Chapter Three
BLITZKRIEG.
It was a word Kendra recalled studying in high school but never had the chance or reason to ever use...until now.
Because that was the battle strategy Dario La Rocca had employed to make her his wife, and Kendra wasn't prepared for it at all.
It had been a month. A full month since that kiss in the conference room, and Kendra had spent every single day of it telling herself that she had made the right decision by saying no.
Most days, she believed it. But today wasn’t one of those days. Instead, it was a day that made her question her entire life, and it all started with waking up to water drip, drip, dripping straight down on her face.
Because the roof was leaking.
Again.
The kitchen leak, she had successfully solved after several attempts, two YouTube tutorials (the idiot’s guide was what won the day, if she was being honest), and a bucket of roof cement that cost her two shifts at the bookstore.
But this bedroom leak was a completely different beast, and a stubborn one at that.
Since the typhoon roaring outside the window made any immediate repairs impossible, and it was just one of those days where you’d wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and everything else was wrong after that—
Kendra simply dragged the entire bed to the side and took out the dented pot which she had stored under the bed for days like then. She positioned it right under the leak, waited to see that the dripping hit the pot smack in the middle, and then she went back to bed.
Or at least she tried to, but now she found it difficult, with her mind having already emerged from the fog of last night’s restless sleep.
She tossed and turned. Even tried covering her head with a pillow like she often saw others did in movies.
It didn’t work at all, but neither did she feel like getting up.
She didn’t have to work today, so maybe that was one reason her body was feeling a little sluggish.
She considered giving Mr. Alden a call, whom she knew would always welcome a helping hand.
The man was in his seventies, no wife or kids, and he had been running his little bookstore on his own for about three decades now.
He didn’t pay a lot, but that was fine with her.
From the day she had made her choice to study literature, she had known it was choosing a future that held no promise for any high-paying job.
Not that it mattered at the start, though.
Even when they were still dating, Porter had made it clear to her that he would prefer it if she were to stay at home and take care of him and the house.
He was always so proud to introduce her as Kendra, his ‘homemaker wife’.
It made her wonder when all of that changed. And why. And how.
She supposed she could ask him. For closure. But honestly, the mere thought of having to talk to either of them just made her feel like throwing up. It was better to simply not know rather than forcing herself to—
Ring.
Her brows furrowed even as she got out of bed. She hadn’t made a lot of friends since moving back to her mother’s home. Who could be ringing her doorbell while a typhoon was raging outside?
She took a peek at the peephole and saw four men in camouflage windbreakers. “Who is it?” She asked this without opening the door because even girls like her wouldn’t be so stupid to just let them in when they outnumbered her 4 to 1.
“Good morning, ma’am. I’m Merke, and this is the rest of my team. We were sent by Mr. La Rocca.”
What in the world?
We’ve already done preliminary aerial inspection on your roof. We expect to be done with the repair in about an hour’s time. Tops.”
By the time they finished talking, she had already opened the door, and when she had checked her phone—
Ah, there it was.
His secretary back in New York always sent her text messages to confirm all the crazy things his billionaire boss was most recently up to. As a safety precaution, please call us immediately if anyone approaches you about Mr. La Rocca that doesn’t come with prior confirmation.
The first time she had received such a text, she had thought he was being paranoid. But when she had succumbed to the urge to Google him and discovered all the grisly details of his childhood and the violent death that orphaned him at nineteen—
Kendra took those confirmations seriously since then.
But even so.
“I’m sorry.”
It didn’t mean he could get away with controlling things when he was nothing but a stranger.
Who happened to kiss her on the first day they met, yes.
But still.
He was being too high-handed, and that wouldn’t do at all.
“Is it the time, ma’am? We can probably finish it in forty minutes—”
Merke was still talking when a second van pulled into her driveway, and two women in bright yellow rain coats ran out of it carrying what appeared to be an entire refrigerator's worth of groceries.
“Good morning, Ms. Tully! I’m Nessa, by the way.”
“Oh, um, good morning...I’m sorry who are you?”
“Mr. La Rocca sent us.”
She automatically checked her phone again.
Confirmed.
“May we come in?”
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled overhead while she was still speaking, and Kendra realized she was being unfair.
Instead of letting them in to seek relief from the heavy downpour, she had all of these people in her porch, getting wetter by the second, and all because they were just doing their job?
Kendra stepped back. “Please come in, and...thank you. It must’ve been hard traveling with this weather. I really appreciate it.”
“All in a day’s work, ma’am,” Merke said cheerfully.
“Plus the fact that Mr. La Rocca pays really well, too,” Nessa added with a wink.
What was once a painfully quiet living room now thrummed with the kind of noise and activity that was only possible when people were all working in tandem, and even Kendra herself was swept away by the hustle and bustle of it all.
She didn’t even notice herself turning into a mother hen as she insisted they have some sandwiches and coffee, never mind if they were all a couple of years older.
She couldn’t help sending a thank you message to his secretary since she really did appreciate everything, only to regret it right after—
Noted, Ms. Tully. Your message has been forwarded to Mr. La Rocca.
She nearly dropped her phone.
Aaargh!
She was thanking his secretary Lenny, not him! What was she going to do now? What if—
Riiing!
Kendra was so flustered that she answered her phone without even bothering to check who it was calling her.
“This is Lolita from Allied Financial Services. I'm calling to inform you that your outstanding balance has been paid in full."
