 |
||
The Quintessential Q
Chapter Twenty Three
Temptation.
Emily walks into the mansion. She glances down at her watch and swears. "Emily darling, if you must use such language you should at least do it without a southern accent. Your mother blames Carly for enough already."
"OH Grandmother, I'm sorry. I was just running late with Elizabeth; it slipped out." Emily stammers embarassed at having disappointed her grandmother. "I'll be more careful. Nikolas is going to be here in half an hour and I have to get changed..."
"I'm sure that your young man won't mind waiting. Edward will keep him company."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." Emily races up the stairs and to her room. She starts dropping clothes as soon as she hits the door. She flips on the shower and then races to her closet. Back, back, way in back of the closet is the Winslow. She grabs the hanger and takes it into the bathroom putting it on the hook behind the door to ease out any wrinkles that might be in the outfit. She pins her hair up out of the way of the shower and climbs in. Feeling the minutes pass, and dreading any conversation between Edward and Nikolas she just as quickly jumps out and dries off and slips into the undergarments that would go with the outfit. "If I'm late Grandfather will probably start asking him about his prospects or something. Or God forbid-- dowries and property." Emily shudders.
She wipes away the misty film from the mirror and begins applying makeup. Emphasising her eyes, Emily goes for dramatic and catlike. Pulling the pins, her hair falls around her shoulders. Emily runs her fingers through it touselling it and going with a casual look. She pulls on the fluid leopard print skirt sliding it low on her hips and smoothing it down her legs. Grabbing the matching abbreviated top she shrugs into it wrapping the ties of the blouse around her and tieing it in the front. Emily checks the neckline in the mirror making sure that nothing shows-- that she doesn't want showing. She tugs on the tight long sleeves getting them lined up and comfortable extending over her wrist. Looking at her reflection she tilts her head to the side deciding what is missing. Emily reaches for her jewelry box and pulls out gold hoop earrings and a matching necklet of pounded gold. It had never seemed her style, but it went with the outfit. Emily walks back into her room her skirt eddying around her ankles. She slips into a pair of sandals, sitting on the bed as she fastens them. Taking a final look in the mirror she realizes there is one thing missing. Reaching into her closet she grabs a thin long summer weight coat. She belts it tightly and mutters to her reflection. "No heart attacks tonight, Grandfather. Feigned or not."
Emily walks down the stairs. She can already hear Nikolas and Grandfather's voices in the den. She winces then puts on her game face. Em opens the doors to the den. "Nikolas, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
Nik rises to his feet. "It was an opportunity to renew my admiration of your grandmother as well as clarify some things with your grandfather."
"Clarify." Emily winces. "Just what I feared."
"You'll have her home at a decent hour, young man." Edward demands looking longily at the closet where the rocksalt filled shotgun awaits.
"GRAND FATHER." Emily says warningly. "This is my summer break and I don't have any appointments scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'll call if I'm going to be late."
"You do have an appointment, young lady, a very EARLY appointment. With me. We have to go over that prominade proposal." Edward turns back to Nikolas. "Have her home at a decent hour."
"Of Course, Sir." Nikolas agrees politely, hiding a grin as he sees Emily rolling her eyes. "We should be going."
"Oh yes please." Emily agrees. Nikolas offers her his arm and they leave. Nikolas seats her in the passenger seat of the jag. He looks over to the still open door of the mansion. Edward is there with Reginald standing right behind him. He gives a brief wave to Edward (who grinds his teeth) then climbs into the driver side of the jag. Buckling up, Nikolas sedately puts the car in motion and eases up the drive.
Edward turns to Reginald. "Follow them."
"You got it, Mr Q." Reginald already has the car keys in his pocket and races to the town car.
Inside the jaguar, Nikolas glances over to Emily. "Am I assuming too much when I ask if you took my directive to heart and the coat was for your grandfather's benefit?"
"Grandfather has a sometimes convenient heart condition. How is your heart, Nikolas?" Emily teases.
