Touching the Heart of Ace novel Chapter 79

I was quite surprised to see him not lying next to me in the morning. I was so used to waking on his chest or under him, when the first ray of sunshine falls on my face.

I touched his side of the bed and pouted, not liking the way he was absent.

I had to see him first thing in the morning.

God, I was so spoiled.

I rubbed my eyes and savoured the feel of coldness creeping to my feet.

I went through our dialogues in my head to check if I had accidently forgot any meetings or plans Daddy had told me about.

I could come up with nothing.

I gently peeked to my Little Baby's room and my heart skipped a beat not seeing her there curled as a ball with her bum up in her blanket.

Even seeing her blue blanket on the floor - which was clearly Robbie's doing - I could not shake the paranoia of not seeing her.

I cleared my throat and called out for her, walking to the stairs. "Lia... baby... where are you?"

I heard a muffled baby giggle from downstairs and small feet running away.

I smiled, not even noticing it myself until I saw the reflection on the greenhouse glass panels.

They made me so happy.

My smile became wider when I saw white, pink and peach roses on the stair railing. I chuckled seeing no thorns on their stems; of course Robbie's father heart could not bear if they accidently pricked our baby and made her cry.

There were of course 'our' cards carefully placed in between bunches of flowers which were intimate and private only for a lover's eyes.

Thankfully, Lia could not read yet.

We had to cut short on our flirting a lot because she had started to listen well to our talks and words. So, now Daddy had to literally whisper them right to my ears.

I liked that so much; it was more romantic that way.

Some of the words were so cheesy and corny, making me giggle and laugh already.

"Little Baby??? Daddy??? Come on out." I called again before plucking another note from a Shenzhen Nongke orchid.

From where did he get all these beautiful exotic flowers.

I can believe this flower is man-made. But baby, you, my Pretty Little Angel... even your little finger must be crafted by gods of heaven for millions of years, to be this perfect.

I blushed bright red.

This man and his corniness.

I heard another baby giggle floating away from me.

"I am going to get you..." I giggled as well.

I missed them terribly.

"Daddy, Daddy, Davey is coming..." Lia tried hard to whisper but her giggles gave her away.

I loved her so much. She was so cute.

I wanted to squish her to my chest right this instant.

I saw a tiny foot behind the couch, so I tiptoed until I was right behind and I cradled her to my body and blew a raspberry on that baby tummy.

Her peals of laughter were music to my ears.

"Nuuuu... Nuuuu Davey... Nu..."

"I got you. I got you, baby girl. Got you. Now I am gonna throw you to sky. One two three..." I made a swing with my arms and 'threw' her.

"Ageeen... ageeen... ageeen Davey... ageen."

Of course I did it again.

"Where is Daddy, baby girl? Is he hiding?"

"Uh...uh... Daddy say hidee..."

"Aw! Then let us go find him."

She nodded enthusiastically before running off screaming for Daddy.

I could clearly see him standing behind the French door.

What was he doing here, in his chilly early morning wearing a shiny black suit, with equally shiny black shoes? I thought he hated that red silk tie.

Well, hated to wear it. He liked it too much, when I tied his hands to the bed post with the same.

We would be a quirky couple if someone saw us right now.

He was perfect with his wet hair combed back sleek and shining, in nice suit and shoes, wearing my favourite perfume of his, while I was still in my messy bed head, in night shirt with undone buttons and loose shorts past my hip bone, wearing the residual smell of our late night activities and warmth of the bed.

I noticed Robbie was hiding one hand behind his back.

"What you got?" I teased, before cradling his head in the circle of my arms.

"My heart."

I blushed and smiled. "So corny, first thing in the morning."

"Correction. So in love, the first thing in the morning."

"Oh, are you?"

"Very much so."

His eyes were skipping over my eyes and I could only blush and squirm with shyness.

I chuckled when he showed me the red rose he was hiding. He placed it inside the breast pocket of my night shirt, over my heart, after kissing there.

"Still not going to make you fried chicken every dinner."

I teased again. I had cut short on his oil in take late at night when I had noticed elevated B.P in his medical report last month. We had fallen into the routine of getting ourselves checked along with Lia.

I knew his B.P spike was because of divorce related stress but too much oil was bad anyways.

