Page 84 of Stronger Than Fate

“Yes, I’m upset. I leave for a few minutes and when I come back, I find a woman sitting in my place seducing you and, what’s worse, you were allowing it.”

“I didn’t allow anything. In fact, I believe I introduced you as my girlfriend.”

“Henry, she said goodbye asking you to call her soon and you didn’t clarify that you wouldn’t.”

“But I’m not going to.”

“You better not, but you still should have made things clear, both to her and to me,” I stated.

“Are you jealous?” he asked, looking at me with a mischievous smile.

“I have reasons to be,” I responded.

“No, you don’t. While I can understand your concern, you should only care about what I do or want, and I assure you that I only want to be with you.”

“I insist, you should have made it clear to her.”

“It wasn’t necessary. I think our relationship was evident and that made it clear I don’t intend to be with anyone but you.”

“Are you sure that was clear to her? Because I repeat, she said goodbye asking you to call her and reminding you how good a time she has with you.”

“She can say whatever she wants, I’m not going to call her. And let’s forget what happened and continue enjoying our night because if you get upset, you’re allowing her to ruin our moment,” he asked, stretching his arm across the table for me to take his hand.

“It’s not easy, Henry,” I said.

“It is if you stop giving it importance, ‘little one,’” he said, smiling and joking with the comment that Anabel had made, while taking my hand and bringing it to his lips to kiss it.

“I don’t find it funny,” I stated.

“I don’t think she found it funny either,” he said, still laughing.

At that moment they brought our plates, which forced us to release our hands and remain silent, though we kept looking into each other’s eyes. In a second, Henry’s gaze transformed from amused to dark; I felt like he was undressing me with his eyes. When the waiter left, he took his wine glass and raised it for a toast.

“To my beautiful girlfriend.”

I raised my glass and drank without saying anything. Then I took my cutlery and began to eat. Henry followed all my movements with a burning gaze. Without saying anything, he stretched out his hand and cleaned the corners of my lips, then brought his finger to his mouth and sucked it. I stared at him in surprise, though more than anything, aroused.

“Dalina, you still don’t understand what you do to me,” he stated. “If you knew, you wouldn’t have any doubts about other women.”

I was going to respond that the only thing clear to me was that he was ‘confused,’ but I preferred not to continue with that topic. After all, he was right. I didn’t want that woman to end up ruining a night that, until that moment, had been perfect.

“Your food is getting cold,” I said, because he kept staring at me and still hadn’t taken a bite.

He looked at me and smiled but didn’t say anything and began to eat. While eating, he commented on what he thought of the movie, and after a few minutes, the atmosphere was calmer.

“I’d like to have a meeting with your brothers to get to know them better,” he proposed.

“They don’t know that we’ve resumed our relationship.”

“Tell them and ask if they want to have lunch with us tomorrow, because I remember you saying that some Sundays you have lunch with them.”

“Are you sure you want to have lunch with the two Dukarts, champ?”

“Of course. Why not? We’ve already met and they seemed like sensible people to me.”

“Sensible? You don’t know them in protective mode. I’m not complaining, they’re the best brothers I could have had, but many times they take on the role of father and feel obligated to protect me.”

“Then it would be better not to avoid them and for us to meet as soon as possible. Besides, I really respect what they do and I don’t think they protect you out of obligation, they do it because they love you. I also take great care of Niky.”