Kendra went very still.
"I'm sorry, what?"
And that was how she found out about Porter taking out a loan in her name without telling her, and Dario taking care of it, also without telling her. At this point, she didn’t have to check for confirmation. Kendra knew it could only be him, and no one else.
Why...
Why was he doing this?
But deep down inside, she already knew the answer.
And he knew that, too.
On the same day she had run out of the lawyer’s office and flown back to Chicago, he had sent her a letter.
As in, the old-fashioned pen and paper type, but hand-delivered by his driver.
The paper bore the monogrammed letterhead of the most expensive hotel downtown, and his handwriting was exactly how she pictured it, bold, masculine, and elegant even in cursive.
You know where to find me once you’ve come back to your senses.
And that was it.
For the past month, she had been here in her mother’s house while he was there, presumably in the hotel’s penthouse suite, and she didn’t even want to think what it was costing him to stay there for so long a time.
Kendra looked around her. The women happily stocking her fridge and organizing her pantry.
The men who were just as happy repairing her roof.
And then there was her. She was the only one here whose heart mirrored the gray overcast clouds outside her windows.
The only one here trapped in a cage of her own making, and all because she was afraid of trusting anyone again.
You know where to find me once you’ve come back to your senses.
She could feel her palms turning cold and clammy at the thought of contacting him. She was just so, so scared—
Her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
But the moment she clicked it open, she knew right away it was from Thelma.
Who else would send her photos of her sister and ex-husband having the time of their life in a fancy beach resort in Mexico?
Her twin had always believed it was a man’s sole duty to spend for her, and since Kendra also knew Porter’s company had been close to filing for bankruptcy...
This, she realized numbly, was why Porter had taken out that loan.
KENDRA WAS STILL TRYING to think of something to say when the cab deposited her in front of the revolving doors of Dario’s hotel. But this proved unnecessary the moment she entered, with a man in a suit greeting her by name.
“Ms. Tully, welcome to the Aehrenthal. I’ve been asked by Mr. La Rocca to escort you to the penthouse.”
She managed a smile. “Of course. And—” The name plate pinned to his breastpocket gave her a clue on what to call him. “Thank you, Janus. I appreciate it.”
The elevator doors opened directly to the penthouse, but Janus didn’t step out of the elevator with her. “Please do not hesitate to call the front desk if you need anything, Ms. Tully. We wish you a pleasant stay at the Aerenthal.”
And just like that, she was alone...
“Hello, Kendra.”
She whirled around and found Dario standing just a few feet away from her.
“H-Hi.”
He was in a white dress shirt with its sleeves rolled to the forearm, and he...he was beautiful, she thought with a gulp. It was terrifying, allowing herself to think such things. But she was just so, so tired of having her guard up day in and day out. And after everything that had happened—
Oh!
He was standing right in front of her, and her heart started pounding. His proximity made her feel dizzy. But also, the way he was staring at her made her feel like she was burning up.
“You look nervous,” he said lazily.
“Can you blame me?” she asked helplessly. “You...”
“Yes, what about me?”
His accent was so much more pronounced, and the sound mesmerized her, and she found herself having difficulty recalling what it was she had to say.
“You, um...”
His gaze gleamed, and she realized he was enjoying every second of this, and he wanted her to nkow it.
A choked laugh escaped her. “You’re impossible.”
“In what way, cara?”
“D-Don’t call me that!” She finally had the chance to say this, and she had to, now that she knew what it meant.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not your darling.”
Dario sighed. “I wish you hadn’t said that, cara.”
“But it’s—”
“Or had I been...amiss in making myself clear?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking—”
He cupped her chin, and her words faltered at his touch.
“When it comes to what we have between us,” Dario said softly, “there must only be truth. And you and I both know, cara...”
Gulp.
“You were mine from the moment you met me.”
She didn’t have a chance to answer, didn’t have a chance to do anything but gasp because the next thing she knew, he had already drawn her close, and she had lost her balance, and he was kissing her again, and it was the kind of kiss that just...
It just completely took over her senses, passion claiming her every thought, and all she could do was grab the front of his shirt—
"Ti sto ricordando a chi appartieni."
There was no way she could translate any of that. But at the same time, she knew. Her body instinctively knew what those words meant, and it was why a whimper had slipped past her lips, and she found herself unable to resist when his hands found the hem of her shirt.
“Look at me, cara.”
Kendra felt like she was in a dream as she obeyed his command, and oh...
She just stopped thinking and started drowning.
Because the way he was looking at her...
The way he was touching her...
Kendra didn’t know how they ended up with her back arching against the wall, her hands were gripping his shoulders—
"Guardami, cara."
She came apart with a gasp, her face pressed into his neck and both hands fisting his shirt and his arms around her like he was holding something he'd been waiting a very long time to catch.
Memories started trickling in, and she could feel her cheeks turning red when she realized what had just happened, and how she had...and how he had...and how...
Oh.
The feather-soft sensation of his lips brushing the top of her head was completely unexpected, and oh, how it made all of her worries and embarrassment go away like a nightmare that faded into one’s unconsciousness.
"You will marry me," Dario said quietly. "No more delays."
And Kendra, still trembling, still pressed against his chest, still trying to remember how oxygen worked, lifted her head and looked into the face of the man who had spent a month silently dismantling every reason she had to say no—
"I'll only say yes,” she heard herself whisper, “on one condition."