He should’ve known she’d pull a runner. Nothing about Isabella was going to be easy. She’d made that abundantly clear at this point. So clear that he really wondered why he’d want to make himself crazy pursuing her. But then one thought about the many ways in which he pleasured her—and she him—over the last several hours, and he knew he’d go to the ends of the earth to try to get even five more minutes with her. The princess was a sexy little minx.
God, why did she have to make this such a damned production. They’d had an amazing time of it, and it was criminal to stop at this point and not see where things could go.
He rolled over and pondered this latest turn of events, one hand behind his head, the other resting on his stomach as he cleared the cobwebs from his brain, and things started to come back to him in vivid detail. Chocolate sauce, of course. But any self-respecting pastry chef knew that that was for rookies. Naturally, he had to one-up himself there, so at about two in the morning, he whipped up a batch of gooey meringue, which he remembered slathering across her breasts and licking them clean. Princess as pastry. How could she pass that up again, he wondered.
It was going to take some clever initiatives on his part if he was ever going to advance to any more food-as-foreplay with Isabella, but damn, he was determined to do it. He wondered if last night meant there was an ongoing truce declared, that she wasn’t planning to destroy him professionally. That would be an upside, but he needed more than just that. He needed more of what he had just a few hours ago. But at least maybe he could pursue it while not going bankrupt.
His train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.
“Sawyer here,” he said as he turned on his phone and set it to speaker, resting it on his chest.
“Hello, handsome,” Gabriella said. “I hope you had a good time last night.”
Crap, what did everyone know? Surely, they didn’t get it out of Princess this quickly.
“It was a great party, Gab,” he said. “Thanks so much for inviting me.”
“Looked like you and Isabella hit it off quite nicely,” she said.
“I think we were able to get over our differences,” he said. And under, and around, and in. “And it looked like things were heating up between you and that large man who looked like he might want to hurt someone if they weren’t careful.”
“Awww, Edouardo’s just a little kitten. He doesn’t know his own strength.”
Kitten. That gave him an idea.
“So the two of you, then?” He made some hubba hubba sounds, suggesting they had their own little “meeting of the minds.”.
“You know I don’t kiss and tell, Sawyer.”
“You sure did a lot at university.”
She laughed. “That was then. This is now. Besides, he’s different.”
“Because?”
“We knew each other as children. Edouardo took special care of me when we were young. Once, when we got lost in the woods, he gave up his coat for me, then lay on top of me to keep me warm until my parents found us.”
“Nowadays they call that having sex in the woods.”
“Stop! It was perfectly innocent. We were only like ten years old.”
“You sure were sophisticated for your age, then.”
“So he asked me out for a date.”
“When you were ten? Or now?”
“Now, silly!”
“Are you going?”
She sighed. “I don’t know, Sawyer. I mean I’m kind of tired of broken relationships, you know what I mean?”
“Who’s to say that will be the case? He seemed like he adored you. Maybe this is just what you need.”
“What I don’t need is to get my hopes up only to find out he’s got a wife and kids in another country.”
“That happened with the last one?”
“Not that extreme, but I’m sure that’s the type of thing I’m doomed for next time around.”
“Chin up, Gabs,” Sawyer said. “It’s not all gloom and doom. If you ask me, the man seems pretty interested in you.”
“I guess I’ll just play that one low-key and not put my heart and soul into it for a change,” she said. “But meantime, in my ongoing efforts to get you together with as many women as possible in Monaforte, I have someone for you to meet. She’s new to town and I think you’ll really like her a lot.”
Sawyer scrunched his nose. “Thanks, but I don’t think so, Gabriella. I’m kind of busy right now with work, and—”
“You won’t be pretty soon if Isabella remains on the warpath.”
“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...