| Nathan |

She was un-like most girls I had looked at before. And I mean, really looked at. I liked her name though.

Isabella.

It was a very pretty name.

In comparison to most woman I noticed, she was very plain looking. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, because that certainly was not the case, it was that she wasn't overly dolled up. Nothing about her was . . . fake. She had soft features and dark brown hair. She was shorter, but her body was still impressive. She still held a presence in the room.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

Eric laughs loudly next to me, watching Rachael take off down the beach while Isabella struggles to take her heals off so she can run after her.

"Come on Izzy! You're so slow!" I hear her calling and Isabella grabs her heals in one hand, barefoot now as she runs to the sand.

"You know I can't run without a bra on!" She calls back to her best friend and I watch her clutch one arm across her chest, the other holding her heals, picks up the hem of her dress so she can run better.

I don't think she realized we were close enough to hear that, especially because Eric seems to think it was hilarious.

"They're the most interesting girls I've met out of all the others at parties like these." He muses, grinning to himself. I glance over, raising an eyebrow.

"Isabella is very . . . alive." I say and he scoffs.

"Really alive? Try hot. Rachael is too." He says and I roll my eyes at him. Eric was worse than I was with being a player. He didn't care what it took, as long as he got the girl he had his sights on to sleep with him. At least I was respectful. And I meant alive in a good way, different from all the other women I usually found attractive, and her simplicity intrigued me.

"Lets walk down there and join them." He says, leaving the path and walking towards the ocean. I follow behind, walking slower. Eric was good to have around at a party, but sometimes he was too much for me. Rachael waves to us, the light from the party bright enough that I could still see the two of them running around, even if it was dark out. Isabella kicks water at her friend, who shrieks.

She had this kind of carefreeness to her that I think I liked. I wasn't used to people being so at ease around me.

Eventually we all ended up at a table, after paying a visit to the bar, talking. I felt better with a scotch in my hand, and listening to Rachael and Isabella talk was surprisingly entertaining. I usually found party conversations to be boring and pointless, but each story they had to tell got better and better.

"So, you're telling me, you had those two boys hidden under your bed the whole night?" Asks Eric slowly, trying to understand the last story they'd just told us.

"Yes!" Says Rachael laughing and Isabella's entire face lights up, laughing too. Apparently, when they were in middle school, they'd snuck two boys from school into Rachael's room in the middle of the night. And when Rachael's mom came to check on them, they put them under bed, only to leave them there the entire night.

"We were little innocent children! And if her parents had caught us, we would have been in so much trouble." Says Isabella and Rachael nods.

"My mom probably would've killed me." Says Rachael. They both giggle. You could just tell the two of them were inseparable, the kind of friendship for life everyone claims to want, and they actually had it. But I wasn't looking at Rachael and Isabella, I was just looking at Isabella.

Eric stands suddenly.

"Rachael, do you want to dance with me?" He asks her and she nods eagerly, he winks at me before whisking her off to the dance floor. I look back to Isabella, and find that she is looking at me.

"I guess we should dance too huh?" I ask and she nods, smiling. I stand, leading her over to the dance floor. We begin to sway in time with the soft music, and I rest my hand on her back, which is exposed in this dress she's wearing. I resist the urge to let my hand fall lower.

She rests her small hand on my chest, the other is completely enveloped in my own hand.

"So, are you in school?" I ask, curious to know more about her, and not just about all the entertaining things that have happened in her life.

"Yes, about a month away from graduating actually." she says, looking up at me with those big blue eyes. She smiles. "I'm really excited, I'm about to be a free woman." she laughs a little at her words, glancing to the side for a moment. I smile too, I enjoyed listening to her.

"What are you studying." I ask, as we sway.

"Well, English and I'm also getting a business degree." She says. "I love literature, but I need to be practical too. I hope to work in publishing maybe, but more online. I actually recently found a good job opportunity, so we'll see how it works out."

"That's good, you should be proud." I comment. She smiles at me.

"What brings you to these parties then?" she asks.

"Business investment opportunities."

"Ah, so that's make money." she says knowingly and I chuckle a little.

"Well, yes, that and hard work." I add. The song ends then, and I see that Rachael and Eric have returned to the bar. We walk over to where they're seated, Rachael immediately snatching Isabella away. Eric hands me another glass of scotch.

"Thanks." I say drinking some of it, enjoying the burning of the alcohol.

"This one's a real charmer." He says motioning to Racheal, who smiles brightly at him. He winks.

"It's no surprise that you get along with her then." I comment, more to myself than to him. He just shakes his head at me.

"Nathan." Purrs a velvety voice behind me and I find myself grimacing.

Danni.

