Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 509

He went quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again his voice had gone low and warm. "I will be waiting at the bottom of the stairs when you arrive. The whole world can watch, and I will still only see you."

"Then go and greet your guests," I said softly. "I will see you soon."

"I love you, Celeste."

"I love you too, Dominic."

The line went dead, and I stood there holding the phone to my chest, grinning like a fool at my own reflection. She grinned back at me, this woman in emerald silk. My cheeks had a glow that owed nothing to Margaux's brushes. My eyes were bright, lit from the inside, and the dress caught the light and threw it back in rivers of deep green. I looked the way I felt, and I felt like the luckiest woman alive.

I looked at my reflection for what must have been the millionth time that day, turning this way and that, watching the silk move with me, and I still could not quite believe that in less than an hour, the man I loved was going to stand in front of the most powerful people in the world and tell them that I was his.

The room had begun to feel too small for all the joy in my chest, so I stepped out onto the balcony to let the evening find me.

The air outside was soft and warm, with the first cool edge of the coming night brushing across my bare shoulders. Below me the hotel grounds spread out in careful green lawns and stone paths, and the sky had begun to turn the pale gold of late afternoon. I had almost thirty minutes before the limousine arrived, and I wanted to spend them here, with the breeze on my face and the quiet around me.

Technically, I was not even alone now. Somewhere out of sight, Sparrow's men were watching the hotel, patient and invisible, and the thought of them there, of Dominic's careful hand reaching all the way across the city to keep me safe, made me smile again.

I was standing at the railing, letting the breeze cool the back of my neck, when something below caught my eye.

It was a scene by the pool.

Five women stood on the stone terrace beside the water, and even from this height I could tell that something was wrong with the picture they made. Four of them were standing. One of them was not. She was on her knees in front of the others, her head bowed, her shoulders curved inward like she was trying to make herself smaller, and the women standing over her had the easy, careless posture of people who had all the power in the moment.