Page 37 of Hired Husband

“Like hell.”

His friends burst out laughing again, but David simply inclined his chin and muttered as he started walking away. “We’ll see.”

The four of them took off down the street, David back to smiling like he’d just secured a date for his party. I sighed, watching them disappear around the corner before I chose to head in the completely opposite direction.

Any encounter with David made me feel like I needed a shower, but today, there was something else too, a nagging discomfort about the way he’d made a point of bringing up Isaac. While I tried to shake it off, I ventured into a jewelry store and browsed for a while. Then I grabbed an iced coffee and sat at a little cafe, reorganizing the list of things I wanted to show Isaac when my father finally gave him some time off.

Eventually, once I’d managed to put the whole thing with David fully behind me, I headed back to the house, walking in just as the afternoon sun began to cast long shadows down the street. I followed the voices drifting in from the terrace, surprised when I nearly walked straight into Isaac in the hallway.

They’d clearly just returned from the site, his boots and clothing still dusty and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Somehow, he’d also managed to acquire a faint streak of dirt across his jaw, his blond hair no longer neatly styled like it had been on the plane. Instead, a lock of it had fallen across his forehead. His eyes looked slightly tired and his skin was sun-warmed. Unfortunately, he looked ridiculously handsome like this, and when he smiled as soon as his gaze met mine, my heart did another little leap.

“Hey,” he said. “Did you have a good day in the end?”

I glanced at the dust covering his shoulders and shoes. “Well, I don’t look like I hugged a construction site, so yeah. I’d say it was probably better than yours.”

He chuckled. “At least it hugged me back.”

“As long as you were productive, I suppose.”

A spark of something lit in his eyes and he nodded. “It was amazing. You should see the coastline the complex is going to overlook, Jasmine. There’s no way a glass and steel monstrosity would’ve worked. I’ve had so many more ideas of how to change our original plans now that I’ve seen it.”

“Are you still busy discussing those plans with my father?” I asked. “Or are you finally ready to start your grand tour?”

Isaac glanced toward the terrace. “Now?”

“There’s no time like the present, right?”

He turned back to me, smiling. “As it happens, your father is pretty distracted with Nanna right now. Something about not eating enough. Give me ten minutes to shower and I’ll meet you outside?”

Warmth spread through my chest. He actually said yes this time.

“Fine, but if you’re not there in ten, you can find yourself a new tour guide.”

He grinned, already starting to back toward the hallway. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Just let me get cleaned up, or else you’re going to spend the whole night complaining about the way I smell.”

I laughed. “What makes you think I’m not going to do that anyway?”

“I might’ve borrowed one of the fragrances your sister sent my brother.” He winked. “So if you have any issues, you can take it up with White Water Lily, but until then, I have nine minutes left, which means I need to get going. There’s no way I’d be able to find a tour guide half as good as the one who’ll ditch me if I’m late.”

Without another word, he spun and disappeared toward his bedroom, and I buried my face in my hands to keep from squealing out loud. I was finally going to get to show him around, and not only that, but he’d definitely just complimented me.

On purpose, this time.

I had no idea why that excited me as much as it did, but I couldn’t stop smiling as I headed back to the front door. Isaac Thayer was turning out to be one surprise after another, and I was suddenly really looking forward to what I was about to learn next.

CHAPTER 15

ISAAC

Jasmine took me to the Old Market first, leading me through a maze of alleyways and stalls and telling me the story of nearly every building we passed. For probably about the sixth time in the last hour, I stopped to admire a doorway, but she never rushed me, just patiently standing at my side with a smile on her face that said she appreciated every tiny detail as much as I did.

“How is it that every door here has so much character?” I asked, finally straightening up and falling back into step beside her.

She laughed. Her rich dark hair glowed under the light of the lanterns starting to come on in the alley. “I’ve been coming here my whole life, and every single time, I still find streets I’ve never walked and shops I’ve never noticed. I think that’s how the doors get their character. This place is just… magic.”

She smiled at me over her shoulder as we wandered through the last stretch of the Old Market, and for a second, I almost tripped over my own feet, just staring at her instead of paying attention even to my own body. The way she looked, framed by the buildings, with crooked little balconies behind her, and the energy of the place lighting her eyes, threatened to cut off my air supply.

Jasmine had always been gorgeous, but here, she was absolutely radiant. Like whatever energy source she usually operated on was super-charged in this city. As far as I was concerned, the real magic here was her, but hey. I was drunk on the architecture and history of the very streets I was walking, so I kept that little tidbit to myself.