She whirled on her angrily. "Mrs. Davis." Bette corrected immediately. "I don't know who you are, or what the hell you think you're doing, but you're way out of line missie."
Olivia took a step back in shock. She didn't even get a chance to defend herself before she was attacked again.
"Now-" Bette's finger pointed down at her. "Just for my own sick curiosity, how in the name of all that is sacred does an urchin like you know my first name?"
Olivia gulped and tried not to let Bette's anger get to her. Francesca circled Bette thoughtfully. "She's not a very nice woman is she? I suppose it's not too surprising. Without a real friend to turn too she never had the courage to get out of her fourth marriage. Little Emily did need a mother after all. Not that her daughter even talks to her anymore. She's never been good enough. Not for her husband, not for her daughter. It's no wonder she hates everyone and everything."
Bette tapped her foot irritably. "I'm waiting-"
Olivia shook her head. "I'm sorry. I-" She paused, trying to come up with a good story. Anything plausible.
Francesca leaned over Bette's shoulder. "You saw her name in the paper once."
Olivia sighed in annoyance and came up with her own story. "You remind me of someone I used to know."
"Keep your reminiscing to yourself." The elevator opened onto the top floor and Bette shoved Olivia out in front of her. "Get a move on, I have reports to turn in."
Olivia's eyes flew to Francesca who was examining a potted plant. "Reports?" She whispered.
"She works for him." Francesca sighed sadly and watched as Bette's posture stiffened. "Accounting. Bette's always been fond of spending money. He lets her. She likes it because she's doing something. Anything that takes her away from the misery of her life."
Olivia was ready to wait until Bette was finished. She expected a brief conversation and standing in Gregory's waiting room gave her some time to think. The plants were lush and expensive. The art on the walls was old, Grecian frescos of war and conquest. Psychological warfare of the oldest kind. Proving to his enemy just how strong he was. Making his visitors wait in the most opulent of surroundings.
Because he could.
Olivia shivered. Bette only took a few moments. The great oak door swung open and Gregory's office yawned in front of her like a cave.
Bette brushed past her rudely, knocking against her shoulder. Olivia turned to Francesca, the angel just looked sad. As if she knew what things were to come.
No secretary called her in. Bette's glare burned into her back as she walked towards the door. Olivia pulled herself together. There was no way to prepare to see him again. Not when he was dead. She'd been to his funeral. She'd watched Annie make a mockery of his like.
And he looked up at her from his desk, Gregory filled his briefcase. He stopped and studied her. It had been twenty-five years since Gregory had looked at her that way.
He was completely the same. His hair was the same length. She know his black suit and nearly patterned tie. She knew the way he titled his head and waited for her to speak.
When she failed, he began for her. "I know I haven't the pleasure of meeting you. As face like yours-" He snapped his briefcase shut. "Is one I'd remember."
Olivia held her gaze as steady as she could with the butterflies in her stomach. Her heart pounded in her throat.
"I'm Gregory Richards."
"Your reputation proceeds you." Olivia's feet brought her towards him. He emerged from behind the desk, his hands slipping into his pockets. "Your name's all over town."
He took it as a complement and pride flashed in his brown eyes. Gregory began to smile and her heart melted in her chest. She'd missed that smile. More than she thought it was possible.
"What am I going to have to do to earn yours?"
"It's not important." Olivia offered as her feet took another step towards him. She wanted to hold him. To crushed him to her chest and confess she'd never been as lost as she'd been without him.
"Perhaps you're right. A face as lovely as yours is beyond the simplicity of a name." He was teasing her, sizing her up. Olivia could feel his eyes on her chest.
"Why do I get the feeling you already know?"
Gregory laughed easily, leaning back against his desk as she called his bluff. "You are Olivia Blake. You appeared mysteriously in town this morning and lost all of your posessions in a nasty mugging incident on the pier." His right hand extended towards her. "I do hope you won't hold that against me."
