“I think we’ve got that all taken care of,” he said with a chuckle.
“Oh? Do tell.”
Sawyer shook his head. “Nothing to tell. I just think Isabella will not try to destroy me.”
“Well, that’s good news. So you should celebrate. Saturday night, dinner at the Jade Empire, the gourmet Chinese restaurant in town. I’ll tell my friend to look for you.”
Sawyer heaved a sigh. “Fine, I’ll do it, but just as a favor to you as a friend. And make sure she knows I’m not looking to get involved with any women right now.”
Except maybe with one particularly elusive princess...
Chapter Twenty-One
“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Clementine said. Several days had passed since Isabella forced her friend out of a deep sleep to rescue her from an embarrassing walk of shame, during which Bella refused to discuss any details of her hookup. “And please, indulge me. It’s the least you can do after disrupting my slumber to salvage your reputation at the crack of dawn. So for starters, you return to the scene of the crime. Only you determine that the crime scene isn’t safe enough, so instead you decide to hasten away to his apartment, where you have off-the-charts sex all night long.”
Isabella nodded matter-of-factly.
“And then for some unknown reason, you decided that even though A) the guy is gorgeous, B) he’s got a great career, C) he’s got a package you’d not turn down if someone gave it to you on Christmas morning with a fat red bow, and D) you haven’t been laid in forever because guys fear you, it didn’t make sense to stick with this guy because, well, why would you? Um, are you nuts? I thought you had more sense than this, Isabella Annelisa Violetta Stefania, Princess Royal of Monaforte.”
Bella playfully smacked her. “Stop with the formal name. You’re like a mother chastising her naughty child.”
“As well I should be. Why on earth would you turn Sawyer down? I have half a mind to ask Sebastian if maybe I can take him on part-time. Like an added attraction.”
“You’re so weird,” Bella said. “You wouldn’t have the stamina to tough it out with two men. When would you sleep?”
“I wouldn’t,” Clem said with a wink. “But seriously, sweetie. Can’t we talk about this like grown adults rather than you being all stupid and irrational?”
“I’m not irrational at all! I’m pragmatic, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I have to think cautiously all the time in my role here in Monaforte.”
Clementine gave her one of those get real looks, her eyebrows scrunched and her lips pursed. “Granted you are part of the royal family. But it’s not like you’re Adrian, carrying the torch for the whole family. You’re just the cute little sister who gets to make all the mistakes and still go on charming the pants off the general public. It’s what you do best.”
“I’m a pants charmer?”
“Well, it seemed to have worked pretty well with Sawyer.”
“Ha ha.”
“All I know is he’s a keeper, and you’re really going to regret letting him get away. Do you know how many women are probably after him?”
“Anyone who loves chocolate sauce,” she said, her eyes clouding over as she was lost in thought about Sawyer and his culinary—not to mention erotic—skills.
“Chocolate sauce? That he made himself?”
“That came before the meringue.”
Clementine’s eyes got larger. “You had sex with chocolate sauce and meringue? Wow, who knew a culinary expert could be a culinary sexpert?”
That was enough to elicit a laugh from her friend.
“There aren’t many guys out there who are going to drop everything and whip up a pastry cream to please their woman, Bell. I think you know that.”
Bella nodded. “I do, and I wish it was different. But I’m going to just have to chalk this up to an amazing one-night stand and move on. It’s not like anything could come of the two of us.”
“Well, except for explosive, hot sex-slash-amazing desserts.”
Bella laughed some more. “Maybe I’ll find someone more appropriate who might be willing to lay down some cake batter for the cause someday.”
“Mmm... cake batter. That sounds amazing. But messy.”
“And I’ll just savor my treasured memories of feeling like the most fawned-over chocolate cream pie in the history of hot sex.”
Clementine threw up her hands. “I guess it’s time for me to break out the big guns,” Clem said. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’re forcing my hand.”
“His ex-wife wants him back.”
“He doesn’t have an ex-wife. But this could rank on that scale,” Clementine said. “Gabriella told me she set Sawyer up on a blind date for this weekend.”
Isabella blanched. He had the nerve to go on a blind date when he just slept with her not even a week ago? How male whore-ish of him.
“That’s wrong,” Bella said.
“Why?”
“Well, because.”
“Because you had great sex with him and then refused to see where the relationship could go, so he knows it’s a dead-end and now he’s going to follow along other avenues?”
Isabella growled. “I hate it when you try to make it sound like it’s okay.”
Clementine turned and faced her, placing a hand on each shoulder. “Honey, it is okay. I’m sure that Sawyer has feelings for you, but I am also certain that he knows you don’t reciprocate them. Or won’t reciprocate them. If he feels it’s a wasted effort to even try, then what’s he supposed to do?”
“He could let the body get cold before he starts dating again.”
“I didn’t know you died.”
“You know what I mean. It seems to me there should be a civil period of time before someone runs off and sleeps with someone else. Like, at least, wait till the sheets are washed.”
“How do you know he hasn’t washed his sheets?”
