Island Affair (Keys to Love #1) - Priscilla Oliveras Page 0,24
he could save.
Helping Sara was one thing.
Confusing her gratitude for interest was a mistake he didn’t need to make. If he’d learned anything from Mirna, it was that gratitude or, even worse, hero worship was no substitute for real love.
Sara was in the midst of an emotional, stressful situation. She felt thankful for his assistance. That’s it. He’d do well to remember that.
Which meant he needed to pull the extinguisher trigger and put out the remnants of the flash fire smoldering inside him. If not, her plan and his bid to help were doomed.
“Are you—”
“About that—”
They spoke in unison, each quickly breaking off.
“Ladies first.” Palm up, Luis gestured toward her.
Sara dipped her head in thanks. “I’m the one who instigated all of this.” She motioned back and forth between them. “This whole charade idea, infringing on your time off. And, while it’s probably a good thing that we’re, uh, you know.” She stopped, swallowed nervously. Rubbed at the tiny worry lines wedged between her light brown brows.
“That we’re, what?” he prodded.
Sara huffed out a rush of air on what sounded like an embarrassed laugh.
“God, it’s like I’ve time warped back to high school,” she muttered under her breath. Twisting completely around to face him, she hiked up the material of her peach dress, treating him to a flash of her shapely calf as she crooked her knee over the cupholders in the center console. “Look, you’re an attractive guy. And I’m, well, I like to consider myself a reasonably attractive woman—”
His snort of disbelief had Sara stopping to give him the stink eye.
“That was totally meant as a ‘hell yeah,’” he clarified, swiping a hand through the air to underline his point.
Lips pursed in a cute pout, she hummed an “uh-huh” weighty with snark. “As I was saying, it’s only natural that we might be, you know, attracted to each other.”
She paused, brows raised like she expected some kind of answer from him.
After her less-than-thrilled response to his reaction moments ago, Luis played it safe and nodded.
“I mean, I guess our, um, attraction might make us more convincing, you know? Make our relationship more believable? Though we should be clear. This is simply you doing me a huge favor, and me in turn making an anonymous donation to the fire station’s upcoming fundraiser for local schools. We are starting and ending this whole affair as friends. Nothing more. Right?”
He couldn’t tell who she was trying to convince, herself or him, but her logic seemed—
Hell, who was he kidding, logic had absolutely nothing to do with this plan of theirs.
Sara waited, her brow creased with anxious expectation. Her hands wringing impatiently on top of her knee.
Logical or not. He was all in.
Luis turned the key to cut the truck’s engine. “I’m ready if you are.”
A relieved smile spread across Sara’s mouth. And damn if that didn’t make him start thinking about kissing her all over again.
Her cheeks plumped when she grinned. Her eyes flashed with the excited glimmer that made him want to do whatever it took to keep her feeling that way.
Madre de Dios, he was in over his head here. Talk about shaking things up? This was earthquake, Richter-scale worthy.
Thing was, for the first time in a long, long time, Luis didn’t care. Maybe this nutty idea of a one-week pretend affair with this quick-witted, intriguing woman who discombobulated his regimented, mostly solitary life was just what the doctor or, in his case, the Captain had ordered.
The thought had Luis’s body responding as if a station Tone Out had sounded inside his cab. Adrenaline raced through him. His pulse ramped up. Every cell inside him tingled, invigorated and alive.
In a flash of clarity, he realized Carlos had been right. In recent weeks—hell, even longer than that—Luis hadn’t felt this high, this thrill, on the job. Not like he used to. Definitely not since the car accident that had taken the life of a young college student several weeks ago. Dragging him back to a different accident. One with more casualties than the life it had taken.
One that had left him basically treading water. Fighting against a current teeming with a barrage of painful, unwelcome memories. But this entire afternoon with Sara, he hadn’t thought about any of it.
Any doubts he may have harbored were instantly quelled. Instinct reassured him that here, enjoying this welcome reprieve Sara unwittingly offered, was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Now to make sure they made her family believe that, too.