Electricity shot up her arm and stung her eyes as she shook his hand. "It's hardly your fault."
"I feel a certain responsibility. Sunset Beach is my home."
"All the same-" His eyes bored into her. "You know what-" Looking at his watch for a moment, he smiled up at her. "I haven't had dinner yet, why don't you join me?"
Francesca cooed with interest. "Say yes." She circled him like a hawk circles a rabbit. "He wants you."
Olivia gulped and nearly lost her breath. "I don't have-"
He waved her off. "My treat."
Francesca ran her hands over his shoulders, grinning wickedly as he shivered under her touch. "You don't have anything to wear."
"I don't." Olivia whispered too loudly for him not to hear.
"You don't what?" Gregory's eyes twinkled and his gaze was never off of her. He was truly fascinated by every move she made. "Surely you won't make me spend Christmas Eve alone?"
"Alone?" Olivia's heart went out to him. Her head was so light. "Don't you have family?" She still expected some trophy wife, some tramp that he took to bed and dressed up when he had company.
"No, I'm afraid I don't have any family." Gregory replied sadly as he lifted her hand thoughtfully to his lips. "Why should we be alone tonight when we could share something-" His lips were as hot as she remembered. "Special."
Francesca whistled suggestively and wrapped her hands around his waist. Feeling nothing but a slight chill, Gregory opened the door and waved her out just steps ahead of him. His hand brushed the small of her back and even through her sweatshirt, she could feel every part of his hand. It burned through the fabric.
"You're going to need something to wear." Gregory mused as he turned the little golden key that brought the the express button elevator. He let her in first.
Francesca tripped along, giggling as she settled into a corner of the elevator. "How do you feel about a dead woman's clothes?" She whispered from her place in the back. He's thinking about a dress he bought Alex Mitchum. The one she was supposed to wear the night he proposed. When he finally left his lonely life and found love-"
Olivia shivered in horror and Gregory, thinking it was the cold, set down his briefcase. Thoughtfully removing his suit jacket, he draped it over her shoulders.
"Really is too bad about that plane crash in the African Savannah. He was this close-" She held up her thumb and index finger with a hair of space between them. "To really being happy."
"Excuse me a moment. I need to make some arrangements." While he and his cellular phone disappeared into the quiet lobby, Olivia rounded on her angel. "He wanted to marry Alex?"
"Of course he did. Once her divorce went through, she wanted him. They were-" Francesca leaned close to Olivia's ear. Close enough for her to feel the chill of her presence. "Almost happy, but fate intervened. Seems like Gregory and Alex were never meant to be together. Not in your time. Not in his."
Gregory folded his cell away and smiled at her softly. His eyes were full of a million thoughts, but he never took them off of her face. "Are you sure I don't know you?"
Olivia blushed faintly in spite of herself. "Maybe in another life." Where was the monster? He took her arm and led her to the car waiting for them. Where was the demon who was ready to take over the entire town?
He opened the door to the back seat of the Mercedes with the proper tinted windows. "It's only eight. There's plenty of time to meet you in this one."
He touched her shoulder and time slowed to a crawl. In an instant what she knew and where she was became part of the past. He was hardened, tortured by guilt and loneliness. He was the just the way he was as a young man. Ambitious and lost in the wonder of his own intelligence. She'd gotten through to him once. Olivia favored him with a wistful smile. Perhaps with the magic of Christmas on her side, she'd get to him again.
Gregory clasped the silver necklace around her neck and sighed appreciatively as she turned around. "That's better."
Olivia's hands slipped over red velvet to get to her neck. The dress was exquisite, tighter than she would have chosen, but it was Alex's. It was strange to be wearing a dead woman's dress and stranger still to be sitting down with a dead man. A dead man who knew nothing about her and still watched her as if she were the most fascinating woman in the world.
The necklace was cold around her neck as the silver warmed slowly to her skin. It was heavy, a huge green stone to contrast the red of her dress.
