Broken Hart (The Hart Family) (23 page)

Nodding my head, I get started.  “You know how my mind works.  You’re right, I’m up to something.  I came home because I realized I never even tried to fight for Dante.  I chickened out right away and ran.  And that’s not me."

Pausing, I take a sip of my wine before going on.  “Once I came home, I found my phone.  Listening to the messages from Dante I had an epiphany.  Brooke… he’s in love with me too.  It isn’t one sided.  Now I need to make him realize it.  I’m not giving up on us.”

Nodding her head in agreement, Brooke smiles at me.  “I’m so glad you realized it on your own.  I really thought I was going to have to convince you that he is.”

I raise an eyebrow at her and ask, “Wait.  What?  You just found out yesterday that he and I even had anything going on.  How do you know how he feels?”

Giving me her best ‘I know everything’ smirk she fills me in.  “Well, clearly I didn’t know anything before yesterday.  But when all that craziness happened last night, I saw up close and personal how he feels. When he got to the apartment, it was clear he’d been crying.  He knew by the time he got there that you were fine, but he was still a wreck.  I might have thought he was just upset that you’d been missing, but he flipped out when I hung up with you.  He was desperate to speak to you, even though he already knew you were okay.  He was so sad.  It was impossible to miss.  After he left Spencer, Dominique and Delilah immediately ganged up on me and Damien and got as much detail as they could out of us, because there was no way they could have missed that something was going once they’d seen Dante.”

Nodding, I ponder all that she’s said.  “I’m glad they all know.  I never wanted to keep secrets from any of you.  And it will help that they know as my plan goes forward.  I’m not hiding this anymore.  I’m going to completely change the way he sees relationships.”

“Good for you Rina! The only way Dante will know this is real is if you show him how positive the feeling can be.  What’s your plan?”

Wiggling my eyebrows at her and giggling, I start filling her in.  “I’m basically going to assault his senses and put him on overload.  I started by hitting the mall and buying new work clothes.  My skirts and dresses are a little shorter now.  I bought some beautiful new lingerie, including some garter belts and stockings, which are about to become my new favorite thing.”

“Ooh Sabrina!  I love how you think.  Go on.”

I wiggle my eyes at her and then continue.  “That was a good start, but I sure wasn’t finished.  I went in to West Hollywood and hit up The Pleasure Chest.  I bought a ton of super fun things that are guaranteed to blow his mind.  And then to round it all out, I went to Frederick’s of Hollywood and got some crazy sexy lingerie.  Tomorrow I’m going to have a spa day, the works.  Full waxing,
haircut
and color, manicure, pedicure and massage.  My plan is to show up at work on Tuesday morning and go from there.”

She is laughing hard when I finish.  “Jesus Sabrina.  You’re deadly.  I love that you’ve got this all worked out.  He has no idea what’s coming his way.”

We spend the next hour finishing dinner and talking some more.  Of course she demands to see everything I’ve bought, so I show her all the clothes and lingerie. 

After that I lay out all the toys on my dresser and giggle at the awe on her face.  I love that I can talk about this kind of stuff with my sister.  Our mother raised us to know that sex and experimentation with someone you love and feel safe and secure with is the most natural thing in the world, and that you should embrace your sexuality and celebrate it. 

She nods her approval at everything I’ve shown her.  “If you don’t give him a heart attack first, he’s in for the time of his life… for the rest of his life!  I wonder if this type of plan would work for
me.
”

Looking at her, I raise my eyebrows.  "I knew it! You've been acting the tiniest bit differently lately.  You like someone.  Who is this guy?"

Shaking her head, she looks away.  "No, it's no one in particular.  I just mean… Oh, you know.  I'm a little old to still be a virgin, don't you think?"

I actually find that I don't believe what she's just said about there being no one specific, but I choose not to call her on it.  Instead I say, "No, I don't think you're too old to be a virgin.  I wish I'd listened to mom and stayed a virgin until I met my true love. Now there will always be the snooze fest that was sex before I was with Dante and the explosion of feelings when he made love to me.  It's totally different when you're in love, like night and day."

Smiling, she hugs me.  "I stayed a virgin all this time because of everything mom said. But some guys don't like the virginity thing… I kind of wish I wasn't a virgin anymore."

I stare at her as I try to figure out what to say, but she grabs one of the anal plugs and hits me with it, and it busts us both up, and we spend a few minutes trying to recover from the laughter. 

Not long after that Brooke and I trade keys to our cars back and then she heads back to her apartment, after making me promise to keep her up in the loop on my progress. 

I spend the entire next day being beautified.  My legs are waxed, I get a Brazilian wax, my eyebrows are waxed, my hair is highlighted and trimmed, I had a facial and a massage, and I ended the day with a manicure and a pedicure.  Normally I go for light colors or French manicures, but today I go all out and get ‘Take Me to Bed Red’ on my nails and toes.

