Chapter Thirty-One
Kristen
At exactly four thirty, Liza and Dominic make their grand entrance into the penthouse. They’re sporting new tans and look deliriously happy. Dominic is utterly relaxed in a tropical shirt, shorts and flip-flops, wedding band gleaming on his finger. Liza is adorable, with a huge straw hat perched on her golden head and a pair of sunglasses hung on the neck of a pink sundress with an asymmetrical hemline. There’s also a new pink diamond necklace around her throat.
Dominic whispers something in Liza’s ear, and she blushes and giggles, eyelashes coyly lowered over her gray eyes. I’ve seen her do that before, but I still stare. It’s a scene I never thought possible based on her persona. Liza is always warm, gracious and poised…at least in public. But that happy blushing and giggling—they suit her, too. And although my brother is probably too macho to blush and giggle, I’ve never seen him smile this much, ever. Both glow a lot brighter when they’re together.
“Kristen, good to see you,” Dominic says, and hugs me.
Liza hugs me tightly too. “I’m so glad the incident ended on a happy note.”
“It’s all thanks to Antoine.” I smile at him.
Antoine shrugs. “Just doing my job.”
“Exceptionally thoroughly.” Liza waggles her eyebrows. “Thank you. Now Dominic and I don’t have to worry about it.”
“No problem.”
“I want to relax for a while before dinner,” Liza says, giving my brother a sweet look. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Not a bit,” he replies. “I have some things to catch up on.”
He vanishes into his home office with Antoine. Liza drags me to the kitchen.
“They’ll be busy for a while,” she says, looking inside the fridge. “Dominic didn’t work at all. Didn’t even check his email.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I’m really sorry your honeymoon got interrupted with all that…”
“You didn’t do it. Those horrible people did. And I hope they pay for it.” She brings out a huge pitcher of orange juice. She pours some and offers me a glass, but I decline. “Now, bring me up to speed on your love life. You and Antoine…?”
I tell her everything that’s happened since the night Crazy Naked Guy broke into my apartment. Liza shakes her head in some places and gasps in others. “My, my, my.” She sighs.
I sigh dreamily too.
She gives me a sly look. “That good?”
“Yeah. Amazing. Better than I ever thought possible.”
“I’m glad.”
I lower my voice. “I love him.”
“Of course you do. I’m so happy for you. I’m sure he feels the same way.”
“I hope so. But…” I bite my lower lip. “Sometimes he feels a little distant.”
“He’s a guy. Men are simple creatures. If he says he’s fine, he’s fine. He probably just appears distant sometimes because he’s thinking about how to kill the sociopaths circling around you. Besides, what possible problem can there be? He’s finally gotten over the hang-up about you being Dominic’s baby sister. Getting a man to see you as a woman is the biggest hurdle.”
“I think he has some issues with his family, and it might become a problem for us.”
She blinks. “Really? Do they not like you?”
I shake my head. “It’s the pressure to marry, you know? What if his family insists on it so he can inherit?”
“Antoine never struck me as the type to be forced into doing something to get money.”
“He isn’t, but he told his mom he’d rather be castrated than marry me.”
“What?” Liza shakes her head and sighs. “Look, nobody can rush stuff like this. It took your brother and me ten years. If I said that to someone, they might think, Wow, what a waste of life. But if we’d gotten together five years earlier, we wouldn’t have gotten married. As a matter of fact, it probably would’ve killed us forever.”
I stare, finding it impossible to believe. I’ve never seen a couple more devoted to each other than Dominic and Liza.
“It’s true. The circumstances just…weren’t right yet.” Liza puts a hand over mine, squeezing gently. “It’ll happen at the pace it’s going to happen. Being anxious about it is only going to get in the way.”
“Are you doing anything next Saturday?” Liza asks.
“Yes. I got invited to a party at the Pryce citrus grove.”
Her eyebrows rise. “Is that so? I didn’t know there was going to be a party there.”
“I just found out today. I said yes because I’ve always wanted to visit.”
