Mr. Mysterious In Black (10 page)

Natalio had invited me out every evening since we had pizza at the rooftop restaurant. He was funny, over-intelligent and sweet—when he wasn’t fuming about inconsequential nothings. He’d pledged to earn my trust and, somehow, he thought tugging me along with him every time he got the chance would build my trust. Hardly. For he still remained stingy when I pried. We’d talk about anything and everything, excluding himself. Ergo, my trust lever remained at level one. But because of my weakness and that inexplicable connection I had towards him, I could never say no to him or stay away from him, for that matter. And when I wasn’t with him, I’d think
only
of him.

Miraculously, I’d managed, on our evening jaunts, to disguise my profound desire for him. Trying not to shiver when he touches me, and being sure to avert my eyes when he leers at me. Natalio, on the other hand, had not.

He’d said and, obliquely, done the most seductive, licentious, provocative things. But never touched me in the way I yearned. Transparent it was that he wanted and was very much attracted to me, like I was to him. But he didn’t say, and neither did I. Maybe it was a part of his effort to gain my trust? God, it was driving me batty!

I
wanted
him to touch me. I
wanted
him to kiss me. I
wanted
him…so bad.

“Don’t forget, I’m picking you up for dinner on Saturday the minute I get back,” I heard him say.

Oh, I’d forgotten. He was flying to Michigan that evening for a two-day business trip. Miss him? I knew I would. Miss my
friend
. My over-amorous friend.

“Okay.” All my good humor was suddenly extinguished.

“So are you done thinking about the car yet?” he asked.

“I haven’t started thinking about it yet. My mind has been occupied with…other stuff.”
With thoughts of you, on top of me. Kissing me, licking me, stroking me.

He grunted in frustration. “It’s just a car, Sadie. You need a car for work and I just so happen to have one sitting in my garage screaming to be driven.”

Just like I’m screaming to be driven into…

“You’re not gonna give up on this, are you?” Even though I already knew the answer.

This man was tenacity incarnated…

His brow arched in that sexy, turn-me-on way. “You don’t know me by now?”

“Okay. I’ll start thinking about it tonight,” I smiled sweetly.

…And I was obstinacy personified. Nice match.

He chuckled, casting his eyes upwards. “Let me walk you to your door. I won’t be seeing you for roughly two days.” Smooth and caressing was his voice. And I didn’t know if it was the three beers and two glasses of wine that I’d consumed earlier, but I was needy. Very needy.

Why oh why didn’t he just get it over with already? I knew he wanted me.
Touch me, kiss me, tell me you want me. Please.

Exiting the vehicle, he rounded to the passenger side and opened the door. He took my hand when I climbed out and we walked wordlessly up the steps to my door.

At the doorway, we gazed at each other, neither of us speaking. Natalio’s face was intently daring, a fleet of humor danced across his eyes. What was he thinking now?

His raven-dark hair was mussed across his forehead and his eyes were the bluest of his variant blues. A man with black hair, black brows, black outfit and
bright
blue eyes was a sight to savor.

Suave and quiet, his voice sliced through the silence, “I like the way your cheeks redden when you dare to hold my stare.” He smoothed his index finger gently between my brows. “I like the crease that forms right here when you worry what I might be thinking.” Heat surged through my body, the air shifted as I was enveloped by desire. His touch was…enkindling.

“I like the way your cognac eyes dilate then go dreamy every time you yearn my touch.” His smile was tauntingly charming.

Oh! This man…

He knew. He knew I wanted him and he’d been teasing me. He’d obviated touching and kissing me all along to drive me insane?

“But most of all,” he continued, gently trailing the tip of his fingers down my neck. I closed my eyes and moaned helplessly at the tantalizing feel of his warm fingers on my neck. “I
love
your long, gracious, virgin olive neck.” He leaned forward as if to kiss my neck, but he didn’t. Instead, he stopped just inches away and whispered, allowing the heat of his breath the job of caressing. “I’d spend hours kissing this neck. Caressing to infinity. Adorn it with love bites.”

My mouth fell open as I labored for breath.

Oh, please. Please. Please. Kiss me. Now.

Suddenly he straightened and stuck his hand out to me as he tried to smother a smirk. “I had a lovely day, Sadie. Until Saturday?”

No. No!
How could he do this?

