Page 26 of Twin Deception

Found you, sweetheart.

My heart beat faster, and I hurried to cut through the traffic. Others had given up on the official strip of the pedestrian crosswalk too.

Isabel Flores was right there, sitting at a bistro table and wiping her lips from whatever she’d had for lunch. Lips I wanted to taste and suck again. To see them glistening wet and parted as she fought to catch her breath from what I did to her.

Horns honked and blared. Metal crushed and people shouted.

I stopped short, looking to the right at the accident. An impatient biker had swerved around a van, and the car next to them braked so hard they’d an accident, rear-ending a truck.

More cars stopped. Others slammed on their brakes too late. It wasn’t a tragic pileup but a mess of too many fender benders too close together.

Dammit. Move. Move!I dodged and wove around the stopping vehicles, rushing to cross over and find her.

By the time I set foot on the sidewalk in front of the café, she was gone.

Fuck!

I was pissed, but I didn’t lose hope. Craning my neck to look up and up and up, I registered the name of this hotel and knew she had to be nearby. She had to be.

She hadn’t flown out of the country. She was still here. Drago was making it sound like she wasn’t, but I had my proof now.

Isabel was within my reach again, and seeing her eating here would narrow down the area I’d need to search.

One step closer to her again, I let the first genuine smile of the day lift my lips.

Don’t stray too far this time, sweetheart. Because I’ve got my eyes on you.

And I wouldn’t give up on this hunt. Not until I had her in my arms again.

10

ISABEL

Lunch didn’t help.

This solitude lingered, worsening my mood. Even if I hadn’t gotten a call from Bayshore, it wouldn’t have taken long for my glumness to return.

Eating alone could be daunting. Everyone seemed to notice when a single person ate out by themselves. Pity would follow. Normally, I didn’t mind. I was a loner from how I was raised, never allowed to make friends of my own and always being moved from one location to another. I’d wondered if that was what army brats felt like, constantly uprooted and moved around.

My father’s alienation didn’t help, either. He either forbade me from socializing with some people because of his deals screwing them over or he disapproved of my befriending anyone of a lesser socio-economic status. His reputation mattered more than my attempts at companionship.

I ate alone when I was working. Meals were just segments of the day to eat and regain energy. On vacation, though, it feltdifferent. Like it was that much more obvious that no one wanted to be with me.

He did.

My stalker had definitely wanted to spend time with me.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumbled to myself and shook my head.

Sitting on the beach at a bench now, I tried to doodle and sketch. I was passionate about my work, so with the hopes that putting down some preliminary ideas for that mural in Tampa would jolt me out of this morose mood, I'd dug out my sketchbook and tried to get some ideas flowing.

All I could do was think about him, though. If I wasn’t wallowing about how alone I was, then I was too curious about him. If I wasn’t struggling with this damn depression about how isolated I was, then I was letting my thoughts wander about him, about how good it felt to be under his mercy of a kiss.

I hadn’t felt him watching me today, but I wasn’t afraid he’d given up. If something was going on with Louis to the point a stalker would be after me, it had to be a big deal.

But mixing lust for my stalker with this stubborn distance for him to not catch me? It was an oxymoron.

I didn’t want anything to do with my father, but I wouldn’t mind seeing that sexy stalker again.

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