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Luca and Isabel were getting along fine without marriage. They seemed perfectly content, and if Luca was disappointed by Isabel’s refusal to make it official, it didn’t show in theirrelationship.
Nico was right: there were plenty of legitimate reasons someone might want to hold off on marriage that had nothing to do withlove.
He stepped quietly into the room he shared with Jenna, not wanting to startle her if she’d decided to go to sleep. He would still wake her — but not by scaring the shit out ofher.
If he were going to wake her, it would be by stroking the soft skin of her bare arm, by leaving tender kisses on her cheek, letting his hand travel the length of her body until she responded, arching into his hand, moving her warm body towardhis.
He was hard just thinking aboutit.
The light was on, Jenna sitting in bed with her laptop, her glasses making her look both adorable andsexy.
“You’re up,” he said, closing the door behindhim.
She glanced at him before returning her eyes to the screen. “I thought I’d go over the foundation’sfinancials.”
“How’s it looking?” he asked, slipping off his shoes and sitting on the edge of thebed.
“Not bad,” she said. “I’d like some more money for the Bridge Project, but I can work on that after theholidays.”
“Tell me how much you need,” he said. “I’ll write you a check when we getback.”
She looked up at him, her eyes flashing. “You don’t think I can raise itmyself?”
He’d bankrolled the foundation in the beginning, but Jenna had increasingly been seeking outside donors, trying to grow the visibility of the foundation and its public relationsfootprint.
She was good at it, and he’d watched with pride as she’d grown it into a significant force for good in the nonprofitsector.
“I have no doubt you can raise every cent yourself,” hesaid.
“Then why offer?” sheasked.
“To be helpful,” he said. “You collect donations from private donors and from corporations. I happen to be a private donor. I also happen to have two large, legitimate corporations. That’sall.”
“It’s not the same,” she said, closing the laptop and setting it on thenightstand.
“I understand,” he said. “The offer is there if you change yourmind.”
“Thankyou.”
She said it grudgingly, and he cursed himself for stepping on a minefield he hadn’t known was there. While he was at it, he cursed himself for the minefield he was about to step on — the one he’d created himself by not telling her sooner aboutGreece.
He reached out and put a hand on her calf. “I have to go to Greecetomorrow.”
“I know.” She slid out from under his hand and crossed the room to the carafe of water on the table near theterrace.
He turned to look at her as she poured water into aglass.
“Youknow?”
She took a drink. “Angel told me at the zooyesterday.”
Fuck him. No wonder she waspissed.
He stood, made his way to her, and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I should have told yousooner.”
She set down the glass and shrugged him off, then walked to the nightstand. Her movements were jerky, almost manic, and he watched as she uncapped her lotion and rubbed some into herhands.
“Why didn’tyou?”
