“Third time’s the charm, right?”
Mia considered saying, “Not according to your piano teacher,” but she didn’t know Cami well enough to whip out her more sarcastic side. Instead, she refocused on her own mat.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She onlypartiallyfocused on the palm fronds on the ground in front of her because Romeo was standing shin-deep in the surf as he cast his line into the waves, and the bunch and flex of his finely honed muscles would’ve been a sight to behold even had he still been wearing his T-shirt.
But he wasn’t.
Gulp!
He’d pulled off the baby-blue cotton tee and tucked it into the back pocket of his jeans, so it hung down his backside. Which meant she couldn’t see the high, tight, curve of his denim-clad butt. But the unencumbered view of his naked backmorethan made up for it.
The heavy muscles on either side of his spine created a deep valley between them. His wide shoulders narrowed down to his lean hips. And his tan skin gleamed with sweat and the glint of the sun as it beamed down on him like it couldn’t stop itself from worshipping at the altar of his manly form.
Letting her eyes drift for the hundredth time from the top of his dark head to the bulge of his muscled calves, visible because he’d rolled the bottoms of his jeans up to his knees, she nearly whimpered.
Or maybe there was nonearlyabout it since Cami glanced at her sharply. “Oh, yeah. Now I remember where I was headed before I got sidetracked by my less than mediocre weaving skills. So...” The lawyer wiggled her eyebrows. “I wasn’t wrong to assume there’s something brewing between you and O Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo. Iknewmy romance radar couldn’t be that far out of whack. So how’d he do it?”
Mia ignored the heat in her cheeks and asked, “Do what?”
“Kiss you. I saw you two all lip-locked when I came around the corner.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Was it sudden? Like, did he swoop in and ravish your mouth? Or was it slow? Did he brush aside your hair, cup your cheek, and never break eye contact?” She sat back and gave a dramatic shiver. “Oh, both ways are delicious. I can’t decide which is my favorite.”
Mia was only half paying attention at that point because she was still coming to terms with two very mind-blowing revelations. The first one? Romeodidlike her like that.The rather, ahem, impressive-looking bulge in his pants had spoken for itself.
She got all flushed and flustered just thinking aboutthat. So she decided not to think about it, and instead focus on the second revelation.
Since Romeo liked her like that, and since she’d assured him she wasn’t hunting up a happily-ever-after, he was anxious to act on the fact that he liked her like that.
Oh, my god. Did the world tilt? No? That was just every bone in my body turning into jelly?
She realized she’d been quiet for too long when Cami sighed. “Please tell me you aren’t one of those principled people who thinks it’s vulgar to kiss and tell. Because I’m stuck on an island with no cell service, no internet, and no TV. The only entertainment I have is the drama between you and Romeo.”
Mia grabbed onto the opening Cami had inadvertently given her like a drowning woman grabbing onto a life raft. Really, how was she supposed to talk about her and Romeo when she was still trying to come to terms with the idea that therewasa her and Romeo?
“Seems to me like you and Doc do plenty to cause drama and entertain each other,” she countered.
“Nice.” Cami nodded. “But you forget who you’re dealing with. I practice misdirection and redirection for a living. We’re not talking about me and Doc. We’re talking about you and Romeo.”
“Damn.” It was Mia’s turn to sigh. “You’re good.”
“Thank you.” Cami inclined her head. “Now, kiss and tell.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Mia insisted. “It barely lasted a second. I’m not even sure it should count as a kiss.”
“You have a little bullshit right here.” Cami pointed to her own mouth, and Mia decided the next time she wanted to let her sarcastic flag fly, she wasn’t going to hesitate. “That counted as a kiss, and you know it.”
Cami was right, of course.
Spiro “Romeo” Delgado, the sexiest, most wonderful man Mia had ever met, had kissed her lips and she would swear she’d felt it in her toes.
And in all the places in between.
“Which is why you keep glancing at him and making that little squeaking sound in the back of your throat,” Cami added.
“Ugh.” Mia’s shoulders drooped in defeat. “I was hoping that was only in my head.”
“Afraid not.” Cami made a face. “But hey, I get it. I mean, he sort of looks like a beached lion out there. All tawny-skin and masculinely brutish as he prowls through the surf, hunting up our dinner.” She stopped and grinned. “Oh, I like that. Maybe I should give up this whole lawyering gig and write novels. The really dreamy, really steamy kind.”
Cami comparing Romeo to a lion had Romeo’s words spinning through Mia’s head.“Hands down, you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. Lioness eyes is how I think of them.”
