Like well-trained firefighters following their captain’s orders, the rest of Sara’s family marched inside. She pushed slowly up from her rattan deck chair, releasing her grip on Luis’s hand to fall quietly in line behind the others.
“Oh, Luis, there’s a basket with toothbrushes and basic toiletry items in your and Sara’s bathroom,” Ruth told him. “Feel free to use anything, since you haven’t brought your suitcase over yet.”
The implication being that he was eventually bringing his suitcase to stay overnight with them. Problem was, at home he slept in his own king-sized bed, mostly to make up for the nights spent cramped in a single at the station. However, that little queen mattress upstairs meant he and Sara would be getting a hell of a lot cozier than either one of them had anticipated.
His mind instantly flashed back to the brush of their lips in his truck. The almost kiss that teased him with the sweet sample of her mouth against his. The warmth of her smooth skin along the back of his hand when he playfully tugged her hair. The anticipation and awareness of wanting more. Much more.
As he followed Sara to the stairs at the front of the house, he reminded himself that this was only pretend. They were helping each other get through this week and the personal challenges it presented for them both. Though Sara had no idea about his, and Luis intended to keep it that way.
Sure, he might admire the gentle sway of her hips as she took each step. Or think about running his palm up the soft skin along the calves the peach hem of her dress played with. Stopping her at the second floor landing so he could lean in, breathe deeply of her light citrusy scent, press slow, lazy kisses up the smooth column of her throat.
Sí, he might think about doing all those delicious things with her. But he wouldn’t. Couldn’t.
Sara had made it clear, when this charade was over, she hoped they’d wind up as friends.
No matter that the attraction luring him to her like the age-old siren’s call that lured fishermen to certain ruin the world over felt all too real.
Chapter 8
“I am so sorry about all that.” Sara rounded on Luis as soon as he closed the bedroom door behind them. This was much more complicated than she had anticipated.
Luis did a quick double-take shake of his head. “Uh, I’m not sure what you’re apologizing for. I thought we did okay.”
She waved off his words, turning and crossing the small space to plop on the queen bed with its coral-reef-inspired comforter.
“You were great, thanks. But my family.” Sara heaved a sigh laden with what the hell is going on? doubts. It was like she’d walked into a Twilight Zone episode where some things were the same but others weirdly off in a delayed answered prayers kind of way.
Pressing her fingers to her temples, she massaged at the stress headache threatening. “Everyone’s acting weird. Especially my mom. I mean, Robin’s . . . well, Robin. Always blunt and opinionated. With no qualms about sharing hers. And, annoyingly, she’s usually right. In a crisis, she’s the one you want around. But her bedside manner, sheesh, leaves much to be desired.”
“Well, let’s hope we don’t encounter a crisis. If we do, I’m pretty good in a pinch if I do say so myself. Should I need a wingman’s assistance, I’ll know Robin is the one to rely on,” Luis answered, not sounding even the slightest bit annoyed by Robin’s rudeness. “Jonathan seems like a good guy to depend on, too.”
His big frame dwarfing the already-small room, Luis crossed to the light-stained wood plank extending along the length of the outside wall, where the ceiling angled down. The plank served as a makeshift desk in the center, with two white drawers holding up either end. Dragging out the wicker desk chair, he swiveled it around on one leg to straddle it, then draped his tanned forearms along the backrest.
“Outside of that, you can count on me to help you volley back anything she lobs your way. Though I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t seem inclined to do that yourself. Any particular reason why?”
The keen, sincere interest in his dark brown eyes made it difficult for Sara to dodge his question. Even if admitting the ineptitude she always experienced around her accomplished sister wasn’t high on her favorite things list.
Late afternoon sun shone through the large skylight on the angled ceiling behind Luis, brightening their room. She squinted at him, considering how much to divulge while also distracted by the man himself. His dark closely cropped hair, sharp angular features, and bronze skin were a contrast to the wispy clouds and light blue sky framed behind him. Her real-life Vin Diesel, playing the role of an avenging angel, come to help save the day.