"Just fine." Nikolas reaches over and one handedly starts untieing the knot of the coat. Emily brushes his hand away and parts the coat so that Nikolas can glimpse the outfit underneath. Nik takes a deep breath and the car swerves slightly. Emily closes the coat again.
"Keep your eyes on the road." Emily teases.
"Be careful what you wish for." Nik mutters keeping both hands firmly on the wheel of the Jag. He accelerates swiftly his goal to get to the restaurant as soon as possible and out from behind the wheel of a lethal weapon in the hands of a MUCH distracted driver. Reginald struggles to keep up while still keeping a discrete distance. Nik pulls up to the new hottest night spot in Port Charles. He climbs out of the car. While he is walking around the car, Emily unfastens the seat belt and sheds the coat. Nik opens the door. Emily reaches out a hand and Nik takes it assisting her from the low car. Emily stands next to Nikolas who takes a deep breath. "I really have to watch what I wish for."
Emily smooths down the skirt. "Too much?"
"Not enough in places." Nik grouses looking around him.
Emily places a hand on Nikolas' cheek. "You sound just like Grandfather."
Nik runs a hand up the sleeve of the outfit and then traces his finger down the neckline of the outfit. "This seems familiar. Similar to the outfit you were wearing in the portrait?"
Emily nods. "Gary Winslow. He designed them both. He had it messengered over at the shoot I did for him." Emily blinks at a sudden flash of light from off to the right of them. Nik turns abruptly ready to go after the photographer. "Nik, NO."
"He can't do that."
"Yes, he can-- he does it for a living. We're not doing anything wrong. And I don't want tonight to be ruined while you chase after someone that is already gone. Take me inside." Emily tugs on Nikolas' arm. Nikolas reluctantly turns away from the paparazzi and escorts Emily into the restaurant. They are greeted as the enter by the hostess and quickly seated at an intimate table for two. "I don't know if this was such a good idea." Emily says as she takes her seat.
"Why?"
"You and Johnny don't exactly have the greatest history, thanks to me."
"Ah yes, but he doesn't work for your brother anymore, does he? And we are out with the knowledge of your grandparents. Is there any reason why you wouldn't want Johnny to see us together, Emily?"
"No, of course not." Emily glances around the restaurant and sighs in relief when Johnny is no where in sight. The waitstaff fill the water goblets and offer menus with the night's specials inserted into them. Emily allows herself to be distracted by the menu. She was getting a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling but she allows herself to be distracted. Nikolas orders sparkling waters for both of them.
"See anything you like?"
"Too much. The chef Grandfather hired is okay but he isn't Cook. I had brunch here once after church. The food here is so good. And the desserts..." Emily licks her lips in greedy anticipation. "But I won't be modeling for long if I ate here too often."
Nikolas closes his menu. "Why don't you order for us both then?. You can have some of mine. Double your pleasure."
"Are you sure?" Emily hesitates.
Nikolas shrugs. "I leave myself in your hands."
"You're not allergic to anything, are you?" Emily glances up from the menu.
"Nope, go for it."
"Oh this is too much fun." Emily bites her lip and runs a finger over the menu. The wait staff returns and waits for Nikolas to indicate their selections. Nikolas indicates with a wave of his hand that Emily will be ordering. Emily looks up at the waiter and takes a deep breath. "The gentleman will have... the Grilled lobsters with Southeast asian dipping sauce." Emily looks over at Nik to make sure that she hasn't gone awry. "And I'll have the Linguine with scallion sauce and sauteed shrimp. We'll both have a side of the Roasted asparagus with lemon. Is it okay if I order the desserts now too?" Nik shrugs. "He'll have the Apricot Galette and I'll have..." Emily licks her lips, "the Cherry-fudge brownies with chocolate sauce and chocolate-dipped cherries." Emily closes the menu and then pops it back open again. "Oh yeah, could we get an order of coconut flan to go?" Emily hands the menu to the waiter. And turns back to Nikolas. "For Grandfather. He'll be in a much better mood if I can bribe him when I get in tonight."
"I'll keep it in mind." Nik nods. "Mrs Landsbury's scones are world famous."
