To: .bookworm1
From: Rob_420_69_Bo$$
You weren't answering my calls so I had to resort to emailing you. Mom and dad are going to be in Valencia in a few days, and they know you're there too. I didn't say why or how you got there. Please don't tell them. Dad was already talking about stopping my tuition payments.
I love you. I'll never forget what you did for me.
Please take of yourself, hermana.
Isabella read that small, annoying email over and over again. It was heart fluttering conundrum- on one hand, it made her shoulders feel lighter to know that her brother was safe and doing well (as well as Robbie could be doing) and saying things like "I love you. I'll never forget what you did for me" but on the other hand he was the sole reason she was here in this coastal town. And the fact that her parents were in the same town as her, in a completely different country was just cruel karma. It wasn't uncommon for them to travel to Valencia, they both had roots here and took cases occasionally. But it was very rare for Isabella to be in Europe at all, seeing as the last time she had used her passport was her twenty-first birthday.
When it was her parents' will to see her, they would.
With a begrudging drag to her step, Isabella closed her laptop and made her way downstairs to the kitchens. Sebastián would be waking up at any moment, so she knew she would have to eat now or wait until he went down for bedtime. They had created a peaceful little schedule during the last two months here- play, nap, eat, nap, snacks, sleep. Sebastián was such a happy baby, only fussing for food or attention, and had made being his nanny so very delightful.
He was already starting to try his first steps and it made her heart soar when he looked up to her with his big green eyes. The more time she spent around him the more she wondered who his mom was and where she could have gone. She had been tempted many times to dig the info from Maria the housekeeper, but she stopped herself every time. Did she really want to know?
Things between herself and Eduardo were fairly good, why would she purposely ruin it with putting her nose in his ultra-private business?
He was a fickle creature as it was. She really didn't want to push that envelope anymore.
"There is a chef, you know." The devil himself whispered near her ear.
Isabella clenched the butterknife in her hand and fought the urge to look at him. He appeared and disappeared as he pleased, so she was fairly used to him turning up at random times. In the beginning, he worked nearly twelve-hour days and hardly made physical appearances. But in the last few weeks, he was home much more often than he was at work. Given, he holed himself up in his Study and came out in sporadic episodes, but Isabella was quietly pleased by it. He needed to be closer to his son, at least for the next few years, and if that was the way he could be home and near Sebastián then so be it.
Isabella shrugged. "Sebastián likes my sandwiches better." Eduardo let out a small laugh behind her before snaking his arms around her waist. "Stop." She hissed almost automatically. She had so many things on her mind and the last thing she wanted to do was be intimate with him right now.
"Stop what, Isabella?" Eduardo sounded almost… guarded.
Isabella kept spreading the ingredients on her cold sandwich and acted as though he wasn't breathing directly on her neck. "I don't feel like doing that right now, Eduardo." She spoke between her teeth. As much as she hated to admit it, he brought out a passion in her that was unmatched. He quite literally set her on fire. But there was another part to this completely- in two months, she would be out of the door. She would go back to California; he would be here in Spain. What would make them stay in contact? And why? She liked his son a lot, she and Eduardo had great sex, and they all got along well. But that was it- there was no soul bearing connection to keep them tethered. He was an eligible, rich bachelor and she was a common girl. "Don't you have a meeting to attend to or a phone call to take? I'm trying to finish lunch before your son wakes up."
His arms slipped from her as soon as she spoke.
Good, she thought.
She had wanted space and he gave it to her.
So why did she feel so empty when he moved away?
But he was in her ear in the next moment. "When I see you wandering in my house, I have the most irresistible urge to touch you. I want to touch your skin," he ran a finger across her cheekbone, "or move your hair out of your face." He pushed aside her loose brown tendrils so that her neck was completely exposed. "It doesn't always have to culminate in sex, Isabella, I am not so desperate."
His words made her swoon and then made her angry at the same time. Desperate? She would show him desperate-
He yanked her head back by the nape of her neck and planted his mouth hungrily against hers. He completely controlled the kiss and refused to let her take the lead, spinning her around so that they were facing each other. When he finally broke the kiss, she still hadn't recovered. She leaned against the kitchen counter, trying to create some kind of grounding. Eduardo made her head swim- he made her confused and airy at the same time. He leaned in for another kiss and trailed them down her neck, stopping briefly at her pulse to show it special attention. He pulled her shirt over her head in one swift movement, leaving her standing in a plain black bra before him.
His eyes were a dark green, so many emotions swirling around in those closed off orbs. She wanted to say nothing and let this situation happen as they always did- they'd have sex, bask in the aftermath, and go on about their days. But there was another part of her that wasn't satisfied at all. "Eduardo…" she let the name linger between them. He pressed his pelvis into hers until they were leaning against the marble countertop completely. Her chest was heaving up and down, the excitement of what would possibly come to pass playing out in her mind. "Are you seeing other people?" The question blurted out before she could even contain it.
His ministrations stopped immediately. Their eyes never disconnected as the seconds ticked by, and they were painful seconds. Isabella's heart clenched when he continued to say nothing, but he hadn't stepped away either. The magazine picture came to the forefront of her new thoughts. He had been, hadn't he? He had to be! But they were banging like bunnies, how did he have it in him anyway? The way his eyes slowly darkened almost spoke for itself.
