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She returned the hug and spotted Joel, Gage, and Tayler watching her over Adrían’s shoulder.
“You too.”
“I’m beautiful?” he asked.
“Nice seeing you too, I mean.”
“I know. I’m joking.” He tightened his embrace. “Are you here alone?”
He still looked damn good, still had that slight Brazilian accent that used to leave her searching for his touch before it was even one o’clock in the afternoon. Back then, he was slimmer and more toned. Over the years, he’d packed on a good deal of muscle and grown out his hair.
“No, I’m with someone,” she said.
He released her and didn’t so much as attempt to conceal his disappointment. “That’s too bad. For me, not for him. How are the boys?”
“Good. Actually, I have to get back to my—”
“Of course. Of course. Say hi to Theo and Josiah for me.”
They didn’t have a clue who he was.
She nodded. “Will do.”
He squeezed her wrist.
She stepped around him, headed back to the table, and reclaimed her seat next to Tayler. Joel continued to stare in the direction of the restrooms.
“Somebody you know?” he asked.
She resisted the urge to turn around. “Somebody I used to know.”
Adrían Queirós used to work out of a massive office space down the hall from hers, and although she never entirely understood what he did, he’d been successful at it from the looks of things.
One afternoon, he stopped in to introduce himself, as he was new to the building, and ended up staying and chatting and playing with Theo for nearly an hour. She’d thought nothing of it or about him. He was attractive, and she’d noticed, but that was it.
They ran into each other again in the building’s café during lunch. A few days later, when he didn’t spot her in the café, he brought up a container of food, which she’d appreciated because she’d worked through lunch and had been breastfeeding at the time. After that, they regularly spent lunch together. She let him know she was a recent widow and not looking for anything serious, and he told her he’d recently ended a long-term relationship himself.
A month later, he kissed her in the parking lot.
She’d craved human touch, human comfort.
So, she kissed him back.
It kept happening, going from lips lightly brushing in the tenuous space between pleasure and guilt to open-mouthed and desperate within a matter of weeks.
Then Gage flew in and took Josiah and Theo back to California to spend time with him, so she and Adrían agreed to meet outside the office for a late afternoon lunch. That somewhere turned out to be a restaurant in a luxury hotel overlooking the Pacific.
After they ate, they kissed.
And kissed.
Adrían booked a room, and they had sex for the first time.
When Theo was with the nanny, Adrían was with her in her office. On the days she didn’t have Theo, despite those days being few and far between, they had sex in Adrían’s office, then eventually at his Maui estate.
However, one morning, she woke up in his arms and found him staring down at her. And after gracing her with a soft smile, he’d said,“Ayesha, I’m afraid I might be falling in love, querida.”
So,they broke things off. That same week, he shut down his office, and she never saw him again.
