Chapter 24 ~ Isabella #2
This became a daily occurrence with him this week, every morning and every night.
He texts, every gift has HP stuff and candies, or fruit and the baby outfit was too cute.
I must admit, I replied that night. It was sweet, and it dug right through the ice I built around my heart.
I felt bad for giving him the finger the day before.
But he’s just not letting up and the more he sends gifts and texts, the more I am reminded I will not be free of him, and that makes me rethink everything.
Do I actually want to be free of him? I pop another damn butterscotch candy in my mouth and chew, propping my feet up on the coffee table.
I knock my Harry Potter head slippers together, deep in thought.
This is bad. I’m weakening and I have to get that Grr face back, stiffen up my backbone and shut this mushy shit down.
He’s playing dirty using HP against me and food.
It’s Friday and Anna will come over, hopefully.
Danny is still stalking her, and she’s like me.
The walls are hard to keep up when they just keep busting them down brick by bloody brick.
Frustrated, I get up and head to my room to shower.
Putting on my cream sweater with my black leggings makes me feel better.
Today I just feel blah, and all I want to do is relax in my comfortable clothes.
I take out the sketch pad that he had given to me and begin to browse through it.
Page after page bears his likeness. His hands, his arms, and the side of his neck where he has a small dark mole, his image is on every page.
I chuck it onto the table in the living room. Well, that was a dumb idea, Damn it!
The truck rumbles up to the house, but I beat the delivery guy to the door and open it.
This has got to stop. Clearly, he is trying to cheat.
Give me some time to think and quit being all sweet and shit and making me weak with food and HP things.
I take the box and thank the driver. I open it and pull out the coolest HP sweatshirt and matching leggings.
He even got me a scarf. At the very bottom is a big box with Caramel Chews.
Ok, that’s it!
I toss the works in the box and storm out my door, crossing the yard to the back door to the kitchen. I walk straight through the house to his office and I’m so blinded by rage I just kick the door open. He’s not at his desk, and that just pisses me off even more.
“Alexander!” I yell.
Carlos comes into the room and stops just inside the door as I pace back and forth in front of Alexander’s desk.
“Izzy? Are you all right?” His voice is soft, like he’s talking to a child. Fuck that.
“No. I’m not okay. Where is that butterscotch asshole?”
Carlos looks confused, and he shakes his head at me. “Butterscotch? Izzy, who are you talking about?”
I grit my teeth and step towards him and growl. “Alexander. Get him here NOW, Carlos.”
He backs out the door quietly with his hands up in surrender.
A few seconds later Alexander comes in and I stop.
Christ, he’s even more fucking sexy in person.
It’s been a week since I last saw him and that butterscotch smell wafting off of him mixed with an undercurrent of…
I don’t know what the scent is, but it just pisses me off more that I’m attracted to him.
“What the fuck is the game, Alexander, huh?”
He smiles and sits down in his chair behind his desk, clasping his hands on top of it.
“No game, Isabella, just showering my wife with gifts she deserves.” He’s smiling widely, his dimples are showing, and it just makes my insides melt.
There goes another brick, dammit. Time to bring out the grr face.
“Oh, please, I don’t need or want gifts,” I point in his face. “What’s with the butterscotch pudding every night? Did you tell Rose that I wanted butterscotch pudding every night?”
“Yes, she said you’ve eaten it every meal, so I assume you liked it?”
He thinks he’s so smart. I just want to slap those sexy lips.
“Oh, so now you’re watching my meals?” I cross my arms over my chest. His eyes soften as he looks at my tummy and then back up to my face. Alexander’s dimples pop out on his cheeks. Those silver eyes turn dark gray as he looks at me. His voice is sultry, and he has a sexy, wicked grin.
“I watch everything you do, love. I can’t help it.”
Love. That word not only irritates me but also causes me anguish at the same time.
“Don’t say that, like ever!” Swiping my hand in the air.
“Say what, bunny?”
