Page 29 of Unraveling an Enigma
No longer able to contain my inner bitch, I tilt closer to the pixie fairy. Because she is so short, I have to bend my knees to glance into her eyes. “As nothing more than a paid employee,” I sneer, my voice thickly doused in sarcasm.
The pulse in my neck twangs when the rumbling voice of Isaac echoes through the room. “Do you want me to get some mud, or are you two happy to continue wrestling without it?”
Turning my gaze, I am met with the visually stimulating sight of Isaac leaning in the doorframe of his office. The darkness of his gray suit matches his eyes to perfection. Even with an angry scowl straining his handsome face, my heart still skips a beat. Noticing my avid assessment of his body, Isaac arches his perfectly etched brow high into the air and leans one of his broad shoulders against the doorframe.
“I was advising Isabelle what you told me earlier. How you haveNOinterest in seeing her ever again,” the fairy lady snarls viciously.
My ego is bruised when Isaac doesn’t refute her hurtful statement.
Isaac’s stern gaze darts between the fairy-looking lady and me. I roll my shoulders and stand straighter when Isaac’s eyes settle on me to leisurely glide over my face.
“What do you want, Isabelle?” His tone is harsh and abrupt, but my body still tingles from the way my name rolls off his tongue in a seductive manner.
“I need to talk to you,” I explain, my voice trembling.
The lady beside me huffs dramatically.
“In private.” I turn my gaze to glare at the brunette next to me whose eyes are in the process of rolling.
Isaac takes several heart-clenching seconds contemplating my request. Once his decision is made, his eyes drifting to the pixie lady standing next to me. When she catches his forthright gaze, she crosses her arms in front of her barely-covered chest and her jaw drops.
“Tina, tell Roger I’ll be leaving five minutes later than expected,” Isaac informs her, his tone conveying his statement was not a suggestion.
I try to hide my smile, but the smallest smirk curves on my lips. Tina’s eyes squint, her mouth etching into a hard line before she storms off to the bar while murmuring incoherently under her breath. Isaac’s eyes track Tina as she angrily marches across the room. Once she enters a room located behind the gleaming, polished bar, his grim gaze turns to face me. Not speaking a word, he gestures for me to follow him before he turns on his heels and graciously strides into his office. With slight hesitation, I follow after him.
My eyes eagerly dart around the interior of Isaac’s office. This is only the second time I’ve been here. The first time, I was a little too irate about the gigantic love bite Isaac left on my neck to fully take in the impressively-sized office. Now, I'd give anything for him to mark and claim me as his again.
When I scan the adeptly decorated office, I find Isaac standing near a glass bar, pouring himself a generous helping of whiskey. “You don’t think it’s a little early to be drinking?”
Isaac’s stern eyes lift from the crystal bottle he is clasping in his hand to glare into my eyes. His gaze sears me motionless and unable to move. Seconds always feel like minutes when my eyes lock and hold with his, and today is no different. After arrogantly shrugging, his devotion returns to filling his glass.
“Have you slept with Tina?” I probe directly.
I’m fairly sure I know the answer to my highly inappropriate question, considering the circumstances of my visit, but my inessential need to know everything gnawed at my insides until my question blurted out of my mouth before I could reel it back in.
Isaac raises his crystal glass to his mouth and downs the entire overly generous serving of whiskey in one hit. A rush of heat blemishes my face from the seductive way he drinks the whiskey. His face never once alludes to the sharp bitterness of the liquid no doubt burning his throat as it slides down.
After slamming his glass down onto the countertop, Isaac turns to face me. My breathing halts, and my palms sweat from his infuriated glance. His beautiful face is taut, his eyes slitted into thin lines, but he is still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.
“What do you want, Isabelle?” he queries bluntly, ignoring my jealous line of questioning.
When his gaze darts down to the piece of paper I’m clutching, it suddenly dawns on me why I came to his office. I’m not being facetious when I say my inhibitions get thrown out the window when I’m in the presence of Isaac. My levelheadedness, my composure, and apparently my brain, disappear the instant my eyes land on his beguiling face.
“I came to give you this.”
I pace over until I am within touching distance of him. The instant I step closer to him, his tempting scent engulfs my senses. It takes all my strength not to sway toward him.
“It isn’t as much as you receive from your other tenants, but it is all I can afford.” My tone relays my honesty.
Isaac’s eyes shoot down to the bank check I'm clutching. His brows stitch as his jaw muscle spasms.
I’m only arriving at his club now as I had to wait for the bank to open so they could draw this check. Although Agent Theresa Veneto stated the other tenants in Isaac’s building pay more than double what I pay, I literally cannot afford to pay the full amount. So instead, I had the check drawn up for the initially agreed three hundred dollars a week that was negotiated when I signed the lease. Considering I’ve been living in his apartment rent-free for the past twelve weeks, the check is a little under four thousand dollars.
When Isaac doesn’t attempt to remove the check from my grasp, I place it on his bulky mahogany desk.
“I also called your real estate agent to advise that I’ll be vacating your property by the end of the month,” I inform him, my voice jittering with nerves.
It isn’t that I don’t appreciate what Isaac did for me; I truly do, but I can’t continue living there at the reduced rate, or it will make the Internal Affairs Department investigation into me more legitimate. It will make it appear that Isaac was exchanging free rent for private information. And since I can’t afford the full monthly rent for an apartment like that, I have no choice but to move out.
