The Devil's Debt

"Attachment"

Kyzer's POV:

Hours later, her parents arrive and we stand at the door, greeting them as they come in. "Isabella, honey, hi! How have you been?" her mother says.

"I've been good.... Hey Dad." she says back, looking at her dad.

"Hey honey." he says to her. She awkwardly walks up to him and hugs him, then they pull away.

"Who's this?" her mom asks, looking at me.

"Uhhhhh... we're..."

"I'm her friend." I say, giving her a welcoming smile.

"Your... boyfriend?" she asks, looking over at Isa with a smile.

"Uhm, no. Just my friend." she says, looking back at me to see me smirking. "Give us a second." she says, pulling me to the side. "What about not letting them know who I'm with and where I am, which they already know!" she whispers, panicking.

"It's fine. For the most part, they just can't know what I do." I whisper back.

She nods her head and we go back to her parents who're looking around the house. "Okay, Mom, Dad, meet Kyzer Caruso, Ky, meet my parents, Mariah and Dan Bancroft."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft." I say, kissing her mother's hand and shaking her father's.

We walk into the living room to sit down and I speak up, fixing up the table a little bit. "You guys hungry? I could make something."

"Ky.." Isa says, looking over at me.

"Please. It's the least I can do." I say back.

"Oh, we're starving. Thank you, darling." her mother says, slightly nodding her head to me.

I go to the kitchen and Isa stays in the living room with her parents. I end up boiling fettuccine noodles and making a homemade alfredo sauce with different seasonings and parmesan cheese with shrimp, broccoli, and grilled chicken.

After a little over half an hour of cooking in heat, I'm sweating as I fix Isa and her parents' plates, topping their food with parsley before picking them up and bringing them to the living room.

"Oooh, this looks good." Mariah says, taking a bite of her food. "Wow. He's handsome, and he's good in the kitchen." she says, coaxing a laugh from me.

"Thank you Mrs. Bancroft." I say with a smile.

"So. What do you do for a living Mr. Caruso?" Dan asks me.

"I run a multi-million dollar worldwide business. You wouldn't really know it, nobody does, really." I say, shrugging.

"Oh. It's doing really well, obviously. You've got a huge home." he says.

"Well, I was born into business, so it was kind of given to me. Still, I try to work for everything I have." I say.

"He's wise. I like him, Isa." Mariah says.

Isa smiles a shy smile and shakes her head.

"Drinks?" I ask.

"Do you have wine? Any kind is fine." Mariah says.

"Of course. I'll be back." I say.

I grab three wine glasses and two bottles of wine along with a bottle of beer, then I return to the living room with everything. I sit next to Isa and I grab a wine glass. "White or red?" I ask her.

"Red." she says back, giving me a look.

I grab the bottle with a smirk and I pour her a glass of wine as Dan does the same for Mariah. I pick up my beer and I pop it open, sipping some of it as we start conversation.

"How long have you two known each other?" Mariah asks.

"About five months now." Isa says, smiling.

"Hm. What happened with you and Ryder then?" Dan asks, looking at Isa.

The smile on her face disappears and my hand secretly moves to grip her waist. She looks down and back at me, and I give her a sympathetic smile.

"I don't think she's willing to talk about it." I say, giving her an apologetic look.

Dan looks over at me and narrows his eyes. "I just thought that as her father I should know. I didn't think it'd be a problem."

"She went through a hard time with him. I'm sure she doesn't want to go back to it after what happened." I say, getting defensive while trying to stay respectful.

"Dan, give it a rest. She just fully divorced him. Leave it alone." Mariah says to him.

He looks to me and over to her and shrugs. "My apologies Mr. Caruso. I'm sorry Isabella." he says.

All of a sudden, my phone starts to ring. I move my hand from her waist and I put my beer in that hand, digging my phone out of my pocket with the other.

"Let me take this." I say to Isa and her parents before going to the lobby. "Hello?" I say.

"I hope you're doing okay tonight, Mr. Caruso." my assistant, Kelsey says.

"What's wrong." I say, fidgeting with my rings as I listen closely.

"A family wants to meet. They say it's urgent."

"Who's this family?"

"They go my the name of the Svetlina's."

"Svetlina... tell them to meet me at my club. How soon do they need to meet?"

"Before midnight."

I look at the time and it's already 11:15.

"Shit. Why are you just now telling me?" I say, rushing upstairs.

"The word just got in, sir."

"Okay, alright. I'm coming. Thanks Ms. Gardens." I say. Then I hang up and I throw one of my suits on, this time, a dark red one, kind of a burgundy color.

I'm trying to change it up a bit.

When I get back downstairs, I meet Isa on the couch, still talking to her parents. "Do you have a minute?" I ask her urgently.

"I'll be back." she says to her parents. We walk into the lobby and she looks up at me a little worried. "What's wrong? Why are you in a suit? A nice one at that."

"I need to meet with a family. They say it's urgent. If anything, it's probably a negotiation about drugs or something, but I need to get there before midnight. Will you be okay here?" I ask her, looking her over.

"I'll be fine. I'm here with them." she says, looking back.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Go."

I subconsciously lean in to kiss her, but I stop and I remember our agreement and where we stand right now. "Sorry, that was... I'm gonna go. I'll be back in a bit." I say, walking backwards to the door.

She nods and walks into the living room as I leave out.

The tension between us is high. It's always there, and neither of us can ignore it, no matter how hard we try. But there's no strings attached. We're just friends. With benefits. But there's no feelings, no attachments, no nothing.

Until there is, of course.

But do I want that?

Maybe. Maybe I do.

God, get it together, Ky.

I need to let this 'attachment', or whatever you wanna call it, happen naturally. I'm not gonna pull any strings, whatsoever.