Only, the muscles rippling in his strong arms as he crossed them and the rakish tilt of his mouth gave rise to unangelic ideas involving him and her and the comfy bed she currently occupied.
Something about Luis Navarro compelled her to trust him. And yet she’d been bit by bad decisions with guys in the past. Ric and his self-centered personality. Before him there’d been Chris, the photographer, who it turned out was more interested in her connections. In college there’d been Thomas, the frat boy who’d been her plus-one to countless sorority socials but who couldn’t get away fast enough once her eating disorder had been diagnosed.
Gun-shy about letting someone else get too close. Already on shaky emotional ground thanks to her parents’—really her mother’s—mind-boggling new life philosophy, Sara skirted Luis’s question about her inability to call Robin on her bitchiness. Sidestepping uncomfortable conversations was a maneuver Sara had perfected over the years, until her first therapist had called bullshit.
“Arguing with Robin isn’t worth upsetting my mother.” Sara lifted a shoulder, letting it fall in a practiced blasé shrug. “I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with my parents and their new Brady Bunch routine. It’s a little bizarre.”
If bizarre meant exactly what she had always wanted as a kid.
“But?”
“What makes you think there’s a but?” she hedged.
Luis huffed out a breath that screamed, Yeah, right.
She blinked innocently at him. He stared back, not buying her act.
“What?”
“I’m just saying,” Luis pressed. “Based on what you told me, you’ve always wanted your parents to play a more active role in your life.” The half smile of his that had her belly and other parts aflutter made an appearance. “While I’d prefer that happen after this week . . .”
“Exactly!” Sara jumped on the easy answer to why her parents’ sudden interest worried her, instead of admitting her deep-seated self-doubt and fear that maybe her parents had been right about her all these years. Giving credence to Robin’s digs. “If they’re all keen on getting chummy, you and I’ll have to up our game. Case in point, this!”
She spread her arms in front of her to indicate the room that had gone from hers to theirs in one express train guilt trip from her mom.
She watched Luis’s gaze make a tour around the room, from the queen bed facing the door and wardrobe, across the few feet of walking space to the small bathroom on the far side opposite the plank desk along the outer wall. Definitely close quarters.
“I’ll search around for some extra blankets to make myself a pallet,” she offered.
“I’ll take the floor.”
“Nonsense, I’m the one who master-planned this. You get the bed.” Sara stood up, jerking her thumb at the item in question.
“No can do. The floor’s probably as hard as the mattress at the station. I’m used to it.”
“Luis . . .”
When he rose, his handsome face set in that implacable, I-mean-business mask, then deftly swung the flimsy chair out of his way and stepped toward her, Sara held her breath.
This was their first disagreement. She didn’t know what to expect. A continuation of their debate. A he-man put-his-foot-down declaration that enough was enough, which would annoy the hell out of her. Certainly not a simple, Okay, you win.
“How about we share?”
His easy-going, unexpected response stalled her rambling thoughts.
Instantly her gaze darted to the queen-sized mattress. The vision of Luis’s big frame sprawling across the jellyfish, coral, and other sea creatures swimming merrily across the comforter had her mind jumping to all sorts of intimate what-ifs.
“Friends, right?” he asked, drawing her fervent mind away from the two of them tangling in the sheets together.
Thumbs hooked on his front jeans pockets, he seemed completely at ease, totally fine with the idea of them sleeping together.
As friends.
A friend she found herself lusting after in a definitively unfriendly manner. Despite the fact they’d only met today. And, she had unequivocally decided that jumping into anything for the wrong or misguided reasons was off limits.
“Well? What do you say?” he prodded.
This was not a good idea.
The smart thing to do was—Sara nodded dumbly.
Luis’s sexy grin flashed. Like the flick of a match, desire burned through her. Quick and hot.
Holy hell, what had she gotten herself into?
