Enchanted (The Accidental Billionaires #4)(15)

The hotel zone might be prettier, but the food was more Americanized there. I preferred to dive into the culture downtown for better stuff.

None of the places I’d picked were fancy. In fact, they were just the opposite. They were places where the locals ate.

Despite my irritation, I almost smiled at the sight of Noah Sinclair glaring at a taco as he held it aloft. He looked at it like the crickets were going to jump off the carne asada and attack him.

“I don’t eat bugs,” he answered stoically.

“Then be adventurous today,” I replied before I took a big bite out of my own steak taco, chewed slowly, and then swallowed it. The tiny restaurant might be a hole-in-the-wall where we were forced to eat outside because of the heat, but the food was amazing. “The crickets are completely cooked. It’s not like I’m asking you to pull a live, squirming, dirty slug from the ground and swallow it.”

He raised a brow as his eyes shot to me. “Please tell me you haven’t done that.”

I shrugged. “I haven’t. I do draw the line at eating anything that isn’t totally dead.”

Noah had done just fine at the first local restaurant we’d visited. Surprisingly, he could handle some pretty hot food, and he’d seemed to enjoy it.

I wasn’t quite as successful at getting him to savor restaurant number two.

I couldn’t say he’d been an enthusiastic good sport about hitting the food downtown. He’d remained mostly silent and broody. But he’d come along after I’d nagged him, so I guess I had to consider that some small sense of accomplishment.

I’d given his computer back for a while during the morning because I’d had some emails to answer, and I’d wanted to write the intro for the food blog.

He hadn’t been happy when I’d snatched it back a couple of hours later.

Strangely, all it had taken was my apparent look of disappointment to get him to share this adventure with me. Granted, I’d known that his twin sisters, Brooke and Jade, could manipulate the big guy with a sad face, but I’d had no idea it would work for a woman he barely knew, too.

Not that I’d use that against him, exactly. He was obviously a sucker for a sad female face. I just hadn’t realized his weakness had extended beyond his two younger sisters.

“Don’t give me that look,” he’d said back at the resort, sounding annoyed in the hotel suite earlier.

I’d asked him what look he was talking about.

“That disappointed look,” he’d grumbled. “I hate that.”

A few minutes later he was on his feet and joining me on the evening tour.

Good to know, but I’m not going to be a sullen woman all the time. There has to be a better way to convince him to do things.

I knew myself, and I’d feel pretty damn guilty about resorting to manipulation all the time. It wasn’t my style.

Yes, we’d made a bargain about work, but I couldn’t make him go experience Mexico with me. Our deal had only included him not working unless I did.

Besides, I didn’t just want his physical body present, no matter how much I lusted over said body. I wanted his heart in every adventure, too.

If he wasn’t enjoying himself, he’d very likely be more stressed out than relaxed.

I was yanked out of my musings when Noah shrugged his broad shoulders and shoved the taco into his mouth, taking about half the dish in one bite.

I devoured the last of my own taco as I watched him chew. His look of disgust turned to one of speculation.

“Just pretend you don’t know what’s on it,” I advised. “It’s good, right?” I asked him as he swallowed.

He shot me a wary look. “It’s okay.”

The rest of the taco was gone in seconds, and I smiled. It was more than just okay, but that was obviously all the praise I was going to get for introducing him to the local food.

“Crickets are popular here,” I explained as I handed him a bottle of water I had in my tote. “They roast them and eat them like we eat chips as a snack at home.”

“I refuse to consume them like potato chips,” he answered grimly.

I shrugged. “I don’t particularly love them straight, but they do add a little crunch to a taco.”

“I tried them. Happy now?” he asked gruffly.

I beamed at him. “Very.”

I hoped he hadn’t decided to down the delicacy just because he thought I was disappointed.

“It actually was good. I’m glad I tried it,” he said, like he was surprising himself by uttering those words.

It was probably the most that Noah had said to me since I’d grabbed his computer that morning. “What about the last place?” I questioned.

“Best chili relleno I’ve ever had,” he said rather grudgingly.

Okay. That was saying a lot, considering the fact that we lived in Southern California, where the Mexican food was pretty decent.

Not surprising that he gobbled down fresh-cooked food, since Owen had told me that Noah rarely ate anything but cold sandwiches unless somebody brought him food. And lately, it appeared that he didn’t eat enough of those, either.

“So it wasn’t exactly a wasted trip?” I took another bottle of water from my tote, unscrewed the top, and chugged some down.

“Is it actually safe here? The area is a little sketchy. Although I have to say, the military guys with machine guns on the beach in the hotel zone were almost more alarming.”