and he manages it for me.”
“Assets?”
“Yep. Didn’t I tel you that, Caroline? I’m loaded.” He winced, looking out to sea.
“I knew there was a reason I was hanging out with you.” I topped off his coffee.
“Seriously. Loaded.”
“Okay, now you’re just being an ass,” I said, trying to lift the tension that had settled over the table.
“Wel , people get weird about money. You never know,” he said.
“When we get home you’re buying our building and instal ing a hot tub on the landing, that’s al ,” I joked, which earned me a smal smile.
We sat and looked at each other, deep in our own thoughts. He’d done so much alone. No wonder he always seemed a little lost to me. Living
out of a suitcase, not al owing himself to be tethered to anyone, no real sense of belonging—could it real y be that simple? Wal banger had
haremed because he couldn’t stand to lose anyone else? Paging Dr. Freud…
Freudian or no, it made sense. He was attracted to me, had been attracted to me since the beginning. But what was different this time?
Clearly he’d been attracted to al the other women as wel . Wow, no pressure at al …With a toss of my head, I tried to change the subject.
“I can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow. I feel like we just got here.” I leaned forward on my elbows. He smiled, likely noticing my not-so-subtle way
of changing the subject. But he seemed grateful.
“So stay. Stay with me. We can spend a few more days here, and then who knows? Where else do you want to go?”
“Pfft. You’l recal that I’m leaving before you because it’s the only flight I could get. Besides, I have to be back at work, organized, and in the
right time zone on Monday. You know how many jobs Jil ian has lined up for me?”
“She’l understand. She’s a sucker for a good romance. Come on. Stay with me. I’l stash you in the overhead bin for the flight home.” His eyes
twinkled over his coffee mug.
“Overhead bin, my foot. And is this what this is? A romance? Shouldn’t you be embracing me on the beach? And ripping my bodice?” I placed
my bare legs in his lap, and he took ful advantage of this, massaging between his warm hands.
“Lucky for you, I’m a bodice-ripper from way back. I could probably even throw together a pirate costume, if that’s what you’re into,” he replied,
the sapphires beginning to smoke.
“It has been quite a romantic tale, hasn’t it? If someone would’ve told me this story, I doubt I’d have believed it,” I mused, groaning as I finished
my last bite.
“Why not? It’s not that strange how we met, is it?”
“How many women do you know who would voluntarily go to Europe with a man who’d been banging the plaster right off her wal s for weeks?”
“True, but you could also spin me as the guy who played you al those great records through the wal , and the guy who gave you, and I quote,
‘the best meatbal ever’?”
“I suppose you did begin to wear me down with the Glen Mil er. That got me.” I sunk into my chair as his hands did delicious things to the
bottoms of my socked feet. Socks I had also appropriated from his side of the room.
“I got you, huh?” He smirked, leaning closer.
“Oh, shut it, you.” I pushed his face away, smiling big as I contemplated what he said. Did he have me? Yeah. He total y had me. And would
have me, sometime later that night.
At that thought, a whoosh of nerves hit my tummy, and I felt my smile falter a bit. Nerves had set up shop big time, and no matter where Brain
went, eventual y Nerves invaded every thought, every idea I had about where the night would go. I was ready, Lord knows I was ready, but I was
damn nervous. O would come back, right? I knew she would. Did I mention I was nervous?
“So, are you almost done with your work? Do you stil have a lot to do tomorrow?” I asked, changing the subject once again. As was always the
case when he talked about his work, Simon’s eyes lit up. He described the shots he stil needed of the Roman-style aqueduct in town.
“I wish we had time to go scuba diving. I hate that we ran out of time.” I frowned.
“Again, something that would be solved if you stayed here with me.” He frowned back, making a big deal of mimicking my eyebrows.
“Again, some of us have nine-to-five jobs. I have to get home!”
“Home, right. You know there’s gonna be a firing squad to face when we get home. Everyone is going to want to know what happened here
between us,” he said seriously.
“I know. We’l handle it.” I cringed at the gril ing I’d receive from the girls, to say nothing of Jil ian. I wonder if a kitchen blowjob was what she had