Right now, he is laughing at me. I can see it in his face as his lips tremble with amusement that he is trying to hold back. How his eyes wrinkle, and the way that he is trying to suppress a smile.
“Or that, I’m not your anything.” I try to use my most demanding voice, but it comes out more churlish.
He leans back in his chair with a cocky grin on his face.
This is feeling like a bad idea. It would have been better to have texted him that he was being a dick.
I breathe in deep. God, he smells good up close.
I’m going to have to google if your nose is super sensitive when you’re pregnant, cause as much as I want to slap his face I also want to sniff him.
“You are my bunny, I always will be. But I want to show you something.”
Alexander gets up and walks across the office, heading out the office door. I’m too stunned by the fact he just left me there, walked out, as if this conversation is over? I wasn’t done yelling at him yet, so I followed. Plus, I have a lot to say, and I’m not done smelling him either.
He walks across to the foyer, heading towards the library. And he opens the door. Completely ignoring him, I stomp inside and then stop dead in my tracks. Rows and racks of my plants are there. They have arrived. He made a makeshift atrium for them. My babies are everywhere.
God, I can’t believe it, my plants have arrived. Oh, I’m ecstatic. The first thing I do is inspect the ones by the front window. Some can survive with filtered light or even partial shade rather than full sunshine. But they made the trip. Now it’s time to put them where they belong.
I turn to Alexander and ask how long ago they came.
Sunday he informs me they’ve been here a week?
Rose has been caring for them on my behalf, but this is my job.
Although I adore Rose, these are my babies.
I wouldn’t put them in just anybody’s care.
As much as I dislike being in Alexander’s space, I will not allow any of my plants to die out of pride.
Without thinking, I hand him pots and rearrange my shelves, explaining every plant, what they mean, what they need and what they require for sunlight. I’m so caught up and catching up with my babies, I forget that he’s following me. Till he says we should make a living library.
What a great idea! I would have never thought of that? We have the space. It’s huge here if we rearrange some bookshelves and move some of the furniture. It could actually be a living library. I get so caught up in my plants and being excited at the idea; I forgot.
Alexander is always playing games with me. So I asked him if he was, and he said that it wasn’t a trick—that he really wants to take part in this project. After a few minutes of concentrating on his features, I can see it. He is serious about turning this space into a living library.
My stomach growls and I’m starving. I didn’t really eat much this morning, and I was too pissed off at him when I stormed out before I finished eating the last of my breakfast. It’s close to lunch, and I’m not going back home.
Alexander says he wants to go grab his laptop and we can start looking for what we will need, so I finally pluck up the courage and asked him if we could have some food.
He looks at me and smiles and says, anything you want and I’m craving pancakes and maple syrup so badly.
I can actually taste it in my mouth. And crispy bacon.
I want crispy bacon. With a smile on his face, he leaves to get us brunch and his laptop while I continue to rearrange my plants, putting them where they belong.
The smell of bacon wafts up my nose and I can’t help it.
I put my plant down and I can see that there’s a dome on the table.
I never even heard Rose come in. Rushing to the table, I pull the chair out, take my seat and lift the lid off the tray and breathe deep, Ahhh, bacon.
I literally just rammed a piece into my mouth and started chewing.
“So Good.” I mumble in between bites.
Alexander joins me at the table. Plopping a couple of pancakes on his plate.
And he smiles at me. I cut a sizable chunk of my pancake and shove it into my mouth.
Half the syrup is sloppy down my chin and Alexander reaches over his with his thumb and wipes it off.
This is the first time he has touched me in a week.
I don’t know if it’s the scent of maple syrup or the pancake, could be the bacon.
But I want to lunch myself across the table and eat his lips for lunch.
His eyes turned dark as he sucks the syrup off his thumb because he has the same expression on his face he did that night of our wedding. I don’t know if he feels the same way I do and we just stare at each other, waiting for someone to make a move or not. But then he regains his composure first.
“You’re right, so good,” he says with a wink.