She laughed. “No. I’ve just been realizing maybe I should take pity on you and throw you a little bone. This seemed easy enough.”
I grabbed her waist and pulled her to me again, enjoying the squeal of surprise. “Oh, sweetheart, you can’t silence what your eyes are saying. Why won’t you just let yourself have something good? You know we’d be so good together. You already know what the sex is like.”
She groaned. “Yes, I definitely do. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I can’t deny there is something between us. Can we just see what happens? Get through the wedding and go from there? I’ve got so much going on with work and the wedding, I don’t want to make any decisions while my mind is distracted.”
I smiled. That was better than what I’d thought I’d get. “I could be the best kind of distraction,” I whispered with a wink. “But of course. Just because I said I’d back off, doesn’t mean I’mgoing anywhere. You’ve got to work a lot harder if you want to get rid of me.”
Her eyes softened and she pushed a stray hair behind my ear. “Don’t back off. I don’t want to get rid of you just yet.”
I smiled, darting my eyes down to her mouth and back into her dark eyes. I licked my lips and lifted her chin with two fingers. “Bésame, princesa.”
Without hesitation, she did, and I reveled in it. I gripped her tighter, loving the soft moan that escaped her lips. I wanted to stay in that kiss forever. Just feeling her tongue dancing with mine, feeling her hands explore my body, had me confirming that she owned every part of me, whether she knew it or not.
“Mija, are you okay?”
I groaned when my abuela’s voice cut through the best kiss of my life. Cara smiled and placed one last kiss on my lips before pulling back.
“Si, abuela. I was just showing her my soccer pictures. We’ll be down in a minute.”
“Okay. Stay off the bed, Veronica. I just washed those sheets.”
“¡Ay dios mío!” I groaned into Cara’s shoulder.
Her body shook with laughter and I squeezed her tighter. I had so many questions, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment or run her off, so I kept them to myself.
“We better get back before she tries to give us a pregnancy test, and she would, too. ‘God works in mysterious ways, mija.’”
She laughed at my impression of my grandma and kissed me one last time. “Thank you for showing me all of this.”
She was so damn cute. A soft smile played on my lips, as genuine as the millions of other smiles she’d pulled from me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d smiled so much. “Thank you for kissing me. I look forward to doing it again sometime in the near future?”
She rolled her eyes. “If you play your cards right. Now, let’s go before your abuela comes looking for us. I don’t want to pee in a cup.”
Chapter Twenty
CARA
Sitting on a plane next to Vera was the closest we’d been in the two weeks since she’d dropped me off after dinner at her grandmother’s. Two weeks since she kissed me goodnight at my door. Two weeks of staring at her in the office from afar, and two weeks of my office being empty of her abuela’s cooking and her charming smile. But I didn’t care. It wasn’t like I’d missed her or anything.
We hadn’t talked in person since then. I’d thrown myself into work and she hadn’t come to see me. We’d texted here and there, but life had gotten in the way of the conversation I knew we needed to have.
I kissed her. I had initiated the kiss in her childhood bedroom, and I’d kissed her back after that. I couldn’t tell her I didn’t have feelings for her anymore. That kiss wasn’t for the lie we were trying to sell to my friends.
Was it still a lie? It was clear we both had some kind of feelings for each other, but we still weren’t dating, so I was still lying to them.
We held hands in front of them, and had moved to short pecks on the lips instead of cheek kisses, and right now, her hand was resting on my thigh, and mine was wrapped around her arm. It was almost like I’d forgotten the fake part of our agreement and it had become easier to be around her. Easier to let my guard down and give in to the touches I desperately craved.
Even now, while my friends were far in front of us, I was comfortable with her hand on me and being that close to her.
“Do you think we could talk later? At least sometime before the wedding?” I asked in a whisper. I didn’t want to keep going back and forth in my mind about what we were doing. I was already doing that enough with what I wanted to be doing.
Maybe dating someone that wasn’t my normal go-to would be good for me. Maybe just a casual fling would be too. I already knew she’d satisfy me better than I could satisfy myself, so I didn’t have to worry about whether I’d get off or not.
But sex wasn’t the most important thing. While it was a very important piece of the puzzle, what mattered most was how my partner treated me. If they respected me, and if I respected them. If we were honest with each other and faithful to one another. The deeper things, that was what mattered the most. Could Vera provide that for me, despite how different our lives were?
She turned to me, worry creasing her features. “Of course. Is everything okay? Am I being graded on my performance? I thought I was being a great girlfriend.”
I rolled my eyes and nudged her arm. “You’ve been exceptional. I just wanted to talk about what happened at your abuela’s.”
