All The Right Reasons (The Seduced Series) (12 page)

Chapter Thirteen

A month has passed since the n
ight that Dennis proposed to me and I remember it as if it was yesterday. He was so romantic, basking in the afterglow of our love he held me close not wanting me to go. He scared me at first, I immediately thought that he didn’t want me anymore because of the little confrontation I had with Stephanie. I know I was being a little immature by the way I acted towards her, but wouldn’t anyone if they heard how she wanted him? I was only looking out for what was mine. But he started saying the most beautiful things that came out of his mouth. His confession of how much I meant to him surprised me, he always said the most romantic things to me but I was in awe of how he cared for me.

When h
e got out of bed and pulled out the ring, his mother’s ring nonetheless, I was confused to what he was trying to say, until he got down on one knee and that’s when I put two and two together. He said, ‘I have you, but I want you to be by my side forever. I want a happy life, with you as my love and mother of my children,’ I will never forget those words. He put his heart and soul into his proposal, and when he slid the ring on my finger I wanted to scream to the world that Dennis Evers is and will always be my soul mate that was sent to me by fate. It was meant for us to meet and fall in love with one another.

We tried to keep our engagement out of the tabloids and media but someone must have slipped up, nobody’s pointing fingers but I have my guesses. I can’t even go to work without having the paparazzi hounding me about was a date set, where are we getting married, who’s on the guest list and what designer dress am I wearing? Like really, do people want to know about my personal life with Dennis? It’s not any different than any normal persons, it’s just that Dennis has money and when you have money like he does you’re bound to be caught in the public eye and apparently since I’m engaged to him, so am I. Everyone needs to know this, that and the third. I just hope this doesn’t end up on TMZ, because I don’t know how many more phone calls from my mom I can take anymore.

Well at least I got throw the hardest part of the day and that wa
s coming to work. When I see the paparazzi camping out front of the building I just want to turn around and go home, but it’s the same at the estate. They want to know everything and anything. I just ignore them, but when they bring up me and my life before Dennis, that really bothers me. A lot of people think that I’m just marrying him for his money, but how wrong they are. I glanced at my watch and it is time to head home, thank god. Today’s been pretty hectic; Betty and I have to finish up our graphic designs for our new company logo. Impressions is merging with Alphagraphics of New York, they’re trying to increase their reach for more business. Hey, that sounds like a good motto ‘increase your reach,’ I’ll have to discuss that with Betty tomorrow.

Of course I was last to leave the office. I made my way to the underground garage and jumped into me Benz, ready to pull out past the vultures’ and their bazaar questions. Here goes nothing I thought to myself as the garage doors opened for me.

“Angelina, Angelina, how does it feel being named America’s sexiest woman?”

“Ms. Moore, are you planni
ng on having children?”

“Angelina…” I just ignored them and drove away as they keep taking photos of me driving away.

On the ride back to the estate I thought about some of the questions the paparazzi were asking. How do I feel about being named America’s sexiest woman? I didn’t think I was even close to being sexy. I always dressed sophisticated in public, how can they find that sexy? Only Dennis saw the sexy side of me in the bedroom. The thought is unnerving how people can judge me as being sexy. I shook the thought out of my mind as I made it back home, luckily there were only a few paparazzi guys and they just took pictures. I was just glad to be home and away for all the madness. As I parked the car I noticed that Dennis wasn’t home yet. I shrugged my shoulders as I walked into the living room.

“Well Angelina, how do you feel about being America’s sexiest woman?” Amber asked as I went to sit down on the couch.

“Ugh, not you too,” I said sounding a little irritated.

“Well it seems that you made the cover of People magazine this week,” she said as she showed me on the cover of the magazine.
It was me and the worst picture of me that I'd ever seen. “Hot stuff,” she said and smiled.

“Yeah right, they had to put a picture of me getting out of the car?”

“Why not? You look hot!”

I shook my head at her as I decided to go upstairs and change. I didn’t want to look at myself on the cover of People. I changed my clothes and went back downstairs and laid on the couch to wait for Dennis. I was watching TV when I heard Dennis pull into the garage. It was a little later than usually
but he was an important part of Evers and Evers. When he walked in he immediately sat down and wrapped his arms around me. He looked unsettled about something, I looked at him tentatively waiting for him to tell me what was wrong but he just hugged me harder.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as I kissed the side of his neck and he just sighed heavily.

“I have a business trip to Miami in two days,” he said.

“Oh
,” I murmured. Now I understand his sour mood. “Why Miami?”

“Unfortunat
ely I have to go and meet with David Maltiz and his reps down there and sign the deal. My presence is needed to make it official.”

“How
long will you be gone?” I asked trying to keep the sadness out of my voice. Now I know how he felt like when I left for training.

“Four
days minimum, but I’m pushing for three. We still have a couple of things to sort out in person before we can make anything official,” he said analyzing me. I just nodded, what can I really say, no you can’t. This was his job. “I hate leaving you,” he said resting his forehead against mine. Damn it, I was trying to be strong for the both of us but if he kept carrying on like this I was definitely going to end up cracking from the pressure.

“I know.
I’m going to miss you like crazy when you’re not here. But you have to go and I understand that. It’s what you do,” I said hoping my voice didn’t betray me. Shit, would I always be like this when Dennis goes on these business trips? And if so, then I’m totally screwed. He gave me a crooked smile before kissing me. Then out of nowhere I remembered something important. “Will Stephanie be accommodating along with you?” I asked. I don’t know what I was thinking, of course she’ll be with him, she’s his PA.

“Yes, she always attends with
me on these types of business trips,” he said eyeing me.

