Her Premarital Ex (The Alexanders Book 3) (9 page)
Read Her Premarital Ex (The Alexanders Book 3) Online
Authors: Tina Martin
Tags: #suspense, #reflection, #true love, #unrequited love, #jealousy, #stalker, #fiction romance
kissed his mother on the cheek. “I’ll see you
tomorrow.”
Around
9:00 p.m., Gabrielle changed into a T-shirt and a pair of
shorts, then headed to the pool. Had she thought about it, she
would’ve packed a swimsuit, but her current getup would have to
suffice.
high ponytail, she entered the shallow end of the pool. The
lukewarm water felt good to her legs as she descended to deeper
depths, towards the six feet end of the pool. She stopped when the
water came up to her neck, not wanting to get her hair
wet.
Besides the trickles of
water from her own movement, she didn’t hear much else because no
one was in the pool this time of night. Only her. And the water
felt therapeutic to her body. The sound of it relaxed her. She
closed her eyes, inhaled a deep breath and released it
slowly.
When she opened her eyes,
she saw him, Dilvan, standing at the door. He swiped his key card
to get in the pool room and Gabrielle sighed. Her tranquil evening
alone in the pool was short lived.
Gosh, not this
again...
She watched him walk in.
He only had on a pair of swim shorts – shorts that looked good
enough to rock at a Nautica photo shoot somewhere on a beach in
Miami. With a smooth-shaven chest, he showed off his cast iron
pecks and rippled abs. As he walked towards the pool, Gabrielle
also noticed his sculpted thighs. He’d apparently stepped up his
workouts.
He dived into the deeper
end of the pool, went under and swam near her. He emerged from
underneath the water, shook excess water from his hair and smiled
at her.
Gabrielle sighed again.
She didn’t want a run-in with Dilvan. Not tonight. Not any night,
but here he was, all up in her face like they were ex-lovers who
remained close friends after a relationship hadn’t worked out. They
weren’t anything of the sort. “Dilvan, what are you doing
here?”
“Swimming,” he responded,
right before taking another plunge, swimming to the deeper end of
the pool again and heading back towards her.
“That’s not what I meant,”
she said when he came up out of the water again.
wet brows and said, “Then what did you mean,
Gabrielle?”
Gabrielle frowned. He was
playing mind games with her. That was his specialty. “I mean, what
are you doing here in Chicago?”
“Work. I have a shoot
tomorrow,” he said, looking at her lips, then at the frown that
grew in her forehead. “Why are you frowning?”
“No reason,” Gabrielle
said, deciding to beat him at his own game. She slowly walked back
to the shallow end of the pool.
“Running away again,” his
voice said, echoing off the water behind her.
when she heard him swaying about, moving closer behind her. She
inhaled a thick smell of chlorine and his cologne then wished she
would’ve stayed put in her room.
She turned to meet his
gaze and said, “I’m not running.”
“Then can we talk for a
minute?”
“And just what do you want
to talk about?”
“Us.”
“Us?” she asked, lifting a
brow. “Perhaps you’ve been inhaling too much of this chlorine,
Dilvan, because there is no us.”
you to have a sense of humor. I like it.”
“Goodbye, Dilvan,” she
said, continuing for the steps.
“I think there is
an
us
,” he said,
slowly walking her way as she was exiting the pool. “I miss
you.”
“Why are you telling me
this, Dilvan?”
coming chest-to-chest with her.
Gabrielle’s breathing
increased as she stared at him. She remembered a few times, when
they were together, thinking about how much more their relationship
would be if Dilvan wasn’t so mean to her – if he actually took the
time to love her. But he didn’t know how to love.
“Do you still love me?” he
asked.
“Still...that implies that
I used to love you.”
“You did. You know it and
I know it. Do you still love me?”
Gabrielle said, “I love my husband.”
Dilvan’s eyes flashed
heat. Her words cut him deep, but deciding not to let her defeat
him, he stroked the side of her face with his wet index finger.
“Well, I still love you.”
“You never loved me,
Dilvan.”
“I did, and I still
do.”
“No you—”
“Don’t tell me what I
feel,” he said in a raised tone.
“And there you go yelling
again. How do you expect me to be civil with you when you haven’t
made any attempts to change? You’re the same Dilvan that choked
me...who threw me to the floor,” she said, tears welling up in her
eyes.
“That’s what I’m trying to
tell you, Gabrielle. I’m not that same man. I
have
changed,” he said inching
closer to her face.
“Well, since you said
you’ve changed, I need you to back up a little. You’re invading my
personal space.”
“Okay.” He took a couple
of steps backwards. “Is this far enough?”
“Yes, now listen. There
will never be an
us
anymore. When we were together, I tried to love you, Dilvan.
I did, I’ll admit that. Do you know how it feels to love someone so
much and not have that love returned?”
“I know that all too well,
Gabrielle.”
can never be civil if you insist on behaving this way. I’m a
married woman and I love Tyson.”
Dilvan snarled. “You
barely knew the man when y’all got married.”
“I know him more than I
knew you when we went into our
arrangement
. But that’s irrelevant.
I love my husband and you need to get that through your arrogant
head.”
pool stairs and onto the floor.
“Okay, okay. I get it,”
Dilvan said.
towel around herself and said, “You get it?”
