The Devil's Handshake

56

London

Looking at his reflection in the mirror Thomas was lost in his thoughts as he set about putting the shaving foam on his face.

It had been both a rather hectic month and a rather expensive one in economic terms, due to the personal commitment he had made to the President of the United States.

Described by the media and many analysts as the best piece of business that CORETEXAS had ever made by the fact that the field in Adwalland was estimated to be worth well over ten billion U.S. dollars in potential revenues, and it hadn’t cost them a single cent, he had tried not to think about the cost as he signed the agreement just yesterday.

Despite James, behind the scenes, heavily briefing the financial community’s various analysts that it made sense because of the increased marketing channels that TLH would be able to tap into, the business community on the whole wondered whether Thomas had lost his touch.

The only actual benefit the Englishman-become-Russian had actually received out of his ‘Noble’ act of stopping two of the world’s powers from a confrontation, was an invite through Jack Fielding for a private dinner with the President on his next trip to Washington and a Russian Diplomatic Passport with a title of ‘Special Advisor’ attached to the Embassy in the United Kingdom as a thank you from the Mayor. An item he thought of as a ‘poisoned chalice,’ as it now meant he was well and truly an instrument of the will of Russia.

On the other hand, one person who was completely satisfied with his gift was Mikhail who immediately saw it as an excuse to upgrade his security by taking up the option of contracting Armed Close Protection Officers from the Police due to him being a designated person in the country of the Russian Federation.

“I feel less naked now!” Mikhail said as he waved his hands dramatically about in defense of the fact that he wasn’t allowed to carry firearms when in the UK when a furious Saul had found out the cost of the team of officers per year was going to be half a million pounds.

“The Mayor is not going to be paying for this is he?” Saul had said to Mikhail in disgust.

“Just keep the old man happy,” Thomas had said to the CFO with a hand on his shoulder.

Yet despite the heavy cost to his fortune on a personal level, it had been a rather good one as Thomas had finally asked Nara to marry him.

It was a decision that he had made as the consequence of surviving the grenade that had fallen just short of his position in Borama. At the time the blast had knocked him off his feet. It wasn’t until he looked down while momentary dazed to find shrapnel lodged in his chest amour next to his heart that he had his epiphany.

“Fuck!” he had thought as the bullets and smoke whizzed around him as it had suddenly dawned on him that his first thoughts weren’t about himself they were about Nara and Victoria for the first time in his life, before switching back on to instantly to take up position again by the window.

As he did, so he made a vow. If he survived he would marry his Turkmen wild spirit.

The look on his beautiful life’s companion’s face was one he would never forget. They were on The Libertine off the Amalfi coast. He had woken and finding she wasn’t there he had gotten up from the bed to look for her only to find her, as she often did when on the yacht, on the deck outside their bedroom looking out to sea, watching the sunrise.

Taking a moment to gaze at her as he did so he was more convinced than ever she had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment just as a touch of wind had caused her loose coal-black long hair to flutter about as she sipped on the glass of water that she was holding with both hands.

“Good Morning, my Thomas,” she had said as he had come up behind her and wrapped his arms around her while water lapped against the yacht. Her scent mixed with the smell of the clear blue sea was almost aphrodisiacal.

“My lovely lady,” he replied as her hand went around behind his head and pulled his hair before turning around to look up him. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds.

As she set about kissing him on the lips, sucking him deeper and deeper into her mouth while flicking out her tongue, he stopped her for a moment. The fact he had done so upset her.

“Have I done something wrong?” she had asked concerned.

“No,” he had replied with a serious look. “My darling, I just want you to let me put this on your finger,” he had said as he lifted her hand up to his chest before showing her the beautiful large pink pear shaped diamond ring on a rose gold setting that he had collected from the famous Bond Street jeweler and somehow had managed to keep hidden from her the day before.

The significance of his actions immediately caused Nara’s eyes to water.

“Oh, … My T-h-o-m-a-s, yes!” she said, answering him before he could ask her.

“Will you marry me?” he asked anyway, determined to have his moment.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! My, My Beautiful T-h-o-m-a-s,” in Turkmen she replied excitedly as she reached up into his face with hers before kissing him over and over again, sucking his lips and licking his mouth hungrily as she went.