“I haven’t stopped thinking about you all day.” That was certainly the truth. From the moment she woke up and thought of ways to take care of her, Alicia’s brain was nothing butDanica Danica Danica.
She took her hand. “I didn’t stop thinking about you, either.”
Alicia couldn’t help but shyly smile back at her.
“Tomorrow,” Danica continued, occupying her hands with her tea more than Alicia, “we’ll have more fun together. There’s a party in the evening I want to take you to. I plan on telling the world that you are my girlfriend.”
If it were any other billionaire – yes, even the old, wrinkly ones – Alicia would be ecstatic.Your father, though. Word would quickly get back to Russell, if it hadn’t already. “Am I really, Danica?” she asked. “Your girlfriend?”
“Why would you doubt my words?”
“We’ve been moving so quickly,” Alicia said as an excuse. “We had sex about twenty minutes after meeting one another. Now you’ve got me in Chicago, training me to be your submissive lover and…” she faltered. “Wife?”
“It is fast. I don’t do anything unless it is earnest.” Danica grazed her hand again. “I understand, though. Your worries arenot unfounded. I suppose I am not the most trustworthy person. Yet have I given you a reason not to trust me?”
“It’s not that. I’m muddled with many thoughts right now. This isn’t dating, Danica. This is a courtship with immediate thoughts of marriage.”
“You’re right. We’re courting, not casually dating. That’s a good word for it.” Her tea cooled without being further sipped. “Is that too much for you?”
“No. You’ve never been anything but clear and direct with me from the beginning. The only real surprise I’ve felt is how much I’ve enjoyed it.”
Danica’s smile grew. “We have good chemistry, you and I.”
“I suppose so.”
“So, what is holding you back, my love? Don’t be too shy to voice your concerns.”
“I guess I’m worried about how I would be perceived as your… girlfriend.” Best to keep it at that level for now. “How would your father take to me?”
Danica shrugged. “My father has his opinions. While it may be his business who I date with the intention to marry, it is not his business to tell me I can’t do as I wish. Those days are behind us. I am no longer his charge.”
“You are his daughter,” Alicia pointed out. “He is the patriarch of your family.”
“He may be, but he will not live forever.” Danica said this without a shred of emotion.
Alicia braved saying the one thing on her mind. “You don’t have a huge relationship with your father, do you?”
At first, she thought Danica wouldn’t say anything, or at least tell her to mind her own business. Yet that wasn’t annoyance on her striking face. Nor was it chagrin. “My father is my father, and I am his daughter. That’s as far as it must go. He’s guided methrough many things in life, but love is not a matter I take him too seriously on.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s not exactly been the best at it himself. Since divorcing my mother, he’s had a few relationships. A few times, I thought he might remarry, but the women always leave, whether by their own volition or his. I don’t think he’s fit for married life.”
Alicia knew this was her chance to open the dialogue she’d been itching to have all day. “What about your mother? Whatever happened to her?”Don’t let her know I know something… don’t let her know!
Danica stared at the space before her. By now, Alicia knew what her being deep in thought looked like. Sometimes it unnerved her, as if the whole of the cosmos began to unwind within Danica’s mind. Her eyes never glazed over. Her expression never changed.
“My mother disappeared after the divorce. All I know is that she was in an unfortunate accident a while later, and that my father had full custody of me. She never tried to see me. I think she gave up custody, for whatever reason.” Danica shrugged, her lean shoulders moving languidly. “Since I barely remember her, I don’t feel too bad about it.”
If only you knew the truth!What if Danica knew that her mother was in Chicago, only a few blocks away? What if she knew that Julia desperately wanted to see her, to get to know the woman who was once her precious little girl she fought so hard to protect?
“By the way, you never told me that you had a brother.”
“What is this?” Danica snorted. “Throwing everything you can think of at me?”
Alicia looked away. “I’m sorry. I… read it online.” That sort of information was online, right? It had to be. Eddie Moreau’sdeath would’ve been public record. Would Russell have tried to cover it up? No way. No man was that powerful. Right?
“I was a baby when he was born and died. That’s all I know about it. I suppose it depressed my mother.”
