Page 46 of Worth the Heat
She nods, but I see the apprehension in her gaze. “Only if you want to tell me, Seb.”
“I love that you’ve called me Seb twice tonight, because you’ve never called me that before.”
“Your close friends call you that, and it just seemed too …” she trails off, exhaling deeply.
“What?”
Isabella’s eyes meet mine as she continues. “It seemed too intimate, somehow. And I was too scared to take a step in that direction with you. If something changes, you’re still around my family a lot. I don’t know how I’d handle that, so stopping it from happening seemed like the best option.”
“Okay. What did you mean when you said I’m all you see?” I ask, almost scared of what she might say.
She smiles slightly, just the corner of her lips pulling up a tiny bit. “I’ve caught myself thinking about you almost constantly. Wondering what you’d think about a new dessert I was debating on trying, or if you’d like one of my perfumes. I’d almost have make-believe conversations in my head with you, which seems ridiculous now that I’ve said it out loud.”
“Not ridiculous,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re in my thought conversations too.”
“Really?” she asks softly, hope finally blooming in her eyes for the first time since she barreled in here.
“You’ve been the center of my heart, Isabella. Everything I do is with you in mind. You are it,” I tell her huskily, stepping close enough to pull her into my arms. Burying my head in her hair, I ask her a final question, that bears the most weight. “Do you see that you’re not a game to me?”
“I do,” she whispers as her arms slide around to hold me tightly. “I’m so sorry to have doubted you, even for a moment.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t handle the bakery order better. I promise I’ll talk to you about things from now on. Except for the keeping you safe stuff.”
“Wait —” she interjects, but I palm her head and shove her face into my chest.
“No. This is where I draw the line, and you need to listen to me before you blow up and yell at me. Okay?”
She mutters something against my chest that I don’t understand, but finally nods heragreement.
“Good. There are six women in this world that don’t get to tell me how to keep them safe. My daughter, my sisters, my mother, and my grandmother. You’re the sixth. If something happened to any of you, and it was due to negligence on my part? I’d never forgive myself. Every decision I make about your safety is done so with painstaking finesse. I don’t decide something just to piss you off, or make you uncomfortable. I do so because I will not be able to live with myself if something happens to you.” My body tenses as I think about her being hurt, or taken, and Isabella squeezes me in response.
“Seb,” she whispers, nuzzling her cheek against me.
“Here are the things that I will not compromise on. I will be able to track your location, from your phone and your car, and you’ll check in when you arrive somewhere. If I’m not with you, someone I’ve personally chosen will be around you. We aren’t any closer to finding the guys who your ex is associated with, and until that happens, I’m not taking any chances with your safety. Once things settle down, and I know the threat is over, we’ll change this expectation.”
“Okay,” Isabella replies.
“And no more riding with your NASCAR employee with the goal of losing your tail. I don’t care how pissed you are at my guys. If they drove you to work, they drive you home.”
“Alright.”
“Lastly, if we have a fight, which I have no doubt we will have because we’re us, and it’s probably been a decade of foreplay at this point, you don’t go back to your apartment to hide from me. If we argue, we talk it out. Then we have make-up sex, because that’s what couples do. Also, get rid of your apartment. I’ve been moving you in here for weeks,mi Reina. You live here now. Accept it.”
“Okay,” she says with a giggle, and the sound is like a perfect melody. “Can I ask a question now?”
“Of course.”
Isabella props her chin on my chest, looking up at me, her chocolate brown eyes shining. “Is this the part of our fight where we get to have make-up sex?”
“Fuck, yes,” I say, crashing our lips together.
About fucking time.
ISABELLA
Ididn’t know how things would go when I made it to Sebastian’s. I knew I had a lot to apologize for. I’ve handled things so badly with him. My brothers did not hold back once I explained what happened. Luca was incredibly pissed. He admitted that Sebastian first approached him quite a few years ago asking about me, around the time Luca met Hannah, and joked that he couldn’t wait to see how long I made Seb wait.
Dominic said he’s known about Seb’s feelings since before he married my sister-in-law, Kate, and Alex claims he recognized interest six or seven years ago. He said Sebastian would always have me in his sights whenever he attended a family function.
