Page 299 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
“You’re sorry,” I retaliate angrily, yelling. “I’ve been going crazy, and all you can say is you’re sorry.”
She doesn’t respond. She just keeps her gaze planted on the floor.
“Isabelle…” I want her to look at me while I’m speaking to her.
Her lips quiver when her eyes lock with mine. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I said I’m sorry.”
The anger scorching my veins dampens when I spot the tears forming in her eyes. “What happened? Did somebody hurt you? Are you hurt?”
My eyes scan her face and body searching for evidence of any injuries that I almost miss the shake of her head. “I'm all right.”
She's lying.
“I went for a walk. I needed to clear my mind.”
Now she's telling the truth.
“Clear your mind of what, exactly?” I sound calm, yet I'm anything but.
As she adjusts her hideous satchel on her shoulder, her gaze dances around my office, unable to maintain my eye contact. Something doesn’t feel right. She’s never been so evasive before. She's too quiet and skittish. She’s never acted this way around me.
After removing her satchel, I throw it onto the couch before gathering her in my arms and striding to my desk. The hard knot in my stomach lessens when she nuzzles her nose into my neck and inhales deeply. I sit in my office chair, then pull her in close to my chest, vainly trying to secure a grip on her since it feels like she's slipping away. I wait, impatiently, for her to talk. Isabelle can’t control her need to know everything. She blurts out questions before her brain can process them because she communicates with words. Where I, on the other hand, express myself physically.
It takes several long, tedious minutes before she finally speaks, “I want to go back to Tiburon.” When I stiffen, her head pops off my chest. Her eyes are even wetter now. “Not forever. Just for a few days or a week to finalize some things there.”
My breathing resumes, although agitated from the cagey cloud hampering her usually bright eyes. “I can arrange for someone to do that for you. You don’t need to go back there. I’ll have someone in my team take care of it.”
“I want to do it.” Her eyes bounce between mine. “It’s…personal. I don’t want strangers going through my belongings.”
I brush a stray hair off her cheek that looks like it’s been stained by tears. “Okay, I’ll arrange for us to go to Tiburon sometime in the new year.”
Her pupils widen as she swallows harshly. “Umm… I was thinking about going this week.”
I shake my head. “I can’t go this week. The two weeks over the Christmas and New Year period are the busiest weeks in my industry. I can’t just go away for a week. I’m sorry, baby, I can’t.”
She places her hand on her cheek. “It’s okay. I understand.”
Relief floods me. I want to give her the world, so I would have hated to disappoint her.
“I’ll go by myself.” When I glare at her, she stammers, “You’ll be so busy with your empire, you won’t even notice I'm gone.”
“Bullshit!” I notice when she’s gone for an hour, let alone days. “I only just got you back, but you want to separate us again.” Remorse clutches my heart when tears spill from her bursting eyes. “I'll take you back to Tiburon. You just have to wait two weeks.”
“I can’t wait that long.”
When her eyes drop to my chest, I grip her chin and hoist her face back to mine. I scan her beautiful face trying to decipher what happened in the last three hours that caused such a shift in her demeanor. This morning, she was flirty and playful when we fucked in the shower. Now, she's so cold and distant, I no longer recognize the eyes staring back at me.
“Why do youreally want to go back to Tiburon?” I keep my tone neutral, even with my blood boiling, remembering she is my wife-to-be, not a staff member I can boss around.
“I shouldn’t need to explain to you why I want to go home, Isaac. I just want to go home.”
“Tiburon isn’t your home. This is your home.I’myour home!”
Her lips thin. “Don’t yell at me! I'm not your staff.”
“Then stop giving me pathetic excuses and talk to me, goddammit!”
“I am, I’m telling you what I want, but you aren’t listening. I want to go home.”
