now, nervously. “What I mean is, nobody else knew. Like the stuff about Derek Goldman – I don’t have any evidence. I don’t know where the diamonds are, or what your father did with them afterwards. I never heard from him again.”

“
Strange,” Adrik admitted. “You never struck me as somebody that anyone would have trouble remembering. And yet no-one of any significance seems to have been capable of keeping even the smallest memento of you.”

She nodded her defeat.

“I was hoping your father would have left some clues – or information – somewhere.”

“
Maybe he did. Perhaps I just haven’t found any yet.” Adrik drained his own coffee. Once more, he knew it would be a strange kind of story for a master thief to invent – one with no alibis. “What was the third thing you wanted to tell me?”

“
Third thing…?”

“
The third thing being, you have to tell me everything now,
because
…” he reminded her.

“
Because…” she echoed, again. And sighed. “I’m tired of keeping secrets.” The candle-light glinted off another tear as it crept down her cheek, and this time she didn’t move to stop it. “I love you, Adrik.”

He had to rub his own prickling eyes, although it was his hearing he really wanted confirmed.

“Since when?” he whispered.

“
Since – I don’t know.” More tears appeared to join their comrade. “When you walked into my gallery two weeks ago, just before I was about to admit I was the real Paparazzka to everyone I had painted those portraits of, I was already feeling the most scared and isolated I had ever felt in my life. But suddenly – you were there. After eleven years. And the next thing I knew I was standing on that podium in front of all those people, praying for help to get me through the next few minutes. Looking around the room, in one split second I saw that you were looking straight at me, and I knew you had guessed the truth… and I said your name out loud, by accident. I didn’t mean to frame you as Paparazzka.” She paused, hesitating, and he could see that more was fighting to get itself said and heard. “You asked me at the club afterwards, if have dreams about you. I do. Ever since we were here last…”

Adrik got up and walked around the table, the need to comfort her greater than any other at the moment, and pulled her from the chair up into his arms.

“Same goes for me,” he muttered, holding her close. She was like a trembling leaf in his embrace, and he hated himself for what he would have to do next. “You know I have to go, don’t you?”

She stiffened immediately.

“To my uncle’s place,” he continued. “Night before the wedding rules.”

Christie seemed to fall apart in his arms, and he tightened them, supporting her – even though he felt as though things were rapidly crumbling himself.

“The deal’s still on?” she asked, to his increasing concern. “But – I’ve told you everything…”

“
And there’s still an anonymous artist called Paparazzka out there somewhere, pretending to be Adrik Maksimov,” he remarked. “Or it might be the other way around. And remember, your side is only half of it… why? Have you changed your mind?”

“
No…” she sobbed into his shoulder, but even through his relief, he knew there was still more to come. “I just don’t know if I can – pretend…”

“
You’ve been pretending for far too long.” He kissed her hair and stroked her head, and shoulders and back. “Don’t think about pretending. Just marry me. We’ll work things out as we go along.”

* * * *

Once Christie had calmed down, and Hannah had been summoned to take her upstairs and ensure she was all right, Adrik reluctantly got into the passenger seat of his car, beside Lucas.

“
Stag night?” Lucas suggested, touching the ignition. “If we go to a casino with your uncle, don’t let me cash in my teeth this time.”

“
Hold that thought.”

Adrik couldn’t stop replaying her confession in his mind, as they cruised back up to the main road. He’d had his suspicions about Derek Goldman. Not that she had been involuntarily celibate for at least the last two years, although it did explain a lot. No wonder she couldn’t easily handle him touching her at first.

But the implication that the diamonds had supposedly found their way straight back into his father’s hands was complete news to him.

Would it be knowledge his father might have taken to the grave? What would be the purpose of that? He certainly wouldn’t have entrusted them to Adrik’s uncles. They’d have been traded in for armed stealth yachts and casino hotels, from Monaco to Las Vegas.

But finding the diamonds wasn’t his priority.

Christie and Maksim Senior were as bad as one another for keeping secrets to themselves, to their own detriment. How was he supposed to establish if she was telling the truth, with no alibis or witnesses?

“Maybe she’s right,” he muttered. “The only place for diamonds is in the Kremlin.”

“
The Kremlin?” Lucas overheard. “That funky assed painting that looks like a bunch of cake pops, in your room?”

Adrik felt his own heart miss a beat, leaving only a dull echo, deep in his chest.

That painting had come from Christie’s gallery. It had been a birthday present to him.

From his father’s old friend.

Zory Tamarkin.

“
Stop the car,” he said to Lucas. “I have to call someone.”

