“What are you doing here?”

“That’s my question,” I reply, and stop a few feet away from her.

“I live here,” she replies and props her hands on her hips, pulling her pink blouse tight over her full breasts, and making my cock take notice. “But I’m about to go to work—”

“No, you’re not.”

Her jaw drops at the hard tone in my voice.

“Yes, I believe I am.”

“You’re going to invite me in your place so we can work out all the reasons why you ran from the villa today.”

Her eyes narrow on my face. “I didn’t run anywhere.”

“Like hell.” I step forward and cage her in against her door, my hands on either side of her face, and lean in, but don’t touch her. Not yet. She takes a deep breath and lays a hand on my chest to push me away, but instead swallows hard and stares at my mouth.

“I couldn’t stay there,” she whispers before catching herself. She grips my shirt in her fist and scowls up at me with bright, angry brown eyes. “And it’s none of your business if I decided to come home for the day.”

“It’s my business, tesoro, to make sure you’re okay, and you clearly weren’t if you felt that you couldn’t stay in my home after I’d just spent the better part of last night and this morning inside you.” Unable to resist touching her for one more moment, I drag my knuckles down her cheek, and feel the flare of satisfaction when her eyes close and she leans into my touch. “Invite me in, please.”

“I told Emily I’d help her tonight.”

“You can un-tell her.”

“You’re not going to leave, are you?”

“No, cara, I’m not leaving.”

She opens the door at her back and motions for me to follow her into her apartment, closes and locks the door and pulls her phone out of her bra.

“Emily, I’m sorry, something’s come up, and I won’t be able to help you after all.” She smiles as she watches me lean my hips back against her kitchen counter. “I know you didn’t really need me in the first place. But you know where to find me if you do need anything. Good luck.” She clicks off and sets the phone and her handbag on the table by the front door. “Happy?”

“No.” I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. “No, I don’t think happy is the right word to describe how I feel.”

“How do you feel?”

“Frustrated. Concerned. Baffled. To start.”

She nods slowly and walks past me to the kitchen, pours us each a glass of Merlot, then passes one to me.

“This isn’t one of mine,” I comment wryly and take a sip.

“No, but it’s nice.” She walks out of the kitchen toward the living room and I can smell her citrusy shampoo as she passes by.

“Hmm.” The wine is nice, and I have a feeling she needs it to bolster her courage.

“Have a seat,” she says, motioning to the couch, and I have to take a breath to rein in my temper. This morning, she was writhing beneath me and now she’s speaking to me like I’m a business associate.

So, I sit right next to her and brace my arm on the back of the couch behind her head and pull the pins out of her hair, letting it spill into my fingers.

“That took me a while to put up,” she says.

“I like it down.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“Talk to me, cara.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Fuck this.” I take her glass and set them both on the coffee table, then cradle her face in my hands and kiss the hell out of her. She gasps and grips my shirt in her fists at my sides and holds on tight as I take the kiss from hot and hard to soft and lazy and back again, before pulling away and staring into her eyes. They’ve gone soft and glassy, making me feel satisfied. “That’s better.”

“You’re good at that,” she whispers with a sigh.

“As are you. I don’t want you to pull away from me, tesoro. Not now. Not after last night.”

She tries to look down, but I catch her chin with my thumb and finger and keep her gaze locked on mine. “If you get scared, or nervous, or have doubts, you run to me, not from me, do you understand?”

“This is so far outside my comfort zone, I don’t know what to do.”

“I think that’s the most honest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I murmur and kiss her forehead. “I’m not letting you slip through my fingers, Alecia. I’m not going anywhere, today or any other day. But I can’t understand if you don’t talk to me.”

She shakes her head and closes her eyes, but not before I see the pain there, and my own heart cracks for her.

“Being naked with you is easy compared to talking to you about my past.”

“I love it when you’re naked with me,” I murmur with a smile. She opens her eyes and grins back at me. “But I need you to talk to me. Let’s start with what we were talking about the other night. I believe you said something about not believing in happily ever after.” She squirms and finally pushes me away, and then stands.

And just when I think she’s going to throw me out of her apartment, she surprises me with, “Let’s take a bath.”

Chapter Ten

She doesn’t stop to see if I’m following her as she walks purposefully into the bathroom, wine in hand, and turns on the taps of the garden tub.