Austin grinned. “Any chance I might get a kiss like that, Amanda?”
Dallas growled, but Amanda gave Austin a narrow eyed look and said, “Keep it up and I won’t cover for you next time one of your pissed-off girlfriends is looking for ‘that cheating bastard’.”
Holding up his hands, Austin flinched and backed away. “Yikes, you play hard ball, bebé, but I don’t cheat. They just don’t like it when I start dating someone else. What can I say? I’m addictive.”
“El zorrer,” Dallas muttered, the way he rolled his “r’s” making her heart beat faster. It was unfair that he not only looked sexy and could make her wet with a glance, but even his accent drove her crazy. She couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to have his mouth on her pussy again and wonder what it would feel like if he made that rolling “r” sound against her clit.
She managed to wiggle her way out of Dallas’s arms and said in a harsh whisper, “What’s your family doing here?”
He had the audacity to give her an innocent look. “What? I invited them over for dinner.”
“Have you lost your mind?” She frowned at him and tried to ignore how her hard nipples were poking out against the thin fabric of her blouse. “Why would you do that?”
“So suspicious. Come on. My mom is making dinner and I swear you’re going to die when you taste her empanadas.” He tugged her hand. “Stop trying to kill me with your eyes, beautiful. You know it just makes me hard.”
She gaped at him as he led her through his opulent Spanish-style home until they reached his kitchen. The room stood a good fourteen feet high with windows facing the ocean, all dark wood cabinets with beige granite countertops. Mrs. Ortega looked up as they entered, her round face breaking into a wide smile. At just a little over five feet tall it was hard to imagine this tiny woman giving birth to three hulking sons, but all the Ortega boys had her slightly tilted dark eyes and dimples. The youngest, Huston, was away at college, but Amanda had met him earlier in the year and he was just as good-looking and charming as his older brothers, but with a bit more mischief in him.
Amanda had met Mrs. Ortega plenty of times when the woman came to visit her son at work, and had even bought her birthday present for her when Dallas had forgotten it until the last minute. The older woman would always stop to talk to her and she was always kind. So when Mrs. Ortega grabbed her in a hug Amanda easily returned it.
“Amanda!” the other woman said in thickly accented voice. “When Dallas said he had a lady friend for me to meet I had no idea it would be you. But I must say, I am so glad to see that you are dating my son. He needs a good woman in his life.”
Still hugging the Ortega matriarch, she shot Dallas a dirty look, which he ignored, pretending to pick through the ingredients spread out on the huge tan granite kitchen island. “Well, I don’t know if we’re exactly dating. More like just friends.”
Mrs. Ortega stepped back and gave Amanda a critical look. “Has he been treating you like those chucha cuereras he usually dates?”
“Mom!” Dallas said in a horrified voice while Austin burst out laughing.
She wasn’t sure what a chucha cuerera was, but from the flush heating Dallas’s face she was pretty sure it wasn’t complimentary. Deciding she liked seeing him off balance like this, she gave Mrs. Ortega a mournful look and decided to make Dallas pay for putting her in this situation. “Did you know for our first date he took me to a fast food joint? And that he forgot his wallet so I had to pay?”
Mrs. Ortega whirled on Dallas and picked up a kitchen towel, whacking him while Dallas gave Amanda a look that promised retribution. “Dallas, how could you?”
The older woman went off in a fluid stream of Spanish while Austin was practically peeing himself laughing, sliding down the side of the cupboards until he sat on the floor. Dallas fended off his mother before grabbing the towel from her and placing a kiss on her forehead.
“Mom, calm down. For our second date I took her out on the yacht to that restaurant off the ocean you love. I showered her with roses and treated her like a queen. Come on, you know I don’t think Amanda’s like those other girls. She’s a lady, through and through, and you’ve raised me well enough that I know how to treat a lady. She’s special.” He gave Amanda a quick glance that baffled her almost as much as his words. “You know what she means to me. And when’s the last time I introduced you to anyone I was dating?”
Mrs. Ortega huffed, then returned to the stove. “I’m just glad you finally got up the nerve to ask her out.”
