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His half-smile let her stuff the thought fully away. “Nowthat, I may be guilty of. Being an FBI agent isn’t exactly a nine to five.”
“There are worse things a person could be than a workaholic,” Camila said.
“Well, there’s at least one thing we can agree on.” His smile lingered, his bronze stare doing all sorts of not-suitable-for-public things to her body, and she didn’t hesitate to lean closer.
“Did we just reach a truce?”
“That depends.” He didn’t close any more of the space between them, but he also didn’t pull away. “On whether or not you’re willing to admit defeat on the rest.”
Her pulse sped up in the best possible way. “Never.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to keep arguing.”
Roman’s voice was honey, thick and sweet and so delicious that Camila wanted to taste it. She opened her mouth to tell him she could do this all night. But before she could get so much as a single syllable past her lips, she was interrupted by a very familiar, very irritated voice.
“What the hell are you doing?”
2
Camila turned toward her brother, her frown dialed up to ten. “I’m having a drink and a great conversation. Not that it’s any of your business.” Seriously, Matteo was overprotective—he was a detective, swore it was mostly habit, blah blah blah—but this was over the top, even for him.
Matteo nailed Roman with a glare. “I meant you. What the hell are you doing with my sister?”
Roman’s eyes went wide for the briefest second before shuttering to something unreadable. “Your sister.”
“Yes. Camila is my sister. Myyoungersister.”
Roman’s expression made it clear that he’d had no idea she and Matteo were related. Not that it mattered.
“I’m also sitting—and I cannot emphasize this enough—right here,” Camila bit out. “Seriously, Matteo. What is wrong with you?”
Roman straightened on his bar stool, looking at Camila as he said, “I worked with your brother on Delia’s case. We don’t, ah, exactly get along.”
Right. Delia had mentioned something to that effect when she’d given Camila the rundown on everything that had happened. Something about a fight over jurisdiction and Matteo having trust issues when it came to Delia’s safety, which Camila understood to a point, since Matteo was crazy in love with her and her lifehadtotally been in danger. Still… “That’s between the two of you, and it certainly doesn’t have any bearing on whether or not Roman and I have a drink together.”
“Camila—”
“Nope.” She held up a hand. For God’s sake, she was thirty years old. Her family might all still see her as the baby (and treat her accordingly) but Matteo had crossed a line. “You two can dislike each other all you want, butI’ma grown adult. This isn’t up for debate.”
Matteo let out a breath, his jaw unclenching. “Fine. But I’ll be right over there”—he nodded at a nearby bar table, where a few of his fellow detectives were sitting—“if you need anything.”
Camila didn’t trust herself to respond with anything she wouldn’t regret, so she settled for crossing her arms over her chest as Matteo gave Roman one last frown, then walked away. Roman remained as quiet as he had during the exchange, and oh, hell. She might as well get this over with.
“It’s fine if you want to run far, far away from me now. I won’t take it personally.”
He lifted one shoulder in a shrug and stayed put. “On the contrary. The way you stood up to your brother made me like you even more.”
Relief spilled through Camila’s chest, but she still felt like some damage control was in order. “I come from a big Latin American family. We’re extremely tight-knit, which is to say we’re all constantly in each other’s business. I’m the youngest of five, and Matteo and I are closest in age. He’s always been overprotective. He’s not usuallythatbad, but…”
“It doesn’t help that he and I aren’t exactly friends.”
A laugh huffed out of her. “That feels like a pretty big understatement.”
“Maybe.” Roman hid his expression in his beer, and God, he was tough to read. “But I get the impression that you can hold your own. Anyway, I’m not afraid of your brother.”
“Another thing we have in common.” Camila smiled, her heart tripping faster. “Don’t look now, but we’re kind of rocking this truce.”
His smile caught her completely off guard, leaving her a little breathless. “I’m still not conceding.”
