Page 51 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
No, no, no, no, no!I can’t let this happen. I can’t fall in love with a man I’m investigating. I hardly know him. He is a stranger. So what if he can make every hair on my body bristle to attention by the simplest touch of his fingertip, that doesn’t mean anything.Does it?
Stunned and muddled, I remove the bubbles from my body with a luxuriously thick towel and throw on a pair of panties and a short-sleeve cotton shirt I found discarded on the floor. Exiting the room, I freeze for the second time.
“Get out of my bed.” My voice croaks with emotion.
Isaac’s shirtless torso is leaning against the leather headboard of my bed.
“This is my bed,” he responds, “and that’s my shirt.” He points to the shirt I’ve just put on.
“What?” Negative thoughts clusters in my head so fast I feel giddy. “This is the room Cormack assigned to me.”
Isaac shakes his head. “This is my room. I brought you in here the first night when you blacked out on the plane and last night—”
“Oh my God, you didn’t sleep with me last night because you wanted to. You slept with me because I was sleeping in your bed,” I interrupt.I’m going to be sick.
“I’m sorry.” I shove my clothing into my suitcase. “I didn’t realize.”
Isaac clambers out of bed to yank my suitcase out of my grasp. In silence, he places it back onto the luggage stand.
“Get in bed, Isabelle.”
I shake my head. There would be at least a dozen spare rooms in this mansion. I’m sure I’ll have no trouble finding a warm bed for the night.
“Now!” Isaac barks, startling me.
He moves back to the left-hand side of the bed. As he glides back in between the sheets, his stern eyes never once leave mine. I suck in numerous breaths to settle my rattled nerves.Is this what you want, Isabelle?My head is screaming no, but my heart pleads louder than my brain.
The sternness in his eyes lessens as I step toward the bed.
“Good choice,” he murmurs when I slide into the bed next to him.
By the time two hours have passed, I’ve counted every rose petal adorning the ceiling medallion. It took longer than usual as I had to wait for the moon to adjust its position to finish the lower half. I shift to lie on my hip and catch the profile of Isaac. Even in the shadows of the night, my heart still skips a beat when I appraise his tempting features.
“Stop staring at me.”
My lips curve into a smile. “Are you awake?”
Isaac rolls onto his hip, mimicking my position. “Yep. You need to learn to count in your head.”
“I’m so sorry,” I respond, mortified. “I have a terrible habit of mumbling out loud.”
“I’ve realized that,” he jibes, his tone playful.
We lay across from each other in silence for several minutes, each appraising the other’s moonlit face in great detail. I have so many questions I want to ask him. Not one of them has anything to do with the investigation the FBI is running on him.
Isaac runs his hand over his head. “One question, Isabelle.”
After drawing in a shaky breath, I ask the one question I’ve wanted to ask since last night. “Did you love Ophelia?”
“Yes,” he replies without a smidge of hesitation.
Tears well in my eyes, and a stabbing pain hits my chest.
“Do you still love her?” I whisper.
“I said one question,” he replies bluntly before rolling onto his opposite hip.
CHAPTER24
