Page 53 of The Den of Sin
She threw her head back and laughed, the sound of it carrying across the terrace. “Okay, Popeye.”
“Do you have a favorite place from your childhood?” I knew facts about her life, but I wanted more. Her favorite color, her favorite food, book, vacation… I wanted to know it all.
She eyed me suspiciously, but I kept my gaze on her. There was so much I had to fix with her, but unless she started trusting me, we wouldn’t get over that hurdle and I refuse to give up. I waited for her answer and didn’t realize I was holding my breath till she started talking.
“Mom and I moved a lot till I was about ten.” She cleared her throat, as if worried I’d snap at her at any moment. “When we landed in Key Largo, I fell in love with it. Beach, food, everything. So I guess that’s my favorite place.”
“Is that when you started surfing?”
She nodded, smiling. “Yeah, pretty much.”
A waitress came with our drinks and we both thanked her before she went back in.
“How did you get into it?”
She pushed her hair out of her face again, her expression turning soft as she watched over the river.
“Well, my mother refused to buy me a surfboard. First, it was too much money, and second, she worried I’d wash out to sea.” She rolled her eyes, although fondly. “I spent my days on the beach while my mother worked. One day, I found a surfboard washed up on the shore. I dragged it home, adamant to keep it. I knew the right thing to do was to ask around who it belonged to.” She shrugged her shoulders and brought her lemonade to her lips. “But I wanted it and didn’t want to give it back. I hid it in the shed and took two weeks to sand it down, paint it and change its look. The moment I stood up on it, the waves rocking under my feet, I was hooked.” There was a wistful look in her eyes. “Of course, I fell right off of it. It took me some practice to get the hang of it.”
The image of Isabella riding the waves flashed in my mind; I could already picture her trying to learn how to surf and refusing to give up. She had a meek personality with the edge of stubbornness in it.
“I had an accomplice to my stolen surfboard too,” she admitted. “Paolo, a local boy. My mom got close with his parents and the two of us spent quite a bit of time together. He helped me change the look of the surfboard.”
I remembered the boy from the hospital and a pang of jealousy bloomed in my chest. “Do you still surf with him?”
“With Paolo?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “No. I kind of lost touch with him after Mom died. He joined a gang, and I kept away.”
There weren’t too many gangs in that area. I had to wonder whether Santos learned about Isabella from him. They talked about Santos that day at the hospital, although they never elaborated.
“Ever think about going back?” I wasn’t sure why I asked. I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted to keep her in my city forever.
“To surfing?”
“Key Largo.”
“All the time,” she murmured softly and the tone of her voice told me she missed it. “Maybe when I have kids. It’s a great place to raise a family.”
An unfamiliar feeling swelled in my chest.Kids. Family.The way she said it told me she wanted children and family.
“You want kids?” My voice was hoarse, my heart pounding. A fleeting expression crossed her face, resembling pain and sorrow, but before I honed in on it, it was gone.
Shit, I wanted kids. And a family. To have all that with her, I would be fucking ecstatic. The luckiest man on this planet. How the fuck we got to talking about having kids I had no idea, but damn it, what I wouldn’t give to have children with her. I had half a mind to ask her if she’d consider having my babies. And I would love the act of making them with her. I could picture Isabella’s belly swollen with my baby growing inside her womb, my ring on her finger.
Fuck it, I wanted it all with her.She’s my end game.And nothing would keep me away from her. She would be nothing like my mother, and I would be nothing like my father. Our family would be everything to me.
“Yes, one day,” she murmured, her voice strangled. “First, I have to find a job.”
“Work for me.” The words came out without any thought. I just wanted her with me forever.
She laughed uncomfortably. “Doing what? I’m not exactly corporate material.”
Sometimes I wondered if she purposely remained oblivious to the rumors. Something Tatiana told me when those two first met rushed to the front of my mind.When Bella doesn’t want to know something, she just shuts down her mind to it.
“Not all my businesses are of corporate nature.” I had no idea why I decided to take this route. I never discussed anything I did with anyone outside business associates. “I have other dealings that frequently require medical assistance for my men.”
I waited, watching her facial expression but she just tilted her head sideways, studying me in return.
“I don’t think you’d need full time medical staff for that,” she retorted, and I had to wonder if that means she knew what I meant or not.
