Page 68 of Craving Paradise
“She seems like a ray of sunshine,” I answer sarcastically.
Ines’ eyes crinkle with mirth.
“I don’t know her. This is the second time we’ve met.”
“And yet you just spent twenty thousand pounds on a date with her?” Ines states, sounding skeptical.
“It’s for charity. It will be a great write-off.”
“If you say so,” Ines says, not buying my answer.
She suspects something.
“She’s a tough nut to crack, but once you do, she’s worth it,” Ines tells me before walking away.
Lauren and I need to sort out what’s going on between us. We just need to sit down and hash it out. I head off in the direction Lauren went and try to track her down. I push through the glass double doors that lead out onto the terrace. There are stairs down to the gardens at the end of the terracotta tiles.
“Lauren,” I call out into the darkness.
“Go away.” I hear her voice close to me.
Thankfully, there’s some garden lighting, and I can see she is sitting on a bench in the rose garden. I ignore her request and walk over to where she is seated. Her skin is goosebumped from the cool night air, not helped by the fact she’s wearing nothing but underwear. I take off my tuxedo jacket and place it around her shoulders as I sit beside her.
“Thank you.” She snuggles into the warmth of my jacket.
“Now that was a genuine thank you.”
She looks up at me and rolls her eyes.
“Thank you for your donation too.”
I can hear how much it took for her to say it. “We don’t have to do the date if you don’t want to, Lauren. I don’t want to force you into something you’re uncomfortable with.”
“You just paid twenty thousand pounds, and now you’re saying you don’t want a date?”
“Didn’t say I didn’t want to go on a date. I said if you didn’t want to go on the date,” I reiterate.
Silence falls between us.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Because of The Paradise Club?”
She nods as she plays with my tuxedo button. “You get it, don’t you?” She looks up at me with those blue eyes.
I nod, showing I understand.
“I have fun with you,” I confess to her.
“You do?”
“And I’ve missed that this past month.”
“You have?”
“Yeah, I have. And when you reminded me at dinner tonight that all I have to do is make an appointment, it felt like it cheapened what we had.”
Silence falls between us.