Page 39 of Captivated

“Celebratory worthy?” he dared to ask.

Her gaze widened a bit. “Excuse me?”

Joe held up the items he had been holding at his back. A movie, a bag of takeout from a place he knew she frequented, and a bottle of red wine. “I thought—since someone let me know you would be here, and not out somewhere—that you might want to celebrate your night a little quieter than say, going out and doing something.”

Liliana hesitated. “Joe—”

“You didn’t give me time to explain at the hotel, you know,” he quickly interjected before she could turn him down. “You didn’t even let me talk, Liliana.”

“You didn’t need to. What you didn’t say was enough.”

“What I didn’t say was that no, it’s not okay to just go around asking daughters of made men on dates when some men would consider that to be a great disrespect to them. You don’t know a lot about me, and I get that, but that wasn’t how I was raised. I don’t disrespect men better than me, or any man like me, either. I’m not that kind of man, but don’t for one fucking second more, think that I’m not interested in you, Liliana. Because I am—entirely.”

She blinked.

Smiled.

“Interested, huh?”

He liked the curling sweetness in her voice.

The way her gaze looked him over.

All of her, really.

Following this woman around day in and day out was nothing like actually being close to her, and interacting with her. A lot of the defenses that Joe kept built up around himself to stay safe in this life that he had chosen all seemed to fall down around him whenever Liliana came into play.

He didn’t want to pretend for her. He wanted to be—and could be—exactly who he was, with no pretenses, and no worries.

Other than his closest family, he’d never really met someone before who allowed him that kind of comfort. And frankly, he really didn’t even know this girl, and she still let him feel that way. How was he supposed to just ignore that?

He couldn’t.

Liliana was still quiet.

Joe stayed right where he was, and waited her out. Waving the items again, he added, “And technically, if you want, we could call this a date.”

Liliana wet her bottom lip, and grinned. “Oh, so does that mean you’ve got the okay now, or something?”

“Or something,” he hedged.

“You just showed up here thinking I was going to let you in?”

“I think you want to save your pride, but it’s okay to admit you might have been wrong at the hotel, and I am willing to never mention it again.”

“Oh, really?”

Her amused tone made him smirk.

“Think of it like a restart,” Joe offered. “This is our do-over.”

She hummed a bit.

Joe still waited.

“Well, you must have made quite the effort to get information about where you could find me, and when to do all of this, right?” Liliana asked.

“You could say that.”