“Evaine, please,” she said. “And who is your lovely companion?”
Storm had no option but to introduce Diana. Now that Evie had arrived, he had lost all desire to try to proceed Diana to leave. He was sure it would only cause a scene, and Evie hated scenes.
“This is my friend, Diana Bellona,” he said.
Diana was looking at him with great amusement. The two women shook hands, and Diana now eyed up Evie with unashamed intensity. “If there wasn’t such a size and gender difference,” she observed, “You too could be identical twins!”
“Hardly,” said Evie coolly. No doubt she didn’t appreciate the comment on her pint-sized cuteness. Not that Storm thought she was cute. He thought she was a dragon who could singe him with a mere glance from her flashing eyes.
“Shall we go in?” he said, holding open the restaurant door.
Maybe it was good that Diana was here. Maybe having a stranger in the mix was exactly what they needed to stop the fireworks that usually happened when he and his two siblings were forced to spend any amount of time together. The problem was that Diana was like adding gunpowder to the mix. Storm had a feeling that no matter how things turned out tonight, it wouldn’t be anything that he had expected.
Diana kept her arms tucked into his as if she was her date his date. A maitre d’ arrived to show the three of them to a private dining area where the lighting was dim and strands of fairy lights on the walls twinkled to create an intimate atmosphere.
“Cosy,” Diana said in a low sexy voice. She cuddled up next to Storm.
Storm shot her a warning look. Diana had clearly sensed that Evie didn’t entirely approve of her, and Diana was intent on needling Evie.
As they took their seats, Diana choosing to sit right next to storm, and Evie choosing to sit on the opposite end of the table, Saskia arrived with Jenny in tow. Saskia looked like she was wearing the clothes that she had slept in, and Evie rose to greet her younger sister with an expression of distaste. Ignoring Evie’s attempt to plant the two kisses on Saskia’s cheek as was customary, Saskia sat down with a thump.
Evie pretended that she had not been snubbed, and shook Jenny’s hand instead. “Jenny,” she said. “How wonderful to see you again.”
“Er, you too.” Jenny shot a wide-eyed look at Saskia as if she was doing her very best not to laugh.
This was not off to a great start. Storm sighed, and did his best not to roll his eyes. Clearly the two younger women had decided that they were going to do their very best to make this evening as difficult as possible for Evie and Storm.
Saskia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Evie and Storm mutinously. “We’re all here,” she said. “You might as well say what you both have to say and then I can leave. I’m not going to stay here. I hate fancy overpriced restaurants, and I hate Chinese food.”
“You love Chinese food,” said Evie. “When we were young, mother used to take us to a Chinese restaurant. You adored the dim sum!”
Ah, that must have been why Evie had chosen this restaurant. She had been trying to do something nice for Saskia. But Saskia had no intention of playing along.
“It’s been a long time since then, if you hadn’t noticed,” Saskia snapped. “I’m not a child anymore. Mom is not alive anymore. And if this is your attempt at playing happy families, then you must be out of your mind.”
Storm saw Evie take a deep breath as if crying out to the heavens for patience.
Saskia had spotted Diana. “Who are you?” she said rudely, her lip curled in distaste as if Diana was unpleasant and unwelcome.
“This is my friend, Diana,” Storm said.
Saskia’s eyes lit up and she turned to grin cruelly at Evie. “Ooh! Storm has a lady friend. A hot, sexy lady friend. What do you think about that? No wonder he—”
“Will you shut up!” Storm snapped. “You’ll be polite to Diana, just like I’ve been polite to your friend Jenny when she turned up at my apartment uninvited!”
He had not intended to snap, and immediately he wished that he had said it in a gentler tone and used less aggravating words. Because Saskia’s face had turned bright red, and she had already started rising up from her chair is if she was going to scream at him.
And then Diana laughed. She threw back her head and let rip a full-throated peal of delighted laughter. “Gosh, I haven’t had this much fun in ages. This is like a real life soap opera. You guys are better than the Kardashians, not that I’ve washed the Kardashians. It’s not really my thing.”
“Me either,” said Jenny. “Are you Storm’s girlfriend, then?”
Diana shook her head. “I wish!” she said. “Sadly I’m just his colleague. His friendly colleague.” She waggled one eyebrow, making Jenny giggle.
By now Saskia was looking thoroughly ashamed at having been rude to Diana.
Jenny’s eyes had gone wide. “So you work at the Agency of Otherkind Investigations too? What do you do?”
“Our work is confidential,” said Storm.