21

Liesl stood in her bright red dress and high heels waiting for Isaias to pick her up from her brother’s home.

“Aunt Liesl, you look beautiful.” Her niece Winnie stared at her with wide eyes.

“Thank you, Winnie.”

“I like your hair with the pretty curls,” she complimented kindly.

“Thanks, love.”

“Mommy said you’re going to go dancing and she told Daddy you might even do a horizontal tango. What kind of dance is a horizontal tango!”

“Meredith!” she bellowed in the direction of the kitchen where her sibling and his wife were snickering. “If you don’t want me telling your five-year-old exactly what kind of dancing I’m intending to do with a very sexy man, then you should come collect her.”

A knock on the door made her groan, certain the man who had come to collect her heard her comment as Meredith and Fred came racing in her direction. She pulled the door open and was rewarded with a huge grin plastered on the face of the man on the porch.

“Sexy huh?” Isaias smirked widely.

Fred giggled like a child, and she shot him a withering glare over her shoulder, and he pretended to button his lips, but another giggle escaped.

“Let’s go,” she grabbed her clutch off the side table and grabbed her wrap and shook her head.

“Wait!” Fred held his phone up. “Please let me take a photo and send it to Sandy. I know she’ll show Merl. I really enjoyed watching how much he hated seeing you two together today. It was such fun!”

The couple posed for a photo and Liesl even stood on tiptoe to kiss Isaias’s cheek. She leaned closer, “you smell good.”

“Sexy and I smell good,” he gave Fred a thumb’s up. “I’m doing something right.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she pushed him out the door and followed him down the stairs.

“Can I tell you how sexy you look?” he questioned as he held the car door open. She noted he was not driving but they had a black escalade at their service.

“You can,” she grinned cheekily at him as she slid onto the bench seat. Her skirt rose high on her thigh, and she tugged it down.

“Don’t fix it on my account. I like your legs.” He boldly put his hand on her thigh to keep her from pulling the skirt lower as the door closed behind him. “How do you feel about flying?”

“Flying?”

“My cousin opened a new club. He’s been after me a month to attend and promised me a VIP booth. We can dance, drink, and have fun?”

“Sure, but what does this have to do with flying?”

“The club is in New York.”

“New York?” she made wide eyes at him. “We’re going to a club in New York?”

“Yes. Well dinner first in Manhattan and then to the club.”

“You’re taking me to New York for our first date?” She was slack jawed as she stared incredulously at him while the car drove away from Fred’s house.

“Yes. Do you not like New York?”

“Um, I’ve only ever been once when I was a teenager.” She frowned at him in confusion. “We’re really going to New York?”

“Merlin never took you to New York?”

“No.” she shook her head. “Why would he?”

“To take in the night life, to dance, to go to dinner, to sight see, to shop, not to mention the fact you’re an artist and the most incredible museums in the world are there,” he was incredulous now. “Where has he taken you?”

“We went to Barbados for our honeymoon and to Cancun a couple of times for anniversaries. We went to Boston a couple of times for work. He always said it was frivolous to travel when everything we needed was home.”

“Your ex is a fool.” He shook his head, “seriously. He had the means to spoil you rotten and give you the world and he was selfish and stupid. I have never been so grateful to have an adversary as dumb as he is.”

“Hey now. I was married to him. He wasn’t all bad.” She frowned, “he liked taking me shopping and buying me pretty clothes and dressing me in jewelry. He liked being home. He’s a home body.”

“I also like being home but he’s in his thirties not his sixties.” He frowned. “I should tell you as well, he called me today.”

“How did he get your number?”

“Probably the same way I got his,” he teased her. “Regardless, before we get in the air, I should tell you, he begged me to back off.”

“To back off?”

“Yes. He told me his plan is to ensure his child doesn’t miss out on a trust fund and once it’s born within wedlock, he intends to get you back. He wants to divorce your sister and have you raise his son as your own. He mentioned you wanted a family, and this would give you one.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she felt her air whooshing from her lungs as rage permeated her soul. “He wants me to raise their child?”

“It’s what he said. I did tell him I would not be keeping secrets from you, and I would be divulging this information.”

She folded her arms furiously over her chest. “He must be the biggest moron on the planet. Did he really say he expects me to raise his lovechild as my own?”

“Yes. I debated telling you tonight or tomorrow. I didn’t want to ruin our date, but I also do not want to keep secrets from you. I worry you may have trust issues you’re working through, and I don’t want to add to them.”

She shook away her annoyance at his thoughtful words. “I appreciate your candor, Isaias. I do. I wish there were a way I could make him suffer and hurt the way he did me. I would never raise his child. Ever. Do you know how he ended things with me?”

“No.”

“He came home late from work, asked me to meet with him in his home office where he passed me a stack of divorce papers. He then bluntly told me he had an indiscretion at my sister’s wedding, and she was pregnant. He demanded I sign the papers so he could wed the mother of his child immediately.” She shook her head. “He barely showed me an ounce of emotion and when I did breakdown, upon learning who it was he impregnated, he left me sobbing on his office floor. He suggested I leave the house to go to my friend’s. He didn’t hold me. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t do anything to try to make it hurt less. He was cold, matter of fact and brutally honest. I once saw him behave this way during a business transaction and thought it sexy how he could simply turn off his emotions for business. It didn’t feel so sexy to be on the receiving end.” She squeezed her fingers together.

“I’m sorry, Liesl. It must have been painful.”

“It was brutally cruel. Even if it hadn’t been with my sister, or only been one time and not anything he did over eleven months, I would never go back to him after what he did to me that night. He broke me, he knew it and he didn’t care.”

He reached for her hands and squeezed them between his larger ones, “I am sorry for upsetting you. I thought it best you know.”

She nodded, “I appreciate your honesty, Isaias, and I’m grateful. This entire situation is difficult but I’m trying to find new purposes and new goals.”

“You know the best revenge is to move on with your life,” he kissed her fingertips.

“And I am,” she nodded, “but sometimes I really want to just stick it up his ass.” She saw the amusement in his eyes at her vehemence. “Too much?”

“No. Not at all. I love your enthusiasm. To be clear, you do not want me to back off?”

“Absolutely not. I enjoy being with you, Isaias. If nothing else, meeting you is a blessing for me.”

“Here,” he patted his lap. “Come.”

“We’re in a car.” She was confused by his command.

“Yes, we are. Now, come here,” he pulled her onto his lap and pulled his phone open. He searched for the number which had called him earlier in the day.

Liesl watched him type the message.

“She doesn’t want me to back off.”

He took a selfie of her sitting on his lap in the back of the car, his lips pressed to her ear flirtatiously. When he pressed send, she giggled.

“Isaias,” she shivered when his lips on her ear turned into a tongue, and he licked her earlobe naughtily. “What are you doing?”