Oh, my God, thatkiss.
The way he’d said her name and looked into her eyes just before their lips had touched. The way he’d made her heart pound. The way he’d laughed when he’d realized she hadn’t been breathing and had taken that bigbreath.
You gotta breathe,hermosa, or you’re going to passout.
Ifthatwas how the man kissed, she could only imagine what it would be like to have sex with him, to spend the night in his bed, to wake up next to him in themorning.
I just paid attention to what you seemed tolike.
She’d never felt so connected to a man before. It wasn’t just that he’d been thoughtful. It was as if he’d truly seen her, seen who she was on theinside.
You’re amazing. You’re smart, brave,beautiful…
Somehow, he had even made her feelbeautiful.
When her hair was dry, she put on a little makeup—mascara to turn her red eyelashes black and a little blush—and went back to her room to dress, slipping into a pair of jeans and a Botanic Gardens T-shirt. She found Joaquin in the kitchen wearing jeans and a dark blue dress shirt and working onbreakfast.
She wondered for a split second whether things would be awkward between them now, but her fear vanished at the smile on his face when he sawher.
“Good morning, beautiful.” He walked over to her and handed her a cup of coffee, kissing her on the lips. “Did you sleepwell?”
“Notreally.”
“No?” He lookedworried.
“My head was too full ofyou.”
He grinned. “Ooh. I likethat.”
“How aboutyou?”
“Nah. My mind couldn’t quit thinking about a certain beautifulredhead.”
Warmth rushed into Mia’s cheeks. “I likethat.”
She helped him finish breakfast, and they sat down together to scrambled eggs, toast, and slicedgrapefruit.
Mia had just sprinkled pepper and hot sauce on her eggs when she noticed the serious expression on Joaquin’s face. “Is somethingwrong?”
“I meant to tell you this last night. The police department had aleak.”
Mia listened in stunned silence as Joaquin told her how one of the reporters at his paper had gotten word from someone at the police department that big news was about to be revealed about Andy’s and Jason’s cases that involved Mia and thePentagon.
“I called Darcangelo, and he warned Chief Irving, who caught the person making photocopies of the case file. He fired her and might even file charges. In the end, Cate got nothing, so you don’t have to worry about any of it showing up in the paper. I think Cate suspects that I warned the police. If she were to findout…”
Mia went from wondering why Joaquin hadn’t told her all of this earlier to worrying about what would happen to him if his boss found out what he’d done. “Would you be in lots oftrouble?”
“If Tom, my editor, knew that I had exposed Cate’s secret source and cost her a big story, he would probably fire me on the spot—and he wouldn’t be wrong. Reporters depend on sources like that for the big stories. I took something from Cate yesterday, something I can never giveback.”
Mia could hear the conflict he felt in his voice. “You went against the interests of your colleague and your paper for me. You put your job at risk forme.”
“I made you a promise, Mia. If I lost my job, I’d be okay in the end. But if I lost your trust or put your future at risk—I couldn’t live withthat.”
Mia’s heart melted. “Thankyou.”
“I ought to have told you sooner. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to ruin our dinner, and then… With everything last night, I justforgot.”
She reached out, took his hand. “Please don’t apologize. Is there any way Cate could find out from the source what happened? Are there emails or texts or phone records she could use to put thistogether?”