Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire Read online

  The pale fabric of her knickers was sodden, almost transparent so that her labia were clearly visible in the patch of liquid cloth at the front. Leaving his cock as she stretched her own fingers around it, squeezing him, savouring his hardness, he moved his hand to between her legs, sliding fingers along her sex, pressing into her.

  Using both hands now, he lifted himself up slightly from the bed and hooked a finger from each hand into the elastic at either side of her hips. When he pulled, for a few seconds the stretching fabric dug into her flesh, hurt her, and when the cotton snapped and tore she gasped, her body thrilling with a rippling deep inside her.

  Now it was her turn. Completely naked, her breasts so swollen, so firm and sensitive as they swayed from side to side slightly, she leaned forward as she held onto his erection, gripping it as though it would have to be torn from her grasp. Lifting one knee onto the bed, she pushed him back with her other hand and he reclined gracefully, raising both of his hands now to those luscious breasts, squeezing them more gently than she grappled with him, showing her tender consideration even as she brutalised him with her small fist.

  There was no foreplay, no gentle prelude to their lovemaking. He was harder than she had ever seen him, and she was so desperate for him that when she positioned her hips above him, pressed the thick, smooth head of him against her lips, pushed herself down, her lubricated sex opened for him instantly.

  Again she climaxed, her head falling back, neck arched and her breasts rising, swelling more than she thought possible in his hands. Recognising her desperation, feeling it matched by his own, he was more vicious with her now, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of her until the skin went white around her nipples.

  When the inside of her head ceased flashing, when she became used once more to that incredible stiffness, that unbelievable hardness inside her rippling, velvet walls, she dropped her face towards his, her mouth hovering bare inches above his. Her buttocks began to rotate and sway, forcing herself down onto him, harder.

  He held onto her head, his hands holding her tightly as he looked directly into her eyes, sucking in her soul. She lifted up her abdomen, her curving, filling abdomen, and then forced herself down again. Rising and falling, she felt her thighs trembling, her sex slippery along his shaft. At last she began to speak, incoherent cries and pleas, supplications for mercy even though she desired no mercy.

  Their fucking was brutal, animalistic. His tenderness for her pregnancy did not prevent him filling her completely, and when she rolled to the side he placed his hand over her mouth, fingers sliding between her lips so that she could suck him down, bite him hard as he penetrated her. Her thighs were pressed together, and once again she was so slick with her own juices, her body melting in the sticky, cloying atmosphere of that bare, motel room, that he entered her with a force that made her scream at last.

  She did not know how many orgasms she had, was barely aware of anything any more other than the painful pleasure in her breasts, the burning intensity between her legs. At last she felt him collapse behind her, unable to continue, and she too moved from the burning white flashing inside her skull towards the soft, warm, comforting zone of sleeping darkness.

  Chapter nineteen

  When she awoke, the light was slowly filtering through the blinds across the window. It was still early, and Daniel lay next to her in the bed. He had not shaved since she had picked him up from jail, and his jaw was stubbling with the growth of several days. In some ways, thought Kris, this was fitting: when she had first met Daniel Logan he wore a beard that had disappeared with his transformation into Daniel Stone.

  This would be their second day back in Lisbon, their fifth day together since she had collected him from San Francisco County Jail. For the rest of that first day, they had not moved from the bed in the motel apart from when they had continued their lovemaking in the bathroom, soaping each other’s bodies and fucking each other like animals. Their hunger had turned that tawdry room, that meagre bed, into a divine bower of bliss, and when she had told Daniel of this he had surprised her with words from John Donne: “And now good-morrow to our waking souls, which watch not one another out of fear; for love, all love of other sights controls, and makes one little room an everywhere.”

  It was with some reluctance that they left that little everywhere the next morning and drove the four hundred miles from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Daniel had been relentless and, to Kris’s amazement, he had shared the driving with her. Although a little nervous at first, and somewhat rusty, he surprised both himself and her by taking the wheel admitting the task was made easier by the fact that this was an automatic.

  “I think this is the first time I’ve driven since I was at Comrie: I’m sure that makes you feel even more secure,” he had joked grimly, “but we need to make a move and I can’t expect you to drive the entire way.”

  In general, however, Kris felt safer when she was behind the wheel—and they were also able to make faster time when she took control, Daniel betraying the nervousness of an over-cautious driver. Nonetheless, he also demonstrated a determination about himself that went beyond anything she had known before, a quiet confidence that sent a thrill through her abdomen.

  “You’re probably wondering about the passport,” he said. “I’m sure Elaine would have told you all about it.”

  “Most of it,” Kris admitted. “Well, I know your real name is Logan, but she didn’t tell me where that passport had come from. It’s not legal, is it.”

  He shook his head. “Not entirely.”

  “Where did it come from, and why do you have it?”

  “Where it came from isn’t really important. With the right amount of money, such things are fairly easy to find. As to why I have it... A few years ago it struck me that I might require some additional security. My dealings with people like Felix and Max were starting to expose me in ways I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. Actually, I’ve never had cause to use it but now I don’t really want some people to know what I’m doing, where I’m going.”

  “Won’t those people be able to trace me?”

