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I wanted to cup that beautiful jaw with my hands and press my lips to his.
And wow, what a set of lips.
His were plump and juicy. Not overly so, in the fake filler way that women and men were starting to sport nowadays, but in a lovely, kissable way.
But God. His eyes.
They were like looking into a photoshopped picture of the sexiest man in the world.
I felt like I’d swallowed a bug when he finally turned around, releasing my soul with his gaze.
My heart was pounding, and I had the urge to run.
I shouldn’t have come.
I should’ve listened to my sisters, realized how freakin’ weird it was to attend random funerals, and stayed home.
Yet, I hadn’t.
Shit, shit, shit.
I licked my lips nervously as the man up front finally finished his speech and asked if anyone would like to speak of the man who’d died.
I looked at the photo at the front and felt a weird feeling of uneasiness flow through me.
This man was well loved. The two people in front had adored him, and they wouldn’t be taking his death well.
The same couldn’t be said for the two women beside me farther down the row.
It was apparent that neither one of them cared very much for the man who’d died, yet they were there to look at the siblings at the front. Gauge how they were taking the death.
“And that concludes the service for Damian Merritt Simiencia.”
I waited, my head down, for the siblings to be escorted down the aisle before I made my escape.
I didn’t go far.
Just to the diner across the street as I waited for my brother to make his rounds.
Usually, he dropped us all off in town, anywhere we wanted to go. Then, in a couple of hours, he’d make the rounds again to pick us all up.
I still had well over an hour before he came to pick me up, so I’d spend it in the diner eating poorly.
We really needed to get a cook for the circus. We’d had one, but he’d retired. Since then, we’d all been taking turns in the kitchen. But honestly, we all sucked at cooking. And the amount of food we had to cook for all of our staff and family meant that usually, what good food we could cook tended to be bland and tasteless because we sucked at cooking for a crowd.
I kept my head down as I crossed the road, knowing without looking that the captivating man’s eyes were locked solely on me.
I moved quickly to the door of the diner, but the man’s footsteps could be heard behind me, first on the sidewalk, then on the road.
I felt my stomach launch into orbit at the knowledge that he was following me.
Shit, shit, shit.
I reached for the door, but his voice stopped me before I could touch the handle that would allow me to escape.
“Who are you?” he asked.
I smiled. “Simi.”
His head tilted. “And how do you know my pops, Simi?”
His question sent shivers down my spine, not because of his words but because of how his voice sounded.
Drop-dead sexy.
“Um,” I hesitated. “I don’t.”
His head tilted in that sexy way as he said, “You don’t know him? Make a habit of going to random people’s funerals, do you?”
Instead of lying, I decided to go with the truth. Sometimes it was easier.
Unless you were wearing one of your sisters’ outfits. Then it was always deny, deny, deny.
“Yes,” I answered. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
His lips twitched as he nodded, acknowledging that it was a sufficient answer.
“In that case,” he bowed slightly. “Have a nice day.”
A breath of relief whooshed through me at the way he’d dismissed me.
I waited until I heard his footsteps behind me before I opened the door of the diner and escaped inside.
Only once I was inside, with the building between us, did I look back at him.
I felt my heart lurch when I saw him staring at me, his hand on the limo’s door, with his foot poised to sink inside.
We stared at each other for long moments, and then he moved, dropping inside the limo’s door and slamming it closed.
I blew out a shaky breath, then turned to find the woman behind the bar-height counter staring at me knowingly.
“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” she asked.
I grimaced. “Breathtaking.”
“He knows it, too.”
Yes, I didn’t doubt that he did.
CHAPTER 4
I love you, but the next time you interrupt my yawn by sticking your finger in my mouth, I’m going to kick you in the face.
-Simi to Keene
SIMI
My head was in the clouds.
I was supposed to be “enjoying my dinner and night out after an oversold show.” At least, that was what my sisters suggested. Instead, I was at a bar, reading a book, wondering when it would be okay to go home and not look like a total and complete loser.
