The Affair

Emma recalled what he’d said that first time she’d officially met him about the “vampires” at press events. “Yes. Has he always been so reserved?”

Niki turned his highball glass distractedly. “No. He was a hotheaded teenager. It wasn’t that he wanted to be the center of attention or anything, but it was like he couldn’t stop it from happening . . . a little like expecting a raging inferno to be dim,” Niki said with a rueful sideways glance. Emma nodded in understanding.

“What happened to change him?” Emma asked quietly.

“Life. Death. Then . . . Meredith,” Niki said simply. He met Emma’s stare, and she could tell he was curious as to whether she knew who Meredith was. She didn’t, technically, but she made a guess.

“His wife?” she asked.

Niki nodded, looking a little relieved that she knew. “He was only twenty-two when she died. First he lost his mother young to leukemia, then—”

“Adrian,” Emma finished soberly.

Niki blinked. She had a feeling Niki Dellis didn’t look surprised often.

“Va

“He met Meredith?” Emma asked through a tight throat.

Niki shrugged. “I never really knew if it was Meredith who did it, or if Va

“What did Meredith die of?” Emma asked in a hushed tone.

“Thyroid cancer. It spread very fast, once she was diagnosed.”

Emma found herself staring at Va

“After Meredith passed, he seemed to completely shut down emotionally. He turned cold and methodical—ideal for eventually being the head of two separate multibillion-dollar companies, but not so much for anything else. He eventually built that new house in the place where Adrian died, almost as if he wanted to . . .”

“Punish himself?” Emma asked, dread filling her chest cavity. She turned to Niki and met his stare. He was looking at her with blank incredulity.

“You’ve guessed that? Surely he’d never tell you—”

“No,” Emma mouthed, swallowing thickly. “I guessed from something Cristina said, when she was dying. And just . . . intuition.”

Niki didn’t respond for a moment, but then he set down his glass with a thud. Va

“Va

Emma stared at Niki, stu

Niki nodded thoughtfully. “You don’t need to tell me that. Michael was not the kindest of men, although he was a force to be reckoned with. He did have his moments . . .”

Neither of them spoke for a moment when Niki drifted off, both seemingly lost in their own thoughts.

“They were both caught up by the riptide, you know,” Niki said quietly. “From what I gather—because Va

“He could only save himself,” Emma whispered, shivers crawling across her skin.

“He was all of nine years old,” Niki said, his mouth pressed into a grim line. “He was lucky to have accomplished that.”

“He believes the opposite. He thinks he’s cursed,” Emma said softly.

Niki sighed and met her stare. “There’s one thing I can be thankful for. Tragedy hasn’t struck him in years. If he was cursed, so to speak, hopefully the storm has passed. Sometimes I think if something else horrible happened to him, it’d end him.”

Emma swallowed thickly, trying to ignore the spasm in her chest cavity.

Chapter 31

A little while later, the restaurant started to clear. Emma was leaving the ladies’ room, when someone caught her hand and halted her. She looked around and saw Mario Acarde standing there.

“I’ve been trying to find you all night,” he told her, the thickness of his speech making her think he’d had a bit too much to drink.

“Really?” Emma asked in a friendly, neutral tone, removing her hand from his. “I’ve been sitting in the same place the whole time.” Another hand enclosed the one she’d just dropped. She looked over her shoulder.

“Hi,” she said, smiling.

“Hello. Sorry for leaving you like that. Everyone has something to say about the race,” Va

“Are you off to the tables?” Mario called, but Va

“Encore une chanson, s’il vous plait?” Va

The man looked down appreciatively at his palm. “Avec plaisir, monsieur.”

The musicians all took up their instruments again and at a signal from the leader began playing. Va

“Do you always do things perfectly?” she asked softly.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re playing ‘Moonlight Serenade,’ ” she said with a small laugh, glancing significantly out at the moonlit water.

“It’s not me who is perfect tonight,” he murmured. Her breath caught when his lips closed gently over hers and lingered as they spun to the music. Her flesh tingled next to his solid length. It was pure magic.