Angel had never in his life been jealous of a little kid. Until now.
Wynn turned the last page of the book, where the mom in the story tucked her little sky travelers into bed. She eased herself from Zavi’s hold. Setting the book aside, she pulled his covers up, kissed his cheek, then turned off the light and tiptoed over to her shoes. She hooked her fingers through the back straps of her high-heeled sandals and moved quietly out to the sitting room.
Angel followed her, helpless to do anything else. She pulled the door to, then told Casey, “I’ll be right back.”
Angel shook his head. “No, she won’t. She’s going to play with the grownups for a while.”
Wynn gave Angel a look that was hard to interpret. They walked side by side out of Rocco’s suite and into the hall of the main house. Midway down it, she stopped Angel. “I think it’s best if I stay up here.”
“I think it’s best if you come down and dance with me.”
She gave a quick shake of her head. “Angel…dancing with you would be…inappropriate.”
He grinned. A dance wasn’t nearly as inappropriate as everything else he wanted to do with her. “Don’t make me suffer through yet another wedding. Alone.”
“Have there been a lot of weddings?”
“This is the third since we got here. There has to be a record somewhere that we’re breaking.”
She smiled at him. Suddenly, his fingertips were on her face. Her skin was like rose petals. He bent close. Her lips parted. He stopped short of kissing her. She thought she was forbidden fruit. Maybe she was. Maybe he’d let her think it mattered. For a little bit longer, anyway, long enough for them to get to know each other better.
“One dance, Wynn. What harm can that do?” He bent lower, almost touching his cheek to the velvety skin of her neck. “Come be with the grownups for a little while. Quit hiding behind the kids.”
Anger flashed in her blue-brown eyes. “I’m not hiding behind the kids. They’re my job.”
“You’re off the clock tonight.”
“I’m a live-in nanny. I’m never really off the clock.”
Angel lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist, watching the gooseflesh he’d raised on her skin.
She pulled free. “This isn’t going anywhere.”
“Not yet it isn’t.”
“Not ever.”
He took her hand and started down the hall toward the bridge. “We’ll see.”
She stopped. “I mean it, Angel.”
He stepped into her space. “How can you be sure when we haven’t even had our first kiss? Aren’t you curious to know what we’d be like together?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
She looked back toward Rocco’s suite, but the bend in the hall hid them from Casey. “One kiss, then,” she whispered. “One kiss to end this.”
Angel slowly smiled. He touched her face with the fingertips of both hands. “Good to know one kiss will do it for us. I’ll hold off on it for a while, then. I don’t want to lose you so soon.”
Chapter Fifteen
Val carried two mugs of coffee out to the patio. It was the first time that day that Ace had actually removed her camera. It was almost as if she used it as a shield. Ivy had asked her to come over early in the day to capture all of the wedding preparations. He, Ivy, and the other girls had escorted her wherever she needed to be around Blade’s the whole day. He’d gotten to spend a lot of time with her, which he’d enjoyed more than he should have—although he didn’t like being banished from Mandy’s room, which she’d done without remorse.
“Brought you some coffee.” He looked around and realized they had the patio to themselves. “Don’t think you need a second wind, though. Looks like everyone’s quitting for the night.”
Ace stared down at her camera in a pensive way.
“Ace?” Val prompted, worried at her silence.
“You have a nice thing going here, Val.”
“I do.” He sat on a two-seater and looked up at her. When she finally looked at him, her pale green eyes were awash with tears. She blinked, then looked beyond him for a second. “You ever feel like you’re just waiting for your life to start?”
He considered that. “No.”
She glanced down at her camera again, absently touching it. “Sometimes I think I’m not real at all. That I only live in the two-dimensional images of my photo journals.”
“You have photo journals?”
She nodded. “I have pics of everything.”
“I’d like to see them sometime. Or are they private?”
“Some are private. I could show you some of the others.”
He reached over and caught her hand. “Will you show me the photos you took today?”