Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Not a woman, Willem discovered, stunned. Instead, it was a teenage girl, whose face was extraordinarily pretty...and blank.
Too blank.
He gave his guards a look, and understanding the silent command, his security immediately stepped back to reveal the girl hiding behind them.
Ah.
Seeing more of her face now, he immediately recognized who she was, her resemblance to Shane too strong to make her anything other than the younger sister Shane had briefly told him about.
He watched her watch him as he approached, and amusement gleamed in his eyes as the girl’s expression remained unchanging all throughout.
How perfectly composed, he thought. How utterly unlike her rather vivacious sister and, for that matter, nothing at all like any of his audacious younger sisters either.
“Hello.” Willem kept his voice light as he offered his hand, per the customs of his kind. “Willem de Konigh.”
“Hello.” Her voice was quiet but clear, her hand soft and frail in his. “Serenity Raleigh.”
“You are Shane’s younger sister?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Willem would do.”
The girl simply nodded.
They stared at each other.
He should leave, Willem was thinking. He had never taken the time to speak with teenage girls, and he had no reason to start doing so with Shane’s sibling.
He should leave...but he couldn’t.
He should leave, Serenity was thinking. Or at least she should want him to leave, knowing that the less time she spent with her sister’s date, the less trouble she would likely be in.
She should make him leave, really...but she couldn’t.
He asked finally, “Have you been talking to my security for long?” She answered him with silence, and correctly interpreting the reason for it, he said gently, “It’s not a trick question. Whatever your answer is, it won’t place their jobs on the line.”
At his words, some of the tension visibly left the girl’s body, but her voice remained cautious when she replied, “Just a while.”
“How many minutes,” he asked curiously, “would a while be?”
“Just a while,” the girl answered, firmly.
He raised a brow.
The girl raised a brow back at him.
Willem almost laughed. Most people would have thought twice – thrice even – before doing such a thing, and yet here was this slip of a girl treating him as if they were equals.
He liked it, and his admiration for Shane and Melanie Raleigh went up a notch. They had raised the youngest member of their family very well.
“You’ve just come back from boarding school?”
“Yes.” Serenity’s wariness increased at the continued persistence shown by the billionaire. She had never seen any photo of his, but she had recognized his name. He should be too busy to talk to a nobody like her. So why was he?
The girl’s reluctance to speak with him was more amusing than offensive, and he said graciously, “I apologize for keeping you. You should be resting now and not humoring an old man’s curiosity.”
“You’re not old,” Serenity said unthinkingly, and she blushed afterwards. She had never blurted out something like that before.
“Is that so?” Willem drawled casually, pretending not to notice the becoming flush in the girl’s cheeks. “May I ask how old are you then?”
“Fourteen, sir.”
“Well, I’m twenty-eight. Exactly twice your age.”
The girl only blinked. “It’s still not old.”
Stubborn, Willem realized. How contradictory, especially when one took in her deceptively demure façade.
“If you say so,” he murmured agreeably. He was an expert at picking his battles, and it was one of the skills that had built his reputation as one of Europe’s most powerful negotiators. “I’m planning to have your family join me for dinner soon. I hope to see you then.”
“If I don’t have school, sir.”
Her insistence at being polite made his lips twitch. “I’ll make sure to send an invitation during the holidays.” He absently reached out to ruffle her hair.
Serenity saw the large hand coming her way, and she flinched before she could stop herself.
Willem froze.
She whitened.
“Serenity—-”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was sharp and shrill at the same time. “I mustn’t be keeping you either.” She backed up a step. “It was nice meeting you, sir.”
“The pleasure is mine.” His gaze narrowed at the strange, sudden pallor of her skin.
She didn’t seem to hear him, was instead looking past him as she bid goodbye to his guards. “It was nice talking to you, Mr. Molen, Mr. Smit.”
Serenity only allowed herself to wait for the two other men to say goodbye back before whirling around to leave. She was careful not to let her eyes meet Willem de Konigh’s gaze as she did, and she tried to walk away as fast as she could without running.
She was so, so stupid. What if Shane or Melanie found out how she had reacted? What if they used it as ammunition to get her permanently committed?
Thankfully, the apartment was quiet, the lights in the living room switched off when Serenity let herself in. If she was lucky, she could rest tonight and worry about making excuses tomorrow.