For Angelo(13)

The boy was lucky, he thought grimly, Angelo had allowed him to leave town without blacking both his eyes out.

Beside him, Lane bent to pick up her bag from the ground and he automatically murmured, “Let me carry that for you.” As he took the bag, he said quietly, “You know he’s in love with you, right?”

Lane cringed at the question. “I wish I had known sooner,” she admitted. Because now, everything that used to puzzle her about Josh was finally making sense, and she couldn’t help feeling guilty at how dense she had been.

“I saw you kiss him,” Angelo said abruptly. He knew he was being pretty callous about it, but he simply wanted to get it over with.

Her eyes flew to him in horror. “You did?” She shook her head hastily. “I mean, you saw him try to—”

“Don’t lie,” he snapped.

“But I’m not lying,” she protested. “I had something in my eye, and he was laughing because I was being such a baby about it. He told me to close my eyes, then somehow he lost his balance—oh.” She paled. “He was trying to kiss me, wasn’t he?”

Angelo was torn between wanting to have his security go after the convenience store boy…and shaking the girl in front of him until maybe all her screws were in their proper places.

He said tensely, “Be honest with me, tesoro. I am no boy you need to lie to. Did he kiss you?”

She looked straight into his eyes. “No. He didn’t get to kiss me.”

Relief flooded him.

“I’ve never been kissed at all actually.”

Angelo sucked his breath. “Dio, tesoro.” Did she have to tell him that…now? Did she not realize how her words made Angelo literally ache to teach her all about kissing?

Lane started chewing on her lip, her anxiety evident.

“What is it?”

“Maybe I got it wrong. Maybe he really did lose his balance—”

“Are you kidding?” he exclaimed incredulously. “It’s the oldest trick in the book, tesoro! He was a coward, si? He did not have the guts to let you know of his feelings and so he tried to do that, so he would not be rejected.”

“I guess, but—”

“You guess?” He had a greater urge to shake her now.

“It’s just so weird. I’m not the kind of person that guys have secret crushes on, you know what I mean?”

No, he didn’t, but clearly she was not being coy. She truly was that na?ve about men.

“May I ask you a question?” He strove to sound polite.

Feeling like she was suddenly treading on thin ice, she said uncertainly, “Umm…okay?”

He took a deep breath, working hard to rein in the urge to murder her friend. “Would it please you to see me behind bars?”

She gasped, “Gosh, no! Oh, not at all!”

“Then you should know that it is certain to happen,” he said calmly, “if I ever find you in a situation where another man is able to accidentally kiss you.” He clasped her face. “So to avoid such an incident, from now on, I will be the only man in your life. Si?”

She bit her lip. “But I have male friends…”

“And they can still be your friends,” he said generously, “but you are not to allow them within three feet of you.”

“Umm—”

He released her face. “I will not, however, force you to obey me. Just be warned that we Italians are an incredibly possessive race, prone to violence when we feel we have been slighted—”

Paling again, she said quickly, “I agree.”

He smiled. “I knew you would see it my way, tesoro.”

She smiled back at him. Everything seemed right with the world whenever Angelo Valencia smiled at her like that.

But then his smile faded. “Now that you know I thought I saw the two of you kissing, you have the answers to your questions earlier.”

Oh.

“Him lying about the two of you going out stopped me from speaking with you, but my hunger for you did not abate. However, being confronted – or the thought that I was being confronted by your feelings for each other—”

She looked up at him, eyes wide.

Angelo only needed to take one look at her face to know what she was about to say, and he forestalled her immediately, saying, “And so that’s that.” His tone warned her from saying anything else.

The warning fell on deaf ears.

“Oh, Angelo,” she breathed.

He winced.

“It means—”

“Whatever you think it means, it is best to keep it to yourself.”

“—you were jealous!”

He scowled.

“Like a lovesick boy,” she continued dreamily.

At the same time, he dreamt of shutting her up.

“Angelo Valencia III, jealous!” She sighed. “Oh.”

Deciding to get the ball back in his court, Angelo said unevenly, “Yes. I was jealous. Is the thought amusing? Does it make you happy to know you have made me feel that way?”

Her eyes flew open at his tone, and when she saw the disappointment in his gaze, she gasped, realizing she had hurt him. “Angelo—”

“I never thought you’d be the type to…” He slowly shook his head.