When she entered the Mirror Hall, he was already waiting for her. He was leaning by the fireplace, in a tuxedo cut to the waist. A cummerbund made his casually crossed legs appear even longer in the black polished evening shoes. She had never seen a man so elegant before.
He took her breath away and her lips trembled, but she straightened her shoulders. Smiling mysteriously, she walked towards him in a slow, sinuous way. His relaxed smile with which he had greeted her disappeared. He looked at her intensely and swallowed hard. “Principessa, you look like a goddess. A goddess who rises from the sea.” He was silent while she smiled up at him.
But then, completely unabashed, he started to check her out from top to bottom, without embarrassment. He said, “The dress is as if it was made for you. I imagined it to be beautiful, but in reality it's even more stunning.” He kept his hand in his jacket pocket. Then he pulled it out with a small, wrapped present. He gave it to her. “Merry Christmas, Sisi!” he beamed.
“But Niccolò, I haven’t anything for you,” she said with a frown.
“You are my gift tonight,” and because that shouldn’t be misunderstood, he corrected himself, “I mean that you are here and we are celebrating together, that is my gift!” This time it was he who blushed.
She pretended not to have heard him and inspected the box than had been wrapped in crooked brown kitchen packing paper.
“Open it already! What are you waiting for?” he growled. She obeyed and opened the paper, then opened the old-fashioned leather case.
Inside on black velvet lay long earrings with drops of dark green cut gemstones, surrounded by diamonds.
“Niccolò, you're raving mad,” she exclaimed, “but they're not real ...”
“Emeralds from Colombia,” he said, “Yes, they are. From my great-grandmother. She gave them to my mother for her wedding.”
“Niccolò, I can't accept that! It's not possible! You must understand that!!”
Niccolò took an earring out of the case, which, dangling from his slender fingers, immediately sparkled and glistened. “Come here,” he said imperiously, and when she offered her neck, he put the earring through her earlobe. “Turn your head!” and when she complied, the second jewel followed. He looked at her expertly and couldn't suppress a smile. “Go, look at yourself,” he said with a husky, smug voice. Sisi went to the nearest mirror and examined her face. She tried to look grown up and elegant and not to grin from ear to ear like a hippopotamus.
The large, dark green stones made her skin appear even paler, more ethereal, and conjured up dark, blue-green lights in her blue eyes. Combined with the flowing, sea-colored silk dress and the pale gold, shimmering waves of her hair, they made her look like a siren. She felt as if she was floating. She turned and came up to him with an ominous glint in her eyes and renewed confidence. She stood up in front of him and stretched her neck towards him, then shook her head so that the earrings rocked around her face. “Oh, they're so beautiful, but I can't keep them.”
He looked at her like he wanted to devour her. Without taking his eyes off her, he said, “Don’t be absurd, Sisi, your name is written on these earrings. No other woman will ever wear them. And no one else could ever wear them like you do tonight. You don't even need to say a word, no discussion. Basta.”
She looked into his eyes and wondered how he always found words that would give her goose bumps. She came closer. In front of him, she stood on her tiptoe and kissed him on his cheek, which was rough despite the fresh shave. He smelled intoxicating. “Thank you, Niccolò, thank you. They’re gorgeous,” she whispered.
Niccolò returned her glance, and she had the feeling that they were together in a dream bubble. They floated in eternity, floated between times, and between worlds. Everything was unreal, and still hyper-real, like a heightened, more intense reality. She wanted this moment to never end, wanted to float on forever, to float in his gaze.
This time it was he who turned away and opened a bottle of champagne and filled the glasses. They clinked glasses, and he said, “To life!”
Sisi felt crystal clear, floating, and shivering in the huge ballroom, which was still cool despite the crackling fire in the fireplace he had lit that afternoon. She drank the drink that tingled her throat and tasted like lust and eternity, and she felt cocky. She looked at him, mischief in her eyes, “What now, Master of Ceremonies?”
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