Cuidado con lo que pides. Yet again, Mamá Alicia’s warning whispered in Sara’s ear. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
A cell phone vibrating sounded seconds before her father’s voice boomed up the stairs.
“Ten-minute warning!”
Luis pulled his phone from his back pocket. He checked the screen, then motioned with his cell toward the bathroom door. “How about you freshen up first? I need to answer this text from my mom.”
Thankful for a reason to escape, Sara grabbed her suitcase and ducked into the bathroom.
With the clock ticking, she vetoed a change of clothes, instead snagging her toiletry and makeup bags and setting them on the black granite counter. She brushed her teeth, dabbed the oil from her face with a sheet of blotting paper, and touched up her makeup. All the while, that Twilight Zone sensation shimmered around her. Thoughts of Luis, waiting on the other side of the door for her, heightened the strangeness of her situation.
A friend who wasn’t a real friend. A lover who wasn’t a real lover.
But in the eyes of her family, he was both.
And in the crazy musings of a woman jilted by her unworthy boyfriend, stressed by her mother’s illness and the need to be worthy of her praise, he felt like he could be both.
Only, she had drawn a line in the sand at Higgs Beach earlier. For smart, protective reasons.
“Friends,” she mumbled at her reflection as she ran a wide-toothed comb through her hair.
“Friends.” Repeated under her breath as she tugged open the bathroom door.
“Okay, it’s all—”
She broke off as she spotted Luis, shirtless, his broad back to her as he faced the skylight, cell phone pressed to his ear.
“Mami, por favor, estoy bien. Don’t worry.” The slope and planes of his muscular back rippled with the roll of his shoulders, as if he was trying to shrug off his discomfort at the same time he reassured his mom he was fine. “No, don’t save me a plate. I’m grabbing dinner with friends . . . Not tonight, it’ll be late when I head back to Big Coppitt. I’ll swing by in the morning.”
He reached up to massage the back of his neck, and had they been more comfortable with each other, if they were really friends, Sara would have hurried over to rub his neck and shoulders herself. A small thank-you in appreciation for him being such a good sport in all this madness.
Instead, she cleared her throat to alert him of her presence.
Luis spun around, and Sara barely kept her mouth from falling open at the sight of his incredibly hot, spectacularly well-defined abs and pecs.
Hello, Men’s Health magazine, meet your new cover model!
An apology furrowed his brow as he held up a finger indicating for her to give him a minute.
Sara couldn’t be sure, but she thought she nodded.
She did not, however, have any luck convincing herself to stop ogling his wide shoulders, broad chest, and the light dusting of dark hair that tapered down to his washboard abs. His light wash jeans hung low on his trim hips, and she had the insane urge to hook her fingers through his belt loops, tugging his body closer.
He shook his head at whatever his mother said . . . good Lord, Sara felt the tiniest trickle of guilt that he was on the phone with his mother while Sara stood here contemplating the successful odds of tackling him to the mattress and seeing just how friendly they could get in the next ten minutes.
“Sí, tomorrow. Te quiero, mami. Adios.”
The earnest note in his voice as he told his mom, “I love you,” warmed Sara’s heart. He really was such a good guy.
She sagged against the doorframe, totally smitten with the complete package that was Luis Navarro.
Luis tapped his cell screen, then slid the phone into his pocket. “Sorry about that. Something went down at the fire station earlier today and my parents heard about it. She texted a few times earlier, asking for details, but we were already here, so I hadn’t answered. I’ll wash up fast. We don’t wanna keep your family waiting.”
He strode toward her, stopping less than a foot away when she didn’t move.
“Everything okay?” he asked, lightly grasping her shoulders.
The heat of his hands on her bare skin curled wantonly through her. Without thinking, she grabbed on to his waistband. Her fingers instinctively curled into his belt loops, turning her earlier musings into blessed reality.
She sucked in a breath, dragging in his musky scent, slightly sweat tinged from their afternoon together in the humid tropical outdoors.
His fingers flexed, their tips pressing into her flesh. She traced the supple skin above the edge of his waistband with her thumbs, marveling at his rock-hard obliques. The pupils in his dark eyes flared.
