Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,19
caption and it’d easily go viral.
“Nonnegotiable.” Luis enunciated the word clearly, his hell no tone softened by the laughter tilting his full lips and flashing in his dark eyes. He dipped his head toward their table. “Eat up. We have work to do.”
“Fiiiine.” She scrunched her nose in protest but picked up her sandwich and took a hefty bite. “Mmmmm.”
Her eyelids drifted closed as the mix of spices tempered by Swiss cheese with the added tang of mustard and pickles teased her taste buds. The explosion of flavor had her mouth watering. Swallowing, she opened her eyes to sample more.
Her gaze connected with Luis’s across the table. She froze, spellbound by the intensity tightening his angular features. Sara licked at a trace of mustard on her bottom lip, her pulse blipping when his heated gaze followed the motion.
A different kind of hunger, swift and unexpected, swooped deep at her core. An electric charge sizzled through her, leaving tingles of desire in its churning wake.
Suddenly a bird’s squawk pierced the air. A seagull glided into their cabana to land on the end of their picnic table.
Luis blinked, breaking their silent connection. He shooed the bird away, then gathered his trash into a ball with one fist.
“Worth the wait?” he asked, indicating her sandwich.
Sara nodded, still reeling from the startling awareness arcing between them.
“Uh-huh. It’s, um, delicious.” Clearing her throat, she picked up her drink and worked to get her thoughts back on track. “I can see why Sandy’s made Key West’s Top Five Cuban Mixes list. Definitely a must-try recommendation for my followers.”
“Told you so.”
“Gloating is not nice. Don’t make me break out my chancleta,” she threatened.
His raspy chuckle sent a delicious shiver across her shoulders.
Dangerous.
Thrilling.
Completely inappropriate for the friendly agreement they had made.
“Okay,” she said on a deep, get your head in the game breath. “Time to start Twenty Questions Fake Relationship Edition.”
“Yay!” Luis lifted his fists in triumph, his expression alight with mock excitement. “My favorite game!”
“Wise guy,” she grumbled, fighting her answering smile.
She clicked her pen with her thumb, then tossed the first barrage of questions at him.
Over an hour later, Sara had filled two pages with notes. Luis, having seen the wisdom of her ways, had decided to start his own study guide, so she’d torn a piece of paper from her book and dug out an extra pen from her purse.
In between questions and devising their story of how they’d met, Luis had finished off the last half of her Cuban mix after she cried “full.” Him, volunteering to “take one for the team” to avoid letting good food go to waste. Her, failing to use that opening in their conversation to divulge her personal struggle with an eating disorder.
It wasn’t necessarily something she kept secret. In recent years, her struggle with the disease had actually come up in a few interviews. The journalists had all been respectful. Each granted her request that the disorder not be the focus of an article about her business. She recognized the importance of sharing her story, how it might help others, so she didn’t shy away from the topic. And yet she wasn’t ready for the change that would inevitably occur if Luis knew. As it had with her family.
The pointed interest in what she ate. Or didn’t eat. The covert glances at her figure checking for noticeable weight loss. Cataloging her actions. The questions. The pity. The disappointment and guilt.
Luis would only be around for a week. Less if the situation nose-dived and they had to invent a reason for “Ric” to bug out early. More proof why Luis didn’t even need to know.
“We’ve covered quite a bit,” Luis said.
“I agree. The trick is in remembering it all.”
“Well”—holding his paper up at one corner, Luis waved it back and forth—“thanks to my handy dandy cheat sheet, I think I’ll be okay.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
“Now who’s gloating?”
“You know I’m right, though,” she singsonged.
Luis responded with a mature eyeroll that had them both grinning.
Seated under the cabana’s shade, the humid ocean breeze keeping the May heat at bay, they quietly mulled over each other’s answers on their respective papers.
By now she’d discovered he was the second child of four kids, with only one sister born immediately after him. He didn’t admit it, but Sara sensed some kind of distance between Luis and his baby brother. When Enrique’s name came up, the light that brightened Luis’s mahogany eyes when he talked about his sister and older brother dulled. The smile that curved