“What happened to you and Andy?”
Her eyes flew wide. It was obvious she’d accidently revealed something she wasn’t ready to reveal. And even though he was dying to know what she was talking about, because, you know, he wanted to know everything about her. Especially this, since he got the distinct impression this was what lay behind the sadness he often saw in her eyes and the silences she so frequently fell into.
But she wasn’t ready. That, too, was obvious.
He made sure his smile was as gentle as his voice when he told her, “It’s okay. Maybe someday you’ll trust me enough to tell me.” When she opened her mouth, he lifted his hand and stopped her from making an excuse by asking, “Why didn’t your dad just divorce your mom and keep you kids? That seems like the better plan to me.”
She pursed her mouth into a sad little moue. “My father was a man who felt his responsibilities keenly. He thought staying with Mom was the noble thing to do. Plus, I think he truly loved her. Although, if you ask me, he mistook lust for love. My mother was a stunningly beautiful woman. Still is, in fact, despite the booze and the pills.”
She hitched a shoulder. “Dad always said that his mother was the best. That me and Andy would have all the love we needed in Granny Susan’s house. And he was right.” She stared beseechingly at him, willing him to understand. “Dad tried to do the best by each of us. And he died thinking he’d failed all of us. I hate that.”
Another corner of Romeo’s steely heart melted. Because here was sweet, kind Mia feeling sorry for the father who, in his opinion, had forsaken her in so many ways.
Since he couldn’t reassure her that he agreed with what her dad had done, he decided his best course of action was to rectify some of the damage her mother had done.
“Okay, let’s set the record straight, eh?”
At her perplexed look, he started in on her list. Just as she’d done, he ticked off the items on his fingers. “Your nose isn’t too short. It’s adorable. A little button nose that Hollywood starlets pay thousands of dollars to have plastic surgeons recreate. Your chin isn’t too sharp. It—”
“Stop.” She rolled her eyes. “I told you I don’t need compliments. I was—”
“Hush, woman.” He leveled a quelling look on her. “Now, where was I?” He scratched his goatee. “Oh, right. Your chin. It’s charming and sweet and just a little bit stubborn-looking. Which I’d say suits you to a tee. Your mouth is small,” he added. When her gaze dropped to her lap, he was quick to continue, “Small and so plush and this delicate peachy-pink color that reminds me of a rosebud. You have the kind of mouth that belongs in a Renaissance painting.”
She rolled her eyes again and glanced past the trees to the waves lapping hungrily against the sand.
“What?” he demanded. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking—” She stopped and turned back to him. Her frown became a rueful semi-smile. “I guess I’m thinking I’m having a hard time processing so much bullshit at once.”
He could tell she expected him to laugh. When he didn’t, she tried to turn away again.
He didn’t let her.
Catching her perfect chin in the palm of his hand, he forced her to hold his gaze. “Now see? Normally, I’d let you get away with that.”
“Get away with what?”
“Using self-deprecating humor to change the subject. But not today. Today I’m making you listen when I tell you that your hair is beautiful. It’s soft and shiny and frames your face perfectly.”
When she shook her head ever so slightly, the delicate skin of her jaw rubbed against the hard calluses on his palm. Just that easily, a warmth settled in the bottom of his stomach. It was followed by a tingling sensation at the base of his spine.
Desire.
He knew it well.
And yet he was beginning to think he’d only flirted with it, skimmed along the very edges of it, before Mia came along.
“Don’t shake your head at me, woman. I know what I’m talking about. Now, about your boobs...” he added quietly, wondering if she could hear how the stirring of his passion had lowered his voice.
“Oh, god.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Please don’t.”
“That’s fine,” he told her. “You don’t have to look at me for this part. But I want you to hear me, Mia. Your breasts are perfect. Your frame is too small for anything more than what you’ve got. And besides, all a man needs is a mouthful. And you have two perfect scoops of ice cream that look like they’d melt in a man’s mouth.”
She groaned her embarrassment, but he wasn’t finished.
“And all of that is before we get to your eyes.” He still held her chin, so he felt her pulse beat a rapid tattoo against the pads of his fingers when her lids fluttered open.
He pointed to her eyes. “Yeah, those. Hands down, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. Lioness eyes is how I think of them.”
He couldn’t keep staring into her eyes without losing himself in them, so he focused on her lips. And that was a big mistake. Because he was suddenly having trouble remembering why he wasn’t kissing her.
Why am I not kissing her?
Oh, right. She comes with all the strings attached and I’m Mr. Footloose and Fancy-free.
“Then there’s your smile...” He rubbed his thumb over her pouty bottom lip and watched her mouth fall open so she could drag in a surprised breath. “You don’t bring it out very often, but when you do, it’s so radiant, it lights up a room.”
“Spiro...” His name was a whisper on the wind, but it hit his ears like a siren’s call. His blood went from a soft simmer to a rapid boil. Behind his button-fly, his cock went from semi-hard to granite.
“It’s taking every ounce of self-control I have not to press you back into the sand, climb on top of you, and show you just how wrong you are when you say you’re not beautiful. When you claim I don’t like you like that.”
She jerked her chin from his hand. “You’re just saying that because you feel sorry for me. Because—”
Foolish woman. “Does this look like pity to you?” He reached down to wrap his hand around the throbbing column of his erection.
When her eyes locked onto his hardness, her pupils dilated until they nearly eclipsed the gold around them. “I—” She bit her lip and started messing with her earring again. “I don’t get it.”