I frowned
but nodded. I’m just being ridiculous and selfish. I want to have him here with me and all to myself. I shouldn’t have to worry about her anymore for two reasons. One, I told her how it was and two, he is my soon to be husband I thought to myself. So fucking what if she goes with him? Like he said, they’ve gone on business trips together in the past and nothing happened, so what makes this time any different from the other times? Even as I tried to reason with myself and put this bullshit behind me, just the thought of her alone with Dennis still upset me. Dennis must have seen something in me as he gave me a knowing look like stop over thinking this and then gently smiled.

“
Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove:
oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark
t
hat looks on tempests and is never shaken,” he said and
I smiled at his efforts to make me feel better.

“Nice word play. Shakespeare?
” I asked and he nodded.

D
ealing with my insecurities was already hard on me but probably starting to wear on him. Damn, I was already acting like the jealous housewife and the messed up part about it is that I’m not even married to him yet. I started to shake my head sadly, of how pathetic I am and for some strange reason I started to cry. He wiped my tears away, probably completely baffled at how I’m reacting. He should just run while he still has a chance. I then laughed a little shakily about how I look right now and getting all emotional over something so stupid.

“I love you Angelina
, from the bottom of my heart. And just to let you know, I don’t mind reassuring you how I feel about you every day.” I wiped away the fresh tears that escaped my eyes and gave him a remorseful look as I gazed into his eyes.

“Sorry, I
promise that I won’t always be like this,” I whispered, embarrassed why my emotions were all over the place tonight. I didn’t understand myself, this was not like me. Maybe it’s all the stress over our engagement? Maybe too much sex is scrambling my mind from keeping me to think straight? Nah, what am I saying, there can never be too much sex. There was something going on, I just couldn’t put my finger on it at the moment.

“I know
,” he whispered back. “You’re stubborn, strong-willed and independent. I like knowing that you need me. It’s what drives me forward everyday that I mean that much to you,” he added while stroking my cheek oh so softly with the tips of his fingers.

“I always need you. You are my air,
” I whispered pointing out the obvious.

“Well I’m here and breathe in all of me
” he said with a smile. He took me in his arms and held me tight. I smiled while trying not to cry at his compassion. This man was unbelievably breathtaking.

“You’re amazing
you know that?”

“So I’ve heard,” he said
letting me go and grabbing my hand. “Let’s go to bed.” I raised an eyebrow at him and he let out a low sexy chuckle. “To sleep my love,” he said while kissing my hand.

I let him lead me upstairs feeling
like the luckiest woman on the planet. My love for this man knows no bounds; it’s timeless and endless. He enriches my life in more ways than I can ever express in words. I feel strongly connected to him every time I look into his gorgeous blue eyes. I’m drawn to his soul in a way I have never experienced before with anyone, apart from Rick. But even with Rick it wasn’t the same, because Dennis is the only one who holds the key to my heart and soul.

****

Today is the day that I have to let my love leave for his business trip. I’m sad to see him go after spending the last two days of heavenly bliss with him. He reassured me that he’d be back in three days but that’s still three days too many. I took off from work today just so I could spend the last moments I had with Dennis till he came back to me. I walked with him to his car, gave him the biggest hug and the longest kiss, not wanting it to end. After saying goodbye to Dennis, I immediately ran back in the estate and called Isabella. Apart from work I was going to need a distraction for the next couple of days and Isabella was perfect for the job. About a half an hour later I heard the doorbell ring; I smiled to myself and ran downstairs to answer it. As I opened the door for her I immediately hugged her. Just her presence made me feel slightly better that she was here with me.

“I got here as fast as I
could, what’s the emergency?” She asked and I rolled my eyes at her overstatement. Okay, I told her it was urgent that she came by today.

“Dennis left for Miami a little while ago for his business trip,” I said.

“Oh,” she said and then she placed her hand on my forehead and then on my pulse. “Are you okay? Are you still breathing?” She asked while teasing me. I laughed while smacking her hand away.

“You’re such a dick,
” I teased back. She walked in and headed straight to the living room and sat down on the couch while laughing hysterically. I sat next to her while laughing too. “Listen, I need you to distract me from thinking about him. Plus, he’s going with Stephanie. So you’ll probably need to bleach my brain by the time he comes back,” I said and she stopped laughing.

“What?” She asked. She had
the same expression I had two nights ago when I asked Dennis about her accompanying him on this trip.

“Apparently they g
o on business trips together all the time,” I said shaking my head. The thought of him and her together and alone still bothers me. “I didn’t take it well when he told me,” I added still embarrassed by the way I reacted that night.

“What did you do?” She asked while
narrowing her eyes.

“I don’t know why but I just started crying for no
reason, like balling like a baby. But I think I was just embarrassed about being so insecure and needy towards him,” I said sadly. “Poor guy probably thinks I’m losing my mind other this.”

Isabella
shook her head at me. I held up my hand at her to stop her before she even started. I wanted her to keep me distracted, not make me feel like shit again about bringing up my insecurities I have with Dennis and Stephanie. She promised to not talk about it and to keep my mind off of it and she did. We did every little insignificant thing that we could possibly think of for the remainder of the day. The following day I went to work and throw myself into my work, Betty could tell that something was wrong by the way I worked. She tried to take a stab at it but I dismissed her, this was not the time or place I wanted to discuss my personal life. After work I met up with Isabella again to do anything and everything to keep my mind off of Dennis…and Stephanie. I was very appreciated by her efforts, but at the end of the day, just like yesterday I will always come back to an empty bed and I’ll get depressed all over again. The worst was trying to fall asleep without him here, I always told him that I needed him to hold me to sleep and being that he’s not here the bed felt even bigger and colder.