“Have you ever been to Alcatraz?” She nodded at the view through the shroud of the curtain and the mist on the water.
Metaphorically, he’d grown up there. “No.”
She slid a sideways look at him and seemed to grow skittish, putting a few steps between them. “I want you to know that I never do this.”
The loping animal in him slowed his pace. “When you saynever…”
Her chin dipped coyly. “I’m not a virgin. I mean I don’t jump into bed with strangers.”
Her cheeks flushed pink. She was trying to be bold, but she was shy at heart. Fascinating.
“I’m not making judgments. Or assumptions.” After a beat, he magnanimously added, “We don’t have to use the bed. Lady’s choice.”
Her throaty laughter was as much a turn-on as the rest of her, filling the room with her presence. “Good to know. That helps my nerves a lot. Thanks.”
“This is you nervous?” She had invited herself in here! “God help the man who encounters you when you’re feeling confident.”
Her mouth pulled wide in a satisfied show of her teeth. “Thank you for that. I actually hate feeling less than five thousand percent confident. But you’ve got all of this going on…” She motioned at him in an encompassing way. “It’s intimidating.”
“I think there might be a compliment buried in there,” he said drily. “But to be clear, I like five thousand percent consent. If you’re here because you feel intimidated, or you think I expect sex because I bought you a glass of champagne, then we need a longer conversation before we do anything else.”
“That’s not what I think. I’m very comfortable saying no when I need to. I’ve made a habit of it for a while now.” Her mouthtwisted with irony. “More often than I needed to. It’s the saying yes that makes me feel out of my depth. I’m out of practice.”
“Like saying yes to a drink?”
“Exactly. I don’t know how to be spontaneous anymore, but I’d like to be. If you’re getting mixed signals, that’s why.”
“You use truth to disarm,” he replied, studying that contradiction of squared shoulders and a high chin with the pink that sat in her cheeks and the way her lashes kept screening her thoughts. “You only reveal a sliver of the truth, though. It’s a clever sleight of hand.”
“Is that a compliment?” Her brows went up to a haughty level as she mocked him with his own words. “Because you’ve buried it.”
“I believe you’re nervous.” Even though she was disguising it well. “I’m observing how well you counteract it by calling it out. The way you’re confiding in me sounds like a sign of trust, but it also lets me know I can’t take advantage of you. Not if we’re being honest with each other.”
“You’re making it sound like I came in here to screw with your mind not your body. I assure you it’s the latter.”
“Please continue with both. As foreplay goes, I’m enjoying it.” He swirled the final mouthful of champagne in the bottom of his glass before swallowing it, meeting her gaze over the disc of the stem.
Her blue eyes glittered with amusement.
Dios, she was marvelous. He hadn’t even kissed her yet and he wanted weeks and months and years to saturate himself in her.
That thought brought him up short. He had a few hours. The night at best. The slow-motion train wreck in Madrid needed mitigating. Dealing with his father required all of his concentration and a matching level of ruthlessness.
Joaquin loathed the idea of being anything like his father. It made him sick to contemplate it so he brushed that disturbingprospect aside. He set down his glass and ambled toward Siobhan, watching her eyes widen.
“There’s no rush,” he assured her. “No signed contract to fulfill. Leave anytime. But I’m dying to kiss you.” He cupped the side of her neck and gave her a beat to decide.
Her gaze held his until her pupils expanded, then her lashes swept down. Her attention dropped to his mouth and her lips parted in tremulous invitation.
“I want that, too.” She leaned into him, mouth uptilted in offering.
He sealed his lips over hers and desire exploded within him.
Yes. Here was the portal to escape he’d been looking for.
Siobhan hadn’t realized what a sense of heightened anticipation she’d been in until his mouth covered hers and relief arced through her.
There were still nervous crackles in the back of her mind. What if he was an accomplished liar? What if it wasn’therhe wanted, butthem?