  He nodded. “If they want. But I don’t think they’re really looking for you. Forgive me for saying this, but they’ve only ever been interested in you insofar as they can use you to get to me.” He shook his head at this and then grinned. “That’s been their biggest mistake. You’re my secret weapon.”

  “Oh, how so?”

  “If nothing else, you give me the determination to carry on—long after I would have given up on my own. You make me stronger than them.”

  Kris frowned at this and said nothing. “Did I say something wrong?” he asked, suddenly worried.

  “There’s just one thing I have to know,” she told him, considering her words carefully. “Our marriage... is it legal, or was it a sham?”

  The look of shock in his eyes was her immediate reply, testimony to the fact that whatever stratagems he was planning, this deception of her was not one of them. She couldn’t help but smile at this, and his reply.

  “No. Never. Legally, I’m Daniel Stone. As for my other identity, only two people in the whole world know this now.”

  “A shame,” she teased him. “I wondered for a moment whether I was going to be a secret bigamist. The thought of two Daniels, Stone and Logan.” Despite herself, she started to become damp between her legs again, biting her lip slightly as he laughed. To take her mind off the filthy fantasy that was suddenly erupting in her mind, she continued: “Was part of your security the bank number on that encrypted drive?”

  He nodded. “Yes, it’s not much—a couple of million, I think.” She scoffed at his easy dismissal of what would have been a fortune to her a year before. “I don’t want to touch it till we leave the States, though. It could be traced. That means we’ll have to rely on your money till we get back to Europe.”

  She raised an eyebrow at this. “It’s a good job you’re so generous then.”

  And indeed, his desire to cover his tr
acks was circuitous. He admitted with some nervousness that using his Logan passport was untried and untested, and he didn’t want to fly out of one of the major airports where security would be particularly tight. From Vegas they would take an internal flight to Ohio, where he had checked via Armstrong that they would be able to fly directly to Lisbon. Again, he had told her, flights to London tended to attract greater security attention, so their safest bet was to fly to Portugal first and then head back to London.

  Which was why she woke up for the second morning in Alfama. She looked down at his sleeping face, so peaceful beside her in bed, his scars gentle traces across his face, the hairs of his eyebrows dark and rich, the thin sprinkling of grey at his temples a sign of his maturity. One of his arms was above the covers, the bicep thick though relaxed, his hand strong and secure as it rested lightly on her own naked shoulder.

  She had convinced him to rest for one day in Lisbon before they returned to London, to recover from their madcap dash across the United States and to stand some chance of getting over their jet lag. She knew, however, that this would be the day he had to travel to London. He had explained as they drove and flew: Maximilian had made him an offer, ridiculously low, for his stake in Stone Enterprises. He had refused, but Nathan Armstrong had informed him that the board of the company was meeting to throw him off the executive: his arrest and imprisonment, it appeared, was creating waves among the other board members, though Daniel himself was sure that Felix was stirring up trouble behind the scenes.

  At last Kris had to move, lift herself from the bed so that she could go to the toilet. Sliding her body from beneath Daniel’s arm, she slipped from the bed and went through to the bathroom, enjoying the clear sunlight as it entered the flat. Her body seemed to be changing almost daily now, the curve of her abdomen extending outwards in subtle ways. Amongst all the strange things that were occurring to her, another was that she never for a moment considered herself unattractive to Daniel. That he was here with her, that he dared so much for her and she for him, gave her renewed confidence in herself.

  By the time she returned to the bedroom, he was awake. She slid back into bed and kissed him, pressing her body—cooler now—against his masculine warmth. Smiling, he cupped his hands to her face, drawing her nearer, and when he penetrated her gently, she gasped with desire, holding him to her and the life that beat inside her womb.

  Today their lovemaking was brief: he had to prepare himself—she had to prepare herself. As he returned from the bathroom, however, still naked and gorgeous, those muscles of his iron hard from his exercise while in jail, he paused by her study. Seeing him enter, she came through from the bathroom, a large, baggy T-shirt covering her increasingly maternal figure.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, thinking that he might have come through to look at any work she might have done. Instead, he was standing at the window, looking out.

  “I was wondering whether you could see Chiado Shipping from here.”

  She frowned at this. “No, it’s a bit too far up the estuary. Why?”

  He turned and smiled at her, a little sadly she thought.

  “My difficulties didn’t begin with Chiado, but they became clearer there.” She came behind him, placing one hand on his shoulder, then her cheek, pressing her face into his warmth.

  “Do you know what I do? How Stone Enterprises makes money?” She kissed him, not replying. She probably knew more than he was aware of, but she also realised that such acts of confession were important to him.

  “You probably think that the story about my real name is a bigger betrayal,” he said, looking out of the window towards the river. “But you knew more about that than just about anyone before you even knew a single thing about Daniel Stone. Or Stone Enterprises. And that’s what I’m most guilty about.”

  He was silent for a few minutes, and when she looked up she could see his jaw clenching and unclenching. “I’ve told you before that we... restructure companies. Provide consultancy and services. That’s a nice euphemism for what I do—what I did. I was a corporate raider: if a company was ripe for takeover, we’d load up on debt, make a hostile bid, then leverage even further loans on the company once we’d acquired it. Workforce, R&D, dividends—all of it could go to hell so long as the bottom line of Stone Enterprises showed a healthy increase year after year.”

