Arrangement With A Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers #1) (31 page)

Arturo shrugged. “I’d say he does.”

“Do you and Silvio love him?”

He smiled softly. “Yeah.”

“Then that’s what matters. He’s a grown adult. I don’t know him that well, but I wouldn’t respect him if I thought he got some sick pleasure out of spending time with people he thought didn’t like him, or hated him. If he’s forgiven you, then that should be enough.”

“Sebastian hasn’t.”

Isla smiled. “He said something similar about you and Silvio.”

“He said he didn’t forgive us?”

“No, he said you both haven’t forgiven him.”

Arturo’s eyes widened.

She reached for her drink again. “I asked him if he might call you. I kind of doubt he will, but maybe this will give him something to think about.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound too convinced.

She wanted to change the subject, she wanted to talk about something that wouldn’t have Arturo so forlorn.

She hoped it wasn’t a mistake to bring this up. “How’d your mission go with your father?”

He tilted his head to the side a little. “My father?”

“Remember? You brought me to a hockey game to—”

“Oh, right!” Arturo said. If the wide smile on his face was anything to go by, then he’d been successful in that one. “I actually went to visit him not too long ago.

Isla’s eyes widened. “Okay, that’s kind of shocking. What did he say?”

Arturo waved off her worry. “I wouldn’t worry about it. I only do that when I want to see the look on his face about something. Sometimes he tries to summon me, but I never answer. The last time he called, I definitely went over because I knew he’d be pissed.”

She grinned. “He saw the game?”

“He saw the game,” Arturo said, crossing his arms and looking up at the sky for a second, as though picturing the scene in his mind. “You should’ve seen the look on his face when I walked in.”

“He was pissed?”

He nodded. “Super pissed.”

She was sure she’d never heard Arturo say those two words together, and she couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh.

He did, too.

God, it felt good to laugh with him. She almost felt like she was having a coffee date with a friend.

“So what did he do when he found out you gave me 49 percent of the company? Did he try calling you again?”

“Oh no, I told him on my visit, with this big smile on my face,” he said, pointing with both fingers at his cheeks. “I swear it looked like he was about to have a stroke. Didn’t quite happen, but the visit still had to be cut in half so he could go and rest.”

Isla never thought she would take pleasure in another man’s suffering, but when it came to Arturo’s father, he deserved all that and more.

“I also told him that I gave you 75 percent,” Arturo said. “Don’t get any ideas, I’m still keeping the fifty-one, but it was fun making him think I’d given away so much of what he’d had fun taking.”

She didn’t blame him for that in the least.

She reached across the table. “Well, for that, I’m taking 25 percent of this cookie,” she said.

“I wouldn’t respect you as a businesswoman if you didn’t,” Arturo replied.

She broke off her stolen share and popped it into her mouth. She and Arturo were smiling, were they flirting? It kind of felt like they were.

Then he wasn’t smiling so much at all. His expression softened, and he looked her right in the eyes. “I miss you.”

Isla nearly choked on her cookie. She had to force herself to swallow. “You what?”

Arturo winced.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” she said quickly.

His mouth tightened into a firm line as he nodded, but he was no longer looking at her. “I liked seeing you again, but I don’t think I can do it after this. Unless there is some business reason for me to meet with you or your parents, this should probably be the last time.”

Okay, that hurt. Her fingers clenched on the table before she realized what she was doing, and then she pulled her hands off the glass, letting them rest on her lap.

She stared down at the glass table. “That’s a mixed message if I ever heard one. You miss me, but you don’t want to see me?”

She wouldn’t mind seeing more of him at all.

He blew out a hard breath. “I don’t think you realize how hard this is for me.”

Isla snapped her eyes up to look at him. “How hard it is for you?”

Arturo refused to look her in the eye. It seemed he was trying to look at anything and everything except for her. Why?