"Bummer! Why did I go through all these then, Angel? I am going to demand a refund." He teased back.

I giggled. "I knew it. You love your fried stuff than me."

"Not even close and you know it, Brat. I love you so much."

Of course I did.

My eyes shifted to the shiny rock on my hand, which was estimated to be at least 11 million dollars by a YouTube gemmologist and a jewellery maker; he hadn't calculated the labour charge.

I shook my head.

Robbie was something else.

A ring was a ring.

It was the emotions that made it priceless. My dad proposed my mom with the ring he bought with his first profit from his company. And it was the cheapest among the engagement and wedding rings in our whole family. His love, devotion and loyalty to my mother was questioned because of the price of the ring but my mom said it was the most expensive thing she had ever owned.

Her home was one of the ten luxurious private abodes in the world, so...

She was really happy and in love with that ring that she wore it to her death bed.

I have kept both of their rings together in a ring box because it was as if the rings were also in love with each other.

One was worth a million, other was worth merely thousands... yet they belonged together.

A kiss on my forehead brought me back to reality.

"You love that ring." Robbie stated the obvious.

"Yes."

"Dance with me, Angel?"

"What had gotten into you?" I flicked his ear, yet I went slack in his arms, so he could easily manoeuvre my body however he liked.

"Daddy!!! Daddyyy!!!" Little Lia came running and smacked herself to the back of my knee, talking nonstop about the adventures she had while looking for Daddy.

Robbie scooped her up with a laugh and covered her in kisses. "Princess, you got me. Want to dance with us?"

"Robbie..." I warned.

I did not like being too touchy in front of Lia. Well, I did not like getting touchy in front of Lia at all. It would be difficult to explain familial relationships to my baby girl mostly because of our faults. The situation with Robbie, Janice and I was not easy for an adult to understand or accept, then how my baby girl could.

I was her Davey and Robbie was her Daddy.

That was it.

Robbie only winked before trapping me back into his arms with Lia squished between our chests.

Well, that was cute.

I giggled.

"Daddy, stop..."

I laughed. We were just awkwardly swinging left and right but Lia was happy and smiling. Daddy had two left feet on a good day; one of the reasons why I just lean heavily on Robbie's body when we dance and let him use me like a doll.

Then Robbie put Lia back to her feet and whispered something about a surprise and my Little Torpedo went off again, screaming 'suppiseeeeeeee'.

"Angel?"

"Mmm..."

"Will you please make me the happiest man on the world and let me kiss your lips?"

What? What the...

Why was he asking?

I searched his eyes and saw the answer in his guilt ridden eyes. I tried to push away from his hug but he only tightened his hold.

"Ro..."

"I wish I were stronger. I wish I were the perfect man for you. I wish I were the man that deserves an Angel like you..."

"You are, Robbie. What are you talking about?"

Fuck! How I wished I could take my words back.

"No. I am not. Most probably, I will never be..."

"No, you are the perfect man for me. You are the man I deserve. You know why?"

He shook his head.

"Because you are the man I love. You are the man I want to wake up with every morning, go to bed every night, do everything I want to do... You deserve me because I love you so... Because I can't think of loving anyone else... I have tried and I know what it felt like..."

The dreams filled with his ghosts of his touch, the ringing of his voices and the silhouette of his body... The feeling of guilt every time I had to squish down when I saw Tris... Augustus looking expectantly at my face; because I was seeing this man every second of my life.

Robbie was the perfect man for me, though our life was not perfect at all.

It was imperfect with darkness, twists and pain.

Yet...

He was all I wanted... needed.

I had forgiven him a long time ago, for destroying, corrupting and rotting my... our... first kiss.

But forget was something I could not... not because of lack of trying...

"Please kiss me..." Robbie begged.

He had no reason to beg me. I had done pretending to hate him, his touches, his kisses... more than that I had done pretending not to want to kiss him, touch him, love him.

He had no idea how powerful I felt, to see him tied and helpless under me while I rode his shaft as if my life depended on it; how calm and peaceful I felt, just to hide my face in his chest and hug him with my eyes closed; how happy and cherished I felt when I could just walk to him and sit on his lap as if he was my throne.