  He gave a deep sigh. “I could blame it all on Felix, on Max—certainly they refined my skills, pushed me further, harder. But the truth was I had a skill for it, a natural talent Max once told me.” He shook his head. “Do you remember Hardy, Briskin and Sorrell?”

  She took a step back and nodded. “Yes, why?” It had been a very long time since she had thought of her former employers.

  “They never recovered. I can’t say I was too disappointed: those old bastards running the show deserved what they got, but there would have been plenty others unemployed.” He shook his head, looking down towards the river once more.

  “I just couldn’t do it with Chiado. It meant too much for you. Felix knew what we should do, told me as much the first time he looked over the figures. Sack a quarter of the workforce, raise additional capital on the stock and via loans, start shifting the client list out to cheaper Chinese suppliers. Before I met you, I would have done it—and I wouldn’t have lost a moment’s sleep.”

  Kris had not returned to him, but let the distance between them remain. Her head was fixed, looking at him, but he still could not face her. Just as there had been a gauze between her and the priest when she had confessed as a young girl, so he couldn’t look at her now.

  “I had to find another way. Chiado was going to be my attempt. We all repeat the bullshit about how we’re the job creators, how governments should keep their hands off us, but I didn’t create anything. If there was any justification for what I did, it was that sometimes I was a natural predator stripping out the old, the dying, the failing who were just too stupid to realise they had to go, had to make space for new ways of doing things. But it wasn’t enough. Fuck it, even before I met you, I knew it wasn’t enough.”

  “Was that the reason for all your ‘charity cases’, as Felix called them?”

  He nodded. “Some small attempt to make recompense. Felix endured them because he thought they were a good tax dodge at first, until he saw just how much money I was putting into them.” Daniel shrugged.

  “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” His earlier words came back to her, and he finally turned his head towards her sharply, gazing on her face. She knew what the look in his eyes was seeking to know. Was he forgiven? She suddenly realised that she couldn’t answer that, not yet.

  “Did it work?” she asked instead.

  “Did what work?”

  “The new way of doing things, with Chiado?”

  He frowned. “I guess so. I made changes, worked alongside Guilherme Escada, made some suggestions as to how he could streamline operations—and I mean make things work more efficiently without firing people. Yes. For me, it worked. They could even begin to hire more after six months, but for Stone Enterprise, two or three percent growth is nothing when you’re used to twenty or even thirty percent being added to your bottom line.”

  Now she came forward, placed her hand on his shoulder. This was the touch of benediction, the touch of grace that he needed. And although it was not her place to give it, she realised, he reached up and took hold of her hand gratefully, squeezing her fingers tightly.

  “I guess I didn’t quite know all this,” she said softly, “but I realised more than you knew—more than both of us knew, I suppose. It’s all very well being the wife of a rich businessman and keeping my head buried in the sand. If I do that, then I’m as much to blame as you. Come on,” she lifted herself up on tiptoe so that she could kiss him on the cheek. “Let’s get breakfast and then you can get into some clean clothes. We have work to do. I suppose you'd better shave too,” she added, reaching up and fondling his stubble. “Da
niel Logan might be just too much of a surprise for your colleagues.”

  It was mid afternoon when they arrived in the centre of London, entering the clean, elegant atrium that marked the lobby of Stone Enterprises.

  Daniel had indeed shaved, a fact that made Kris slightly sad, but in his dark suit and tie he looked every inch the founder of this company. He glanced at his watch and then leaned down to kiss her.

  “The meeting should begin in half an hour. I’m pretty sure they still aren’t expecting me, but it won’t be very long before someone here recognises me and phones through. I better go. Wish me luck.”

  He had pecked her on her cheek, but she snaked an arm around him and pulled him closer to her mouth, her tongue penetrating between his lips, savouring the taste of him for a moment. “Good luck,” she whispered.

  As he went bounding towards the stairs, filled with a new vigour and sense of urgency, she turned her head looking for somewhere to buy a coffee. She was not sure how long the meeting would take place: Armstrong had told him that the board and shareholders were meeting to decide his fate today, and she had a strong suspicion that the sudden arrival of Daniel Stone, unannounced, would cause considerable distress for Felix Coltraine. That fact alone made her smile.

  There was nowhere obvious to go, so she went to the reception desk where another woman was standing, filling in details in the ledger on the counter.

  “Excuse me,” Kris asked the receptionist. “Could you tell me the nearest place to get a coffee?”

  As the receptionist gave her directions, the other woman turned to stare at her so intently that Kris began to feel rather odd.

  The woman was tall, considerably taller than Kris, and carried herself with a great air of elegance. Her hair was dark, cut a little above her neck, and her eyes were also dark brown. Her age was impossible to place accurately, but Kris had the sense that she was somewhat older than herself and even Daniel, perhaps in her late forties. She was beginning to feel a little disconcerted by the attention, and when she saw the woman’s hand outstretched on the ledger her heart froze for a second.