Island Affair (Keys to Love #1)(68)

Not now. Not when she’d picked at the scabs covering the painful scrapes in her personal life and revealed them to him.

“I know from experience, talking a situation out with someone actually helps.”

His “humph” in response told her exactly how thrilled he was by her suggestion.

Sara refused to be deterred. This . . . relationship had to be a two-way street. He wanted to help her; she was determined to do the same for him.

“Here’s the deal.” Scrambling on the sheet to sit tailor-style, she straightened her shoulders and spread her hands palms up on her knees. “I’m going into the water to cool off. Join me. Talk with me. Be honest with me. Like I’ve been with you.” She leaned toward him, her gaze boring into his, stressing her point for several weighty seconds. “Or stay here and pout on the beach.”

It was either a brave or foolish move. This edict she laid out for him.

That little voice inside of her, the one she often thought of as Mamá Alicia whispering encouragement in her ear when self-doubt dodged her steps, cheered her mettle.

“I don’t pout,” Luis grumbled.

An ember of hope lit in her chest. She plopped back down on her butt, fighting a grin.

Above his glasses his brows angled down in a fierce scowl. His mouth pursed in what she would most certainly call a pout.

“Don’t look now, but this”—she tapped his lips with her finger, then pushed to her feet—“is definitely a pouty face.”

She shimmied her running skirt down her hips, folded the garment, then set it near one of her flip-flops. Her orange Lululemon racerback tank followed.

Despite the cover of his sunglasses, she felt the heat of Luis’s gaze when she stood before him in nothing but her fuchsia string bikini. Reveled in the knowledge that she had his full attention.

Fists on her hips, she squinted down at him, the noon sun hot on her skin.

But the heat building on her inside . . .

Those flames were fanning to a blaze because of the mouth-wateringly gorgeous, if sometimes frustratingly hardheaded, hunk eyeing her from behind his darkened lenses.

“The decision is yours,” she challenged, imagining her hard-won self-confidence like a superhero’s cloak, flapping in the breeze behind her. “Me? I’ll be making like a saltwater fish cavorting in the surf. If you’re lucky, you might catch me.”

With an impish wiggle-fingered wave, she pranced toward the water, knowing full well that, thanks to a healthy diet and exercise, she rocked her bikini even better than a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.

Despite her confidence in her figure, she acknowledged the deep-seated desire that more than just the extra shake of her hips would entice Luis to loosen his guarded reserve and meet her halfway.

Would he accept her conditions and join her in the water? She sure as hell hoped so.





Chapter 15


Damn if this woman didn’t push all his buttons. Even the ones his familia knew were clearly marked “Don’t Touch.”

Luis wanted to be annoyed, like he was when Mami or Carlos or Anamaría pressed him to open up. Forgive. Move on. With Mami, he backed away from an argument. With his siblings, he grumbled at them to back the hell up.

Pero con Sara . . . He shook his head, unable to ignore the truth.

But with Sara something was different. He felt different.

Luis watched her confidently striding into the calm water, her trim body and sleek curves drawing the attention of others sunbathing and relaxing along the shore. Including some dude foolish enough to sport a man bun and a skimpy orange Speedo. The fumes from his fake orange spray tan must have killed a few brain cells if the guy was actually considering his chances of getting lucky with Sara.

No way. No how.

A curly-haired toddler in a pink princess bathing suit and with a round tummy that rivaled his old baseball coach’s beer belly ambled toward the water near Sara. Giggling with glee, arms flapping at her sides to steady her wobbly gait, the cutie looked back over her tiny shoulder at her mother, who gave chase.

Sara grinned, bending at the waist with her arms open wide to keep the child from running in too far. Her throaty laughter caught on the breeze. Lust, dark and rich, pooled low in Luis’s body. Co?o, he’d be hearing that sound in his head, in his dreams, long after she flew out of his life, back to her big dreams in the big city.

Shin-deep in the water, the little girl tripped, yelping with fear as she threatened to go in face first. Surprise widened Sara’s eyes, but she quickly hunkered down to catch the child with a muffled, “I’ve got you.”

With Sara down on one knee, the child’s slippery weight knocked her to the side. She landed on her butt, water splashing around them. The girl’s pudgy arms wrapped around Sara’s neck in a chokehold.

The frazzled mom reached them, greeting Sara with a gasped, “I am so sorry!”

“I running,” the child told the adults in her sweet, high-pitched voice.

“You sure were,” Sara answered.

“Frannie, you cannot go into the water alone!” the mom cried. “You have to wait for Mommy!”

“But Ise wiff my new fwend.” The cutie maintained her death grip on Sara with one hand while she open-palmed dark curls out of her face with the other.

Sara’s grin widened and she waved off the mom’s exasperated apologies.