They were sitting at the dining table sharing a bottle of wine and a slice of the most decadent chocolate cake she had ever eaten in her life, courtesy of Isaias’ housekeeper. The woman was an incredible pastry chef according to Liesl’s tastebuds. She took another bite and moaned as the confectionary melted on her tongue and coated her mouth.
“Keep moaning like this and I’m going to spread you on the table and eat you instead of cake,” Isaias teased as he sipped his wine.
“It’s so good.” She covered her mouth with her palm, speaking over the chocolate. “It tastes like sin.”
He chuckled at her words. “Speaking of sins, I have a favor.”
She frowned and set her fork down, “did you have Matilda make me cake to soften me up?”
“Nope. I don’t need to soften you up. I like you feisty.” He leaned sideways and kissed her nose. “I need to fly to Portugal. I want you to stay here while I’m gone.”
She folded her hands on her lap and cursed the thundering of her heart. “Isaias, I don’t want to stay here if you’re not here.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have my own place.”
“That your ex-husband owns and can infiltrate.”
“You’ll be obligated for security reasons to provide the superintendent the spare key. It means he’ll have access. I don’t like it. Here I know you are safe.” He frowned, “my guys have not had the chance to go to the apartment yet and check for cameras or to see what, if anything, Trent did to the place. I have to leave on Wednesday, and I’ll be back Saturday.”
“Three nights,” he squeezed her thigh under the table, “and when I come back, we’ll go to the gala.”
“What gala?”
“I told you about the gala. It’s the awards ceremony for development and real estate. One of my realtors is up for the award of best national realtor. I want to support her.”
She frowned as she remembered he did indeed tell her of the gala. “I remember you mentioning it. I didn’t think of me going.”
“I told you my entire family is going.”
“Yes. Your mother, father, and sister.”
“And you. I want you there.” He traced his thumb along the inside of her thigh, “you don’t want to come?”
“The last time I attended such a thing was six years ago and one of Merlin’s colleagues made a pass at me. Actually, several of them did and he got mad and said it was my dress, or more importantly my boobs in the dress. He said because I hadn’t grown up in luxury, I didn’t know better but I had been dressed too scandalously. After that he was constantly at me about my weight, didn’t let me wear anything with cleavage and I wasn’t allowed to go to another one.” She shifted in her seat, “I don’t want to embarrass you.”
“Sweetheart, if you wanted to show up naked with nothing but nipple pasties and a full bush,” he motioned at her crotch area, “I’d be fucking thrilled. I want you there, on my arm, with my family.”
She snorted at his words, “very funny.”
“Please. Be my date?”
“Yes, fine, but I don’t have any evening gowns at all in my closet. I’ve never needed them.”
“He left you home alone to attend these things. You never went to any of them?”
“He accompanied his parents, and I stayed home or went to Janka’s or Elsie’s for the night.”
“He was probably banging someone there.”
“He said the only person he ever cheated on me with was Sandy.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “It’s irrelevant at this point. It doesn’t matter if he cheated once or a hundred times. He still cheated and I’m done with him.”
“Well, for my peace of mind, I’ll ask you please stay here until I get back. When I come back, I’ll take you to the gala, we’ll be dressed up and sexy. All the other fuckers there can look at your gorgeous and banging body and be jealous that I get to take you home and love you until dawn.”
She chuckled at his words. “Any special requests then for a dress?”
“Yup. I’m going to pick it out. I’ll have it dropped off here for you Saturday morning.”
She sighed and shrugged, “all right but don’t say I didn’t warn you about how much I don’t mix well with the elite of Manchester. I stick out like a sore thumb.”
“You shine like a bright star.” He corrected with a sincere smile as he stared into her eyes. “You draw the attention to you not because you’re a sore thumb but because you’re a beacon of light. Your ex was a piece of work to make you think anything less.”
She lifted her fork and stabbed the cake holding a forkful up to her mouth, “be careful Isaias. Words like that are going to make it damn near impossible for me to move out when I find another apartment.”
“Then don’t.”
She choked on the mouthful of cake she had slid into her mouth at his comment. He quirked an eyebrow at her reaction.
“Move your stuff in here. I don’t want you to leave.”
“We haven’t known each other a month!” the cake which had been moist and luscious now felt dry and crumbly in her throat. She gulped wine to wash it down.
“I don’t need three years to decide I want you here when I wake up and when I go to bed. I like having you here.”
“And when this relationship runs its course?” she quoted a phrase he’d used multiple times.
“What if it never does?” he leaned back and studied her seriously. “What if this,” he waved between them, “is the beginning of forever for both of us?”
Her heart slammed to a stop before resuming at an incredible pace making her gasp for air. “It hasn’t been –”
“I don’t need time, Liesl. I need you.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Think about it. This week my security team is working on a special project, but I’ll get them to your unit to figure out what McGrath did to it in the twenty-four hours before you moved in. If you still insist on moving back there, or even to a new place, then I’ll have my team set up special security in your place to make sure neither Trent nor Merlin ever get access to your privacy. But please stay with me until we get it sorted.”
She gave a nod, “fine. I’ll stay but only because Fred has me freaked out about Trent putting a camera over my shower.”
He chuckled at her words, “remind me to give Fred a bonus.”
“Why are you going to Portugal?”
“My great-aunt is in hospital. She’s having surgery Thursday morning. My mother wants to see her before she goes in. We’ll stay a couple of days after to make sure she pulls through okay and come back Saturday. I’d invite you along but it’s going to be sitting in hospitals tending to an eighty-year-old woman’s medical needs.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. She broke her ankle earlier today. She has some blood pressure issues, so they want to get it under control before they do the surgery Thursday. She’ll be fine. Because of her age, my mom wants to be there just in case, but her husband has already arranged all of her post-operative care and her daughter is at her bedside too. She’s well cared for.” He grinned suddenly, “she broke her ankle jumping off the kitchen counter.”
“What the hell was she doing on a kitchen counter?”
“Instead of using a step stool, she climbed up on the counter like a spider monkey to get a bowl she wanted down from a high shelf. Her husband threatened to spank her ass.”
She giggled, “she sounds energetic.”
“She is spry. Speaking of energy and spry,” he pushed the cake away, “I have a bunch of calories to burn.”
“Let me guess, you want to go for a run?”
She squealed with delight as he yanked her out of the chair, threw her over his shoulder and carried her through the house and up the stairs two at a time to his bedroom. Maybe staying with Isaias wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
