King of Deception: A Secret Billionaire Romance (Billionaire Kings of New York Book 1)

10. Sweetness

ten

“So, where are you taking her?” Adele spiritedly dangled her flailing legs as she sat down on the window ledge.

“Uh—Fresco’s?” I sifted through my closet in search of the least expensive items. I pulled out an old pair of jeans.

“Fresco’s?” I could hear the approval dripping from her mouth without looking. “And what’s that?”

“Let’s see if it still fits.” I proceeded to slide my leg into them.

“You’re kidding,” her lips were frozen apart as she stared at me from under her eyebrows. “You’re not gonna be seen in public wearing… that.”

“Why not?” I zipped it up and turned around, checking my behind in the mirror. “Look at that. It fits!” I chuckled.

“Are you out of your mind? Uh—seven years ago called, and it wants its trash back.”

“I don’t have time to explain this to you.” Turning away, I began the search for a shirt.

“Abel? Look at me,” she demanded.

I turned around with a lazy demeanor, tilting my head.

“Who is she?” She held up both hands.

“Her name’s Ella. That’s more than you need to know.” I grabbed an old shirt in light-washed denim, and Adele’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“Is Ella blind?”

“That’s enough out of you,” I slowly approached, gently tapping her shoulder. “Get out.”

“You can’t—”

“Why are you even here? Go home. Call Toby. Attend a yoga class. Get outta here!”

“You’re sabotaging this date!” she yelled as I laughed, pressing my palm against her face and pushing her out before closing the door.

Turning back into the dressing room, I slowly scanned the rows of shoes neatly arranged at the bottom. I knew that I had an old pair of sneakers somewhere and prayed that Briga hadn’t thrown them out.

Naturally, I couldn’t take any of the cars in my garage. Instead, I decided to download a rideshare application on my phone and order an ordinary vehicle. In front of the estate gates, the driver arrived in a blue Ford—perfect.

As I waited underneath Ella’s building, I saw a man selling one-dollar bangles in all shapes and colors. One of them caught my eye; a marble-like appearance in all shades of pink. It reminded me of the dress she was wearing the night we made love, so I decided to buy it for her.

Five minutes later, she came down with a smile on her face. She was wearing a mint green top and jeans. “Why didn’t you come up?”

“I didn’t wanna rush you.” I lifted up my hand, showing her the bangle. “And I got this.”

“Aww!” she took it and closely examined it, smiling. She then looked up at me, “I see Mike got to you,” she loudly said, and the man a few feet away laughed out loud. She turned to him, lifting it up, “I guess you finally got what you wanted, huh?”

He shrugged, “Hey, it’s about time.”

“Thank you,” she turned to me as she slid her hand in, shaking her wrist as she did. “It’s really pretty.”

My heart beat faster by the effect of her sweetness. “Shall we?”

“So, where are we going?” she asked as we began to walk side by side.

“There’s this place, Fresco’s?”

“Oh, I’ve heard of it.”

“Never been?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I used my connections to get us a nice table,” I tittered.

“Nice! Don’t you go and make me fat, now.”

Eyeing her from the head down, I smirked. “That won’t be easy.”

“You literally work with food. I’m surprised you’re in such good shape.”

“I told you, I swim a lot.”

“Right. Where do you go?”

“Uh—Well? When you’re me, you pretty much know all the security personnel, hosts, and concierges in every hotel in town.”

“I see.”

We stepped into the restaurant where nobody actually knew me, and the waitress acting as hostess squeezed two menus under her arm. “Good evening. Do you have a reservation?”

“Yes. Abel—?” I drew it out as she looked at the list on her clipboard.

“Gotcha. Follow me, please.”

I had to hide my relief for not having to say my full name out loud. While ‘Drakos’ was a common Greek family name, I didn’t want to risk being recognized. As requested, we got the best seats in the house; a corner table overlooking a small garden.

The woman placed down the menus, smiling, “Your waiter will be with you in a minute.”

Having studied everything they had offered before making the reservation, I knew the safest options to order. It gave me a chance to observe Ella as she read through the items. “Oh, gnocchi! I’m definitely gonna have that.”

I grinned, nodding, “Okay. I guess I’ll have what you’re having.”

“C’mon, don’t you wanna at least look?”

“Let’s risk it together.”

I didn’t know what it was about her, but every little move she made stoked my desire to kiss her. To distract myself, I looked down at the pink bangle on her wrist and continued to smile. If I’d bought a woman I knew a one-dollar bangle, she would have thrown it in my face, followed by a string of insults. But Ella, she reveled in whatever came her way, somehow owning it and making it look a thousand times better.

“Wine or limoncello?” she suddenly asked. “C’mon,” she snapped her fingers. “Don’t think.”

“Uh—limoncello?”

“We have a winner!” she slammed the menu shut. “God, you’re easy.”

I chortled, “Excuse me?”

“Y’know what I mean.”

“Not exactly, no.”

Flipping over her palms on the table, she spread them as she parted her lips, as if in search of words. “I—You’re not complicated. Not in a bad way,” she quickly caught herself. “But I feel like what I see is what I get with you. You have no idea how comfortable that is.”

I lowered my voice, blurring the line between serious and teasingly mysterious, “I have secrets.”

