Page 62 of Her Hidden Smile

Her eyes twinkled. “I do not. You deserve a punishment for eating me out of house and home and adding new channels to my cable bill.”

I tugged at her hands and she allowed herself to fall against my chest. Yeah, my Millie was all up for any kind of punishment I was willing to dish out. We’d shared two kisses since Sunday, but it was time for more. Maybe even a lot more.

“Can you give me a better suggestion than watching fútbol?” Renzo asked with his sexy Spanish accent. Every time he watched a soccer game I imagined him wearing those silky shorts that would show off his butt and legs. God knew why, considering the fact that he got up every morning just wearing sweatpants and I had his muscled chest to contend with.

He’s driving me crazy!

Then there were those two kisses he’d given me. They confused the hell out of me. Where did I stand with this man?

“Did you hear my question, Millie?”

“You know I’m not going to watch soccer with you.” I gave him an exasperated look.

He mirrored my look. “That wasn’t what I asked. I asked if you had a better suggestion than watching fútbol.”

It was at that second that I realized I was practically laying across his chest. That was another thing that had been going on. Every evening he would somehow arrange it so that we were snuggled up together on the couch, watching some kind of mindless television, that we would ignore so we could talk.

“We could talk,” I suggested.

“We’ve done a lot of talking. Got another idea?”

“There’s still some chocolate chip mint ice cream in the freezer. Let me up, I know you won’t pass that up,” I smirked.

He didn’t let me go. “Wrong.”

I frowned up at him. “What do you mean, wrong?”

“I want something sweeter.”

I watched as his eyes lowered and he looked down at my mouth. He bent his head toward me, and I pushed at his shoulders. “Wait.”

“What?”

“I don’t want this.”

He looked up at me.

“Millie—?”

“I don’t want to kiss you again, without knowing where I stand with you. Before you rescued me, you’d cut off contact for almost a month. That hurt, Renzo. It hurt a lot. I need to understand why.”

He shut his eyes, but his hold on me tightened.

“You’re right, baby. I need to explain.”

I didn’t like how he said that. I hadn’t wanted to ask, because I didn’t want to know what his answer was going to be. But one thing I had learned after all my hospital stays and surgeries, it was better to just get things over with.

Renzo adjusted how we were sitting so that I was on his lap and now he was looking down at me. God, he was beautiful. I especially liked it that he hadn’t shaved for two or three days. He was the definition of masculinity.

He took a deep breath, then let it out.

“Just tell me,” I pleaded.

He nodded.

“There’s this thing going on with work. I’ve been trying to track down someone and bring him back to Jasper Creek. Harvey and I need some answers.”

“That’s a bullshit answer.” I hissed.