Page 19 of Mister Stark

From across the table, I raised one eyebrow at him and pressed my lips together with anger. I gave him the cold shoulder and ignored his overbearing rudeness. I focused on anything but him and when I glanced at him, I could tell it worked like a charm. He ridged his jaw with tension and his hand moved through his silver fox hair with unease. The bright strands caught my eye in the light and the smoothness of them made me want to run my hand through it.

I shook my head at the thought and enjoyed the accomplishment. The satisfaction of getting on dear daddy’s last nerve and I loved every minute. He definitely deserved it.

I basked in the success and created a conversation with the client. Her name was Beverly, and she was an older woman with a very kind aspect to her. She was quite delightful and nothing like Daxon when it came to business, but I noticed a fabulous diamond wedding ring dangled from her finger. She spun it around her ring finger and it would glimmer with the light.

“So, how long have you been married, Beverly?” I asked as I rested my chin on my palm and warmly smiled her way. “It’s absolutely breathtaking.”

Beverly smiled with the glow of love. “It’s been twenty long years, but the best of my life.”

“Marriage is a special gift and it should be taken seriously. It’s a bond you have for the rest of your life and when it’s broken, it’s like a piece of you is gone.” I breathed with passion as the words escaped my mouth because of the twinkle of happiness in her wise eyes, and it made me hopeful.

Beverly tilted her head to the side, lost in her own thoughts, and breathed. “Yes, and not everyone these days can understand that. You’re quite the gem, Celeste. My husband and I have had our fair share of rough times, but we’ve stuck through it because we wanted to be together.”

I sighed with awe. “And that’s the greatest gift. A love that can’t break.”

My gaze broke from Beverly’s as she laughed in delight at my words and they fell upon the deep, dark pair seated beside her. I became trapped in Daxon’s stare when it should be my fiancé’s. They swirled with so much emotion I couldn’t read him, but I couldn’t break away. Lost in him and his upheaval of chaotic disruption that always threw me sideways. A heat that burned between us as the air sparked with static and a flame burned to life.

But she disrupted the moment when the client raised her glass.

“Let us raise a toast.” She gazed from me toward Daxon with a wise smirk on her face and raised her champagne glass high in the air. “To unbroken love stories.”

But my eyes got lost in Daxon once more and my lips parted with a response. “To unbroken love stories.”

As I clicked my glass against Beverly's, my lips formed a smile and a shudder ran through me. I broke eye contact with Daxon and felt his son’s hand caress my thigh. I looked at him as he smiled with admiration at me, but all I could see was his father’s face.

TEN

Fantasy

The limousine rideback to our penthouse was an awkward one. Paisley wasn’t her normal spunky self because of the tension between me and Dylan. I was still fired up from my fiancé’s behavior this evening and he had some explaining to do. Dylan remained quiet in his seat and consumed by his phone. He would wait for a phone call from dear old dad on the business deal. His mind was set on that.

I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. The air was so tense and tight that my throat closed in. I swallowed hard and rubbed my hands together in my lap. The sweet melody filled the limousine and was the only thing that held me together. It saved me from opening the door and leaping out into oncoming traffic.

But Daxon’s face at dinner unnerved me.

His eyes haunted me, taunted me with thoughts I never thought I’d want. His much too gorgeous lips curled up into a daring smirk and made me want to smack it back into nonexistence. The way his body spoke to me was of sheer disregard, but there was something else I never thought I’d see.

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