God, she wished she could press her nose into those sheets just to smell him again, that woodsy-lemony aroma that smelled like Sawyer was intoxicating to her. And she hoped that he could still smell her perfume, and more, for that matter, when he turned over at night. Maybe it even made it hard for him to get to sleep.
But why would she wish that on him when she had no intention of a command performance? Just so he wouldn’t forget what it was like, the two of them together? So he, too, might be thinking at the very moment she was, about how it felt when their warm flesh collided, the sweaty friction that made her mad with want and need.
“Find out where they’re going,” Bella said. “I want to size up my competition.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nothing worse than a blind date, Sawyer thought as he nursed his Manhattan at the table while he cooled his heels. Oh, wait, only thing worse is when the blind date is late and you’re stuck waiting for her at the table looking like a complete and total loser.
He grabbed his phone and typed in a text to Gabriella.
Look, Gabs, I’ve got things to do. This woman isn’t even here and I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes. I’m giving it five more then I’m outta here.
He pulled up his Facebook page and started scrolling through his news feed, just to look as if he had something essential to do. As if.
Jade Empire wasn’t your run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurant—this was an elegant fine dining experience, and the décor reflected it with rich jewel-tone silks and hand-embroidered scenes of China in elaborate gilt frames on the walls. Orchids and plants were strategically positioned so that almost all tables were privately situated. Waitresses looked more like elegant concubines than waitstaff. But it was the smell of the place at this point that was the only thing keeping him here: it smelled insanely good. One way to keep a foodie in one place is to offer up a gastronomic experience, and judging by the aromas wafting from the kitchen, that’s what was promised.
He was just finishing his drink, weighing his escape options when someone tapped him from behind. He turned t
hen stood up as he saw the unfamiliar woman.
“Sawyer?” she said, cocking her head slightly. She was wearing a simple black cocktail dress with black heels and had a lustrous head of red hair and oddly familiar ice-blue eyes. Sawyer stared at her, sensing that he knew her yet unable to figure out how.
“Yes, I’m Sawyer Patterson,” he said, standing and reaching out his hand to shake hers. “Lovely to meet you—”
“Amelie. Amelie Baumgartner—”
Sawyer squinted. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say Amelie Baumgartner?”
She nodded.
“As in Amelie Baumgartner from the Académie Saint Thaddaeus?”
Sawyer’s mind started to whirl with so many bad memories of Amelie-the-girl. But now, here she was more than ten years later, a full-grown woman. And what was with the hair? She once had long blonde locks and now they were red?
She gave him a look as if she didn’t understand him, a question in her eyes. “You attended Saint Thaddaeus?”
Sawyer frowned. “It’s unlikely you’d remember me. You didn’t make a habit of befriending people like me.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as she stared at him. A waitress, dressed in a delicate silk cocktail dress came by and insisted on seating Amelie and taking her drink order. Sawyer pursed his lips and hesitated before finally taking his seat again.
“Well, we might as well just get this out of the way, then. And apologies for my frankness. But under the circumstances, I think it’s warranted,” he said, rubbing his hands as if preparing for a hard task. “I came from no money. You came from plenty. You were particularly cruel to the likes of me, and I suffered at the altar of your mean-spirited practical jokes.” He sat back and stared at her, practically bracing himself for some snide remark from her.
Amelie’s face crumpled and tears filled her eyes. “Oh, God,” she said. “I knew there would come a day when my behavior would come back to haunt me. I was such a wretched bitch back then, wasn’t I? I’m so very sorry—could you ever forgive me for being so evil?”
Sawyer was taken aback. “Um, what?”
She reached into her small purse and pulled out a tissue to dab her eyes. “It’s bad enough that I can’t even place having known you,” she said. “But I do know that I made many enemies when I was at that school. And I don’t really have an excuse for it, to be truthful. There’s never any reason to be cruel.”
Sawyer heaved a sigh. “Well, then why were you?”
She shook her head and began to cry more openly, biting her lip to fight back the tears. “I can’t really say what made me turn my troubles on other people. There were problems at home; my mother was quite ill. We walked on eggshells for fear of upsetting her. My father always seemed to blame the strain of raising us kids for her illness. So I constantly felt awful about myself, what with being the root of my mother’s bad health.
“And then, when she passed away, my heart just hardened. I was so angry at everyone, I guess I decided to lash out at the rest of the world as payback.”
Sawyer shook his head. “Did you ever,” he said. “I mean, man. You pretty much went out of your way to hurt people.”
“What can I say but apologize profusely. I was hurting so much myself, I guess I just completely lost perspective. I wanted everyone to pay for what happened to my mother. I know it makes no sense, but if it’s any excuse, I was in over my head.”
The waitress brought her glass of wine and she took a sip.
“Do you mind my asking how you changed? I mean it sure seems as if you’ve repented.”
“You see this?” she said, pointing at her red hair.
Sawyer nodded.
“If you remember me back then, I had beautiful long blonde hair.”
“Couldn’t forget it,” he said. “Even now, if I see that sort of hair it causes heart palpitations. And not in a good way.” He smiled, half joking.