“Yeah. I don’t like it,
but I get it. Now, let’s shake on it,” he suggested, extending his
hand to her. She reluctantly reached for his hand, feeling him
clutch his firm hand around hers. When he gently squeezed, she
looked at him, locked eyes with him but refused to smile as he was
doing. She wondered if he could feel the nervousness running
through her fingers when their hands touched. Deciding she’d had
enough, she pulled her hand away from him.
“I have to go to
bed.”
“Me too.” He followed her
out of the pool. “See you tomorrow.”
responded. She simply walked away as fast as she could.
Dilvan smiled. Maybe
there was hope for him yet. Or maybe he should forget about trying
to win her back and focus on trying to be her friend. Baby
steps.
Chapter 14
“Jeez
, Gabrielle. Where have you
been?” Tyson asked. He’d been patiently waiting for a phone call
from her and was getting worried when she hadn’t called. He was so
worried, he called Padma, who in turn called Lalita only for Lalita
to notify her that Gabrielle wasn’t in the room. When Padma told
Tyson, he was ready to fly there himself to find
her.
“I’m sorry. I just saw
your missed calls. I went for a swim.”
“Okay,” he said, blowing a
sigh of relief. “When I called Padma and found out you weren’t in
your room, I was all set to come there.”
“Tyson, you don’t have to
worry about me so much.”
“You’re kidding me, right?
You’re my wife. Of course I have to worry about you. Now tell
me...is everything okay?”
“Yes,” Gabrielle
responded, stepping out onto the balcony so she didn’t disturb
Lalita. She stared off into the city. Seemed that no one was
sleeping tonight. Chicago was alive. Cars lined the streets. From
her prime balcony location, she could hear music, see partygoers,
couples, tall buildings and billboards.
“Bri, you
there?”
“Yes, I’m here...um,
Tyson, I have to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“And don’t freak out about
it.”
“Okay. What’s
up?”
“Dilvan showed up and I
had no idea he was going to be here and neither did Padma,” she
said, pacing the balcony.
“Why do you sound so
panicky, Bri? Is he bothering you?”
washed over her face. “No, he’s not bothering me. I just don’t want
you to be upset that he’s here.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not?”
“No. I knew he was there.
Heshan told me.”
relief.
“I’m glad you told me,
though.”
“So you’re not
upset?”
“No, I’m not. I’m not
worried about Dilvan, but, if he bothers you, let me
know.”
“Okay.” Gabrielle decided
not to mention her swimming pool run-in with Dilvan. There was no
use in alarming Tyson unnecessarily.
“You miss me,” he
asked.
“Of course I do. I can’t
wait to be in your arms again.”
“Likewise,
baby.”
“Are you all packed up and
ready to go to Atlanta?”
“Yep.”
“What time are you
leaving?”
“Um...probably around six
tomorrow morning.”
“You’ll be on the road
while I’m going into the seminar, so I’ll call you before it
starts.”
“Okay, my love. At any
rate, let me get off the phone so you can get some
sleep.”
“All right. I love
you.”
“Love you too,
angel.”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
into the room, closing the sliding glass balcony door behind her.
She’d quietly eased into bed so as not to disturb Lalita and laid
there staring up at the ceiling.
She thought about Dilvan
briefly, wondering if he had really changed or if it was all lies.
And she felt a wave of confusion cloud her rest as she could still
feel his hand squeezing hers. What was it exactly? She was in love
with Tyson, happy with Tyson, but there was something in Dilvan’s
touch that made her uncomfortable. A married woman in love
shouldn’t feel a spark or anything else from a man who wasn’t her
husband, right?
Chapter 15
Tyson
was halfway to Atlanta when Gabrielle had called. She told
him to drive safely and that she was just about to join the expo.
He promised her that he’d call around lunch.
restaurant, he sat there in the parking lot for a minute and
reminisced on all the hard work it took to start this place. He had
no idea his hard work would pay off in such a big way, and now he
was a millionaire with restaurants around the country.
He smiled and got out of
the car, heading for the restaurant. He had a short meeting with
the contractors today to discuss plans for redoing the kitchen.
They were slated to bring in state-of-the-art ovens, grills and
countertop space as well as other equipment. If the upgrade proved
to be effective, he would roll them out to all his restaurant
locations nationwide.
the manager of the restaurant, Patrick Goodwin at a restaurant that
Patrick had recommended. Patrick had been running the place for him
since he decided to move to North Carolina. Patrick was good at it,
kept things in order and connected well with the Atlanta
crowd.
“So I’ve already met with
the contractors this morning,” Tyson told Patrick. “I’ve made it
crystal clear that this reno should take no more than three days to
complete. We need to be reopening for business by
Wednesday.”
sounds good.”
“Yeah, enjoy your break
while you can,” Tyson quipped.
“I will, bruh. You can
believe that.”
tuna melt he’d ordered then washed it down with a drink of water.
“So it’s been pretty busy, I see, from the numbers coming
in.”
“Man...it’s been crazy
busy.” Patrick wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“Yeah. Atlanta is the
busiest. Los Angeles is coming in at a close second.”
“That’s crazy,
man.”
“Yep.” Tyson took a sip of
water and glanced around the place.
“Ay, guess who came by
last week asking about you?”
Tyson’s forehead. “Who?”