"You didn't have to dress me." She protested softly as he pulled out her chair. "I could have eaten in what I had on."
Gregory laid a towel across his tuxedoed arm as he reached for the green glass bottle on ice in front of him. "I like you dressed in the finest things money can buy." He popped the cork and filled her glass with sparkling wine. "It suits you."
His hand brushed hers as she reached for her glass. Electricity raced up her neck. "Thank you."
"No-" He sank into his chair and studied her across his glass. "Thank you. I thought I'd have to spend another Christmas Eve by myself."
"Are you usually alone?" Olivia watched the bubbles pop on the surface. "You must have family somewhere."
"Would you believe I don't?" His smile was deeply sad. "I haven't another living soul in the world." Gregory finished his glass and filled it again for a toast. "I don't think I've admitted that to anyone, ever, but-"
Francesca toyed with the flames of the candles and watched as the light flickered in both of their eyes.
"There's something special about me." Olivia finished as she raised her glass to him. "To the magic of Christmas."
He drank politely but returned his glass to the air. "To the magic of your eyes."
"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?" Olivia dug her fork into her salad and smiled teasing at him over the plates. ""We've only just met."
Gregory ignored his food and watched her lips instead. "Don't you believe in love at first sight Miss Blake?"
"What if I don't?" Olivia reached for the bread and spread butter over the soft surface.
"That would be a waste." Gregory took his first bite of salad as if he had just discovered it was there. "And I hate to see something precious go to waste."
"What's precious about a stranger?" Olivia watched as the server took her empty plate and replaced it with a bowl of steaming soup. "You know nothing about me."
"Maybe that which I do not know intrigues me." Gregory swirled his glass lazily before lifting his soup sp00n.
Francesca settled comfortably on the edge of window and stared out at the sea. "You're the only thing in town his hasn't conquered."
Olivia ignored her, Gregory was staring at her. He caught the elbow of his housekeeper. "Why don't you take the rest of the night off?"
She nodded quickly and disappeared. Gregory circled the table to refill Olivia's champagne. "How could a woman as beautiful as you slip into town without me knowing?"
Her hand trembled as he wrapped her fingers around the fragile flute. "I've only just arrived."
"Why did you come?" His lips were moist and waiting.
Olivia felt the flute slip from her fingers and fall to the table. Champagne hissed as it bubbled away on the tablecloth.
Francesca stared sadly at the spilled drink and shook her head. "It's a waste. That was Dom Perignon..." Turning to Olivia she waited patiently for her answer. "Tell him why. He's been waiting like such a good boy."
"I had to know." His eyes glittered in the candlelight. He was alive and entirely engrossed in her.
"Know what?" His smile was perfect, gentle and full of passionate impatience.
Olivia couldn't speak. She moved without thinking, her hands catching his chin and pulling his lips to hers. She sank into the familiar taste of him and the spicy scent of his aftershave.
To him she was new. Fresh and warm and wholly unknown. No one kissed him like that. His lips had never been the most enthralled part of his body. the tingled of his fingertips had never run away with his mind. Olivia's lips blurred with heaven.
Slowly, Francesca began to clap. The impact of her hands rang through Gregory's private dining room.
Olivia barely heard. Gregory was waiting for her. For a half second he was still trying to find his breath. She watched his face blossom into the rarest kind of smile. He glowed with life. His hands dropped to her knee, sending electricity through up to her hip.
"Just wonderful. You seduce him on your first date." Francesca lifted Gregory's abandoned glass and toasted them both. "Whatever are you going to do for an encore?" She answered her own question as she looked up at the clock. "Only half-past eight, they could still get into a lot of trouble." Smirking at her memories, Francesca wandered into her own past. After a moment she looked skyward and blushed.
"Sorry. I'll try to stay on task a little better."
"What was that for?" Gregory's whisper barely carried over the gentle hiss of champagne.
