Page 106 of The Chalet Girl

‘Look, I didn’t push my dad down a ravine and I swear I never had a conversation with this Jenny girl, let alone had sex with her.’

Tristan stroked Emme’s cheek.

‘Come on, it’s not a crime to be a single guy and sleep with a woman. Or two.’

Tristan’s tone was transparent and honest and Emme admired him all the more for it. ‘I never professed that either Vivian or Anastasia were the love of my life, although I know morally, it was perhaps unwise…’ He smiled. Emme threw him a theatrical frown as if to sayyou can say that again.

‘I didn’t sleep with your predecessor, I swear. And I’ve never lied to you about what I’ve done or haven’t done, have I?’

‘No but I’ve seen how easily you do.’

Tristan frowned.

‘I’m an open book,’ he said, and leaned in to kiss Emme.

‘So what was this morning about?’

‘You caught me off guard. I wasn’t in the mood to talk about my dad then, but I’ve had some time. I thought about you. I wanted to bring you up here and show you.’

Emme looked at him and melted as they kissed, passionately, naked and entwined. She still couldn’t believe this was happening so hard and so fast. Or what Tristan might see in her.

He pulled back.

‘Look, I have to go back to Cape Town.’

Emme groaned.

‘When?’

‘Next weekend, for about a week, maybe ten days. See my mother. Go through some business stuff.’

Emme looked a little dejected.

‘I’ll be back for Christmas, and I wouldloveto spend it with you, if you’re around?’

Emme needed to have a conversation with Lexy about which days she was needed over the Christmas holiday. She had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off for sure, and the thought of a Christmas reunion with Tristan was enchanting.

After luxuriating together under Tristan’s rain shower, where Emme examined every beautiful mole on his body– and took his cock in her mouth– she got dressed, and Tristan led her by the hand towards the lobby.

‘What about this week?’ she said, as they exited the penthouse lift. ‘I hate leaving it to chance to bump into you.’ They kissed again, under the sparkling shards of the art installation in the centre of Vitreum’s lobby and all the people milling around them.

Tristan broke off.

‘Give me your number, yah?’ he said, handing his phone over to her. She pressed her digits into it, and handed it back. ‘And we have this week, I’m not flying until Saturday,’ he smiled.

Emme knew as she said goodbye and walked towards the mountain lift, reborn and reset, that a lot could happen in Kristalldorf in a week.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

‘My dear, you were excellent,’ Walter said to his daughter from his desk in the large plush office on the fourth floor of the Alpenrose.

Vivian smiled, graciously.

She had just hosted the monthly business breakfast, for all of Kristalldorf’s movers and shakers. A select group met monthly to talk about issues in the town, taking it in turns to chair the meeting, and today Vivian Steinherr had been at the helm. She knew her pride was at stake after the Kivvi Christingle last weekend, but Vivian did what she did best: held her head high, put on a smile, and ensured the boardroom table was brimming with pastries, juices and artisan sausage rolls, all provided by Tomasso, the head chef at the Alpenrose. She led the meeting by talking about urgent business for peak season and Christmas, and asked all the hoteliers present to share room occupancy, so that everyone could get a handle on how busy the town, its hotels and restaurants would be, as it affected them all. Everyone was courteous and reported back. No one made a mention of her boyfriend sleeping with her sister and being punched to the floor by Walter’s attorney.

Samuel Sommar had attended as usual, raising the issue of the lack of accommodation in town for the workers.Oliver Koch wanted to talk about April’s music festival, Kristalldorf Sessions, and said he had sponsored a new big top for the central venue. Walter Steinherr announced he wanted to freeze the ski lift prices for next year, which was met with raised eyebrows from Koch and Sommar. Walter had increased the Kristallpass price every year they could remember. And Alexey Stognev, who usually shunned the monthly business breakfast, asked about planning permission for a full heliport up at Vitreum, which the others had shot down.

‘We can’t be a carless village with two heliports chugging overhead!’ Sommar protested. ‘It’s enough you have a permit for one helicopter to land up there! It’s a protected wildlife area!’