Adrik fumbled his cell phone from his pocket as he scrambled out, and opened his Contacts list, finding the number even though his hand badly threatened to shake.

“Zory,” he said, trying to sound calm and collected, when the call was answered. “Did my father set Christie up as a jewel thief for him, eleven years ago?”

There was a deathly pause. He could feel his heart now trying to pump its way free, like a battering ram.

“Quite literally at the eleventh hour, Adrik,” the old man replied, at last. “What took you so long?”

* * * *

Hannah offered to run Christie a bath, but feeling guilty for keeping the elderly housekeeper up late, Christie thanked her and let her go, saying she would do it herself.

She crouched by the tub in her en suite, resting her forearms along the rim and her chin on her arms, watching it fill, and dropping in a designer fizzing bath bomb containing vanilla, rose oil and real rose petals from the selection basket Joan had given her. The fizzer scooted around the tub, turning the steaming water a soft milky white, scattering its secret goodies like fireworks across the surface.

I love him…

The thought wouldn’t leave her alone. And she had said it, out loud.

He hadn’t said he felt the same way – not exactly – or she couldn’t tell if he had. The ache had been there inside her for so long, unidentified, she couldn’t say exactly when she had known. Tonight was the first time her feelings had manifested themselves as words.

Now she was even more concerned about their arrangement.

Did he believe her, or not?

Was the wedding still on? She was confused.

And she was going to have to sleep in that bed…

She turned her head to the side to look through the open bathroom door onto the stateroom. The lace curtains shielding the balcony billowed in the lakefront mountain breeze.

Turning the water off at the heavy brass tap, she got to her feet and padded back out of the en suite, across the bedroom, in order to close the balcony doors against the draft.

Christie slowed a little as she approached, unconsciously held back by the effort of wading into the territory of that old memory. She found herself noting that the small up-lights bordering the balcony itself were new, and that the wisteria creeper outside was interwoven with tiny white fairy bulbs, giving the outside space a gentle, unobtrusive glow.

It had been pitch black, on that night she had climbed down. She recalled feeling for every handhold and foothold in the iron trellis, and the number of times she had to stop to un-snag another handful of tulle skirt from the leaves…

And then a sudden thud brought her abruptly back to the present – as Adrik vaulted over the carved stone rail.

Both of them stopped dead, either side of the lace curtain.

Christie was frozen to the spot. She didn’t know which of them was the most startled.

“Going somewhere?” Adrik asked, after what seemed like enough time for an apocalypse to have passed without either of them noticing.

“
Just to close the door,” she whispered. “Or – my bath will get cold.”

She saw his eyes flicker beyond her, towards the bathroom, to confirm.

He conceded with a brief nod.

“
Can I come in first?”

Christie’s heart felt as though it was tugging on every muscle in her body.

“Should I be stopping you?” She took a step back, as he took one forward. “Night before the wedding rules…?”

“
No.”

He crossed the threshold, through the gauzy veil of net and lace, until nothing stood between them. A stalking panther, all in black.

“Confession time,” he said. “My turn.”

He reached out, and ran one finger down the bare skin of her arm, all the way from the end of her collarbone to the tip of her pinky.

“And there’s still something left that you owe me.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
.

Instantly, Christie guessed exactly why she was back in that same room.

With that same bed…

“
Don’t worry,” Adrik said to her, and he took both of her shoulders to guide her gently back towards it. “Your bath won’t get cold.”

She felt her knees buckle, stumbling, and he scooped her up instead, kissing her neck as he carried her the rest of the distance.

Oh, God…

How long had he been planning this?

There was the soft give of the pillows and sheets beneath her, and leaving another kiss on her temple, cheek and shoulder, breathing her in, Adrik reluctantly straightened up.

His hands went to his pockets. On tenterhooks as to what was about to happen, Christie couldn’t move.

Didn’t want to.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his.

“Do you want to know how I knew this place was available for a wedding at short notice?” he asked, in a low voice.

“
How?” she managed to breathe, her throat constricting, with the tension in the atmosphere between them.

“
I own it,” he admitted. “It was the first thing I bought when my father died, two years ago.”

The air left her lungs, and her lips were speechless at first.

“It was for sale?” she hazarded. “An opportunity you saw?”

“
No,” he replied. He seemed to be struggling to keep his expression emotionless, although his eyes were burning. “I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”

Now it was Christie’s cheeks that were burning. He noticed, and she saw him blink, forcing back a tear.

“I think I have more to confess than you did,” he said, and drew one of his hands from his pocket. “So I need your full attention.”

A shimmery, nude-coloured silk stocking followed it.

“This isn’t one of your stockings from New York,” he told her. “Although I still have those too. This one is from this bed. Eleven years ago.”

