Free Refracted Crystal: Diamonds and Desire by M. J. Lawless Page A

swallow a little sense of disappointment that she was missing out on some essential experience. She was also somewhat surprised, glancing at the menus as they entered, to see how inexpensive this place was compared to those Daniel usually took her. As he pushed his large frame between a couple of Chinese patrons, however, food clearly on his mind, the scents assaulting Kris’s nostrils began to tempt her own desires and she followed him in.
    As he sat down, he began to speak to the waiter and Kris did a double take. The waiter himself frowned a little and so Daniel repeated himself more slowly. When the man walked away, Kris’s mouth fell open in shock.
    “I didn’t know you spoke Chinese!” she exclaimed, dropping her voice when she realised just how loudly she was speaking.
    Daniel grinned at her and opened a paper package next to him, retrieving chop sticks that he broke apart. “I think you’ve just heard the complete range of my Mandarin,” he told her. “I thought it would be a good idea to learn some basics for that trip Felix and I took out to Beijing a couple of months ago.” He looked at the waiter receding towards the kitchens and his grin became a wry smile. “Not that I think I’ll be winning any awards for my communication skills. I have a slight horror of what I may be ordering tonight...”
    As it turned out, the dim sum and other dishes were some of the most delicious things that Kris had ever tasted, though worried about her weight she restricted her eating a little. She still felt a little queasy from time to time and thought that the experience at Victor’s had thrown her more than she expected. Indeed, the memory of that alone made her stomach lurch a little and she quickly repressed any further recollections.
    Daniel, by contrast, looked more relaxed than he had in a very long time, stuffing food into his mouth and chatting with her without a care in the world. It took Kris some time to realise why: he had been so glued to a phone or tablet in recent months that she had barely seen him parted from them and the constant stream of demands on him that they represented. Although she had had a recent shock, she also remembered that it was she who had forced the point, driven to it by that damn trouble-stirrer, Felix Coltraine. By contrast, here in a restaurant in San Francisco, she suddenly realised that the man who would be her husband in three days time, aside from his physical presence and more animated face, looked more like a regular guy than at any time since she had known him, more at peace and contented with himself. Sipping her water and listening to him explain the history of Chinatown she smiled indulgently, her eyes shining as she watched him.

 

Chapter Seven
     
    As the driver opened the car door, Kris stepped out carefully, brushing her white dress so that any minor creases that were beginning to form would ease out of the simple, beautiful fabric. As she stood, the dress came to just beneath her knees, her white shoes clean and pristine, and her dark hair tied up on one side. Her only embellishments were an elegant diamond brooch which Daniel had presented to her the night before.
    As Daniel came around to the side of the car, dressed in a dark, charcoal suit and with a blue and gold tie, she thought how handsome he looked when he reached out his hand for hers. He was always meticulous in his appearance, but after a few days of seeing him dressed more casually his preparation for this day was even more stunning. In her heels, she came up to just above his shoulder as the driver stood to one side, and he smiled down at her, the dark hair above his ears flecked with grey, the scars across his strong face mild memories of a past that had brought them here. Nothing else mattered: today, she would be his in a way that went beyond anything else they had done together, and he would be hers.
    Her only slight irritation was that the dress she had chosen so carefully a month before when