Page 59 of Savage Proposal

Lorenzo

Istumbled out of the bedroom after tucking Isabella back in to finish her nap. What the fuck was that? I had gone in to get information about her father, that was all. But I couldn’t get over that feeling in my chest when she’d started panicking.

It had only eased when I had her in my arms.

“Enzo?” Amalia was coming out of the laundry, looking a little more rumpled than when I had seen her this morning. She and Elio must have had fun, after all. “Are you okay?”

“I want to do something nice for Isabella. I just gave her some rough news.”

Her eyes went wide. She blinked a handful of times. “Weren’t you close to locking her away for the rest of her pregnancy just the other day?”

“What’s your point?”

Amalia laughed derisively. “You’re going to give all of us whiplash,” she said, but as she stared at me, she softened. “Takeher to dinner. Somewhere nice, away from the estate. Let her feel human for a little while.”

It was a simple suggestion, but it was also a hard line in the sand. If I let Isabella cross it again, like when I had allowed her to see her sister, it would mean something between us. Something more than the deal that kept her tied to me. “Where does Elio take you when you’re pissed at him?”

Amalia’s smile was brilliant. “I’ll send you the address. She’ll need a dress.”

I nodded. “I can get her one.”

She winced. “She could borrow something of mine.”

“I’ve already got one in mind,” I said, picturing Sienna’s deep purple dress that flared around the hips. It was simple but pretty, and I had always liked it.

“Enzo.” Amalia shook her head. “You can’t keep dressing her in Sienna’s?—”

I stepped into her space, towering over her, and her words cut off with a squeak. “I can do whatever I like,” I said. “This is my house.”

Her eyes dropped; her face turned red. “Yes, boss,” she said in a perfectly neutral tone that told me what an asshole she thought I was being.

I didn’t call her out on it. “I’ll leave the dress in the laundry room to be steamed,” I said. “Get her ready for eight o’clock.”

Isabella was ready with ten minutes to spare. She knocked on my office door and stepped in. The dress fit her perfectly; it was a good mix of sexy and elegant. Her dark hair was curled lightly and brushed her bare shoulders. Her makeup was light but done expertly.

She looked beautiful, but even though she looked so much like Sienna, I couldn’t stop categorizing all the ways they were different. Sienna would have gone heavier with her eye makeup; she liked how it made her eyes look more green than gold. She would have put her hair up instead of down because she hated the way it felt touching her shoulders.

The more that I compared them, and found more and more differences between them, the more I felt like I was able to exorcise Sienna’s ghost from the house. Even earlier, with Amalia, I hadn’t gotten mad when she said Sienna’s name. Moreover, her attitude was the thing that pissed me off. Before Isabella, that would have been unheard of.

“Amalia said that we were going out?”

I nodded. “Dinner, if you’re up for it.”

“Did one of your businesses need checking on?” she asked.

“Not tonight.”

Her brows wrinkled inward. “So, why are we going out?”

I harrumphed and crossed my arms over my chest. “I thought you’d like a chance to leave the property for a bit, but if not, I can just go on my own.”

Her mouth dropped in a littleohof surprise. “I’ll go,” she said.

“Good.”

Thirty minutes later, we walked into a restaurant that was nice enough to have a dress code posted at the door. “Did you have a reservation?” the tall, blonde hostess asked in a faux haughty tone. She hadn’t even bothered to look at him.

“It’s under Vitali.”

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