“Sara?” Rough and gravelly, his voice stoked her desire.
She edged infinitesimally closer. Testing. Tempting. Wanting.
The tips of her gold sandals bumped up against his black work boots.
His gaze lowered to her chest, less than another deep breath away from brushing against his. His eyelids fluttered closed, his long lashes shadowing his tanned skin. He swallowed, and the longing to hitch onto her toes to press a kiss against his throat, lick his tangy skin, overwhelmed her. Surprising her with its intensity.
“Sara.” Her name on his lips was a heady mix of gruff warning and lusty plea.
“Yes,” she whispered, desperate to quench this raging need to kiss him. Maybe if they did it already, sated the attraction simmering between them, it would ease.
Luis bent closer. Sara licked her bottom lip, anticipating his taste on her tongue.
Instead, he pressed his warm forehead to hers and dragged in a ragged breath. Her gut clenched at the innocent gesture that left her wanting to do less-than-innocent things with him.
Desire crested through her like a wave crashing onto one of the island’s coral reefs, strong and dangerous.
“We probably shouldn’t do this,” he said, his breath warm on her lips.
“I figured you were going to say that.”
He grinned, sexy and sure, and her entire body quivered with hunger. “I’m trying hard to remind myself why.”
“Same here,” she admitted.
Heart pounding, she stared intently into his eyes. That damn line in the sand she’d etched between them taunted her. She edged closer to it, her toes temptingly close to crossing over.
“Maybe we could—”
“Two minutes!” Jonathan’s cry from the hallway interrupted her.
A sharp double knock on their bedroom door had Sara and Luis breaking apart.
“Damn,” she muttered, sagging back against the bathroom doorframe. “Older brothers can be such a pain in the neck.”
A corner of Luis’s mouth hitched up in a wry grimace. “Duty calls.”
He dropped a chaste kiss on her forehead, then stepped around her into the bathroo
m without another word.
Her body tingling with almost, Sara hurried across the room.
“Hey, squirt, everyone else is downstairs,” Jonathan greeted her when she tugged open the door. He’d changed into a tropical button-up shirt and had either showered or washed up in the sink, because his blond hair was dark with water.
“First, I’m long past the squirt phase,” she complained.
“Yeah, but I wasn’t around much to tease you when you were younger, so I’m making up for lost time.”
Sara rolled her eyes. Fatherhood and marriage to his down-to-earth wife had mellowed her brother. Usually that would be considered a positive, but this older-brother teasing had started last Thanksgiving, much to Sara’s chagrin. Good news for him, his goofy grin proved contagious.
“Fine, goofball,” she quipped. “We’re going to need a few minutes. Luis had to take a call, but he’ll be fast.”
Jonathan gave her a thumbs-up, then headed to the stairs.
Once she closed the door, Sara leaned back against it, her mind racing. She wasn’t sure where she’d felt less confused. Outside with her family and their changing dynamics or inside here with her sexy, good-hearted fake boyfriend.
The sink water shut off in the bathroom. Luis would be out shortly. She gulped, her shoulders shimmying with a little thrill.
He’d been right to put the brakes on things. The friend rule had been set when she’d been a little more clearheaded.
Luis lived here. Her life was in New York. Potentially part-time in Miami, if the deal came to fruition.
Jumping into something with Luis based on the false sense of intimacy wrought by her plea for help could only lead to confusion and hurt feelings in the end.
She didn’t want that. Not for Luis or for herself.
Disappointment warred with practicality. Then, the bathroom door opened, and lust jumped into the skirmish.
The man of the hour . . . or more like the week . . . strode out. With his shirt on, thank God for small blessings.
Time to get back on a friendly footing.
“You ready, Vinny?” she asked.
The dark flush that slowly crawled up his cheeks threatened to blow her level-headed thinking to smithereens. She winked, liking the fact that she’d gotten under his skin.
Island Affair Page 10