“Yeah?” She secured both elbows on the table, resting her chin on her hand. “Tell me one.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a secret.”

“How would I know? I don’t know that much about you.”

“Fair enough.” Shifting in my seat, I cleared my throat. “When I was eleven, I left a secret Valentine in Casey Gilchrist’s locker… even though I knew she’d kissed Trevor Boyd and would think that it was from him.”

Pouting her lips, she frowned and tilted her head. “Then why’d you do it?”

“Because it was a beautiful, red velvet scrunchie, and I wanted her to have it.”

She giggled. “You stuffed a scrunchie down that little thing?”

“With a card,” I added.

“A card! What did it say?”

Lifting my shoulders, I held up my hands in the air, “Eh—I love you… be my Valentine?”

“Awww!” She chuckled. “That’s so sad.”

“I know. See?”

“Where are they now? Casey and Trevor? Are they happily married? Do they have kids?”

Sighing, I shook my head. “Sadly, not all love stories end that way.”

“You don’t know.”

“I couldn’t care less.”

We both laughed before the waiter came to take our order. When he was gone, I watched her apply lip balm that smelled like peaches. “What?” she moved her head to the side where her eyes remained on me. “Not very lady-like?”

“No, no,” I chuckled and shook my head. “It smells good.”

“Thank you.” Her fingers touched the base of the water glass, lingering at the edges. “So, what about the stories that did end happily? Got any of those?”

“Actually, I do,” I confirmed. “My parents.”

Her eyes widened with excitement as she rubbed her palms together. “Do tell. I’m a sucker for those.”

“I mean, there was nothing special or anything—

“Are they still together?”

“Forty years.”

“That’s special. My parents got divorced the day I moved to college.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, no. Don’t be,” she waved it off. “They’re better off, believe me. Mom stayed in Washington, where she works. Dad remarried, and they moved to Hawaii, where they opened a massage parlor together.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. I’m surprised they got married, to begin with—they’re worlds apart.”

“Opposites attract.”

“And sometimes, collide and explode,” she tittered. Sharply sighing, she picked up her glass of water and took a long sip. As she put it down, her eyes smiled before her lips did. “Tell me more about yours.”

“Well…” I tried to arrange my thoughts—and accordingly, my words—in a way that would make sense without mentioning the money. “My mom was on vacation with her family in Greece. My dad was visiting family who lived there, and… believe it or not, they met at the airport on the way back.”

“No way!” she giggled, and my heart danced.

I squeezed my eyelids shut, “Anticlimactic, I know.”

“Yeah, but it’s cute. Did they ever go back together?”

“They did.” I nodded. “Actually, my sister was born there.”

“Oh, I thought she was fictional.”

I got confused for a second before remembering that I had mentioned her the night we met. “Right,” I chuckled.

“Younger?”

“You guessed it,” I flattened my lips.

“You don’t wanna talk about her.”

“Busted?” I tittered, raising both hands. “Nah, it’s just that… I worry about her sometimes.”

“Isn’t that part of your job?”

“You think?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m an only child.”

“They say you guys are spoiled rotten.”

“Not when we have to break up a fight that includes flying ceramic ashtrays and coffee mugs.”

“Are you serious?” I couldn’t hide my sympathy.

“Don’t feel too bad. They always bribed me with ice cream afterward.”

Biting my lower lip, I teased her, “Were you a chubby kid?”

“Never!” her eyes grew wide. “I had my daily runs.”

“And now?”

“I run to catch the elevator,” she replied with a glint in her eyes, an effortless giggle rippling from between her lips.

Our evening was filled with smiles, laughter, and light banter. Having forgotten all about my lie, I felt my feet sinking deeper and deeper in awe of that smart, driven, stylish, beautiful woman. Funny, modest, and easy to talk to, Ella clearly didn’t have the slightest idea about her effect on me. I was falling with no net to catch me.

When the bill arrived, she quickly reached and snatched it before I could even look at it.

I was petrified. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Welcome to the twenty-first century.” She opened her wallet and pulled out a card. “We missed you here.”

Leaning over, I stretched my arm to grab it, and she moved it back over her head. “Ella, c’mon. Do you really want this to be the way we remember our first date?”

Biting her lower lip, she gestured to beckon the waitress. “Someone’s hoping for a second.”

The waitress approached, tossing a dirty look in my direction. Smiling, I shook my head and looked away. Placing my elbows on the table, I hid my mouth behind both fists.

I had to admit—at least to myself—that I admired her independence and, equally, her generosity. But I knew I had to think of a way to set things straight if I truly wanted more dates with her.

We stepped out of the restaurant with me waving awkwardly to the disapproving hostess.

Along the way to her building, we didn’t exchange any words. Instead, it was a comfortable sort of silence. As we approached her place, I looked down at the bangle on her right hand, next to my left. Touching it, I let my fingers graze hers.

“Too soon,” she gave me a suggestive look.

“Yeah? What’s the order here? Teach me.”

Giggling, she held up her fingers. “C’mon, rookie! It’s bed,” she continued to laugh, counting, “date… first kiss… restraining order…”

“Just stop.” We halted our steps in front of her doorway, and I leaned over, pushing her chin up with two fingers.

Her lips were sweeter than anything I had ever tasted—even better than that night, as unbelievable as it might sound.