Amanda frowned, looking between Dallas and his mother. “What do you mean?”
Before Mrs. Ortega could respond, Dallas was there, holding his hand over his mother’s mouth. He said something to her in Spanish while Amanda watched with narrowed eyes. When he removed his hand his mother chuckled softly. “Why don’t you get your lady something to drink? I left the pitcher of sangria on the back porch. Austin, set the table for us.”
Standing, Austin shook his head. “Why do I have to set the table?”
“Because your brother has better things to do with his time.”
Dallas took Amanda’s hand in his and led her into his palatial backyard with its view of the ocean. An infinity pool sat at the edge of the property and his yacht blocked the sunset to the left. She waited until they were away from the open doorway leading to the kitchen, then jerked Dallas close and whispered. “What the hell is going on?”
“What?” he asked with an innocent look that totally didn’t work on his tough guy face.
“This, your mother, dating? What the hell did you tell her?”
“The truth. That I found a woman who made me want to be a better man.”
She gaped at him. “How the fuck is blackmailing me making you a better man?”
His dark brows lowered and he released her hand. “Look, I know this isn’t exactly normal—”
“Ya think?”
His lips twitched in a smile and the memory of their kiss began to burn through her. “Like I was saying, this isn’t exactly normal, but I do like you, Amanda. I’ve liked you for a long time but I never thought I’d have a chance with you.”
Shaking her head, she moved away from his all-too-tempting mouth over to the crystal pitcher of sangria. “Men who like women don’t blackmail them into doing something they don’t want, Dallas.”
His heat pressed against her back a moment before he wrapped his arms around her. “Admit it, you’d never have given me a chance to prove how good we could be together otherwise.”
Oh how she wanted to believe him, to know that her secret crush had a crush on her as well, but she was a practical woman and protective of her heart. “Was this before or after you fucked your way through Miami? I mean come on, Dallas, I’ve seen the results of dating you, had to deal with more than one pissed-off ex-girlfriend. You think that makes me even the slightest bit interested in you? To know what a man-whore you are?”
His grip tightened and he said in a low voice, “Every single woman that I dated knew the score. She knew that I wasn’t looking for anything long-term, that I was just interested in a good time. I never lied to them and led them on.”
Her hand shook as she poured herself a drink. “Right. And suddenly you’re ready for a commitment? Bullshit.”
He took the glass from her hand and set it on the table before turning her to face him. She tried to look away, to not see the sincerity in his gaze, but he trapped her chin in his hand and made her look at him. “Amanda, I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve never been so hung up on a woman that she’s the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing at night. You consume me. I live for your smiles at work, devise ways to spend more time with you. I’ve been trying to get up the nerve to ask you out on a date, but you’re so fucking good at keeping a wall between us that you never gave me a chance. So I fucked up and did something I shouldn’t of, but don’t forget, you were the one who broke the rules first.”
Swallowing hard, she tried to ignore the memories of masturbating in his office, of how hard she’d come, of how hard he’d made her come. “Dallas, we can’t do this.”
His jaw firmed. “Yes, we can. Just give me a chance.”
The light, clean scent of his cologne filled her as he pulled her close, rubbing his nose against hers. Unable to resist, she slid her hands over his shoulders and across his back, loving the firm, defined muscles beneath her fingertips. If she was being honest with herself Dallas was right. She’d never have given him a chance because she feared what he could do to her heart. Already she was half in love with the man and she knew what it would do to her when he dumped her for some new, leggy beauty.
“Dallas, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not your type. You’ll get bored with me and—”
Once again, he shut her up with an amazing kiss that made her toes curl. She clung to him, sagging in his arms as he devoured her with his mouth. God could that man kiss. He pressed his pelvis against the cradle of her hips and reached down with one hand to grab her ass, pulling her tight against him. She moaned and he licked at her mouth, tasting every bit of her he could, addicting her to his touch, to his scent. Never before had she been kissed with such hunger and he brought out an almost animalistic side of her nature that she’d hidden from the men she dated. With a little growl in her throat she matched the intensity of his passion, digging her nails into his back, urging him on with her mouth until her lips were practically bruised from how hard they were kissing.