By the time I leave the salon I am smooth, buffed, polished… and ready to blow the lid off Dante’s brain tomorrow.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I’m up and in the shower by seven, beyond excited to start the day.  I’ve missed Dante so much these last few days.  I can’t believe I thought I could stay away for weeks.  In retrospect, that was a really dumb plan.

I spend extra time massaging lotion all over my body this morning, making sure that I’m moisturized from head to toe.

After I moisturize, I sit at my vanity and blow my hair out.  I’ve decided to wear my hair down, and I’m very happy with the result.  A touch of mascara and some lip gloss and I’m finished with hair and make-up.

Heading in to my closet, I choose my outfit for the day.  Once I’ve made the choice, I put on a new super push up bra and a matching garter belt and stockings. 

Once I’ve got the garter belt and stockings in place I pull on the matching panties and survey myself in the mirror and smile.  Oh yeah, this is exactly what I was going for.

Next I put on my new gray pencil skirt.  Unlike my old pencil skirts, this one ends above the knee, about two inches above to be exact.  Slipping on a red sleeveless blouse and my favorite pair of hoop earrings, I spray myself with J’Adore and then put on my Louboutin gray
straratata shoes.

The look is complete, and I know it’s a home run.  With that, I wander to the kitchen and eat a breakfast bar and drink a glass of milk before getting in to the car and heading off to work.

I’m walking in to the office by eight thirty, and I try to calm the butterflies in my stomach while I’m in the elevator on my way to the top floor.

Crossing the threshold in to our office suite, I take a deep breath.  Day one of the plan to break down Dante’s defenses is about to start.

I check the messages and make some notes before I head down the hallway to Dante’s office.  I get a feeling of déjà vu as I stand quietly in the doorway and stare at him.  It’s like being transported back in time to the first day I stood here watching him.

He’s sitting at his desk with the newspaper spread in front of him, but I can clearly see that he isn’t reading it.  His head is in his hands and he’s practically staring through the paper. 

My heart stutters when I see how sad he looks.  He’s not as well put together as usual and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

Saying a little prayer, I step in to the office with my iPad in hand. 

“Good morning Dante.  We need to go over some of the messages I just took.  There seems to be some real problems with the Thailand job.  Do you want me to schedule a meeting with Damien and Sandra now, or do you want to wait until after lunch?”

The look on his face is priceless.  He’s absolutely stunned to see me standing there.  I smile at him in and raise my eyebrows.  “What do you think?  Meeting this morning, or after lunch?”

“Sabrina?  Is that really you or am I dreaming again?”

I shake my head at him.  “It’s me.  I’m back.  We can discuss all of this later.  Right now we need to talk about the problem in Thailand.  It’s actually very serious.  When do you want to meet with Damien and Sandra?”

I can see that he’s struggling to step in to work mode.  “Right… a meeting.  Fill me in and we’ll go from there.”

Striding across the office, I grab the chair in front of his desk and pull it to the other side so that I can sit next to him.  While he folds up the newspaper, I discreetly pull my skirt up so that when I sit down he will have a front row view of the fact that I’m wearing garters.

Sitting down I act as though I don’t notice that my thighs are exposed.  Turning my iPad on, I pull up some photos for him to look at and begin flicking through them.

“These photos were just sent in by the assistant project manager.  Look at the supplies Dante.  They’re completely different than what we’ve been paying for.  I think someone is stealing from us.”

My inner sex kitten gives a smirk as I watch him struggle to look at the photos instead of my thighs.

Unfortunately this is something we really need to deal with, and he snaps himself in to the present and focuses like a laser on the photos I’m showing him. 

Grabbing his mouse I pull up the ledgers for the Thailand job and we start going through the lists of supplies and comparing them to the photos we have.

Blowing out a frustrated breath he smacks his hand on the desk.  “Dammit.  Someone really is stealing from us.  Alright Rina, get Damien and Sandra in the conference room as soon as humanly possible.  Tell them to bring their laptops.  I’ll bring both of ours if you head in and set up the big screen for us to look at all of this.”

“Got it boss.
I’ll have them in the conference room in the next ten minutes.  See you there.”

The rest of the day passes in warp speed as we break down the Thailand problem and decide how to deal with it.  Turns out the project manager we have over there is putting in fake receipts for the expensive supplies that we normally use, but has instead been using cheaper supplies and pocketing the difference.

By the end of the meeting Sandra is ready to head off to Thailand, the company jet waiting to whisk her away.  When Dante walks her down to the parking garage, I take the chance to talk to Damien.  He's a little worse for the wear today, and I assume he was out drinking last night.

Smiling at me he says, “I know you’re up to something Sabrina.  Don’t think I didn’t notice that your skirt is shorter than usual.  I take it you’ve decided to fight for him?”