Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(31)
Only, the muscles rippling in his strong arms as he crossed them and the rakish tilt of his mouth gave rise to unangelic ideas involving him and her and the comfy bed she currently occupied.
Something about Luis Navarro compelled her to trust him. And yet she’d been bit by bad decisions with guys in the past. Ric and his self-centered personality. Before him there’d been Chris, the photographer, who it turned out was more interested in her connections. In college there’d been Thomas, the frat boy who’d been her plus-one to countless sorority socials but who couldn’t get away fast enough once her eating disorder had been diagnosed.
Gun-shy about letting someone else get too close. Already on shaky emotional ground thanks to her parents’—really her mother’s—mind-boggling new life philosophy, Sara skirted Luis’s question about her inability to call Robin on her bitchiness. Sidestepping uncomfortable conversations was a maneuver Sara had perfected over the years, until her first therapist had called bullshit.
“Arguing with Robin isn’t worth upsetting my mother.” Sara lifted a shoulder, letting it fall in a practiced blasé shrug. “I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with my parents and their new Brady Bunch routine. It’s a little bizarre.”
If bizarre meant exactly what she had always wanted as a kid.
“But?”
“What makes you think there’s a but?” she hedged.
Luis huffed out a breath that screamed, Yeah, right.
She blinked innocently at him. He stared back, not buying her act.
“What?”
“I’m just saying,” Luis pressed. “Based on what you told me, you’ve always wanted your parents to play a more active role in your life.” The half smile of his that had her belly and other parts aflutter made an appearance. “While I’d prefer that happen after this week . . .”
“Exactly!” Sara jumped on the easy answer to why her parents’ sudden interest worried her, instead of admitting her deep-seated self-doubt and fear that maybe her parents had been right about her all these years. Giving credence to Robin’s digs. “If they’re all keen on getting chummy, you and I’ll have to up our game. Case in point, this!”
She spread her arms in front of her to indicate the room that had gone from hers to theirs in one express train guilt trip from her mom.
She watched Luis’s gaze make a tour around the room, from the queen bed facing the door and wardrobe, across the few feet of walking space to the small bathroom on the far side opposite the plank desk along the outer wall. Definitely close quarters.
“I’ll search around for some extra blankets to make myself a pallet,” she offered.
“I’ll take the floor.”
“Nonsense, I’m the one who master-planned this. You get the bed.” Sara stood up, jerking her thumb at the item in question.
“No can do. The floor’s probably as hard as the mattress at the station. I’m used to it.”
“Luis . . .”
When he rose, his handsome face set in that implacable, I-mean-business mask, then deftly swung the flimsy chair out of his way and stepped toward her, Sara held her breath.
This was their first disagreement. She didn’t know what to expect. A continuation of their debate. A he-man put-his-foot-down declaration that enough was enough, which would annoy the hell out of her. Certainly not a simple, Okay, you win.
“How about we share?”
His easy-going, unexpected response stalled her rambling thoughts.
Instantly her gaze darted to the queen-sized mattress. The vision of Luis’s big frame sprawling across the jellyfish, coral, and other sea creatures swimming merrily across the comforter had her mind jumping to all sorts of intimate what-ifs.
“Friends, right?” he asked, drawing her fervent mind away from the two of them tangling in the sheets together.
Thumbs hooked on his front jeans pockets, he seemed completely at ease, totally fine with the idea of them sleeping together.
As friends.
A friend she found herself lusting after in a definitively unfriendly manner. Despite the fact they’d only met today. And, she had unequivocally decided that jumping into anything for the wrong or misguided reasons was off limits.
“Well? What do you say?” he prodded.
This was not a good idea.
The smart thing to do was—Sara nodded dumbly.
Luis’s sexy grin flashed. Like the flick of a match, desire burned through her. Quick and hot.
Holy hell, what had she gotten herself into?
Cuidado con lo que pides. Yet again, Mamá Alicia’s warning whispered in Sara’s ear. Be careful what you wish for indeed.
A cell phone vibrating sounded seconds before her father’s voice boomed up the stairs.
“Ten-minute warning!”
Luis pulled his phone from his back pocket. He checked the screen, then motioned with his cell toward the bathroom door. “How about you freshen up first? I need to answer this text from my mom.”
Thankful for a reason to escape, Sara grabbed her suitcase and ducked into the bathroom.
With the clock ticking, she vetoed a change of clothes, instead snagging her toiletry and makeup bags and setting them on the black granite counter. She brushed her teeth, dabbed the oil from her face with a sheet of blotting paper, and touched up her makeup. All the while, that Twilight Zone sensation shimmered around her. Thoughts of Luis, waiting on the other side of the door for her, heightened the strangeness of her situation.