"Not everything has to have a reason counselor." She turned his knee out of his reach, letting him feel the velvet slip from his fingers.
"You don't have any answers for me." He leaned back in his chair, planning his next move.
Olivia feigned sudden interest in her fish. "Is that the only point of life?" SHe paused and raised the ante. "The search for answers?"
"No, not at all." He tried to follow her example and eat, but it was more difficult than he imagined. "I suppose, it's just-"
She smiled over the candle between them. "You usually have them." Olivia offered gently. "Right at your fingertips."
"Precisely." Gregory took a long sip of champagne, wondering if it was her or the bubbles that were going to his head with such fury. "I understand things in a moment."
She felt his eyes caress her throat. "Including women?"
"Especially women." Softening his expression only made him seem like the lion, feigning to be tame long enough to move in for the kill. "Women want-"
"Your money, your power-" Olivia ran her tongue over her lips thoughtfully. "Your body."
"Money's no object." He shook the bottle of champagne thoughtfully. "Power's a state of mind and no women who wants to use me to get it is going to get very far."
"She has to make it on her own. Be her own person-" He touched her shoulder as he took her plate and exchanged it with the next course. It had the desired effect when she shivered away deliciously.
"Like Alex Mitchum." Olivia had to ask, curiosity burned almost as much as his touch.
"Alex-" He dropped into his chair and studied the sauce on his plate. "She was amazing you know." He searched the coastline as if she would walk into the lights on the beach at any moment. "She could make you feel like she could see into your soul and capture it on film. Everything she did was steeped in life." His voice caught and Olivia's heart stopped with it.
This time she reached for him. Olivia knew all too well how painful it was to lose the love of her life. "You loved her."
"And when she died-"
Olivia came to his rescue again, covered his hand with her smaller one. "Your heart stopped. You felt like everything was gone from the world. Light, air, warmth- you can't breathe, you can't see, everything goes cold."
"And it all comes to an end." Gregory finished as he covered stared down at her hand. Stopping immediately, he lifted her hand up to examine her engagement ring.
"Who gave you this?"
It was all she could do not to give herself away as she stared into his eyes. The deep brown eyes she was so familiar with asked the world of her.
"My husband." Olivia whispered as the pain tightened in her throat as well. "Twenty years ago when he proposed to me."
At her nod, he removed it from her finger. As Gregory moved it closer to the light of a candle, the diamond erupted in a shower of light. "It's uncanny."
He folded the ring back into her hand and left the table abruptly. Calling back his explanation as he went, Gregory hurried into his safe. "You'll understand when you see it, it's remarkable." He returned to the table with a small black box in his hand.
"I can't tell you, how many times I wanted to throw this away. How many times I wanted to destroy everything that reminded me of her-" He pushed the box towards her and opened it, just as she returned her ring to her finger.
"I bought this for Alex-" Gregory opened the box, eyes wide with astonishment.
Olivia couldn't help gasping in surprise. The rings were identical, down to the set of the diamond and the shade of the gold. "Oh my God-"
Francesca broke her silence as she descended on Olivia. "Seems he had a chance at true love after all, too bad that plane went down so tragically. Such a strange accident..."
Olivia's sudden change of expression made Gregory immediately curious, but the quiet knock on the door kept him from pressing her. Wiping his mouth carefully with his napkin, Gregory excused himself.
"I'm sorry, I'll get rid of them."
She barely nodded, unable to pull her eyes away from the ring in her hand and the ring on her finger.
"I guess somethings don't change about a person." Francesca's fingers passed through the ring and Olivia shivered as she made contact with her hand. "He does have exquisite taste in jewelry, after all."
"Caitlin- why don't you come in, I'd love for you to meet someone." Gregory brought his visitor to the table.
Olivia had missed the name, getting up polite she turned around and found herself face to face with her daughter.
