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I slide my oiled hands over his back and his muscles flex beneath my palms. “Is it just your neck you’re having trouble with?” I ask, biting on my lip as warmth spreads through my core.
“My back and shoulders too.” He lets out a deep groan as I work my fingers into the muscles between his shoulder blades.
“You still sleeping on the sofa?” I ask and immediately regret it. I don’t need to know where he’s been sleeping. I don’t need to know anything about his life.
“Uh-huh.” He really has the most beautiful body. So big and powerful. Hard and toned and…
“Are you okay?” He cuts through my internal chatter, and I wonder if I said any of that aloud. Or did I stop massaging him while I was thinking about how good his body feels?
“Yes. I’m sorry, did I stop?”
“No. It’s fucking perfect.” He groans again. “But are you okay here? In Iowa?”
What the hell kind of question is that?“Why are you here, Lorenzo?”
“I told you, my neck.”
“Yeah, right.” I stop massaging him. “Tell me why you’re here or you can leave now.”
He’s quiet for a few beats. “I had to make sure you were okay, that’s all. I just needed to see you and…”
“I’m okay.” I resume his massage. “It’s nice here. I like my new job. My house is lovely and it’s in a quiet neighborhood. Dante did a great job picking it out,” I say, although I suspect Lorenzo had a hand in it too.
“I’m glad.”
“You could’ve asked me all of this over the phone, you know. It would’ve saved you a trip.”
“I told you, I needed to see you.”
I swallow down a lump of sadness. “I wish you hadn’t,” I admit, dropping my hands to my sides.
He turns over and sits up on the bed, and I can’t fail to notice the huge erection he’s now sporting. I guess it’s not just my body that remembers, huh? “I’ve told you before that I don’t offer those kinds of services,” I say with a nod to his groin, trying to add a little humor to defuse the increasing tension.
He swings his legs off the side of the bed. “I swear I didn’t come here for that, Mia.”
I nod, glancing at the floor. I should be pleased about that, but for some reason it hurts.
“That’s not to say I’m not currently thinking about pinning you up against the wall and fucking you so hard you pass out,” he adds with a shrug. “But I came here to talk to you.”
I look up at him and find his dark, pain-filled eyes fixed on my face.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for being such an asshole when you said you were leaving. It was the right thing for you to do, and I should’ve supported you instead of pretending like you didn’t exist.”
“You should have,” I agree.
“I need you to know why I acted like that,” he says, his voice thick with emotion.
Tears prick at my eyes. “Okay. Why?”
“Because it hurts so fucking much to lose you. I need you to know that it wasn’t all one-sided. You told me you loved me and I let you believe you meant nothing, when you mean more to me than I thought anyone ever could again.”
He takes my hand in his and lets out a long breath. Bastard’s about to break my heart all over again, isn’t he?
“But?”
His face tightens, so full of anguish and pain and heartbreak. “I care about you, Mia. I really do. But I can’t let her go.”
A tear runs down my cheek. I don’t bother swatting it away. “That is why we would never work, Lorenzo. Not because you still love your wife—of course you do—but because you have no idea who I am. For a man so intuitive to my emotions and my physical needs, you don’t actually know me at all.”
