“I’ve got sand in my panties.” Dumb words were coming out of her mouth, but she couldn’t think straight after Logan’s announcement.
His lips curved in a smile against her skin. “Can I see?”
She slapped his hand away when he tried to sneak his fingers under the hem of her shorts. “Stop that. Do you think I should agree to see Fortunada?”
“Not my decision, Chiquita.” He circled his arms around her waist and leaned back. “I just keep remembering your saying how you couldn’t stop thinking about the names in that book. What about the one in San Diego, what was his name? Garcia something?”
“Miguel Garcia. No, I’m done with it. I tried once and look where it got me. My father could just as easily be the one who’s dead. It’s not like I’m a little girl anymore and need a daddy.” She didn’t. Her life was perfectly fine without one.
It was a pipe dream without a happy ending. The little stabs of regret would disappear soon enough, she was sure of it. It wasn’t like she’d dreamed all her life she would someday find her dad.
Damn Lovey Dovey and her stupid stud book. Even gone, it seemed her mother still found ways to mock her.
“I don’t want to see Fortunada. He’s trying to pull my strings, and I’m not going to play his game.” She fiddled with a soft ring on Jake’s finger.
“Good. I was hoping that’s what you’d decide.”
“What’s this?” she asked holding up his hand for a closer view. When he didn’t answer, she craned her neck to look at him. His face had gone blank, which only increased her curiosity. She peered at his finger again and frowned. Was he wearing another woman’s hair braided into a ring?
“Who’s hair is this?” she asked, dreading to hear there’d been someone in his past he cared enough about to wear a part of her. Why hadn’t she noticed it before?
“Yours.”
His answer stole her breath. She twisted around and knelt in front of him. “Mine? I never gave you any of my hair.”
Two spots of red colored his cheeks. “I . . . ah, I took some. When you came to the tent. While you were asleep.”
The rat thief had stolen her hair and made a ring out of it? The smile on her face felt so lopsided she was sure she was grinning like a fool. A man didn’t do something like that if he wasn’t in love, did he?
She leaned closer to him. “I want to kiss you.”
“Hell, yeah,” he said.
Jake had a way of taking over without seeming to take over, something she loved about him. He guided her, set the pace, and made her want to prove she could keep up with him, all the while understanding he took nothing from her she didn’t want to give.
Kissing him was one of her favorite things to do, and she closed her eyes, shutting out everything but the feel of his lips on hers and how his hands felt gliding over her thighs. The hard press of his erection low on her stomach sent fire racing through her bloodstream.
He rocked his hips, rubbing against her. “Maria.”
“Jake.”
“Jesus.”
Logan’s voice penetrated her haze, and she lifted her gaze to her brother. “Go away, Logan.”
Jake ignored the intrusion, not taking his eyes off her. “You tell ’em, Chiquita.”
His grin reminded her of a mischievous boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She grinned back. “Let’s just ignore him and hope he goes away.”
“You left your phone on the kitchen counter.” Logan handed her the cell. “It rang.” He gave her a disgruntled glare before striding back into the house.
As if she hadn’t caught him kissing Dani more times than she could count. The call could be the one she was waiting for. “Just a sec.” She punched in her code and listened.
Jake slipped his hand under her T-shirt and walked his fingers up her stomach to the laced edge of her bra. “Hang up the phone, Chiquita.”
“Sure.” She flipped it closed and hopped off the chaise. “Go home and take a shower. I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Because?”
“Because we have somewhere to go. See you in an hour.” The way his eyes devoured her as his gaze traveled from her bare legs to her breasts made her toes curl. If he didn’t stop looking at her like that, she’d melt into a messy puddle at his feet. She left before she decided they should get it on in broad daylight on the back deck of her brother’s house.
Maria pulled Sally into a parking space at the boys’ club. Jake hadn’t said much since getting in the car, had just mostly stared out the window as she drove. As she’d suspected, his brief show of happiness back at Logan’s house had been mostly an act.