"Sweetie, you probably will have feelings for him on some level. Just keep it in your head that it has an expiration date, and you'll be fine, okay? Just be safe. Be smart about it. Text me if you need us to bring your things over, and call me every day so I know you’re okay."
"Love you," I murmured.
"Love you too bitch," she laughed, disconnecting the call. I stood from the chair and made my way back into the main space of the suite. While his explanation of the hotel's accommodations with the toothbrush and conditioner made sense, it didn't mean that there wasn't another woman in his life. He spoke of Ibiza as if he called it home.
So what was he doing staying in a hotel room?
If I was going to stay, I needed to know with absolute certainty that he wasn't spoken for, because there was nothing I hated more than a cheater and a liar.
I made my way into the bedroom, going straight for the closet where he'd gotten the suit he wore downstairs. There were no women's clothes or anything outright suspicious, so I went to the navy suit still hanging and slid my hands inside the pockets.
Empty.
With a frown, I turned my attention to the stacks of more casual clothing folded on the shelves and pawed through them, being careful to return them to the way they'd been before my snooping.
"Looking for something, mi princesa?"
11
Rafael
She looked too perfect snooping through my things, her innocent desperation to get to know me manifesting in ways many men might have taken issue with. But there was nothing for Isa to discover inside the hotel room. I would have no secrets from her as soon as it was possible to tell her the truth of who I was.
I leaned against the doorway of the closet, wondering how long she would remain oblivious to me watching her. She rifled through my clothes, doing a decent job of keeping them tidy enough that I wouldn't have realized what she'd done if I hadn't caught her in the act. "Looking for something, mi princesa?" I asked, watching as her entire body jolted with the strike of terror that shook her.
Her hand went to her chest as she spun to stare at me. She swallowed past the horrified look on her face, no doubt taking in my casual stance and my calm smile as I watched her. Despite my rage of only a few moments ago, there was nothing tight in the lines of my body. Just being around Isa soothed the demons that called to me all hours of the day.
Her face morphed into a shy smile as she stepped closer to me. She touched my stomach cautiously, gliding her hands around to my back as she pressed her body into mine and rested her head on my chest. The move was so innocent, so unexpected, that I didn't react for a moment and had no clue what to do. When she turned her stunning eyes up to me and regret leaked into her expression, I bent forward to kiss her, to reassure the insecurity I saw lingering there.
"I was just trying to find out something about you."
"What do you want to know?" I asked with a shrug, wrapping an arm around her waist and guiding her back into the comfort of the bedroom.
"Anything," she admitted. "You're an enigma. I know we don't really know each other. At all. But it feels like whenever our conversations get too personal, you try to redirect them back to me. If I'm going to spend all this time with you, I'd like to feel like I know you just a little at least. It would make me feel less like..." She paused.
"Less like what, Isa?" I asked, a growl forming in my throat as the words I'd suspected her to say came tumbling out.
"Like a whore. Like I'm sleeping with you to have a luxury vacation. That's not what this is for me at all," she said. The words hung on her tongue unspoken as she stopped herself, not giving me the words I wanted to hear. "I like being with you," she said instead.
I'd take it. For now.
"There are things you can't know about me just yet. My business is—" I paused. "Cut throat. Because of that, I have to be careful who I trust and what I tell people." I wouldn't lie to her outright, but I wouldn't hesitate to keep things from her if I felt it necessary for her safety, and for the development of our relationship to be what it needed to be.
"What is it you do exactly?" she asked with narrowed eyes, making her way out of the bedroom and back into the living space.
"Sales and investments mostly," I said evasively. "I could tell you all the details of my life outside the specifics of my work, but I don't truly believe that's the best way to get to know someone."
I held out a hand for her as I pulled my cell phone from my pocket to make arrangements for her clothes to be delivered to the hotel, and to have a shopper purchase something for her to wear for that day at least. Our future wouldn't wait for the delivery of her luggage.
Not when I had plans for the day.
"Let me show you who I really am."
The sleek black town car navigated the streets of Ibiza Town as Isa tugged at the white sundress where it touched her thigh, deliberately trying to pull it low enough to cover her scar. I considered the clothes I'd seen her wear in all the photos and surveillance footage I'd seen of her over the years.
Never had I seen her wear anything that revealed her legs. Never had she risked people seeing the scar.
"Eres hermosa," I murmured, turning to her and resting my hand against