My face arranged in a scowl at his hand, fury climbing through my veins. Forming a word or sentence was incapability at the moment. Was…too hot…too needy.

His lips lifted into an innocent smile. “Miss Francé, don’t be impolite. I’m bidding you a good evening.”

Folding my arms, I glared at him. There he stood, all self-possessed and pleased with himself. Tilting his head to one side, he gave me a lip-bitten smile. “Sadie? You look bothered. You promised you’d tell me whenever
anything
is bothering you.” His tongue darted out and glossed his lips. “And I promised to help.”

Teasing me, he was. Patently enjoying himself.

“You
know
what’s bothering me,” I hissed at him.

“No. I don’t. You have to learn to com-mu-ni-cate,” he said, syllabifying the word as if I was some hare-brained child. “Communication is key. You have to tell me what you want, Sadie. It’s the only way I’ll
know
.”

My tongue curled and touched the roof of my mouth as I was about to form the words and construct a filthy sentence to com-mu-ni-cate with him that I wanted him to have sex with me so hard that my eyes twist, but then my roommate Brenda came bouncing up the steps, earplugs stuck in her ears and her head bobbing, her pink workout outfit damp with sweat. Back from the gym.

Brenda had returned from New York since Tuesday. My roommate didn’t like me very much. Or so she feigned. I found it hard to believe anyone would share their apartment with someone they detested.

Brenda stopped when she noticed us, gave a curt nod and moved around me to enter the house. When she opened the door, she swirled back around like a tornado to face us—to face Natalio, rather. Her eyes enlarged as she gazed up at him.

Natalio frowned.

What’s amiss? Did she know him? Have they been together? What?

Brenda gawked a moment longer at Natalio before she blinked; her mouth opened, then closed. Once, twice, three times. Finally, she uttered a weak apology for disrupting us and walked backward into the house.

Okayyy.
That was odd. And completely out of character for Brenda. She had a cavalier, perfunctory disposition—or maybe she was like that in my presence only. Maybe something was going on between them that’s to my oblivion?

“What the hell was that about?” I asked him.

Natalio shrugged and gave an I-have-no-idea expression. But I knew he was lying. I think I have that uncanny ability to detect lies the minute they are told.

“Do you know her?”

“Just that she’s your roommate. I know her no other way, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he answered, eyeing me oddly.

“Oh.”

He shifted his weight and I could tell he was worried about something. “My flight’s in an hour. I gotta go. I’ll call, text, email, telegram and BBM you,” he said, and I laughed. He shifted again. “Please don’t lose contact with me. If you get mad at me for anything, please tell me that you’re mad and don’t ignore me. I’d rather you speak to me than ignore me. Please don’t be afraid to ask me anything. And yes, I’ll answer truthfully. Okay?” His words came rolling at me like a thunderball.

Bemused, I nodded. Where’s all that coming from? Why would I be mad at him when we weren’t even together? Anxiety emanated from him, but I knew not why.

He lifted my palm to his lips and planted a chaste kiss in the center before retreating quickly down the steps and into his X6, leaving me bereft.

Shaking my head at my failure to decipher Natalio’s perplexing behavior, I turned the doorknob and entered the apartment. Brenda was pacing the living area, her hazel eyes glittering with excitement. Silky, honey-blond hair dangled over her shoulders.

“Oh my God, Sadie! You’re dating one of the Nelsons?” she pounced at me, not giving me a chance to breathe.

“One of the Nelsons?”

“Yesssss,” she stressed, seemingly annoyed at my baffled question and waving her hand in an impatient gesture.

“How do you know them? What are they like? Are they as crude and rakish as people sa—”

I held my hand up, halting her. “Brenda, I have no idea what ‘
they’
you’re talking about. I just met Natalio last week. Do you know him?”

Brenda scoffed. “Of course I do! What single woman doesn’t?”

“What does that mean?”

Brenda widened her eyes with incredulity. “You mean you really don’t know who he is? As in,
who
he is.” She emphasized by pointing at the door I’d just came through.

“Judging by your reaction, I think not.”

Brenda shook her head at me as if I were telling her that aliens exist and they were dwelling beneath our apartment. “Sadie, that hot sonuvabitch was
Natalio Nelson
. CEO of ENEN. The guy’s a freaking billionaire!”