I turn around slowly, leaving Eric to talk with the other two girls.

"Hi." she coos, her voice soothing me, as she glided over. Her dress was a silky black material that hugged her in all the right places and allowed her to show off her chest. Her neck was decked out in a flashy diamond necklace, no doubt her father's latest gift to her. She looked good, so much so I might want to take her into the country club and get us a room, but I resisted.

"Danni." I say smoothly.

"You look good babe, but you'd look better naked." she says leaning in, her breath fanning on the skin just below my ear, and filling my senses with that expensive perfume she always wore. She ran her fingers down my tie and smirked at me.

She was certainly raunchy, even skanky, but she didn't just give it to anyone. We were agreed to only sleep with the other, but I had ended it nonetheless. Something she knew, so the fact that she was still trying to get me to be hers, was pissing me off.

"What have I said about pet names?" I ask referring to 'babe' which she had just called me.

"Right, my mistake." she says. "I'll see you later, Mr. Price." As though we hadn't had the conversation we did not too long ago in my kitchen. I just shake my head, she had to know I had been completely serious.

She makes to walk away, but then turns back leaning it again.

"And by the way, that girl you were dancing with before, she's not your type. We both know that. I am, and you know you can't resist this." she whispers slowly in my ear. I let out a breath of frustration. The thing with her was you could read her like an open book, I knew the only reasons she wanted me were my wealth, the pride that she would get from saying she had me under her thumb and that she liked me, more than she cared to admit.

"Goodbye Danni." I say and I brush her off of me. I hear her scoff as I turn around to see both Racheal and Isabella had disappeared, and that Eric was standing by himself, drinking down another scotch.

"What happened?" I ask jokingly, implying that he had scared them off.

"Racheal went off to find her father for something and the other one tagged along." He says simply, shrugging again as he sipped more scotch.

"Isabella." I say quickly.

"What?" he asks, making a face.

"The 'other one', her name is Isabella." I tell him, not quite sure why but I had to correct him.

"Oh, she was pretty little thing. But too nice for me." he asks nonchalantly.

"I guess." I say, not really positive what I thought about her. "Too innocent." I mutter to myself as an after-thought.

"Brother!" booms a voice behind me and I turn, again, to see Jackson. His blonde hair flopping in front of his eyes, dressed in a causal suit and looking a little messy, as usual.

We were nothing alike. But I supposed it was to be expected seeing as I was his adopted brother. The whole adoption process, which included my birth parents, was a story I didn't like to tell, and also why I was very guarded about my past.

I can't say I regretted anything though because it was the reason I had been so motivated to begin my own company. To rise above who I had really come from.

"Hello Jackson." I say and he cracks an enormous grin, pulling me in for a side-hug.

"So have you two met the wonderful Mr. Marino?" he asks as he releases me. Eric and I nod.

"What'd you think?" he continues and I shrug.

"I think that his company is a good opportunity." I tell him. "It's been booming for years, a partnership could yield great results and we have plenty of room in the budget. If it doesn't work out we just cut our loses."

"Sounds like he has the stamp of approval then?" Asks Jackson grinning even wider.

"Yes." I say firmly, not returning his wide grin. I then notice how his eye is suddenly drawn across the room, and I follow his gaze.

"That's his daughter." He murmurs and I nod. Eric looked too, sighing a little. He seemed pretty taken with the red haired and green eyed girl who herself appeared to have a boyfriend. I smirked, so much for whatever he had been planning to get her in bed.

"She is hot." mutters Eric.

"Nothing compared to my Lucy." says Jackson, referring to his fiancé and, according to him, the best thing that had ever happened to him.

"Eh, I don't know man." Says Eric, still staring at Rachael. I ignore them. I preferred to keep my opinions, about anything, to myself."But her friend is hot too." he continues, now talking to himself more than anyone else. "Hmm, maybe I should go for her."

I shake my head a little, drinking more scotch and returning my gaze to Isabella. Something told me she had too much class to go out with Eric, much less sleep with him. Jackson continues on about something funny that happened between him and Lucy the other day, Eric laughing. I zoned out, paying more attention to my drink than to the pointless conversation going on in front of me.

I often found myself this bored at company events or dinner parties to meet investors. I thought they truly had no other purpose than to score new clients and once that was done, all the mingling about and making small-talk was a monumental waste of time.

The rest of the party was pretty standard. Drinking, eating and then talking with more possible clients. All-in-all, it had been a successful night. Jackson finished the deal with Mr. Marino and I was on my way home after that.

It turned out to be just like any other night.

Nothing stood out, nothing except for her.

Isabella Smith.

And I couldn't decide why she had, all I knew was that she did.

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