“
You kept my stockings?” she gasped. “All this time?”

“
I keep everything of yours.” He lifted one of her hands gently, and kissed the inside of her wrist. A muscle-weakening, tingling sensation poured into her from it. “I made Elsie go back to Portobello the day after we arrived home, to pick up all of your stuff from Derek Goldman’s house that you had donated to the charity shops. She nearly got herself arrested fighting some old lady for your crochet purse.”

In spite of her shock, a single thought fired through Christie’s mind, before it was gone. Just the one word.

Evidence…

Adrik wound one end of the stocking around her wrist, and tied a careful knot.

“Not too tight?” he queried, and she shook her head.

He raised her arm up above her onto the pillow, and threaded the stocking through the delicately wrought ironwork.

“My bedroom in London has almost the same layout as this one – did you notice?” he continued. His fingertip trailed down her now-restrained arm, stopping only at the edge of her halter-necked dress, where it curved around the outside of her breast and underneath her. She squirmed, deliciously ticklish. “Only the furniture is set out the other way around – like a mirror image. I had the balcony added to Holland Park after I moved in. It was deliberate. I wanted to be reminded of you.”

He reached for her other hand, the one wearing the engagement ring. Now seated on the edge of the bed beside her, he linked his fingers through hers at first and squeezed it, before uncurling them again and pressing his lips against her palm. She stroked his cheekbone lightly with the pad of her thumb, feeling a rogue tear streak beneath it.

“You were thinking about me…” she murmured in disbelief. “About what I did… all those years…?”

He closed his eyes and nodded, before peeling her hand away with a sigh, and leaning over her to bring it up level with the first at the metal headboard, securing it with the other end of the stocking.

“I’m sorry, Adrik,” she whispered, while his eyes were only a few inches from her own.

A tear splashed onto her cheek.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he muttered. His hands skimmed down now, parallel on either arm, making her shiver. He slid them underneath her, to the nape of her neck. “There’s more.”

She felt a pop as he opened the first self-covered button on the high-necked halter, followed by another, and trembled again. The dress was fitted from below the bust, and she had no bra that could have been worn underneath. With both of her wrists tied above her head, she knew she was excessively vulnerable.

So this is what it was like…

One of his hands returned to her side, and there was a slow tug of the zipper being pulled downwards, clicking apart notch by notch. He lowered his head to the base of her throat, and his lips grazed the fabric that was now just sitting there, able to lift it from her collarbone with only his teeth and tongue. The halter slipped free of her neck, and at the base of the zipper his fingers bunched the material, one gather at a time, gradually drawing it downwards, dragging exhaustingly over her awaiting skin.

He sat up slowly, and she saw his eyes were now incredibly dark, as he drew the fully undone dress all the way down to her hips. His gaze caressed her all the way, making her body want to scream out loud for him.

“
There is more…” he repeated, and she realised that like her, eleven years ago, he was having to focus his mind away from what was happening. His hands hesitated at her hips, and although he resisted touching her actual naked skin, his thumbs outlined their shape, where the dress still covered her. “Sometimes, I was angry about what happened. Especially after I was sent to work. It became all work and no play for Adrik, at my father’s insistence. I wasn’t even given the time to try and track you down, as I wanted to. Although I understand the reason for that now. From what you say, you didn’t have the diamonds anyway…”

He was still hesitating, but Christie allowed herself a small glimmer of hope. Maybe he
did
believe her…

“
Early on, what I mostly thought about was revenge,” he said, and at this point, he couldn’t meet her gaze, looking down at his hands stroking her hips instead. “Sometimes I would be welding a certain piece of metal, and I realised, I could make one of those things, that goes –
here –
and when I caught you, I would lock you in it, as a punishment.”

Christie was in shock.

“A chastity belt?” she gasped, at last, and he nodded. “Did you actually make one?”

“
No.” He gave a wry half-smile. “I designed a few in my head, but they never made it to the drawing-board. Or onto your body – lucky for you.”

Christie breathed out again, and something occurred to her.

“It’s not as if it would have harmed my sex-life,” she admitted. “I think I was being made to wear one inside my
own
head for the last few years. Most of the last decade, in fact.”

His eyes caught hers.

“Maybe just thinking about it worked,” he replied, and his face softened a little more. “Sorry.”

“
It wasn’t
your
psychic chastity belt that was forced on me,” she reminded him. “Trust me on that one.”

His hands squeezed her hips gently.