“Henen?” I tested the word, confused. What the heck is that? And a billionaire? I snorted. Natalio didn’t act, talk or walk like a billionaire.

“Yesssss, ENEN!” She marched into the kitchen, prompting me to follow. Brenda pointed to her stove, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, toaster, all bearing the marque ENEN.

Ah, the brand ENEN,
I thought to myself.

Brenda disappeared into her room and reappeared with a sort of tablet device, her laptop, and a smartphone all being of the same brand.

“I know the brand, Brenda. You can stop with the exaggeration,” I said in annoyance. “Just never understood at first what you meant.” I plodded back to the living area and slumped on the sofa.

Was I that inattentive to the world and wrapped up in my own problems that I didn’t recognize a known figure when I saw one? Or maybe he’s not
that
known. Maybe Brenda had mistaken him. A person that wealthy would never go sporting without guard, would they?

“Maybe you’ve mistaken him. I would have known this. He would have told me.” Only, he
didn’t.

Brenda snorted. “I can spot a Nelson fifty paces away, sweetie.”

“So, why do you have all things ENEN?” I queried. “You have a crush on him or something?”

Brenda’s hazel eyes illuminated. “Not him. Every girl picks a brother. My friend Cara, she crushes on Natalio like crazy. I,” she breathed, closing her eyes and pressing her hands over her heart like a dazed twelve-year-old, “am hopelessly in love with his brother, Lovello Nelson. He’s the youngest, but the richest of them. And the hottest. The guy’s worth gazillions.”

My eyes rolled at her babbling. In the four years I’ve lived with Brenda, this was the longest conversation we’d ever had. She’d always maintained a ‘hi-bye’ relationship with me. I had no idea why. Hence my suppositions of her disdain for me. Brenda was from an affluent family; a lifestyle similar to Kelsy’s. Distinctly, however, Brenda was a focused, no-bullshit law student. She’s normally self-possessed and indifferent—or so she feigned. Because seeing Brenda this ebullient and starry-eyed, was novelty.

“So he didn’t tell you who he was?” she poked.

“No,” I answered shamefacedly. “He just said he
‘sells stuff’
.”

Brenda laughed. “He sells
stuff
alright. And a whole bunch of expensive, hard-to-acquire gadgets.” She shook her head as if still not believing. “Where did you meet him?”

“
Secre X
,” I told her. Not caring if she knew or not.

Brenda twisted her face in revulsion.”Oh. I heard you were working there. That explains why he kept his identity a secret. Probably thinks you’re a gold-digger or something.”

And the old nose-upturning Brenda was back. That was the Brenda I knew, so I decided to ignore her snide remark.

“But ENEN’s HQ is in San Fran,” I thought out loud.

“That’s where they live silly. Business here I guess. It’s just an hour away in flight time, anyway.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “So you two aren’t dating?”

“No.”

“Didn’t look that way from my POV,” she scoffed.

“Well, we’re not. We’re just friends.” Though I’d really wanted much more than that.

You have to tell me what you want, Sadie. It’s the only way I’ll know.
His words came back to me, swirling in my head. He wanted me to beg him to be with me. Keep waiting, Mr. Nelson.

Brenda gripped my hand tight. “Oh please, please date him. That way, you can take me along when you go to meet his family. I really want to meet Lovello. Though, I think I’ll swoon if I do,” she reeled like a teenager. “Natalio Nelson looks so damn hotter in person, it’s unbelievable. Pictures do him no justice. I can only imagine how drop-dead gorgeous Lovello would be.” Brenda sighed dramatically like a fairytale heroine from an animated film. Why was she so obsessed with someone who didn’t even know she existed?

I snatched my hand away from hers. “You’ll have to find some other way to meet your
dear
Lovello, because I’m not dating his brother.”

Wasn’t even sure I wanted to see him again, for that matter. He wanted me to trust him but he couldn’t even tell me who he bloody was? What else was he keeping from me? I knew nothing about him or ‘the Nelsons’. Up until twenty minutes ago, I’d never heard of them. Well, they aren’t celebrities so I could understand why I wouldn’t. I’d have to be a person who cared about the face behind an electronic brand to know. Or a law school, wealthy bachelor-seeking person like Brenda.

I, on the other hand, barely even notice the brands on stuff. If I like it, I buy it. That’s about as far as it goes for me. Well, vogue was different.