Fender didn’t speak to me for a couple days.
He didn’t order me out of his sight. When I came to the office, he didn’t tell me to leave. He just didn’t talk to me or look at me. He took his dinner alone in his room and never came to mine.
I let him boil until the water was completely evaporated. No point in trying to be with him when he wanted nothing to do with me. But when another day passed, the isolation became overwhelming. It wasn’t just that I had no company, but I missed the company I enjoyed the most.
I made a gentle knock against his bedroom door before I opened it.
He wasn’t on the bed.
I let myself inside and heard the sound of the fire in his living room. I moved farther into his quarters and found him sitting on his couch, elbow on the armrest, fingertips against his lips. A bottle of scotch was on the table in front of him, along with a glass with a few drops of liquid at the bottom.
I stood at the opposite end of the couch and stared at the side of his face, the dark beard that he hadn’t bothered to shave. He usually shaved every morning and got a shadow by the evening. But now, he’d stopped altogether. His dark eyes were focused on something on the wall.
I followed his gaze to the painting.
The portrait of me.
Glowing in the firelight.
There had been another painting there before, but he’d replaced it with mine, so he could stare at it whenever he felt like it, could admire my face even when I was just down the stairs from him.
He turned his chin slightly and regarded me. Longing had replaced anger. Love had replaced hate. Desire had replaced solitude.
A flood of emotion swept through me as I moved to the couch and took the seat beside him. My hand went to his thigh.
His arm moved around my shoulders.
I shifted closer to him and got into his lap.
He brought his face close to mine and closed his eyes.
We sat together in silence, our bodies at ease now that they were reunited, our hearts returning to their peaceful pace.
It reinforced my belief.
That the man and the boss were two different people.
He would release my sister.
And eventually…everyone else.
Twelve
Mon amour
Fender
We sat across from each other inside the restaurant. It was a round table near the window, covered in a white tablecloth with a small vase of roses in the center. The lights were dim, but the chandelier still cast a glow on her perfect face.
In blush pink, she wore a beautiful sweetheart neckline dress, her décolletage sparkling with diamonds. Her collarbone had a distinct outline, as did her petite shoulders, so slender that the segment of muscle was visible. Her fair skin was kissable. Her full lips were kissable, too. Men couldn’t resist a glance. When they stared too long, I stared back.
It was as if nothing had happened.
We went back to our lovemaking.
Our quiet evenings were spent wrapped around each other in silence.
Whether she really loved me or not, it didn’t change the way I felt about her. Whether she meant a word of anything she said to me, it didn’t change anything either. Nothing would ever change it.
I loved her—beyond reason.
She took a bite of her dinner then slowly chewed as she looked at me.
I had to leave in the morning, so I appreciated her beauty even more.
She returned her utensils to her plate and gave me a long stare. “Why do you love me?”
Her question soaked into my mind for a long time, but a response was never formed. “Because I do.”
“If there’s no reason, how do you know it’s real?”
My eyes narrowed on her face, offended by the question. “Because if there’s no reason, it’s real. If it were conditional, based on a reason, then when that reason no longer existed, neither would everything else. The fact that there is no reason makes it unconditional. That’s much stronger than having a reason…and that’s why it’s real.” My heart had been dead for a long time. Incapable of feeling anything at all except greed and vengeance, it beat for a purpose, but never a reason. Now, it was alive and strong, pounding hard every single day for the woman across from me.
She held my gaze for a long time, her eyes far away, as if thinking about my words on an elemental level. Whenever she was deep in thought, her eyebrows shifted slightly and held the position. That was what she did now.
“I leave tomorrow.”
Her concentrated look was instantly shattered by my announcement.
“Not sure how many days I’ll be gone.” The camp was running smoothly, so it shouldn’t require my attention very long. Magnus had restored that camp and improved it beyond its former glory. It basically got a remodel we didn’t know we needed.