Page 35 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

What was taking her so long? Why wasn’t she here yet?

“Maybe she’s not coming,” Maddox said, casting his gaze toward the road.

That wasn’t helpful at all. The same fear I’d felt when that message had appeared on my car cranked higher as though someone had turned the knob. Had something happened to her? What if whoever had sent that message had targeted her already?

Every muscle in my body tensed. It couldn’t be too late. I refused to allow it to be too late.

Maddox peered at his phone, tapped out a text, and then pocketed it once more. “I’d better beat it. Adelie is helping Ella shop for flowers, and I told them I’d come to lunch with them.”

“Good luck with that,” I muttered.

You couldn’t pay me to go out to lunch with those women. Ella had decided she hated me for some reason. That was fine—I wasn’t out for a popularity award here, but being around her had become significantly painful. Mostly because Hawk didn’t like me bickering with her, and I valued my friendship with him too much to say what I wanted to say to her.

Maddox gave me a half-hug, half-pat on the back, and stalked to the driver’s side of my car. He said he’d park it in his garage along with the dozens of others he’d collected in there.

I watched him climb in, start the ignition, and drive away for several moments before I checked my messages.

Rosabel hadn’t sent anything. No replies to my earlier texts this morning either. What was she doing?

Me:Where are you?

If she wasn’t coming, the least she could do was tell me. I should have stopped by her house and picked her up. I was still tempted to. Fleetingly, I pictured something happening to her or her dad, but I brushed the concern aside the way I’d been doing since the last time I’d seen her.

From his standpoint on the airplane’s entrance ramp, the pilot waved me down and pointed to his watch. An irritated growl rumbled from my throat.

My usual pilot wouldn’t have been so pushy. Didn’t he understand that he was on my timeline—not his own?

Still, I got it. I hated keeping people waiting.

My thumbs were at the ready on my screen once more when the sound of rolling wheels on the pavement jerked my head toward the road Maddox had taken. Once she parked, Rosabel strode toward me, dragging her suitcase behind her.

Relief stole over me in such a rush, I had to draw in several breaths. She was here. She was unharmed.

She wore jeans that hugged her just right. A floral shirt peeked beneath a navy blue sweater. Her hair was pulled halfway back, leaving the rest to pool to her shoulders.

Man, I thought she killed it in a skirt, but casual?

She was downright sexy.

“I knew you couldn’t resist my charms,” I said at her approach, working to tamp down the frustration that had triggered my blood moments before.

I felt like puffing out my chest. She’d come after all.

No informant. No secret threats. I would let nothing happen to this woman.

I’d arranged things with her father’s caretakers. How could she say no after that? Especially since I handled the preparations myself. I should get a gold star.

“What charms?” she asked, looking squarely at me.

No nonsense. No smile.

I refused to falter. I gripped my suitcase handle. “Come on. Clock’s ticking.”

I was halfway up the jet’s ramp before I realized the only suitcase wheels and footsteps I heard were mine.

Slowing, I peered back.

Rosabel hadn’t moved. She still stood in the same spot she’d been before.

---