The beautiful blond extended her hand politely as Olivia struggled to keep her feet. "It's lovely to meet you. I'm Caitlin Davis-"
"Caitlin is my rising star in my international division. She has a brilliant mind for macro-economics." Gregory rested his hand proudly on her shoulder and she blushed gently.
"Mr. Richards flatters me because he's always been so fond of my mother." Caitlin's smile had the same gentleness Olivia remembered.
"This is Olivia Blake." Gregory introduced with a sweep of his hand. "My mysterious visitor."
"I don't want to take you from your dinner." Caitlin winked at Gregory, not as a daughter, but as an apprentice beginning to understand her mentor's loneliness. "We just came to ask you to come round for dinner tomorrow. Mom and Dad would love to have you."
"Oh-" Olivia shook herself out of her reverie. "I'm sorry, who are your parents?"
Francesca leaned in. "You're going to love this."
"Bette and Roger Davis, my father and Mr. Richards have never seen eye to eye-"
Gregory grinned playfully. "She means to say I have no patience for head-shrinkers."
"But Mr. Richards and Bette have been friends for years." Caitlin had no idea how wrong it sounded to hear her address Gregory that way.
Olivia swallowed. "Old friends."
Gregory returned to her side, wrapping his hand around her waist. "Exactly." He nodded to Caitlin. "I'll be there tomorrow."
"Great!" Caitlin looked at the table and the two of them with a wistful smile. "Looks like you're ready for the evening anyways." She turned to go. "Sean and Emily will be thrilled."
"Sean and Emily?" Olivia repeated as calmly as she could.
"My little brother and sister." Caitlin answered with a sigh. "I suppose they're not so little now that they're in college, but they'll always be little to me."
Gregory kissed her cheek. "Merry Christmas Caitlin."
For her part, the younger women threw her arms around his shoulders in a fierce hug. "Merry Christmas Mr. Scrooge." She reached for Olivia's hand. "It was lovely to meet you, take good care of him tonight. It's a good night to meet someone special."
Olivia let Gregory lead her back to her chair without a word. when he poured more champagne, she drank it down quickly. Francesca was at her side.
"Funny how she looks so much like him, isn't it?"
Gregory excused himself to fetch the next course and Olivia had a moment to catch her breath.
"She doesn't know?" Caitlin had seemed so happy. So content with her family, suddenly it made sense. Bette's frigid demeanor was an expression of her inner misery. Twenty years of working beside the man she was obviously in love with, bearing two of his children, and living a lie every day thereafter.
"Bette could never tell her. It would have made it back to her husband, it would have ruined her marriage." Francesca sighed heavily. "And she needed that marriage."
"Gregory had moved on. Fallen for Alex-" Olivia's mind raced, even through the alcohol.
"And Bette couldn't have that." Francesca leaned close enough to the candle for it to sputter in the chill of her presence. "Ask him who else was on that trip with Alex.'
Olivia stared at the forlorn engagement ring it's little black box in front of her. Her chest had never been this tight. "Oh my-" She didn't have to finish. Francesca was nodding and everything else fell into place.
"Oh God-" Olivia covered her mouth in shock. "She-"
"I'm afraid she did." Francesca watched the door Caitlin had disappeared through. "If she couldn't have him-"
Gregory laid the last plate in front of her with wink. "I know even mystery women have a weakness for chocolate."
Staring up at him, Olivia felt her stomach fall away into a pit of despair. She couldn't go back to the harmless flirtation. As wrong as the world she left had been, this was hell. The clock on the wall started to chime the eleventh hour. Time was nearly gone-
Dragging her finger across the perfect chocolate swirl on her plate, Olivia lifted that trembling finger to her lips and licked it clean. "What if I have a greater weakness for something else-"
She caught his hand as he reached for her shoulder. Olivia pushed him back and conquered him, crushing his lips with hers. He'd lost his chance at love. He was destroying the town around him in the desperate, empty search for money that could never fill the void in his heart.
But tonight, for the rest of this surreal night, neither of them had to be alone.