The Billionaire's Revenge

Chapter 8

As they sat down at their table, Pearl took in the smell of her surroundings with an audible deep breath and release. It was the smell of fried shrimp, she loved the smell. She took a small swooping look around and realized for the first time that both herself and Mr. Edensor had made quite a few heads turn as they walked in. As she looked around her eyes met a sun tanned brunette, who was in the company of a group of girlfriends tucked up in a joint booth all trying to have a conversation at the same time.

Pearl remembered when she was just like that back in college, with friends on friday evenings celebrating the welcome of another weekend, which was going to usher in some of the parties the students had all looked forward to all week. The thought of those parties brought colour to her cheeks as she reminisced.

But as soon as she remembered that she was not alone, and that she was with Mr. Edensor she looked sharply at him. Pearl was a bit relieved to find that he wasn't looking at her. But she was also a bit disappointed.

"I always wondered how it would feel to be in this place with all this lovely aroma of delicious food." Pearl said, slightly animated. "As far back as I can remember, I have successfully resisted the urge to come here on my own." She added.

Derek was looking at her now, with a smile on his lips, and she immediately wished his eyes were not on her as before. What is going on? She thought, whatever is wrong with me? Arrrgh!

"Why have you always resisted it if it is something you've always dreamed about?" He said. She had asked for this and so she would see it through, she would not back down just because his eyes had a way of playing with her emotions. She would look back at him, straight in the eyes.

"For one I was always busy with work and the kids, and also I have had to travel a lot this past year. I was so sure that I was going to come here last December though, I guess that didn't work out either." Pearl said.

"The kids?" He said with a raised eyebrow "I didn't know you had any kids?"

She looked steadily back at him and then compounded her boldness by deliberately laughing at him. Oh, she did not literally laugh. But she showed him with her eyes. She picked up a cake from the plate on the table and bit into it, still gazing at him—only to discover that it was a fairy cake. She felt the icing ooze out over her lips and licked it off.

Derek hesitated for a moment—as if caught off guard by the action– then he slowly stood up and proceeded to collect the plates of food that were being brought by the waitress to their table. It was the same waitress who had pointed them to their seat earlier, Pearl noticed.

As Derek stood up from the table, his thoughts were on Pearl Ashton. Did she know that he was walking blindly to take the plates from the waitress? Did anyone notice? He thought. He was quite unprepared for what she just did. The woman did know how to flirt with those big beautiful eyes and perfect lips.

He had only seen her smile, but today she laughed at him with her eyes in an open flirtatious way. No, on second thought, she wasn't flirting, it was something else. She had done it quite unconsciously, not even knowing what she was doing. There was something about Miss. Ashton he had not really figured out . She stirred his blood.

As he made his way toward her with the plates, a path opened before him as if by magic. There was nothing magical about it, of course. Everyone stood out of his way—he probably took it so much as his right that he did not notice it happening.

Oh goodness, she thought as he approached, he really did have a magnificent presence. He stopped walking when the toes of his Hessian boots were a few inches from the toes of her slippers.

His eyes looked dark and dangerous again, Pearl thought, her heart fluttering uncomfortably in her chest despite herself. He had acted so abruptly just a few moments ago that she had almost lost her train of thought watching him go to the waitress. How disrespectful, she thought, we were in the middle of a conversation.

"I hope you are hungry,” he said. “Though my guess is that you probably missed your lunch because you were busy with work again that you kept postponing food until evening came."

He was teasing her, just because of what she had said earlier. She could see him smile, his easy smile which eased the intensity on his face. “I am pleased that I amuse you, Mr. Edensor,” she said.

Then he placed the plates on the table. The wine bottle was exquisite, the pasta looked every bit sumptuous. Derek raised the bottle and poured their drinks, while Miss Ashton regarded her plate of pasta in some astonishment. It had been spiced remarkably and gave off a delicious aroma, a properly grilled chicken was served along with it and there were generous portions of broccoli spread out on it.

“Oh, goodness me,” she said. “I have just realized how hungry I actually am. This is one of the famous Cho's?”

