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Waking up with a start, I roll over quickly and get tangled in a blanket I don’t remember throwing over myself. Fighting with it to get free, I look over at the balcony to see it’s pitch black out. It was definitely still light when I crashed, so I must’ve had a good two or three hours.
Checking the clock on the TV, I’m shocked to see it’s 3.00 AM.
I’ve been asleep for over twelve hours. How?
That has never happened to me, even after the most raucous drunken night with Dante back in the day.
“Fuck,” I mutter and rub my face.
I’m not sure if I feel better for it or worse.
To be determined.
Needing to get up and move, I grimace at the cold tea and bypass it for the bottle of water. After I’ve taken a big gulp, I stand up and strip off, heading straight for the shower. Blasting out the icy water before I turn the temperature up, I grunt and stand there, letting it soak me.
My only conclusion about this anomaly is that Isla’s presence comforted me. Even though she wasn’t next to me, the thought of the possibility that she would one day be, soothed my ravaged soul. She is taking care of me, watching over me, and that is something that I’ve never had before. It’s a freaking revelation, and if I didn’t already know I needed to snap her up, I would in a heartbeat after this.
She is everything and more I could want in a woman. She keeps surprising me with little things, and I’m falling deeper than I ever have.
Eventually, I get out of the shower and get dried and dressed, moving quietly down the hallway, past Isla’s bedroom to the stairs. The first stop is the kitchen for coffee, and the second is my office to continue with the boring files that are stacked up.
Mug in hand, I come to a halt at my office door. “Sophia,” I say when I see my sister, lounging in an armchair by the roaring fire, her legs crossed at the knee as she sips on my Scotch. “You’re back.”
“Don’t sound so thrilled,” she giggles and tilts her head as I cross over to stoop down to give her cheek a kiss.
“But I am. Clearly, you have come to your senses that ‘out there’ is not necessarily a greener pasture.”
“Not at all. I spoke to Isla, and she sounded like she needed the help.”
“She doesn’t. So if that was your only concern, you can leave again.” Her attitude pisses me off. She left and brought Isla in to take care of me and this place, and now she thinks only she can do the job. No one, and I meanno one,is irreplaceable to me.
Wrong.
With the exception of Isla, no one is irreplaceable to me.
That thought scares me and I move across to my desk to place my mug down. I’m putting her in so much danger just by knowing her.
“Someone smitten with the housekeeper?” Sophia asks, almost snidely.
“Someone jealous?” I retort, not even bothering to hide my disdain for this conversation topic.
“Hardly,” she says. “Being jealous of my big brother finding someone is not on my to-do list.”
“Because you have your own someone,” I say, sitting in my chair and leaning back. Something about this just doesn’t make any sense.
“Exactly,” she says. “I am merely here to make sure everything is okay. Isla sounded fraught when I spoke to her.”
“She is managing just fine.”
“With Dante and Sebastian Christchurch showing up here with guns? You sure about that? Also, where the fuck are the security guys?”
“Outside.”
“Not them. The other ones.”
“They fucked up, so they got fired.”
“Hmm,” she murmurs and takes a sip of Scotch. “So, is she perfect?”