“You don’t even know…you don’t even know how hard this is because you don’t know me.” He finally glanced at her, just to look away again. “I’m not good with talking about emotions. Not these kinds of emotions anyway. I don’t like doing it. I don’t like feeling them, but I swear to God, whenever I got near you before you left, my heart started thumping in my chest.”

Isla’s heart was doing that right now. “You don’t say.”

Arturo’s lips thinned. He looked angry. “I thought it was better when you left. Things would go back to normal. I
tried
to make them go back to normal.”

Isla didn’t need to be reminded of the blonde she’d seen in his office the last time she saw him.

“But lately, I’ve been looking at your number on my phone, contemplating calling you. The only reason why I didn’t was because I didn’t want you to think I was a creep or a stalker.”

Her face heated. She wanted to tell him she wouldn’t have thought that at all, and considering her feelings for him, she knew she wouldn’t have.

But she and Jane had, had a couple of girlfriends before who complained about those very things whenever an ex tried to get back together.

They were labelled as being too clingy, unable to let go, creepy whenever they arranged for flowers to be delivered, or stalkers for asking to meet up.

Considering the reputation Arturo had to defend, she didn’t blame him for being worried she might think that of him.

This wasn’t one of Jane’s romance novels. The hero didn’t immediately take the first step just to have the heroine jump into his arms and declare her undying love.

It was real life. And real emotions were never that simple.

Funny how they kind of felt that way in that moment. They felt simple, the solution felt simple, but Isla still found herself speechless as Arturo spoke.

“You know, I actually ran after you when you went to the elevators the last time you came to my office.”

Isla’s eyes flew wide. “You did?” She frowned and shook her head. “No, wait, you couldn’t have.”

“The doors had just shut and you were gone by the time I got out of the office. Seemed like a missed opportunity, and if I followed you down to the parking lot, that would’ve looked desperate and stalker-ish for sure.”

“So you just let me go?” Isla asked, her voice hardly carrying.

He nodded. “I let you go.”

Okay, that would’ve been romance-novel worthy, if Arturo had rushed out of his office before the elevator doors had closed. Even if he hadn’t been in time to stop the elevator, just seeing him coming through his office doors would’ve been enough to make her go back, to let her know what his feelings for her really were.

“I get that what I did to you wasn’t right,” Arturo said, “so I’m not even going to pretend that things are better than they are. We can be civil when we are together, and if you don’t hate me for everything, then that would be enough. I just…” He trailed off, and then laughed. “I actually skipped out on a meeting that took five months of hard work to set up to come here. I probably shouldn’t have even done that.”

He finally stopped talking and seemed to be waiting for her response.

She could hardly speak. He’d left an important meeting for her. She didn’t know the details of it, and she wouldn’t ask, but if it had taken him that long to arrange it, then it had obviously been important.

And he’d left it behind to come have coffee with her.

Okay, this was her line. It was time for her to say something.

Her throat was dry. She didn’t know what to say.

Arturo stifled a sardonic laugh. “Sorry. I know this must be uncomfortable for you.”

“It’s all right,” Isla croaked. Then she swallowed. “Are you in love with me?”

Arturo tensed, and the way he glanced at her, as though she’d asked him something he really wished she hadn’t, told her the answer before he gave it.

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Isla said.

Their silence was no longer pleasant. It was awkward.

She had to think of something else to say. He loved her but wasn’t acting on it because of the way they’d gotten together? He probably thought it was an unhealthy way to start a relationship.

It
was
an unhealthy way to start a relationship.

“If I were to tell you that I’m pretty sure I love you back, what would you say?”

Arturo smirked. “I’d say you don’t have to say that because you feel sorry for me.”

She ducked her head. “I don’t feel sorry for you.”

Not where this was concerned, at any rate.

He pursed his lips. “I
want
to believe that, I really do…”

He was going to get up and leave. If she didn’t do something soon, he was going to get up and go and she might not see him for years. Might never see him again.

Isla put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. She was struck by a confidence she could hardly describe and didn’t even know where it had come from.

