That One Time (8 page)

Only the genuine care on Mari’s face allowed Nic to unbend enough to answer honestly. “I just want Ayah and me to have time alone and get to know each other again.”

And then he was walking into the café.

Mari knew she should follow him right away, but she couldn’t. Her heart was heavy with the knowledge that Luuk Aafjes had yet to realize that he was the only one who felt like that. In Ayah’s world, a person didn’t need to know someone to be in love. One just…loved.

~ Five ~

For a billionaire, his mobile phone was like a gun. One call, one bullet – and careers could be ruined, millions of dollars spent, and entire businesses shut down. The send button was its trigger, and right now Nic was an inch away from not just pulling the trigger but raining fucking bullets all over the place.

Ayah was surrounded by jackasses.

He flexed his hands, striving for control. One call was all it would take, and this whole place would be closed down. He could have an entire army of detectives in here within minutes, figure out everyone’s identities, and have all of them fired from their jobs, no questions asked.
 

Mari smirked at the expression on Luuk Aafjes’ face. “So you’re sure about this? You really want to be one of the candidates?”

His expression became even colder, but to his credit he didn’t say any of the curses that were probably running in his mind.
This Luuk dude sure was possessive
, Mari thought. With a smothered laugh, she told him, she smothered a laugh. “Well, you need to fill out the badge with your name and stick it somewhere on your shirt.” She gestured to Emi, one of the waitresses, and gave her instructions as Luuk took out a pen and filled out his name badge.

When he was done, Mari said, “This is Emi. She’ll direct you to your place.”

The other woman, Emi, took over and she gestured towards the pool of speed date participants. “Sir? Would you follow me please?” Her tone was polite, but her face was agog with curiosity.
 

Yet another person who knew about him
, Nic realized. Was that something to be happy about? He considered their reactions to him so far.
Probably not.
 

There was a row of tables and bar stools in the middle of the café, with one row occupied entirely by females while the men were lined up opposite them. When the buzzer sounded, the men moved on to the next woman in line.
 

A swift look told him that the men outnumbered the women about 2:1, but most of them seemed clustered around...Ayah. It had him clenching his teeth together, the only way he could stop himself from snarling at the other men to stay away from his woman.
 

Emi pointed to the end of the line. “You will line there and wait for your turn. The rules are simple,” she informed him in her accented English. “You will hear a bell. It means you have one minute left to talk to your date. When you hear a buzz, you must move to the next woman – no time to say goodbye. You cannot ask for their contact details. We will give it to you if they allow us to. You must always be respectful. We will ask you to leave if you are not. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he bit out. Just the fact that he had to be issued a warning about respecting women had him bristling, not because he was offended but because it meant Ayah could be at risk of being offended by any of these fuckers.
 

When Emi left, his glance swung back to Ayah. She was smiling as she listened with seeming attentiveness to what her “date” was saying. Jealousy struck him like lightning, making Nic want to challenge everyone to a fight. No one had the right to make Ayah smile like that but him.

Her date said something else, and this time Ayah blinked before laughing out loud, the sound of it like the sweetest and most seductive melody to Nic’s ears…and no doubt to all the other men.

Nic closed his eyes. This was going to be one long fucking event.

****

As the buzzer sounded, Ayah did her best to surreptitiously look at her phone under the table, checking it for messages. But before she could unlock the screen, nimble fingers had swiped it out of her hold. Her head jerked up. “Mari!”

Her friend shook her head disapprovingly. “Concentrate!”

“But what if Luuk—”

Mari’s glare became more evil.

She shut up. She would just explain to Luuk later if she ended up missing his call or text.

Her “fifth” date worked at the stock exchange, liked reading books, and had a cute smile. She knew right away that they would get along – as friends. Her sixth date was very handsome, and his dimples only added to his sex appeal. He was a lot of fun, teasing her outrageously about being the most popular girl in the event. He made her laugh, and she just knew they would get along, too – as friends.
 

It wasn’t as if she was comparing them to Luuk like Mari warned her not to, Ayah reasoned to herself. It was just impossible for her heart to get into this entire thing because somebody already owned it.
 

The thought had Ayah snickering privately to herself. Even to her own ears, it sounded very mushy.

It was the same cycle over and over, and who her date was didn’t really matter or register. They were not Luuk, ergo they were all the same to Ayah. As she waited for her next date, she glanced down at her notecards, which contained a list of questions she was supposed to ask if she ran out of things to say.

Sensing someone taking the seat opposite her, Ayah looked up with a smile but instead she ended up choking.

No, it couldn’t possibly be—

She looked closer.

It really was—

Nic calmly tore the lid off one of the unopened bottles of water on the table and handed it to her.

She took it and drank everything in one gulp.

Ayah’s shock amused him, but more than that, the way she stared at him like he was a gift from the heavens made his entire body vibrate in heightened awareness. She still wanted him, was still attracted to him, and most importantly, she seemed like…

He did not want to continue the thought. This time, he was the one who needed water and so he opened another bottle, drinking it all in a single gulp as well.

