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“Wow, way to make me feel valued,” I tease, reaching out for him because all I want to do is kiss him and kiss him.
He shuffles ungracefully up to meet my lips. “Hey, I’m only doing this with you now. You’re very nearly the longest relationship I’ve ever had.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Keep digging.”
“It’s all been a rehearsal until you.”
I roll my eyes and flop onto my back. “Your pickup lines need more work.”
“I think you’ll find I’ve already picked you up.”
He loops his arm over my waist, pushing my T-shirt up so he can kiss my belly. I giggle at the sensation. “Consider me caught,” I say, another rush of arousal flowing between my legs.
“Good,” he says, looking up at me. “Because I think I love you, Anna Romero.”
My mouth drops open. I’m speechless. Did he just…?
He presses his lips into my skin again and whispers, “I really mean it. I love you.”
I don’t know how to reply to that except with the truth. “Me too,” I say quietly, sitting up to pull him towards me. “I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Me neither.”
We sit staring at each other for a long moment, my heart still dizzy from orgasm. The more I look into his eyes, the more I feel myself falling.
And somehow, I don’t feel afraid.
“Kiss me again,” I murmur, and he obeys, pressing me back down into the bed.
By the time we’re finally wrung out, evening is drawing in and all we can do is lie exhausted on the bed, giggling like teenagers over a confession that couldn’t be more real.
CHAPTER27
JOEL
I’m having a really awesome dream about women in bikinis on a beach somewhere tropical and hot and surrounded by the greatest cocktails ever shaken when my phone vibrates on my chest and pulls me back to reality. I should probably stop thinking about other women if I’m serious about Anna. Which I obviously am. I can’t exactly help my dreams.
Blinking tiredly, I fumble with my phone and unlock the screen.
I haven’t moved all day. With Antonio and the office staff handling things in my absence, there’s no work for me to do from here, and I’m reverting back to old Joel, lying about, napping, eating full bags of chips. To complete the transformation, I should be day drinking.
But I’m not going to. Anna knows I can’t just change overnight, and even though I really like the me I am with her, I know it’s going to take some time to stick. And I’ve decided to take a day off today.
Later, I’ll get up and sweep or something, some sort of gesture to prove that I haven’t turned into a total vegetable while she’s been out. She’s meeting with her accountant today, trying to salvage whatever she can from her business. I don’t know how to tell her that I’d help if she’d let me. Money’s nothing to me, and I’d give it to her without a thought.
But she likes me now and I don’t want to screw that up by waving my credit card around. She’s too proud to accept a handout.
I admire that about her, the way she wants to do everything herself to prove that she can. She’s determined. I just wish she’d let me make it easier.
A ton of notifications hit my eyeballs and I squint until I’ve managed to turn the brightness down to a readable level. Most of them are pointless and annoying, ads and alerts and texts from people I don’t care about.
It’s the one from my father that simply readsCallthat makes my blood run cold.
What can I have possibly fucked up now? I’ve been hidden for days. This is maybe the most days I’ve ever, ever managed to stay hidden for, probably because I haven’t been bored for a change.
Unless some damn paparazzi did spot us in the park after all and shot some photos that have found their way back to my dad. And if someone did take photos, that means they’ve already searched Anna down and they’ll be coming for her next.
The idea of her getting cold-called by journalists wanting to know about me makes me a thousand times sicker than the idea of getting yelled at by my father again.