"True. I remember them from when you were giving me fencing lessons."
"You seem to have a ...mild chocolate addiction."
"You noticed." Emily laughs. "I'll share I promise." Emily crosses her heart. "So what has been going on at the hospital?"
Nik fills Emily in on the volunteer department of the hospital and then asks, "How are things going at Deception?"
"Doing our major winter/spring shoot. Timberline Lodge in Oregon." Emily takes a sip of water and shifts in her seat. She doesn't know if Nikolas has any regrets about being bumped from Deception. Nik reaches out and takes Emily's hand.
"Deception was a distraction not a goal. It was fun while it lasted." Nik reassures Emily. "It's fun to hear what is going on mostly about the people there."
"Well I spend a lot of time with the guys down in R&D. That's where I was before I ran into you in my office today."
"I don't think I ever got down there." Nik admits.
"Not many people do. It's a pretty tight knit group down there and they're finally getting used to translating for me."
"Translating?"
"From Science to English, it's finally beginning to sink in." Emily says. "Maybe one of these days I'll be able to do a translation back from English to Science without a dictionary." Emily frowns. "I worry about the people down there. Some of them are so sterotypical; they love what they are doing and real life just kind of gets shoved aside. It's kind of like the stories you hear about the rap stars getting stuck with a lousy contract. The music company makes millions and the star goes bankrupt. I'm beginning to think these guys need an agent."
"I saw the contract that Katherine negotiated with the "nose" she stole from Lancome." Nik shakes his head. "They're doing just fine."
"But that's just it. She headhunted the guy. The people down in R&D aren't stupid. Far from it, they know exactly what that star is making." Emily leans in confidentially. "And even with the that addition to the department, the budget given to R&D was unchanged. You do the math or should I say subtraction. The only time they get the money they're worth is when they switch jobs. That seems kind of backward to me. It can take years to get a product from start to shelves. The scariest thing to me as a stockholder in Deception is that Jacks Cosmetics is right across town. The only think that keeps the salaries even somewhat competitive is the potential of Lucy Coe doing a little bit of headhunting of her own." Emily's eyes narrow. "I need to figure out a way, a package, that will not only retain staff but might also lure some of Lucy's."
"You've been hanging around Ned and Jax too much." Nik laughs.
Emily laughs. "Maybe, or Grandfather, It's all starting to rub off on me. Course they would all start spinning if they figured out I was trying to give the employees more money."
Nik starts thinking using all the lessons learned at Stefan's side over the years. "Of the two companies-- Deception and Jacks. Deception is smaller but healthier. Even having Katherine dead for months didn't hurt the company; market share actually went up while she was presumed dead. Jacks has had more persistent problems with the product tampering, and the latest scandal with the Serena line. Lucy has been dealing with persistent sabotage and it's taking a toll. The thing with the spa was a lucky break for Ned and Jax."
Emily is saved from answering (and possibly explaining that luck had nothing to do with it) by the arrival of their dinner. She looks over not only her plate but Nikolas' as well. Everything looks incredible and smells even better. Emily tries the shrimp and smothers a moan. She nods. "Okay, that's good. That's really good." Emily silently offers Nikolas a shrimp, rather than taking her fork, or transferring it to his own plate, he takes a bite of the shrimp directly from the fork she holds. Emily holds her breath as he savors the morsel and then nods at her.
"Excellent, Now try this." Following Nikolas' lead Emily takes a bite of the lobster directly from the lobster fork that Nikolas places next to her lips.
"Oh wow." Emily breaths as she finishes the sliver of lobster. She nods. "That's why I wanted to try that dish, the dipping sauce. Lobster soaked in butter , anything soaked in butter, does nothing for me. That is so good--spicy, tangy and sweet all at the same time. Nikolas leans over and kisses her. Lingering and savoring her lips.
"Delicious." He murmurs. "Are you hungry?"
"Ravenous." Emily breathes. "And I can't wait for dessert."
"Me either."
All recipes from the Epicurian web site. Dessert to follow in the next chapter.