The American Roommate Experiment (Spanish Love Deception #2)(13)

If I hadn’t been so focused on pretending I wasn’t lusting after the sausage roll, her comment wouldn’t have caught me by surprise. But it did, and it pulled a bark of laughter right out of me.

Rosie’s mouth stretched, and she joined me with a chuckle of her own. A real one, I could tell. Finally. I liked it. “Eat it,” she ordered through her smile. “I insist, Lucas. It will make me happy if you do.”

I’ll never know what exactly tipped the balance, but I stretched an arm and took the pastry off her fingers. “Thanks, Rosie.”

Under her attentive gaze, I brought it to my lips, took a bite, and—

“Dios mío.” I moaned. “This is one of the best”—I took another bite—“things to ever bless”—and another one—“my taste buds.”

Her laughter came again.

I glanced at her, finding her eyes on me. On my lips.

“Like it?” she asked.

“Like it?” I repeated, shaking my head. “This roll deserves more than ‘like.’?” I licked my index finger. “It deserves love.” I repeated the motion with my thumb. “It deserves to be seduced and worshipped.”

Now her cheeks were flushed, probably from secondhand embarrassment for my shameless display. But I was a passionate man when it came to food. Especially pastries.

She recovered, only the tips of her ears remaining pink. “You Martíns really have a thing for food, don’t you?”

I flashed her a grin, not caring to wipe the grease and runaway crumbs off my mouth. “Can’t speak for all of us, but if you bring me one of these every day, I might fall to my knees and swear eternal loyalty to you, Rosalyn Graham. It’d take me about a week. Probably less.”

That seemed to stun her into silence.

I tilted my head, wondering if she was that shy or just guarded around strangers. Either way, it really didn’t matter, because I wasn’t exactly deterred by any of those things. Especially after she’d fed me breakfast.

To my surprise, Rosie pulled another pastry out of the bag. “Here. Have this one, too.”

“You really are an angel straight out of heaven,” I told her, surprising myself when I realized I wasn’t lying all that much. “But I don’t deserve any more of your kindness.”

“You do,” she countered, pinning me with a serious look.

I waved a hand in front of me. “Can’t and won’t.”

“Take it, or… we won’t ever be friends. And you said… you said you wanted to, so…”

So, not that shy.

Grinning like she was giving me the world instead of a piece of deliciously greasy dough, I leaned on my elbows, getting closer to her face. I made sure to meet her gaze. “Only if we share.” I snatched the upper half of the roll. “As much as I enjoyed putting up a show for you, I’d rather not eat alone.”

Rosie seemed to consider my offer, but she eventually took the pastry to her lips. And when we were done, she pulled a third one, split it in two, and handed me a half, which I accepted with an even wider smile.

“So, Rosie…” I took a sip of my now lukewarm coffee, letting my gaze travel down her neck and taking in the off-shoulder sweater covering her upper body. I wondered if she had been headed to the office. “You work at the same firm as Lina, right? What was the name… Tech something?”

“InTech,” Rosie answered with some sort of grimace. “And I… did. Not anymore. I… It’s a long story.”

I waited for her to elaborate but even though her lips opened and closed a couple of times, she never did.

I hummed, tapping my fingers against the table. “I’ll make you a deal.”

She frowned. “A deal?”

My lips twitched. “A game. A ‘get to know each other’ game, you know. Because if we’re going to be friends, we should break the ice somehow.” I was trying my luck here, I knew that. She had no reason to share a single thing with me, but I knew stalling when I saw it. And Rosie could have been on her way already. But she was here. Sitting with me.

Rosie’s head tilted, a lock of dark hair coming out of her bun. “So, we both get to ask questions?”

I nodded. “An answer in exchange for another answer. We take turns until we make it to five. And it doesn’t matter how long the answer is. How does that sound?”

We stared at each other for a long moment, and I could see the battle in her face. She was hesitant. She also was curious.

Finally, she said, “Five questions. I can work with that.”

I nodded slowly, pushing my growing eagerness down. “Because you just fed me, and I’m a man in debt, I’ll let you start.”

Her gaze roamed around my face, one of her eyebrows dipping in thought, as if she was readying herself to uproot my deepest secrets right out me.

It was adorable. And a little scary.

She laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “Where were you? Before coming to New York? You said you flew in from Phoenix.”

My shoulders relaxed. “I’ve been traveling across the States for the past six weeks.” I didn’t miss how that piece of information seemed to surprise her. “I started up north, in Portland, Oregon. Then headed south, rented a car, and drove from New Orleans to Phoenix.”