“There’s another hockey game happening in two weeks. You’re going to take me to it.”

Those dark eyes widened. “What? That’s kind of pushy, isn’t it?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t like it,” she said, smiling a little. “You don’t believe me because we don’t even know each other, so I want to get to know you. You’re going to take me out on a date.”

“It’s not even about being worried that I might’ve made you feel things you really don’t,” Arturo said, his jaw clenching. “You don’t know me, but you know me well enough to know that my experiences with relationships aren’t great. I mean, Christ, my father, the man I’m supposed to look up to and admire, killed his wife.”

“And you’re not your father.”

“I know that. I wasn’t trying to make a comparison.”

She continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “And the entire point of a date is to get to know each other. We can meet up for dinner and a movie before the hockey game, or you can take me to the arts museum. I like that place.”

Arturo’s brows lifted. “You’re serious?”

“I’m dead serious.” The more she talked, the more her confidence soared. She felt in control, and she wasn’t about to give that up.

“You just said you loved me, and I apparently love you enough to spend several days moping in bed over you.”

“Moping in bed?”

He looked
way
too happy about that for her liking.

“Yes, now shut up. The point is that I want to try and have something with you. I want to see where this goes.” She stared at him, ready to put the ball back in his court. “And, to be fair, I really do feel like I should pay up the last two weeks of our contract together.”

And everything the contract demanded of her, too.

Arturo stared at her, like he was looking at her for the first time, like she was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen in his entire life.

A slow smile pulled at the corners of his lips, and he nodded. “All right, I think we can arrange that.”

“Good,” Isla said. “Where are we going first?”

“Arts museum. Then the hockey game.”

She grinned. She couldn’t stop herself, even as her heart pounded so hard and fast she thought it might fail at any second. “Good. Tell me what day and I’ll be free.”

“I’ll pick you up on Friday for the museum,” Arturo said.

She was so not free that day. “Perfect. I’m totally open.”

She’d just scratch off everything on her schedule.

As Arturo got to his feet, Isla did too, just because it seemed like the thing to do.

They stared at each other like love-struck teenagers. She felt the urge to giggle, and she almost did.

“So I’ll see you Friday?” he said.

“Definitely,” Isla replied. “Wait a minute.”

She reached out to grab him when he turned to walk away.

He looked at her, shocked.

“You have to at
least
kiss me before you go,” she said, and that stupid bubbly giggle just refused to stay buried.

Arturo’s eyes danced. “We’re dating now, so I suppose it’s appropriate.”

“Exactly.” Isla stepped around the tiny glass table. She was already wearing heels, but she tried to push herself higher up on her toes when their mouths touched.

She’d missed his lips so much. They felt different and yet the same. Maybe it was because she knew he’d kissed other women since she’d been gone, but Isla wanted to kiss away any lingering traces of them.

The only thing that stopped her, barely, was the fact that she was in a public place.

That didn’t stop Arturo’s hands from settling nicely on her waist.

They seemed to pull back at the same time, both releasing gasps of air, like in those soda commercials after someone had just had a refreshing drink on a blistering hot day.

Isla didn’t want to let him go. She was giddy from touching him, even like this. The feel of his hard body beneath the expensive suit was real, not some dream her mind had cooked up because she was so desperate lonely and missed him so damned much it hurt.

He was here, and he was holding her back, looking at her like he couldn’t believe his luck.

She couldn’t believe hers either.

“Friday,” she said finally.

“Friday.” Arturo nodded.

He released her.

“I’ll send you a text before then,” she promised.

He nodded again, his eyes still dancing. “Looking forward to it.”

He walked away, sparing her one last, smiling glance over his shoulder as he went back through the glass doors of the café, and then presumably left to get into his limo with Sam.

She felt her entire body buzzing with warm pleasure as she sat back down. She was aware of one or two people sending her cute, happy little smiles. They’d seen the show, thought it was adorable, and she soaked up their nice thoughts.