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“Isaac?” I breathed.
My handsome suitor smiled at me.
I completely forgot about talking to the staff.
Chapter39
Besáme
Isaac was still smiling at me as we slinked past two servants in the dining room, out into the hallway, and up a set of carpeted spiral stairs leading us up somewhere we definitely shouldn’t be going. My fan had been misplaced, and my shawl was slipping, revealing the scandalous cut of my dress. Thankfully, running in heels was much easier after years of dancing Flamenco.
Despite his smile, I cycled through surprise, nausea, and fear. There was a borderline obsession with winning Isaac as my future husband. In securing his commitment to me. “Where are we going?”
Our legs pumped in unison up the stairs. I kept myself from tripping by fisting silk and yanking up as much of the fabric. My other hand remained stuck in the iron grasp of Isaac’s hand.
“Isaac,” I hissed.
“Hush, they will hear you,” Isaac whispered back just as we reached a set of glass doors leading out to a luxurious balcony bathed by the twinkling lights I’d spotted on the drive up. I barely had time to take in the stunning view before Isaac was tugging me once again.
“Come, we’re going to the second balcony. They won’t spot us up there, and you can sneak down with the women after,” he said with a breathless grin. He looked excited, and his eyes shone with some sort of desire-ridden expression that made my knees a little weak and my insides twist.
“What do you mean? What that someone’s room?” I asked as we reached our destination.
He shook his head and gave me a strange confused look. “No. This is where the women meet while the men go to smoke and play cards.”
I blinked. I had somehow forgotten that men and women were separated for another leg in what seemed like an endless night. These people were ridiculous.
Then Isaac’s white-gloved hand reached out and twisted the scrolling cast-iron handle. My stomach knotted up even further as the door swung open.
“Wait,” I said as he walked through the threshold.
“Please, Renata. Trust me,” he said with pleading in his eyes. “I spent the entire evening trying not to stare at you. You are the sun, and I am merely the earth. I can’t stay away from you for long. Watching you dance with Santiago nearly killed me with jealousy.”
His words sank into my skin and mind. He had a way of talking that was so flowery, so sweet, that it nearly felt too good to be true.
But… to hell with it all.
I believed him. I had to.
Relief, sweet as chocolate, flooded my insides. I would not turn down this opportunity to lay another brick in the foundation of my future.
A biting gust of chilled wind blew in from the open door. It brushed across the bare skin of my shoulders and chest, and I glanced downward. The staircase looked like a swirling vortex. One step and I would plunge down to my death.
I finally grabbed Isaac’s hand back. “I trust you,” I finally said. Maybe I even believed it. I certainly wanted to.
We walked out together, and he softly closed the door as we moved lithely.
We had barely made it through the door before he enveloped my body with his long arms. He brought one of my palms to his face and trailed kisses up the back of my hand, to my wrist, and up to my elbow, all while he took me to the cover of a sitting area on the top.
Anticipation wrapped around me like golden cords as his tongue darted out to lick the faint blue of my vein visible through my skin. He growled and my insides scrambled.
I was solely focused on him, trying to understand what he wanted from me.
Kisses? Love? Affection? The Sanguine Call?
These things were tethers, binding us together in a more concrete way. Therefore, they were all good.
As we reached a seat, my chest squeezed and my breath hitched. I could manage little more than small puffs of breath as he guided me to sit and knelt in front of me. He was tall enough that our faces were still somewhat level.