“I will try to remember that,” he said, concentrated again, and the dress began to inch its way downwards once more, skimming over her skin-tight lace shorts. “And then I had another idea for a punishment, when I was running teams at the shipyards later on. Trying to keep everyone happy. Solving all of their problems and ensuring they were working in safety to earn their pay. I had never been personally responsible for so many people’s lives. I was exhausted. I don’t think I slept through a whole night for five years.”

The satin dress left her body altogether at the toes, and slipped from the edge of the bed onto the floor. It was quickly forgotten, as Adrik’s fingertips were now following the loops and swirls of the lace pattern on her panties. He knew exactly the pace required to tease and torture her indefinitely.

Christie’s breathing became uneven. The heat began to spread outwards from his touch, in spite of what he was telling her.

“
So I thought one day, I might find you and seduce you again…” he mused. From his tone, she guessed he was still quite attached to that part of the plan, at least. “And I would teach you a lesson about what happens when your life suddenly changes and you are given that much responsibility. I was going to seduce you – and ensure that I would leave you pregnant.”

Christie swallowed, hard.

Thank God for Lucas…

“
But I decided that might not work, after all.” Adrik continued drawing his patterns of torture over her for a few seconds longer, before stopping. Instead, his hand ran away down to the back of her knee, pausing to tickle it. “I wasn’t confident about being able to leave, once I had you.”

“
When did you realise that?” she demanded.

“
Only about a week ago,” he grinned, and caught her legs as she struggled. “I’m joking! This was a long time past. Before my father died. One of the last things he said to me was that I should not hold grudges in life. But I think he was concerned about something else. That I would be corrupted by my uncles after he was gone, maybe sell off the company he had made me earn, to avenge myself against his memory and build a chain of sleazy casinos instead.”

“
Oh.” Christie wondered if she was allowed to voice a small concern. “Adrik, are your uncles really…?”

“
We won’t be talking about them,” he replied, now caressing her bare ankle. “But, hmmm. I guess, yes and no. No more than your friend Doug and his hip-hop crew, or Eileen’s lemon-growing Sicilian neighbours. And if I succeed in my evil plan, I assure you that they won’t be babysitting.”

Christie squirmed as he caught her ankles, pinning them down and winking at her.

“What about dog-sitting?” she teased, trying to wriggle free.

“
That’s definitely asking for it.” He dropped a kiss on her shin. “Your feet don’t reach quite close enough to the end of the bed to use another stocking this time. I’ll have to use this.”

Leaning across her ankles, he reached into his other pocket, and took out the coil of black ribbon, that had held the corset back of her opera-night Gaultier gown together in London.

“Did you just say a minute ago, you might find me, and seduce me
again?
” Christie asked suddenly.

“
That was another thing I was going to confess.” He made a loop and tied it around one of her ankles, wrapping the long ribbon around twice. “It’s true, I did mean to seduce you. And I took the key out of the door to this room quite early that evening. When I first saw you talking to Roksana…” He paused, feeding the ribbon through the decorative footboard, and back up to her other ankle to restrain it. “I thought you were an angel. Don’t struggle now. It’s not too tight at the moment, but that ribbon might damage your circulation if you pull against it.”

Christie lay still, wondering what was coming next. He scooted back up the bed, still seated alongside her.

“I was consumed by my own thoughts about you,” he told her. “Obsessed. You were in my mind, and my dreams, everywhere I looked, something seemed to remind me. I could not forget you. Diamonds or no diamonds. It was never about losing the diamonds, not for me. That was a minor embarrassment. Hardly a great financial loss, at my father’s level. A mere test that I had failed.” He drew the other stocking out of his pocket now, and studied it. “I think this is a little more see-through than the gloves. So you will have to keep your eyes closed too. And I will know if you blink.”

“
You don’t have the gloves, then,” she concluded.

“
No – I have them. Just not with me,” he told her. “I know all about the last time someone asked if you had any gloves on your person. Close your eyes.”

Christie obliged, and felt the silk settle across her eyelids. Then there was only a small movement and a light tug, as he secured the makeshift blindfold around her head and tied it just above and behind one ear.

“I continued to obsess,” Adrik said, and he was checking the blindfold, coaxing a few strands of hair free that might invade her eyes. “Right up until I did find you. But then I saw that something in your life was already troubling you. Perhaps that you were in greater trouble than you knew. You were hurting inside – and even if you were still the bad Christie that I remembered – I wanted to make it better.”

She felt the mattress give along the length of her right side, and guessed he was now lying next to her, on the very same bed where this had all started. He still didn’t touch her, except for where he finished adjusting the stocking tied over her eyes. He ran one finger down from it, following the line of her cheek to the tip of her chin.

And then there was the warmth of his lips on hers, briefly, sending shockwaves down her body. A tiny whimper of need escaped her, before he withdrew.