Sure, they weren't a couple. But what other components did they need to be considered one? She looked after his son, gave her body to him when he desired it, and disappeared herself and his son when he needed them to. She was acting as the dutiful wife without the title, the money, or the glory! She deserved the truth, didn't she?
Don't lie to me.
Don't lie to me.
Don't lie to me.
But also, please lie to me if you have.
He still hadn't said anything. Her apprehension bubbled over into simmering anger, and the more he looked at her like that the faster she was to drawing conclusions. "How…" Isabella tried to get the words out, but her throat felt like it was closing. Was she… was she going to cry? The thought of showing him how much he had affected her was beyond humiliating. "Say something, Eddie." Her voice was shaky, but she would rather jump off of a cliff before she shed a tear in his presence. His eyes lightened at his pet name, though he would never admit it, and he held her face in his hand.
When he held her face and looked down at her like that, she almost felt… loved. Endeared. Care for. She could fool herself for just a second and think that she meant anything to him.
But his lips were pressed, and it seemed as though nothing would come out. "Coward." Isabella baited him. "You're a lowly coward." She whispered the last part out.
Eduardo snapped, hook bait and sinker. "Did I ever imply that we were exclusive?"
"So, you're fucking other women." The words slipped right out of Isabella's lips, and she was so proud that her voice hadn't cracked. The things they had done together… the intimate ways in which they had shared- was it all so trivial?
"Don't be crass." He bit out.
Isabella nodded slowly, consumed with a new color of rage. He had just admitted to fucking different women all in the same time period, but she was crass? How dare he!
"Let me get this straight." Isabella pushed his hand off her face and regarded him stiffly. "You go out and fuck other women, work, come home and fuck me? That's your day in a nutshell, then?" His jaw was shifting dangerously, but she didn't care. "I mean are you on Viagra, or something? In the last month, we've slept together every other day! Do you use any kind of condoms with them? Because you sure don't use them with me!" The fire his admission had started was set ablaze, and nothing could extinguish it.
"Of course I do." He ground out, his grip on her hip tightening in a crushing way. "Because I am controlled when I am not around you."
Isabella sneered. "And what are you when I'm around?"
Eduardo pressed her into the counter, his hand never leaving her hip. "You make me foolish- estpudio."
Isabella raised her chain so that she could peer down at him. She had seen her mother sneer at many of people in her lifetime, she knew exactly how it was done. She needed him to feel like the garbage he was. "And you make me sick."
Eduardo pursed his lips, most likely trying to hide his own anger. "No, Isabella, I make you cum."
Isabella bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to be taken, right then and there. But she also wanted to claw his eyes out.
"When were you last with her?" She had to ask, she had to know. It would kill her to be in the dark if she knew there was a glimmer of light. "When, Eduardo?"
He steadied his gaze on her lips, then met her eyes. "You have mistaken yourself as my wife, Isabella." Eduardo pressed even further. "If I wanted to be a kept man, there are cheaper avenues than the way I acquired you."
Isabella took a few deep breaths, trying her hardest to convince herself to be calm. She wasn't his wife, that was a fact. She wasn't his keeper, either. But she deserved better than to be referred to as something he acquired. She wasn't a belonging or a hooker. She was a person with feelings! All he had to admit to was when he was seeing someone else, and maybe that could have satisfied her. But he chose a different route, a much more dangerous one.
She turned around and worked on her forgotten sandwich, adding the mayonnaise and mustard more aggressively than required. He was going to get the ice queen from here on, and he sure as hell wouldn't be fucking her ever again. She had tried to let her guard down with this man, ever so slightly. What had that gotten her? She felt stupid, and she looked that way too. Of course he would never be a "one woman" man and she was a dummy for thinking she special enough to change that. It almost felt as though he had broken her heart, but it wasn't that serious was it?
She would have had to be in love for that to happen, and there was no way someone like her would love someone like him. No, this couldn't be heartbreak. He had hurt her pride, that was all. And she planned on doing the exact same.
"Isabella, let's talk-" Eduardo had started.
"You're excused." She replied simply. No anger, no malice- just a simple command. Telling a Spanish man to do anything in his own home was a poke as it was, she didn't need to add any extra spice to it. How many times had she watched her mother demean and belittle men right before her eyes? Her mother was the master at it.
He wrenched her around hard enough to hear a small snap in her arm. She cried out at the pull, but nothing felt broken- that didn't mean it hadn't hurt like hell to be pulled in such an awkward and tense manner! Eduardo heard the noise too and immediately dropped the appendage ad though it offended him. No one had permission to touch her in any way she didn't consent to, and she hadn't ever been physically aggressively with him. He knew his strength and their size difference!
Eduardo ran a hand through his hair and pulled at the ends in frustration. "I am sorry, Isabella. I didn't mean to- dios!" He shrieked just as she jammed the butterknife into the soft flesh of his chest. His eyes had gone wide as saucers as he clutched at the new pain in his chest. It was a dull piece of silver; it wouldn't even leave an impression on him. But he deserved it. Hopefully he had shit his pants thinking it was a real knife that she had stabbed him with!
She wanted to keep wielding the butterknife but though better of it. He had gotten the message, hadn't he? Isabella sent him a look that said much more than she could have voiced.
Hurt me and I will hurt you back, Eduardo.
