“My brothers and Bianca call me that. But that’s just because they usually don’t follow the rules and end up in trouble. The night of the gala... I don’t know, I guess I just felt like I could let go because no one knew it was me. It gave me a chance to just let my guard down. And I imitated Alec the night of the gala because he needed me. I can’t turn down family.”
“That’s sweet. I liked you at the gala,” she said.
“You did?” he asked, leaning across the table. He wanted her so badly that every inhalation was almost painful. He could smell her perfume. His senses were overwhelmed with everything that was Scarlet. He struggled to keep his eyes off the curves of her body and that damned strand of hair she kept tucking behind her ear. He knew if he shifted his legs under the table he’d brush against her; he had done it twice already and had the feeling she’d catch on to what he was doing if he did it again.
He was trying but it was hard. He was hard, and he wanted nothing more than to forget all the rules that he applied to his life to keep it orderly, sweep her into his arms and carry her into the bedroom at the back of the plane.
“I did,” she said.
He groaned.
“What?”
“You’re not making this easy.”
“Making what easy?”
“Just sticking to my own tips for not screwing things up with you any further than I already have,” he said.
She laughed again and it made him smile. The sound was so genuine and full of joy that he couldn’t help himself. Which only underscored how important it was for him to stick to his own regulations where she was concerned.
“I have to admit I like that,” she said.
“You do?”
“Yes. You aren’t what I expected, Alec, and I like it better when I know I’m not the only one struggling to figure things out.”
That wasn’t all he was struggling with. “My brothers would give me tons of shit if they ever heard about this.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s how brothers are,” he said.
“And... You’re the goody-goody in the Velasquez family, aren’t you?”
“I guess. I mean, I’m not a nerdy rule follower. I just like to stay within safe limits,” he said, then groaned again as he realized exactly how that sounded. “Okay, so I am a goody-goody. But I’ve been burned when I just let go of all my limits and I realized that I have to know which lines I can’t cross.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “So, back to the game. Are you going to call?”
Call? No. He wanted more than her protein bar and chocolate. He wanted kisses, but real kisses. He wanted the stakes to be higher and he knew the risk. He could move too fast and push her away. But as Mo would say, you have to take a chance if you ever want the big prize.
And he wanted her...badly.
“I’m going to raise,” he said at last.
“You are?”
“Yes,” he said, pushing the requisite ante into the center of the table. “I call and raise you one kiss.”
“A kiss? I have two in there,” she said.
“No, I mean a real one. A bodies-pressed-together, mouths-fused, passion-filled kiss.”
“Oh,” she said, a slight flush spreading up her neck to her cheeks. “Very well, I call.”
He stretched his legs,and the fabric of his trousers brushed against her. She shifted so that her calves rested against his as he slowly laid his cards on the table. She glanced at the pair of tens with an ace high that he’d revealed and then back at her own hand.
She had two pairs so that beat him. She had always been a believer that she shouldn’t wager anything she didn’t want to lose, and frankly, she had been craving Alec since the moment they’d been alone in the barn at the polo match. Nothing had changed since then.