“I’m sorry.” His tone was quiet but harsh. “I misjudged you.”
There was a pause, and then she answered reluctantly, “I wish you hadn’t said sorry.”
Her words were completely unexpected, with a part of him having expected her to brush his apology off. “Why?” As he spoke, his fingers drifted from her elbow, moving down her arm until he was holding her hand.
Ilse found herself looking down as his fingers locked with hers, the mere act a liberty that she hadn’t ever allowed any other man to have. “Because then,” she heard herself say, “I could keep thinking of you as an arrogant asshole.” She looked up. “But even though you don’t seem like one –I am sorry, mijnheer.I still think it’s better we have nothing to do with each other.”
Chapter Three
“What gorgeous flowers,” Gloria exclaimed upon catching sight of the huge bouquet of tulips as she walked inside the office. Boasting of shabby chic décor characterized by faded floral wallpaper, quilted swivel seats, and Victorian tables, the office looked more like a tearoom straight out of a Jane Austen novel rather than the headquarters of a tour company with the rather dubious name ofGlory Hall.
A quick look around the office showed that only Ilse was around, coming in half an hour early for work as was her usual.
Reaching Ilse’s table, Gloria took an appreciative whiff of the blooms, asking, “Who’s it from?”
“No one important,” Ilse answered shortly as she scooped the flowers out of her boss’ nose and marched to where the rubbish bin was. It had been over a week since she had last seen Jaak de Konigh, a week in which the billionaire had proved to be amazingly insistent in pursuing her.
He had mailed handwritten notes to her office address, all of them addressed to the pseudonym she used for work, and all of which she had torn up into pieces without reading a single one.
And now—-this!
The older woman gasped as Ilse proceeded to unceremoniously dump the bouquet in the trash.“Ilse!”Those flowers, which had come from the city’s most expensive florist shop, must have costat least a hundred euros. How could the silly girl throw them away just like that?
Ilse only grunted. After taking a photo of the ill-fated blooms, she began punching letters on her screen, sending her first text message to the billionaire. It was a good thing she had saved his number from his business card before getting rid of it.
“Is it from a stalker?” Gloria asked as she perched herself on the edge of Ilse’s table.
“Nope.”
“A pervert?” the older woman prodded as she crossed her legs, which she was proud to note were as silky as they had been when she first came to Mokum as a starry-eyed teenager from the country.
And how life had changed since then,Gloria reminisced. She had come to the city as an aspiring actress, but she had ended up as one of RLD’s most in-demand sex workers in her heyday. Others would probably think her life story was far from a fairy tale, but for Gloria, being paid for sex – which she had discovered to be a really delectable pastime – was nothing to regret.
C’est la viehad always been her motto, and with the very comfortable life she had come to enjoy, Gloria considered herself much luckier than she deserved to be.
Unlike Ilse,Gloria thought, her glance straying to the beautiful woman who was staring stonily at her cellphone. Despite her rather prickly personality, Ilse Muir was also the kindest and most hardworking person Gloria had come across. Ilse was theone who truly deserved all the luck in the world, but as life would have it, Ilse was the one saddled with a near-impossible burden.
When Ilse swiveled her seat to face her laptop, Gloria quickly snatched the younger woman’s cellphone.
“Gloria!”
Gloria saw that the last message Ilse had sent was to a person she had labeled on her contact book asDEVIL INCARNATE.
Ilse and her big words, Gloria thought, amused, never failing to get a kick out of how smart her #1 employee was. Her glance then moved to the message Ilse had sent, and Gloria’s eyebrows went up.
Save the planet and don’t send me flowers ever again.
“So you actually know how to be rude when you want to,” Gloria remarked with faint surprise as she returned the phone to its owner.
Ilse only scowled.
“You know, if you really hate that person,” Gloria said candidly, “then you wouldn’t have bothered sending a text message. You should have just blocked his number...”
Gloria stifled her smile at the way Ilse paled, having guessed correctly that the younger woman hadn’t realized she was actually interested in the other person.Her dear girl might look like a sexpot, Gloria thought fondly,but the truth was, Ilse was so focused on her big-sister responsibilities it had made Ilse rather dense about men.
“Who is he?” she pressed again.
“No one important,” Ilse repeated flatly.