“And I expect you to eat every mouthful.” He grinned at her exposing his white teeth. He really was a roguishly handsome man.

She looked at him with some severity after taking a mouthful, chewing, and swallowing. “Do not think, Mr. Edensor,” she said, “that I do not know what you are up to and why you have brought me here and plied me with Cho's famous delicacies and . . . and this. And oh goodness, it is delicious. You think to get me talking about myself and my life so that you can know me in such a way that I would be exposed to you as I do not wish to be exposed.

He picked up the bottle calmly and refilled both their cups. “Why do you think I want you exposed to me Miss Ashton?” he asked. The question sounded rather different when he said it, Pearl was blushing now as it dawned on her that she had said it first, the word "exposed" gave his question a double entendre. She had not intended it to sound the way he was claiming it did. She now turned to look at him quite severely, the man was just an impossible flirt.

"What about your family Mr. Edensor?" She asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"What would you like to know about my family, Miss Ashton?"

"Well for starters, you know a number of personal things about me already, which makes it obvious that you've done some impressive research. But I hardly know anything about you, apart from the facts." She said,

"I would like to know if you have a family here in London or somewhere around the continent or even in the west." Pearl said, taking a sip from her cup. She was going to get him to talk about himself.

He regarded her for a moment and then answered. "Yes Miss Ashton, I do have family here in London, my relatives and my mother live here. I have a second cousin who lives in America with his family, but apart from him, I don't think I have any other relatives outside the shores of Europe."

"You see, I'm actually an only child. But sometimes I wish I did have other siblings, it might not have been easier to survive but at least we would all have had a nice, happy childhood." He said.

Pearl looked at him as he spoke, though he wasn't looking at her just then, his lips slightly curved, as though he was. There was a tone to his voice that suggested an emotion she couldn't quite explain, but she understood what he was saying. She had been an only child too.

There is one member of your family missing," she said. "How about your father, Mr. Edensor?"

He looked down at hands for a moment and then met her assessing gaze.

"He was the model husband and father," he said, "and my role model too, it seems. I admired him greatly. We were very close. I always knew that he went through a lot in order to provide the best for the family though we never complained. I was never overtly rebellious as other children tend to be and never wild despite the fact that I liked to ..." he trailed off.

But Pearl noticed that he spoke of his Father in the past tense and that confirmed what she had heard in one of the office gossip sessions with the clerks. She felt a bit of pain as she thought of her own Father. Even though he wasn't the model Father or husband to her mother, Pearl had loved him almost endlessly still.

"His death must have been devastating," she said.

"One might say so." He glanced at her and chuckled, though quite without mirth. "None of us had expected it though, but then. We were a singularly happy lot, Miss Ashton. And thus, I suppose, my mother took the most damage by his death."

"Do you miss him?" she asked.

"Ah," he said softly. "It is too late for that. He is dead."

"Where is he buried?" she asked. "In a churchyard?"

"Yes," he said. "Saint Louis's Parish."

"And have you been there recently?" she asked him.

He shook his head. Derek had passed by the church several times that week alone, but he had averted his face from the churchyard each time.

"We will go together." She said it almost without thought and then rested her hand on his. She knew instantly that she had made a mistake, because she felt an instant connection with the man who was Derek Edensor, and she really did not want any such thing.

"Will we?" He chuckled again as his eyes glinted in the light of Cho's Eatery. Pearl couldn't help but feel for him. She didn't know what it meant to lose a father but she had a close idea of it.

"Yes we will, but not just today." She replied.

"Hahaha, for a second I was almost sure that you would insist we waste no time and head to the churchyard right away." Derek said with one hand to his heart. Pearl was laughing too, he saw.

He had discovered that Miss Ashton was able to transform into an astonishing beauty when she smiled, but as she laughed she looked just… heavenly. He knew he had to focus on his plan, but the turn of events this evening were somewhat disconcerting. He found himself rather intrigued by her. He hated to admit it but he wanted to know her, the real her.

Afterwards, when he was alone that night on his bed, she was all he could think about. But as he fell asleep, a dark thought entered into his mind.