Then they stared at each other.

Somewhere behind her, Ayah heard Mari cough meaningfully and she was jerked back to reality. She scrambled for her notecards even as she tried madly to make sense of what was happening. What was he doing here? How had he found her? Was he mad that she was a part of this?

She stole a look.

Same beautiful blond hair, those wicked blue eyes, the chiseled face, and that wonderfully hard body, which seemed even sexier than she remembered.

Ayah quickly looked down again.
Great
, she thought. Now she was even more confused and scatter-brained. How the heck could any girl concentrate with such a hot guy in front of them?

Another loud cough from Mari behind her had Ayah blurting out the first question on her notecard.

Ask his name.
 

Example:
How do I call you? What’s your name? Hi, I’m _. And you are?

She said automatically, “Hi, I’m Ayah, and you are…” That was when she saw his name badge. “Ayah’s owner,” she finished weakly.
 

Ayah’s owner.
 

Oh my God, but that was seriously sexy!

Luuk leaned forward.

She…did her best
not
to lean forward as well. Everything in her wanted to close the distance between them just so she could “accidentally” kiss him and find out if it was as good as she remembered, too.

Did Ayah know she was staring at his lips? He deliberately gave her a smile that oozed of dirty hot sex, and Nic was rewarded with a tiny whimper.

“You can call me anything you want, lieverd.”

Ayah was close to melting in her seat.

He smirked. “Any other questions?”

“Umm…” She looked down at her notecards, more flustered than ever. The next question started with the words “how long”, but her Chinese reading skills totally failed her then, probably because she was so nervous. How long…was what? How long was his cock?

Nic choked. The couple next to them choked as well.

Oh my God, had she just said that?

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

Not really
, Ayah thought. She already knew—

Everyone was choking again.

Ayah very sloooooowly covered her face. She had said that out loud, too?

God, she was so amusing, cute, and hot. He wanted her in his bed –
now.
“Ayah—”

She shook her head, still keeping her face covered with her hands. She would never ever get to live this down.

The more embarrassed she was, the stronger the urge became to pull her onto his lap and embarrass her more. Nic suppressed a groan, the thought more than enough to have his cock fully erect inside his pants.

Facing Ayah again, he gently pushed her hair away from her face, smoothing the locks back as he said quietly, “I think it’s time we ended this little game, don’t you think?”

She nodded, still not looking at him.

“You didn’t really want to speed date dozens of guys, did you?”

She shook her head quickly, emphatically.

Nic smiled. “Then we need to prove it, don’t you think?”

She stilled. “How?” Her voice was muffled by her hands.

“With a kiss.”

Slowly, her hands moved down, revealing her eyes first, which were filled with doubt. “But what about your…”

“It’s over,” he said, understanding her concern right away. His heart clenched as he spoke. Now he was beginning to understand why all the people here seemed to hate his guts.
 

Ayah was…incorruptibly innocent.

And here he was, a devil wooing an angel. A year had passed since that one time they had met and found each other, but she had always been faithful…to him, without him ever asking her to be.

Deeply humbled, he said softly, “I’m yours if you want me.”

Ayah’s eyes filled with tears.

He took a deep breath. He knew he was taking a risk, asking her to leave all this and fly away with him to see where it took them. But he was done playing it safe. It had been the worst kind of hell the past twelve months, pretending that his body didn’t ache for Ayah’s every night.
 

“Ayah, will you…”

She stopped him with a kiss.
 

Her lips were beautifully soft and warm, and without thinking he kissed her back, hands sinking in her hair so he could pull her closer across the table, his tongue diving in to taste all her sweetness and warmth. He nipped her lips, sucked her tongue, and he didn’t let either of them breathe because he was kissing her so possessively, wanting her to be one with him.

When he lifted his head, both of them were panting.
 

Her eyes shone like the loveliest jade, and her tone was breathlessly happy as she said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Nic stilled.

Around them, the people who knew about what was taking place – everyone whom Mari told about Luuk Aafjes wanting to go somewhere private with Ayah – had also turned into statues.

Their expressions mirrored each other, and it was best described with just two words: OH FUCK.

Ayah rained kisses all over Luuk’s beautiful face. “I promise, lieverd, I promise I’ll be the perfect wife.”

~ Six ~
 

“You what?” Feeling her knees about to give way, Farica hurried to the nearest chair – in this case, one of the visitor chairs scattered around the black-and-white themed hotel lobby - and plopped herself down on it. She had been in the middle of a luncheon meeting with her younger cousins, trying to play Little Miss Nice, when she had received Nic’s call.
 

She had hoped for some good news – the de Koninghs had always been known for having tragic luck when it came to affairs of the heart. Farica was praying her generation would be different – but Nic’s announcement was…unclassifiable.