Burning need warms every limb; hunger pools in my low belly. I know for certain if we were here alone, he’d haul me back up onto the shore and press me into the sand. He’d slip his hands inside my bikini and make me his, as many times as he wanted.
I come up on my toes and crush my body against him just as loud whistles and raucous laughter from shore force us to break apart. The young boys are huddled together at the water’s edge, joking and teasing in Spanish, making kissing noises at us.
It’s harmless and silly. Still, I pinch my eyes closed and let my head drop against Cristiano’s chest. I feel his heart beating as erratically as mine.
“Well, we gave them quite a show.”
Cristiano chuckles and presses a kiss to my hair. “Come on. Let’s jump again.”
“Again?”
His hand is already closed over mine as he tugs me out of the water. “Sí. It’s easier the second time.”
Chapter Seventeen
Isabel
Cristiano takes me for a late lunch at a seaside café after we finish swimming. We sit outside on the patio beneath colorful umbrellas with damp hair and sandy feet, sharing a pitcher of ice-cold sangría. Our glasses overflow with freshly cut oranges and pineapple as Cristiano offers a smile.
“Salud.”
He tips his glass my way and I follow suit with a “Salud” of my own, not missing his playful wink. I didn’t pronounce it nearly as well as he did. Spanish rolls off his tongue so beautifully. I’m all too happy to sit and listen to him chat with our waiter for a few minutes before he orders our tapas. His features come alive when he speaks Spanish. It’s obviously in his blood. I suppose it’s in mine, too, but I’m a Cali girl at heart. Cristiano spent his youth traveling for school, but Ibiza is undoubtedly where he belongs.
“Have you ever considered living anywhere else?” I ask once the waiter walks away to put in our order.
He shakes his head. “Never. My home is on the island. I feel a sense of responsibility to the people here, my staff, my customers. I don’t see myself ever leaving.”
“You’re lucky. It’s a beautiful place to live.”
“California isn’t so bad, either,” he notes, studying me.
I swipe my thumb across the condensation on the side of my glass, pinning my focus there instead of considering his comment.
“Do your parents miss you?”
I look up and frown. “I’m not sure, actually. I’ve been avoiding them since I arrived. They don’t know I’m here.”
“Why not?” he asks, eyebrows raising in surprise.
I puff out an exhale and sag back in my seat. “They’re overprotective to say the least. The plan was for me to spend my summer with my grandmother in France. But I pulled the plug a few days before my trip and came here instead.”
“Were they always overprotective or did it get worse after Winnie?”
I mull over his question for a moment, surprised I hadn’t thought it through so deeply before now. “I think our family’s company has always demanded their protectiveness to a certain extent. We’ve always traveled with a bodyguard, lived in a gated community, socialized in tight-knit circles. I don’t know.” I rub my forehead. “It’s hard to put myself in their shoes because I’m not a parent. I don’t know how terrifying it must be to let your child loose out in the world and let the world loose on your child.”
“But…”
I smile softly. “ButI have spent a lot of my life trying to makemy parents happy, especially in the years after Winnie. I worry that even though I’ve grown up, in their eyes and in our small coastal community I’ll only ever be a child, someone for my mom to scold and my dad to tease, and it can be a little stifling to be Isabel De Vere, the heir. Sometimes I just want to be Isabel.”
“Or even just Elle,” he teases.
I chuckle. “Yes, here, I’ve taken it one step further.”
“So what would you do if you did it all your way?”
I smile as my eyebrows nearly hit my hairline. “My way?I guess I’d come to Ibiza, get a job in a nightclub, jump off a cliff…” He laughs and I allow myself the pleasure of looking at him for a moment before shaking my head. “Honestly, I probably wouldn’t go back to work for De Vere Diamonds.”
Maybe just… not go back, period.
