30

Isaias looked sadly at Liesl who was clearly on her way to being drunk with her two friends. “Hey, Liesl, can we talk?” Her eyes appeared bruised from lack of sleep and her glare told him he’d waited to long to check in. He was in shit. He hoped he could fix it.

“If you’re here to dump me, don’t worry. I figured it out already. You can go.” She waved him away as she poured a healthy measure of what appeared to be whisky into a mason jar.

He sighed, “Janka, Elsie, do you mind giving us a couple of minutes?”

“Why? I’m going to repeat what you say anyway. Let’s just cut out the middleman.”

“It’s your prerogative to do so but I’d rather talk to you alone first. Please?”

“Isaias, you dropped me off last night and couldn’t be arsed to warn me of the shit storm which hit while we were in the air. I’m fairly sure your intentions for me are pretty clear. You don’t give a fuck about me,” she tilted her glass in his direction. “Do you know I had to call my Granny because of you? My entire family who protected me and jumped to my defense when Sandy fucked my husband all were eventually tagged in a video which called me a homewrecker by my very loving sister,” she drawled sarcastically, “where she pointed out my alleged hypocrisy.”

“I apologize.” He looked to the two women who hadn’t budged. “Liesl, please. Give me five minutes.”

“I don’t want to. It’s been fourteen hours since you dropped me off and I haven’t heard a single peep from you. It’s apparent. I was a weekend fling.”

“No, you weren’t.” He ruffled his hair frustratedly as she did another shot of the booze. “Do you usually drink this much on a Monday morning?” She was well on her way to being wasted if she wasn’t already. He frowned at her furrowed brow.

“Only when I’ve lost two commission sales, a day of wages and my employer has had to lock her doors because reporters kept barging in and disrupting business. Not to mention, my sister has accused me of trying to upstage her pregnancy, my ex-husband is calling me on repeat and my Granny wants me to paint her naked as payment for her clearing the air with my aunties.”

He studied her face and noted the way her bottom lip trembled as if she were struggling not to cry, and he finally decided he didn’t care if the other women were there or not. He walked closer to her, took the glass and bottle from her hand, and set them on the table and pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. She immediately started crying and guilt slammed him for making her sad.

“Shh, I’m sorry baby. Don’t cry. It’s all my fault and I’ll fix it. I promise.” He whispered into her hair. He rocked her in his arms, closing his eyes as he rested his cheek against the side of her head. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why didn’t you call?” she wailed in his arms.

He was aware of the two women quietly sneaking off. “I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got back into the car after I dropped you off. When we were in the air, I got the notification and I told legal to deal with it. I didn’t give Craven another thought.”

“You were on your phone on the plane.” She sniffled into his collar.

“Yup. I was. I was messaging with multiple realtors to help find you a suitable condo, apartment, or loft for you to rent. I never checked any of my messages from family or friends until I got back in the car. I then got reamed by my mother for what appears to be me almost fingering you in a night club. I’ve spent the last twelve hours with legal, my PR team and my sister trying to figure out a way to get this under control with as minimal damage to your reputation as possible.” He pressed his lips to her temple, “did you really think I was ending us?”

“Yes!” she almost yelled at him. “What was I supposed to think?”

“You should trust me,” he said simply.

“I don’t know you,” she retorted angrily. “I’ve known you all of ten days. All of this started out of revenge and bribery. I don’t want to put the cart before the horse and expect you to have feelings for me too.”

“Sweetheart,” he chuckled as her words slurred together. She was definitely drunk. “You already know you can trust me but if you’re not sure, it’s okay. We’ll work on it. I am sorry I didn’t call you or warn you the video had been put up. I didn’t see the video when we were in the air. I only had the message from my PR team Craven had posted a video suggesting I was cheating on her. I told them to handle it with legal.”

“My aunties all thought I took a page out of Sandy’s book.”

“As if,” he led her to a chair and he sat down and pulled her to his lap. He stroked her hair off her forehead. Her beautiful brown eyes were glassy and red rimmed as if she’d been crying and he felt terrible. “If your aunties think you capable of such things then they need their head’s examined. You would never.”

“No shit,” she mumbled playing with his tie.

He fought his smile at her anger. How the hell had this vivacious, brilliant woman been married to a man dull as Merlin McGrath? Even despondent with alcohol running through her veins and anger boiling in her blood, she was still the most beautiful, passionate woman he’d ever met. Regret he’d mishandled this situation consumed him. The minute his legal team had told him Elsie had told them to fuck off because he hadn’t maintained communication, he’d realized his error and had beelined to her.

He studied her face quietly as she pouted, staring at the patterns on his tie as if mesmerized and he gently tilted her chin to force her eyes to meet his. “Liesl, I know it’s only been ten days, but I care for you, quite deeply. I have a very terrible habit of losing myself in a project, no matter what it is, and, in this instance, it was destroying everything Craven France ever held dear. It didn’t even dawn on me to check in on you because I was so consumed with making her pay. I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” He almost laughed as her lips pursed almost in the shape of a duck. “Please?”

“You care for me?”

“Very much. Whatever this is starting between us, I do not want it to end, anytime soon.”

“You’re really going to make her pay?”

“Have you been on the internet? I’ve already started.”

“I had death threats Isaias. I had to delete all my social media.”

He felt the anger bubbling again to the surface. “Someone threatened you?”

“Multiple people did. Craven’s followers were in my DM’s.”

“Fuck.” He grimaced. “Do you mind if I have my IT dept work with the media company and my security team and sort it out?”

She shook her head, “you would do that for me?”

“Of course, Liesl. None of this is your fault. It will all get settled. My legal team already filed a lawsuit in New York against Craven and her cronies for defamation, libel, and slander for both of us. I’m going to destroy her reputation so bad she’s not going to be able to use a public bathroom in a gas station without someone knowing what she did. Okay?” he kissed her lips softly. “You did nothing wrong here, Liesl. Nothing. I fucked up by not protecting you better when we went out and I made it worse by trying to deal with it on my own and not bringing you in or even asking you how you were doing. I am infinitely sorry. Please say it’s not too late and we can still see each other?”

She nodded at his words and relief filled his chest.

He looked to her phone buzzing angrily on the desk and he sneered, “Merlin is calling you.”