Joaquin listened while Mia told him how she’d had automatic admission to the state schools here in Colorado because of her high GPA, but couldn’t afford tuition. The candlelight played over her face as she spoke, made her features seem even more delicate, her blue eyes darker. It hit him that this was the most relaxed he’d ever seenher.
“I got an ROTC scholarship, and, four years later, I had a degree in biology and was a secondlieutenant.”
“Your parents must have been veryproud.”
She gave a little laugh. “They didn’t understand any of it—why I’d wanted to go to college, why I’d gone into ROTC. Their plan for me was to marry some guy from their church, stay home, and have kids. There’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what a woman wants to do, but it wasn’t whatIwanted. I love learning. I wanted an education, a career. My dad still says that I’m too smart for my own good. He says men don’t like smartwomen.”
“That might be true for stupid men, but it’s not true for the rest of us. Your dad sounds seriously retrograde on genderstuff.”
“Oh, you have no idea. When I told him I was learning to service our fleet of vehicles, he said, ‘Don’t they have any men where you’reposted?’”
“You know how to service vehicles?” Joaquin wasimpressed.
Mia nodded. “Officers who don’t get their hands dirty or who act helpless lose the respect of their soldiers, so if there’s anything you don’t know how to operate or repair, you’d better learn rightaway.”
That made sense to Joaquin. “But your dad stood behind you, right? When all that shit was going down with your CO, he stood behindyou.”
Her gaze dropped to the table. “When I was going through the sexual harassment stuff with Powell, my parents told me that women serving in male-dominated fields should expect to beharassed.”
¡Ay,carajo!
Thispissed Joaquin off. “That’s bullshit. You know that,right?”
Something in her half-hearted nod told Joaquin that her mind knew it, but her heart wasn’t so sure. He reached out, took her hand, her fingers so small compared to his. “You didn’t deserve what Powell did to you, Mia. No woman deservesthat.”
11
Mia felt more relaxed than she had since all of this began. The wine had something to do with that, but so did the man who sat beside her on the sofa, his body turned toward hers, his dark eyes watching her. She’d never met a man like Joaquin, a man who wanted to know her thoughts and who listened when she spoke rather than using her answers as a springboard to talk abouthimself.
She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to run her hands over those muscles she’d seen this morning. She wanted him to wanther.
Sadly, she’d never had that kind of luck withmen.
“You knowalltheir scientific names?” heasked.
“Most of them. Sometimes I forget something or get mixed up, but if you want to talk about plants as a horticulturalist, you have to use scientific names. Did you know that there are more than two hundred common names for theNymphaea alba, the European whitelily?”
“Seriously? I had no idea plant names were socomplicated.”
“They vary region to region, country to country. If I use one of those common names, people in another part of the country wouldn’t know what I was talkingabout.”
“That makes sense.” Those lips of his curved in a slowsmile.
“What?”
“You’re amazing. You’re smart, brave,beautiful…”
Heat rushed into her face. “Oh,stop.”
His brows drew together. “You know you’re beautiful,right?”
“I’m pretty average. My mom says I have my dad’s square jaw. Elena is feminine and gorgeous. I’mnot.”
Joaquin said nothing for a moment then pointed to the walls around them. “Which of those photographs isbeautiful?”
She glanced around the room. “I think they’re allbeautiful.”
“How can they all be beautiful? They’re all different. If the columbines are pretty, how can the eagle be pretty? If the mountains are beautiful, how can the ocean be beautiful,too?”