I didn’t mean to.
He quickly turned, water splatters had part of his white T-shirt sticking to his abs in all the wrong places. Places that made my control slowly crumble into tiny little pieces of dust.
I needed a blindfold or something.
“I stole two cookies,” he confessed after turning back around and scrubbing the next dish. “But they were finished, so…”
“I don’t police the product once it’s done, so you’re safe.” I smiled as he hunched his shoulders as though he was gearing up for a heated discussion where I would cut him off from all sugar. “Thanks for cleaning up.”
“Yeah well, it was part of the deal.” He put the last measuring cup on the towel and dried it off then turned around in a semi-circle.
“Third drawer to your right.” I pointed.
“I knew that,” he said gruffly, grabbing the cups and tossing them in the drawer only to stare extra hard at the cookie trays.
“Do you know where anything in your kitchen is?”
“I don’t bake.”
“Nooooo.” I grinned then grabbed the cookie sheets and put them in the big drawer underneath the oven. Then I opened the pantry and went over to grab the heavy stand mixer.
“I got it.” He had it in one hand like it weighed nothing.
I pointed at the bottom shelf.
The smell of cookies clung in the air.
I had no other plans for the rest of the day except to read. I’d left my books on the kitchen bar.
“Are you going to read?” He grabbed all three and handed them over.
“Yeah.” I mean if I had a choice, I’d probably rather have a heated makeout session with him, but reading, I could read.
“I’ve got a better idea instead, if you’re up for it.”
I hugged my books like a shield. “Let’s hear it.”
“Swimming.”
“Swimming,” I repeated.
“Swimming.” With a nod at the window, he confirmed what he’d already said. “That is, unless you can’t swim.”
“Why swimming?”
“It’s one of my favorite things to do, and I figure that if I piss you off you can just drown me and put yourself out of your misery really fast without having to use any sort of murder weapon. Really, it’s a win-win.”
“Why would I drown you?”
“I missed your birthday. I abandoned you. Took your virginity then smashed the shit out of some glassware. Embarrassed you in front of new friends. Betrayed you. Lied—”
I held up my hand. “Repeating all of your sins doesn’t really make me feel like forking over forgiveness.”
“That’s the whole point, Val. I’ll keep reminding you until you trust me enough to know… it won’t happen again.”
“I don’t,” I said in a quiet voice. “I wish I trusted you, but I don’t.”
His voice fell to a rough whisper, “You will.”
“I don’t think I can… not until you show me everything, not just the pretty parts.”
“Did you just call me pretty?”
“Yes. You’re beautiful. Like a girl. Wow, what skin products do you use?”
He cursed. “I deserved that.”
Another nod.
“So, swimming?”
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because he really was trying to spend time with me, but the more I let him in, the more it would hurt when he eventually fought his way out, breaking every part of me until he was free, and I was left picking up the pieces.
“Yes,” I found myself saying. “But no touching of any kind.”
His lips pressed together as he hung his head. “All right.”
“All right.” I took a deep breath. “Now I need to find a swimsuit.”
Sergio sighed. “Follow me.”
I did.
He took the stairs too fast, making it nearly impossible to keep up with him. He stopped at one of the first guest rooms and reached for the handle, then pulled his hand back like it was going to burn him. “Just… wait here.”
Something felt off.
Wrong.
He moved into the dark room and quickly returned with three swim suits, each of them with tags still intact.
“Any of these work?”
The only reason my shaking hands took the suits from his hands was due to the fact that each had an expensive price tag hanging off of the material, meaning they’d never been worn.
He wouldn’t be looking at me, comparing me to a ghost.
“Yeah.” I tried to sound excited. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
About fifteen minutes later and I knew there was a huge difference between me and Andi.
She’d clearly been wasting away to nothing.
Because my boobs were barely covered by the thin scraps of white. What was worse, the swimsuit bottoms were extremely low and revealing. They fit. But I looked like a complete hooker. I’d never worn anything so revealing and, that was saying a lot, considering what my wedding dress had looked like.
And just like that I remembered.
I had another note.
One last note.