Masters & Lovers Box Set Three

Chapter 18

*****

Ten minutes later, up to our chests in warm water and foam, I fill the flutes, passing them across.

“’Scuse me a mo,” says Charlotte, then slides under the surface. She rises again a few seconds later, snorting bubbles.

“How do you feel now?” I ask.

James tips his glass to me, smiling, but he doesn’t speak. Then, his lids drooping, he looks away.

*****

 

Klempner - Twenty-Six Years Ago

I step out, feeling bright. Everything is going perfectly.

Bech’s done well…

Nothing like a little competition to get the prices up

Another shipment like that and I can open the east wing at Blessingmoors…

So Yakovlevski wants a mix...

A couple of leggy Russian types ought to fit in well…

Back to Helsinki…

But first I want to see the apartment. Keys jingling in my pocket, I head out.

Will she like it?

But as the lock turns smoothly and the door clicks open, my doubts settle.

What's not to like?

The space is bright and airy, morning sunshine spilling through panes and onto, as I requested, new flooring and walls painted in cool neutral colours.

Much better than what she has…

And she can soon put her own stamp on it…

The carpets are deep and thick. Nonetheless, my footsteps echo in the empty rooms.

To furnish or not to furnish…?

Let her choose from the start?

Or furnish first then she can change it to suit herself?

the style she already

Not easy…

No.

part with the marina, small shops selling souvenirs and knick-knacks and

She’ll like that…

if she’d like

her

She’s artistic…

talented… Easily

Don’t get distracted.

the rest of the apartment, the room

How to play this…?

Bookshelves…

Definitely.

Double bed...?

I have never

take her clients

she has a

head out for one of the large local

*****

Her phone rings.

“Hello?”

it’s Larry. I was wondering,

Meet you at the

you something. I’ll send a cab for

“That’s great. What time?”

“About two?”

“I’ll see you then.”

*****

my pacing is wearing a track in the carpet. I turn

there, smiling and lovely, in the fur-lined boots and gloves I bought her in Finland, enfolded in a huge woollen shawl and with a scarf covering half her face. Poking out from under the shawl is one

Come into the warm.

“It’s nothing like so cold as Helsinki if you read the thermometer, but that damp breeze…” She shivers. “Hope you don’t mind…” She looks sheepish as she slips off the boots and fishes low-heeled court shoes from her bag.

she offers the bag.

Come sit by the fire. What would you like to drink? Something hot

“Lovely.”

in both hands as she perches on a stool by the flames, she looks around. “Have

owner’s stamp on

enveloped in a towel and even

as the cloth falls away, I see

… extraordinary…

I

around to look at it with me. “You

do, yes.

sunset. I painted it to give

does she

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