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Of course he hadn’t. None of the women he’d been involved with were any he’d want to take home. The only exception had been Charm. He had looked forward to the day he could introduce her to his parents and grandparents.
“At some point you’re going to have to move on and open up your heart to love again. I’m sure there’s a special woman out there for you.”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Look who’s talking. I don’t see you taking any woman home for your parents to meet either.”
“Of course not. But then I never wanted to be anything other than what I am.”
When Dylan heard a knock on the door, he said, “That’s probably the hotel staff with my rental car. I plan to take a tour of the ruins.”
“Have fun, and as far as Charm goes, if she’s still there and you run into her, it might behoove you to remember something.”
“What?”
“Second time’s the charm.”
Dylan then heard the click in his ear.
After several outdoor activities that included a day spent in town shopping at the mall, Charm returned to the resort and changed into her swimsuit to take a dip in the secluded indoor pool. The resort had five pools but this one was on the fifth floor of the building where the spa was located. She liked it for the privacy and the fact it was indoors.
There was a fireworks display happening on the other side of the resort to kick off Mexico’s Feast of Corpus Christi. While most of the inhabitants of the resort were there, she would be here, enjoying private time. The only interruption was when a bar staffer came to see if she wanted a refill of her drink.
That morning she’d given Ola and Piper fierce hugs before they’d left for the airport. Then she’d joined Garth and Regan for brunch before they’d left as well. Other than Lacey’s and Vernon’s parents, and a few other family members, everyone who’d come to Cancún for the wedding had left.
Charm had taken several laps around the pool and was now reclining in a lounger while enjoying a margarita and reading a novel written by her cousin Stone Westmoreland, a.k.a. Rock Mason. She was flipping the page to begin another chapter when a deep, masculine voice said, “Hello, Charm.”
Five
Charm froze. After she resumed breathing, she lifted her gaze to the man standing across the room. The man whose voice was huskier than she remembered.
And he was smiling.
Why was he smiling like he was glad to see her after the way he’d broken her heart? And why was she studying his mouth and remembering not only their first kiss but all those they’d shared after that? He had been the one to teach her about different types of kisses and the proper way to mate their tongues for each one.
Because of the bright lights in the pool room and his proximity, she saw more of him now than she had yesterday. Not just his features, but every inch of him. He wore a pair of cutoff jeans and a T-shirt. Gone was the tall lanky teenager. He seemed taller. There were a lot more muscles in his arms. His chest appeared broader, his waist tapered and his thighs taut. And with his unshaven look, Dylan Emanuel was one sexy man. No wonder women were known to go wild over him.
Her gaze shifted back to those gorgeous dark eyes and his gaze compelled her to not look away. So she didn’t. For one breathless moment she was transported back to when they’d looked at each other across the music suite. It had been as if they’d been mesmerized the day they’d met.
Things were a lot different now. At sixteen she had been young, naive and impressionable. Now she was a twenty-eight-year-old woman who had experienced heartbreak of the worst kind and all because of the man staring at her. His smile displayed beautiful white teeth and a dimpled jaw that had gotten sexier over the years.
It would be an effort, but she would smile back even if it killed her. Pasting a smile on her face that was just as broad as his, she responded in a bright and cheery voice. “Hi, Dylan. I thought that was you I saw yesterday, but I wasn’t sure.”
Placing her book aside, she asked, “So, what have you been doing with yourself all these years?” Of course she knew, but there was no harm in pretending she didn’t. And why was she so unnerved by the way he was looking at her? The pain he’d caused should have destroyed any response to him.
Her heart beat rapidly when he moved toward her with that Dylan Emanuel strut that was just as alluring as it had always been. When he got closer, she studied his features. He was older. Mature. Even more handsome. His angular jaw had filled out, giving it a sculpted look. Dark brown eyes that used to be warm with love were as gorgeous as they’d always been but now unreadable.
The diamond stud earring in his ear gave him a bad boy appeal. His hair was longer. She recalled he’d preferred wearing it in a ponytail. Now it flowed loosely around his shoulders. A light mustache lined his upper lip and the scruff covering his chin and jaw enhanced his features, making him look manly.
The closer he got, the more difficult it was to breathe. It was only when he slid his solid frame onto the bench across from her, with his muscular thighs straddling it like it was his for the taking, that she began to breathe normally again.
“My music has kept me busy. What about you, Charm? I’m sure life has been treating you well,” he said.
Sure, life treated me real well once I got over you, she wanted to say. But she fought back the urge. She also fought back the urge to ask him how he could have chosen his music over her after claiming to love her so much.
“Life has been treating me great,” she said. “I finished college with honors and then got an MBA. After that I did a lot of international traveling before taking a position as a public relations coordinator for my family’s business.”
She had no such position within her family’s business. Her brothers often teased her about just what her job duties were. They had no idea and neither did she. That was all well and good as long as she was on the Outlaw Freight Line payroll.
“Congratulations.”
