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When she’d plated the pasta and dished out the salad, Teag picked up the previous conversation where he’d left off, causing Maria to sputter into her water glass.
“I’m interested in you because you are intelligent and accomplished, and totally humble about it. Because you have this badass attitude—which I love, mind you—but also a softness, which I also love. Because you are selfless and brave.”
She stopped eating and stared at him, her fork clattering onto the plate.
His voice softened. “Because there’s a sadness inside you that I want to soothe.”
Maria blinked back stinging tears, opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it again, shaking her head.
Teag’s deep-blue eyes seemed to see straight into her soul.
“You can trust me, love, I promise.”
The strange thing was, she did trust him. When she’d finally stopped looking at him through the lens of her own past, she could see him clearly. He was a man who loved deeply and took care of those he loved.
She cleared her throat and took a sip of water. “I do trust you, Teag. This is just…hard for me.”
“Why?” he asked gently.
She stuffed her mouth full of pasta, giving herself a moment’s reprieve from answering. Teag laughed and took a generous bite of his own. They ate in silence. Maria tried to work up the courage to share this particular heartbreak. The telling of it would expose more than just a relationship gone wrong, it would reveal a vulnerability, a yearning, a piece of herself that she showed to no one.
The longer the silence stretched, the more Maria choked on her words. Teag finally took pity on her.
“I think we’ll be spending a lot of time together. We don’t have to talk about this now, or ever, if you really don’t want to share.”
She studied his expression. He seemed sincere, and the tension drained out of her.
“Let’s use our dinner table time to get to know each other. What parts of me would you like to know better?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow, and giving her a very sexy grin.
Maria laughed. “Oh, Teag. You just can’t help yourself.”
“I really can’t. But seriously, ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
“Is this like truth or dare?” she asked.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not capable of following through on any good dares at the moment. However, if you want to pass on a question, you can owe me a kiss.”
A flush heated her cheeks, but she cleared her throat and gave him her version of a sexy grin. “Will I have to kiss you immediately, or should I save them up and we can have a hot make-out session?”
His wide-eyed look of surprise quickly morphed into something darker, the look of a predator stalking his prey. Maria’s breath caught and chills raced up her spine. Not for the first time, she imagined taking him to bed. The thrill of anticipation made her belly flutter, and she wondered how he would be as a lover.
“I’ll keep score,” he answered, his voice low and rough.
“I’ll just bet you will,” she mumbled.
“You may go first,” he said, waving his hand with a gallant flourish.
Suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to know absolutely everything about this man, Maria asked the first thing that came to mind, “When did you start playing the drums?”
Teag’s smile lit up his face. “My mum got me my first set when I was nine. I’ve always had good rhythm and an ear for music, and I was a kid who could never sit still, so the drums made sense. The physicality of them was probably really good for me.”
“Why did you decide on Berklee?”
“That’s two questions, but I’ll allow it since they’re related,” he said, then paused to take another bite of pasta before answering. “I got a full scholarship.”
“Wow. Impressive.”
He shrugged off the compliment. “My turn. Why’d you join the Marines?”
