Page 11 of The Enemy's Daughter

Chapter Three

Alaric knew he had to stop pushing. If he didn’t, he was going to blow everything. Was Bella the reason that her father had bought Macalister’s stock? He didn’t know, but he wanted to. When he first bumped into Bella he’d been so angry. He hated it when people stumbled into him. Why should he have to deal with someone who couldn’t handle their own feet?

“You’re right. I guess I wanted to get to know you, and I finally had you here, drinking coffee with me. I don’t want it to end.”

“Oh.”

The waitress came over with their coffees and cinnamon buns.

They thanked the woman for their order, and he focused on the woman in front of him. “I shouldn’t pry. It’s all my fault. I want you to feel comfortable here.”

“I am. Honestly, I’m comfortable.” She took a sip of her coffee, and he found it interesting to watch her enjoying something as simple as coffee.

The women he was with usually wouldn’t eat or drink anything unless they calculated the calories before it went past their lips.

She took a bite of the bun, and her eyes closed.

He did the same, enjoying the taste of cinnamon.

“This is so delicious,” she said. “Cinnamon reminds me of this time of year. My mom loved it, and she’d put it in all of her baked goods.”

He already knew her mother was a real homebody. It had been a long running joke that Reed had married a nobody.

“Your mom wanted to be a model?” he asked.

“Yeah, she did, but at the time they didn’t allow models for their imperfections. She had a scar down her cheek and neck.” She pointed on her face where it was. “I wanted to be able to live her dream, but then I realized I didn’t want to be in the limelight like that. I like my very quiet and peaceful life. How old are you?”

“I’m forty-eight years old.”

“Wow,” she said. “You’re a couple of years younger than my dad.”

“Ah, I take it this is embarrassing for you? An older guy wanting to date you.” For the first time since he decided to go through with his plan for revenge, he actually felt a little guilty.

“It’s not embarrassing. My dad once dated a woman that was my age. It was kind of creepy.” She shuddered.

He chuckled. “What happened?”

“It was just gross. She was trying too hard, and she was clearly wanting something else. Trying to eat dinner while a woman is pawing at your father sucks. Honestly, it was weird, and it made me leave dinner really early.”

Alaric was aware of that little relationship. Sandy had decided to leave him, and try to make him jealous by going to his rival. Staring at Bella, he finally saw how young she actually was.

She was twenty-five years old.

“You see me as a dirty old man?”

“Wait, no, not at all. This is really confusing to me, Blue.”

He got a little twinge at the fact she used his middle name.

She doesn’t know it. She doesn’t know anything.

This was not a game to her, or a ploy. Bella was the real deal. He saw that now. There were no batting eyelashes. Her brown hair tumbled around her in waves, and she had on the cutest pair of glasses he’d ever seen. Everything about her was the complete opposite to what he usually liked in a woman.

“Tell me what’s confusing to you, and I’ll try to make some kind of sense of it.”

She smiled, and again he was struck by a different kind of beauty. There was no part of Bella that was fake or phony. She was adorable, sweet, and real. That was what made her different. She was real to the core.

“I’m not used to men wanting to be with me. In case you didn’t see, this is the real deal. I’m not like those movies where you can get me to be something more than I actually am.”

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