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“Well, it seems to me that horse raising is part of the family tradition too.”
“Not the part that pays,” he said. “I guess we’re all trapped sometimes between what we want to have and what we have to do.”
She leaned forward, her heart thudding in her chest. When she spoke, her voice had dropped an octave to a sultry alto that she barely recognized. It was that vixen from the night at Atlantis surfacing again. “But what do you really want?”
He reached across the table and rubbed a thumb over her lips. “You, uh, you had a bit of chocolate on your mouth.”
“And?”
Xavier stood and walked around the table. Then, he leaned low and kissed her, his tongue working its way first over her lips before seeking purchase in her mouth. When he pulled back, he still stayed lingering by her mouth, the heat of his breath against her face, the taste of chocolate fresh on her tongue.
“You, Jules. I want you, but I know you’ve seen me at my worst. Seen that I can like my women too much. I just wanted you to know that for these few weeks, you can be more than my valet, if you want to be, and I’d never hold it against you.”
Sandra nodded, but her heart broke again. She’d already been in the club of women Xavier never called or tried to find again. “But it would be a fling. I’m not sure I’m made like that, that a few weeks of pleasure are all I want from you.”
Xavier’s grin widened, and those dimples were back at the corner of his cheeks.
Her knees wobbled under the table, and she was glad he couldn’t see her. God, he was her Kryptonite.
“Who said I only wanted a little while?”
“The fact I had Lisette throw a glass at me when her aim missed you,” she replied. “I need time to think about this, okay? To be ready to take a plunge.”
Xavier stilled and a bit of the light faded from his eyes. “I feel this connection with you, Jules. I know that sounds like a line, but there’s something about you that makes me feel like I’ve known you so much longer than I have. It’s all up to you, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m waiting, and I think you’re worth it.”
She nodded. He thinks we’re connected because we are, at least from that night. But I just can’t tell him. How connected can we be if he rejected me? “I…let’s go see the Park Güell and we can talk about it later. I…it’s not a no, it’s just so complicated that I need some time.”
Xavier offered her his hand. “Then we’re off to see Gaudí’s greatest gift to the city.”
Chapter Five
While he’d felt bruised and confused a bit by their conversation over cake, Xavier was feeling better now. Jules intrigued him on every level. It was rare that a woman said no to him. It was usually easy to get them to do anything he wanted. Typically, he was a one-woman man. He’d taken Carrie to two official functions on his arm. He hadn’t expected a cat fight. In general, Xavier was loyal, and he tried to be considerate of the women he dated.
He just dated a lot of them. He couldn’t deny that.
But he’d rarely had a woman turn him down, and certainly not after he’d kissed her. That usually did the trick. But there was something special about Jules, and it wasn’t just her reserve. There were other things. This connection that seemed so strong between them even though he’d known her barely a week. There was her infectious smile and the way he’d already become hooked on her YouTube channel and watched more than
a third of her videos by now, even though he’d played it off as only having seen one or two. There was something utterly captivating about Juliet Gaines, something that seemed to deflate some of his usual charms, but at the same time, made him crave her even more. It was up to her, of course, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep charming her.
There was something between them, damn it, and Xavier wouldn’t walk away from that.
Her face lit up with joy as they finished climbing the interminable hill and then the steps to the Park Güell. Gaudí had designed this too, and while the Sagrada Família had a sinister edge on the outside, this felt more like a fairy tale mixed with a Greek legend, especially with the giant mimic of a Parthenon-like structure at the hill’s crest.
She ran ahead of him, her ballet flats clamoring up the white marble steps. “This is like a dream!”
He watched her, the way the sunlight caught the red highlights in her strawberry blond hair and the hem of her skirt grazed her mid-thigh, and the beatific smile on her lips. Yeah, I’ll say. “It is a dream, Jules.”
“No!” she said, spinning around and marveling at the Corinthian columns that towered thirty feet over her. “This really is. I feel like I’m in A Midsummer Night’s Dream or something equally amazing, like fairies or nymphs will just dance right out from under the bushes or I’ll see Zeus or something!”
He nodded and joined her, threading his fingers with hers and leading her up the final set of steps to the viewpoint. In his youth, it had been an actual park with greenery and space. Now, years of people trampling or playing soccer had left it a dusty field. One where dozens of pigeons waited for their opportunity to charm tourists out of food. However, the white stone benches were adorned with the tiles and cut glass that made them shine in the setting sun. Plus, they provided the perfect view for the entire city down to the port.
Breathtaking, just like Jules.
Walking with her to the bench closest to the edge, he sat her down and watched her grin widen at the spectacle before her.
“My favorite place to think in all of Barcelona.”
She chuckled. “I don’t know how you could think. All I want to do is play ‘Where’s Waldo’ with the view. It’s amazing, and I think I can see the entire city from here.”
