dropped it in the kitchen and had been asking about it,” Jaime said, explaining his presence without Grace asking.
She looked at him, but what could she say? So she looked back up at Andromeda, sparkling in the black blanket of the sky. She shivered.
“I knew you were cold. Do you ever have a coat?” Jaime pulled off his and placed it on her shoulders, just like he had down by the river. He didn’t move his hands away from her shoulders, though. The heat of his hands seeped into her.
She looked up at him.
“Why are you here—with me?” She whispered the words, so quietly she didn’t know if he’d heard them.
But by the light of the moon and the light through the kitchen window, she could see his jaw tighten. He still didn’t move his hands away from her arms, though.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just…wanted to see you.”
Her heart clenched. She breathed a cloud into the cold night.
You’re breaking my heart. You’re breaking my heart and all I can do is let you. Her throat closed and every word she’d ever learned disappeared. It was just Jaime, and the night, and the cold, and the way he looked at her.
“They’re going forward with the investigation. Adam told me this week. They’re not charging me with anything, but I know it’s me they want to talk to.” The words seemed wrenched from him, and she couldn’t help but be touched that he’d told her.
She covered his hands, still on her arms, with hers. “I’m sorry, Jaime. I wish I could help you.”
He stepped away, but he didn’t leave. Bereft of his warmth, she shivered, despite the heavy coat hanging from her shoulders.
“How do you do it?” Jaime shook his head, a sad smile on his handsome face. “You’re the person my mother always warned me about.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She always said that the most dangerous people were the ones who treated you like you were worthy of their respect. The people who listened to you.” He looked up at the stars with her and breathed toward Cassiopeia, “The people who make you want to be a better man.”
She wondered if Jaime Martínez knew he could crumble a girl’s heart with words just like those.
They stared at the sky in silence. Grace swallowed, her mouth dry and her throat constricted. But then Jaime pointed, and he asked, “Do you know which constellation that is?”
She almost laughed, and she found her voice after a moment. “That’s Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopeia. Chained to a rock but saved by Perseus from a sea monster, and then she marries him. Perseus, not the sea monster. The usual kind of Greek myth.”
“Huh,” he said. “It would’ve been kind of awesome if she’d married the sea monster, though.”
“How would that be awesome? That sounds awful.”
“Maybe the sea monster is misunderstood. Maybe he was just lonely.”
Grace gave him a look, and he grinned. “Are you turning the sea monster into a Nice Guy who just wants women to like him?”
“Hey, sea monsters need love, too.”
She reached out to push him, but he caught her hand before she could. He wouldn’t let her go. They grappled, with Grace laughing and Jaime soon encircling her with his arms. But the body-lock quickly transformed into an embrace, and Grace could feel every inch of him against her body.
He didn’t let her go. She felt his breath puff against her ear, brushing the strands of hair falling from her usual braid. Now his coat seemed too warm, and her cheeks heated. She couldn’t look at him, but she did manage to raise her hands until they pressed against his chest, clad only in a thin t-shirt. His heart pounded beneath her palm.
Leaning toward her, she could hear his barest whisper. “Graciela,” he murmured. “Graciela, Graciela.”
She trembled. She gripped fistfuls of his shirt, like it were her only lifeline. He’d never called her that before. Suddenly her plain name became something new entirely, his mouth and lips and voice transforming her into a creature she had never met before.
He was only inches from her cheek. From her mouth. She closed her eyes.
He kept saying Graciela, murmuring other words in Spanish. She knew this was his admission that he couldn’t say the words to her so she would understand. These words were for him alone.
She’d studied enough Spanish to catch a few words, but they all swirled together until she didn’t hear words, just sounds. Movement, emotions. Inevitability.
When she opened her eyes, she