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“Now, siren,” he chided her gently, “we came all this way simply to observe the phenomenon that is you. The least you could do is give us a kind word or two before sending us on our way.”
“I thought that was what I just did,” she pointed out, hiding her smile.
The chill she’d felt at the thought of walking away eased beneath the warmth in his gaze.
“Come on, darlin’.” Shane began walking slowly toward the apartment building just above the beach. “We brought wine, and Sebastian’s mother sent homemade tamales. They’re not to be missed.”
She gave Sebastian a narrow-eyed look. “Just came to see me, huh?”
He shrugged. “We are here, are we not? Why else would we come to such a crowded little beach when our family’s property holds several that are quite private?” He glanced around before giving her a considering look. “You could sunbathe nude on them if you wish.”
“Incorrigible,” she accused him before turning and rushing to catch up with Shane.
If she wasn’t very
damned careful these two were going to steal her heart before the night was out. She was turning out to be way too easy. And they were just the sort her mother had warned her about. The ones Margot had promised to have her institutionalized over if she dared bring one home.
She had a feeling Margot hadn’t been joking, either.
She had a feeling denying them was going to be far harder than her mother assured her it would be.
One winter night, for just a few minutes, the powerful effect they had on her had followed her into her dreams and her fantasies.
She had dreamed of them, wondered about them; now here they were. But just because she was fascinated with them and the forbidden pleasures they represented didn’t mean she had to be a pushover. Nor did it mean she was willing to become involved with what was guaranteed to result in a broken heart. She had a hard enough time dealing with Margot. She didn’t need more aggravation in her life. Not at a time when her struggle against her mother’s plans for her would take on a whole new meaning once she returned home after the summer. Alyssa had no intention of remaining in D.C. and playing the good little political daughter. She had her own life, her own dreams. And they didn’t include marrying for her father’s dream of the Oval Office, rather than her own dream of love, a home filled with children’s laughter and the quiet contentment she hadn’t known in so long.
“I imagine the two of you wouldn’t consider going away for just a few years,” she sighed. “We could pick this up somewhere after my twenty-fourth birthday.”
She imagined that would give her a few years away from Margot and time to figure out who she was and what she wanted. So far, she simply wasn’t certain.
“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Sebastian asked his cousin. “A bit unrealistic at moments, but really quite cute.”
“And you’re far too arrogant and superior,” she informed him as they crossed the remaining distance to the back of the apartment building. “And how do you know where I’m staying?”
“Sweets, it’s been five months,” Sebastian reminded her. “And you’re playing in my backyard so to speak. I knew where you’d be staying months before you arrived.”
“Oh, what a small world we live in after all,” she muttered, throwing him a glare. “I didn’t come to Spain for romance. Or sex,” she informed him. “Peace was more my aim.”
“We can be peaceful, darlin’,” Shane promised her, starting up the steps that led to the second-floor balcony outside her apartment. “I promise. You’ll get all kinds of peace.”
She wasn’t going to get any peace at all. But she couldn’t deny the fact that excitement was churning through her at a rate she’d never known before meeting them. All her senses were heightened, her flesh sensitive, needs she was completely unfamiliar with before them amping inside her.
Reckless. Her mother had warned her not to give into her penchant for recklessness and she’d promised she wouldn’t. She just wanted a quiet, relaxing vacation. She’d promised. And that would be so very boring.
She knew she was too innocent for them. Yet they were fun. Exciting. They offered the forbidden and made her feel alive. They terrified her. For a few brief moments in a hidden grotto the world had been so much brighter and so many things were possible, even fantasies. But when she’d forced herself to return to the ball, she’d found the world as she’d left it and she’d realized the brilliance, the excitement and mystery she’d tasted just a moment of, had become a hunger she ached for.
And she couldn’t have that. Her world had no place for fairy tales or dreams. There was no place in it for love until she could find her way out of D.C.
Moving up the steps between them, she could only blink as Shane drew a key from the pocket of his pants and unlocked the French doors.
“And you got that where?” she demanded, one hand moving to prop on a hip as she stared between Shane and Sebastian with a glare, certain she appeared furious rather than simply exasperated.
“We’re rather talented that way.” He was laughing at her. Behind those sunglasses, she could practically feel the amusement she knew was gleaming there.
“You’re rather far too arrogant and confident.” She almost wished she were more like Millicent, able to accept their blatant sexuality without her emotions becoming added to the volatile mix of wicked eroticism and superior male certainty.
The problem was, she couldn’t seem to make herself be seriously angry with them. Their antics were far too charming, dangerously so, and they were totally forbidden, which she feared made them all the more attractive.
As if they needed anything to make them more appealing.