She shook her head. “I feel so awful that I made your life such hell,” she said. “If it’s any consolation, I went through an unsolicited transformation, I guess you’d say.”
Sawyer squinted at her. “Meaning?”
“I don’t know if it was latent grief over losing my mother or self-imposed stresses from just being such an angry human being. But the summer before I started at university, I woke up one morning and my gorgeous hair was all gone.”
Sawyer’s eyes widened. “You mean like someone cut it off?”
Amelie shook her head. “Nope. It was gone. It had fallen off. Pretty much overnight.”
“So that,” he said, pointing at her head, “is a wig?”
She nodded. “Haven’t a stitch of hair on my head and haven’t for years. How’s that for a humbling experience?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Isabella decided to drive to the restaurant. She just wanted to stay under the radar and not have anyone know she was shamelessly stalking someone she needn’t even stalk if only she’d just yield to his (and her) desires. But since that wasn’t possible, she figured she’d at least keep an eye on the man. She had no idea why she even wanted to torture herself in this way. What good would come of seeing him having a nice evening with another woman? Of course, there was no good answer to that question. She just couldn’t help but go try to see what she could see.
She’d worn a pair of leather pants with her black leather biker jacket and her favorite black leather stiletto boots. She diverted to Clementine’s to pick her up before heading into town. When she rang the doorbell, Edouardo answered.
They greeted each other with the usual two-cheek kiss, and Isabella stood back to admire his outfit.
“My, my,” she said. “Look at you!”
Edouardo was wearing a charcoal Giorgio Armani wool-and-silk suit that fit him in all the right places.
“I’ve got a date,” he said with a boyish grin.
“A date!” Bella said. “What is this thing you call a date? I’ve not known you to partake in this ritual of mating before!”
Clementine walked into the room. “Please,” she said, “whatever you do, don’t say anything that might discourage the man from actually going through with this commitment.”
“Ahhh, so there’s an actual other person involved with this date? And we don’t want Edouardo to, what, chicken out? Eddie wouldn’t do that!”
Edouardo snapped his fingers. “D’oh, how’d you know it was Gabriella?”
Isabella started to laugh and squeezed his cheek. “’Douardo, you’re like a baby brother to me. I see all things and hear all things and I probably knew about you two before you did.”
Clementine rolled her eyes. “Now you’re just getting cocky. C’mon, let’s get out of here before you chicken out yourself.”
“Ahhh,” Edouardo said. “So you, too, have something—or someone—you might bail on?”
Isabella glared at Clementine. “Nope. Nothing at all,” she said. “Just two friends going out for a dinner.”
“Because you always dress so nicely for my sister.” He gave her a wink.
“On that note, we’ll be off,” Bella said, quickly grabbing Clementine’s hand and scurrying with her out the front door.
“Be a gentleman, Edouardo!” Bella called behind her.
“You too!” he said, leaving Isabella to wonder if her intentions could at all be considered gentlemanly because they certainly weren’t ladylike.
~*~
“This place is something else,” Clementine said as they climbed the wide staircase to enter the tall double-glass doors to Jade Empire. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to such an elegant Chinese restaurant before.”
“I’ve been meaning to try this place since it opened a few months ago, so this gives us a good excuse to eat here.”
“By this, you mean your boyfriend, here on a date with someone else?”
Isabella rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you’d even say that out loud. He is not my boyfriend. I am totally over and done with anything to do wi
th him. He can have whomever he’s with. I’m just curious to see who it is Gabriella paired him up with. Especially considering she never thought to match him up with me.”
“But you didn’t want to be fixed up with him. I even proposed that very thing, which you nixed. Might I remind you that you actively hated the man? You wanted to destroy his life is what I think you said to me.”
“Well, that was then.”
“And now?”
“And now, I will go on RoyalMatch.com to find the appropriate man to date.”
Clementine laughed as she checked in with the hostess station. “If only there were a Royalmatch.com, that would actually be hilarious. I can only imagine the losers you’d get paired up with. Have you gotten a load of some of the Eurotrash trying to pass as royalty these days?”
The hostess led them past a more open dining room, along a corridor flanked by little offshoots with rooms and secluded tables. Conveniently, Isabella had called ahead to request a table near Sawyer and his mystery date, and so she strained to see where it was he was sitting.
Just as the waitress seated them on the periphery of the main dining room, Clementine caught sight of him, literally at the next table over, only it was almost completely obscured by a tall plant that draped vines like a curtain.
“This is so perfect,” Clem said. “The food smells divine.”
“We’re not here for the food. We’re here for the intel.”
Clementine rubbed her stomach. “And the food.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Isabella said. “We need to focus on eavesdropping. What did she look like?”
“Who?”
“His date!” Isabella said. “What did she look like?”
“I couldn’t see her face, only the back of her head. She’s a redhead.”
“A ginger? Seriously? That’s not Sawyer’s type at all!”
“Um, how would you know that?”
“Because I’m a brunette, of course.”
Clementine rolled her eyes and grabbed a drink menu.
After the waitress took their drink order, Isabella put her pointer finger to her lips, then nodded her head in the direction of Sawyer’s table, straining her ear in that direction.
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