“If you wanted to see the grove, all you had to do was ask. I would’ve arranged a tour. The grove is lovely. But my brothers and I don’t really like it there.”
“Why not?”
“Usually, when we go, it’s for some kind of family function. Our uncle, aunt and cousins are fine. It’s just that…my mother sometimes shows up. And Mom has definite ideas about how things should be.”
I recall the woman from Dominic and Liza’s wedding. She’s stunning, just like Liza, but that’s where the resemblance ends. Based on her expression, you would have thought Liza was marrying a convicted murderer with no possibility of parole.
“Is she coming to this party?” I really don’t want to face Liza’s mother.
“I doubt it. It probably isn’t a family thing because I didn’t get an invitation. On the other hand, I haven’t checked my email for a while.”
“No, it’s actually Antoine’s family who’s hosting it.”
“Ah. So that’s what it is.” She nods. I think I hear her mutter something like how did they manage that coup. She quickly adds, “It isn’t a bad idea to meet the man’s family. It can be illuminating. But be careful. I didn’t make the connection at first, but Antoine’s family is…interesting.”
She says it like a fashion maven might say a green, red and purple polka-dot dress was interesting. “How so?”
Liza taps her lower lip thoughtfully. “If I had to compare them to something…I’d say they’re Darwinian cannibals. They take the whole dog-eat-dog thing seriously, and they believe in survival of the fittest—except in their world, the fittest is whoever has the most money.”
“That sounds…pleasant.”
“Like I said, be careful.”
I nod, but a small kernel of apprehension forms in my gut anyway.
Antoine
“I can’t thank you enough for watching out for Kristen while we were gone,” Dominic says, falling heavily into one of the reclining chairs in front of his desk. As happy and relaxed as he looks, he also seems tired. Private jet or not, long flights can be wearying. Just the altitude will get to you.
I take a seat opposite him. “Like I said, just doing my job.”
Dominic gives me a look. “That’s all? Just a job?”
“Well…” What does he know? He isn’t the most sensitive and perceptive guy, especially when it doesn’t involve his wife or making money. But this is my opening. I don’t need his blessings, but I also don’t want to sneak around or have him find out later from someone else. “Maybe not just a job…” I shrug, unable to help myself.
“Finally.” He throws both hands up in the air. “I thought you’d never say it.”
I stare, equally shocked and outraged. “You knew?”
“Of course I knew. I know everything.”
“Yeah, but all your best intel come from me.” I’m the one who enjoys digging around. He enjoys making money with what I find.
“Okay, fine, so I didn’t know in the beginning. But Liza knew, and she told me. I didn’t believe it at first because, come on, you and Kristen? It was a little hard to swallow.”
I frown. “Uh, why would—”
“But then I thought back on it, and everything made sense. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it, so I pretended nothing was happening. Because if it wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have to do anything about it.”
Just as I thought. He doesn’t really want me near his precious baby sister. I wouldn’t if I were him.
“Oh no, you aren’t making that face,” Dominic says. “It wasn’t because I didn’t trust you or I thought you’d be bad for Kristen.”
“Seriously? Even with my rep?”
“What about it? Any healthy, red-blooded guy screws around if women throw themselves at him. What matters is—are you the kind of man who takes his commitment seriously? And I know you are. Once you decide to be with Kristen, you’ll never do anything to hurt her.”
Huh.
“It’s just…” Dominic huffs out a breath. “I didn’t want to lose you. Relationships—sometimes they work out, sometimes they don’t. What Kristen felt could’ve been an infatuation. But a friendship like we have? Something like that is forever. You’re my best friend, man. If you told me the moon is actually made of green cream cheese from Mars, I’d probably believe you.”
Damn. Dominic’s trust in me is humbling and empowering. The knot in my chest loosens up a bit. “Well, you’re right. I’d rather cut off an arm than hurt Kristen. But no matter how things turn out with her, it’s not going to change how I view our friendship.”
Dominic gets up, pours a couple of whiskeys and hands me one. “To things working out. And friendship,” he says with a grin.