Page 50 of Sinful Beauty

“When does ski season start?”

“Depends on the snow.” He shrugs. “I suppose ages ago places might have opened in November. That’s a bygone era. December is about as early as you’ll find, and the skiing is dicey.”

He drives like he knows this area. Or at least, he’s not as enamored as I am with the landscape.

“Are you an expert skier?”

He looks at me like that’s an absurd question. He’s an expert at everything he does. “Do you want to learn how to ski?”

His question throws me. It’s not an option.

“Maybe one weekend we’ll come out and I’ll show you.” He answers as if I answered him, but I said nothing. “They have slopes here for every level.”

The ridiculousness of his statement has me staring out the window and focusing on the here and now. The scenery, the vehicle, a night away. A fantasy to be relished and savored.

A vision of Mrs. Wagner’s disgust mars the scenery. The feeling this morning was one of wilting under her scrutiny. I couldn’t get away fast enough. And while I concur with Tristan’s logic that she won’t seek to get me fired out of fear of how it will look for her and her son, I don’t wish to endure her again.

“I suppose one advantage of going away is we won’t run into anyone we know.” I side eye him, wanting confirmation I’m spot on and he’s of a similar mindset.

“That’s always an advantage.” He releases my hand and presses to skip the song playing. I don’t recognize the track, but it resembled screeching more than music. “You know, what I said back at your place, that you don’t need to worry about my mother, it’s true. Your job is safe.”

“We’re breaking company policy. If anyone found out, it wouldn’t be good.”

“No one will find out.” He shifts in his seat. “You hear most of the rumors, right?”

“What rumors?”

“Rumors exist within every company. You knew, for example, that the William Salo chap was cheating on his wife.”

“Actually, no, I didn’t know that. I had heard nothing about that until after the incident.”

“Right.” He chews on the corner of his lip. “Well, I suppose some rumors are so ancient you wouldn’t have heard them either. And I’m going to share something with you, but you can’t go telling people.”

“You can trust me. I won’t say anything.” Without Khalani, there are few people I gossip with these days, anyway. The last year has felt like a monumental shift, and I’m the last expat from our group of friends standing, so to speak.

“My mother and father met at work. Did you know that?”

“Your mother was an assistant?”

“Oh, no. I think she was more what would be a director level today. My grandfather told me it had been quite the scandal.”

“Why would he tell you that?”

“Oh, my parents were giving me grief over some choice I made when I was off at school. He was retired and so he was the one who made the trek to visit me when they had visitations and such. Or he’d take me away on holiday.” Tristan’s eyes soften when he talks about his grandfather. Portraits of his grandfather hang in three different places within the building. There’s a family resemblance, but it’s not instantly noticeable. You have to study his facial features to find the similarity in the shape of the eyes and the jawline.

“You loved him.”

“My grandfather?” He wears a soft smile as he nods. “Absolutely. The best of men.” He swallows and returns from wherever he drifted. “But I suppose that’s also why I don’t care so much for the non fraternization policies companies embrace these days. It’s all rubbish. Especially within Lumina. I wouldn’t be here if the owner of the company and his report had followed policy. And I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met over the years who either met their significant other at work or whose parents met at work. So you see, my mother would never turn us in. I can’t imagine she agrees with the policy either. She doesn’t even work at Lumina.”

“She’s there a lot.”

“It’s hard for her to let go. And she’s there because she’s trying to pave the way for me. She has a dream I’ll take over the reins.”

That’s exactly what Mr. Peltz and Graeme had been theorizing…and Peltz feared. Graeme hadn’t cared, but why would he? He doesn’t have ambitions of climbing to the helm.

“Is that what you want? To run the company one day?”

“No.” The way he looks at me, there’s a mix of humor laced with honesty. He’s the sexiest, most handsome man I’ve ever known. When I first saw him, he seemed untouchable. But he’s not. He’s real. Privileged and out of touch, but sincere.

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