Seduced The Unexpected Virgin - By Emily McKay Page 0,70

ask you to do that.”

“Thank God. ’Cause I really liked being back up on the stage.” He leaned down and bumped his forehead against hers. “Thank you for pushing me. I needed that. I needed you.”

Which she figured was just about perfect. Because she needed him, too.

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RAFE & SARAH—PART TWO

Vista del Mar, California—14 years ago:

Whoever decided flowers made the perfect Valentine’s Day gift never spent backbreaking hours at a greenhouse shoveling manure.

Muscles shouting, Rafe Cameron scraped the remaining muck from the truck bed and walked to the pile five feet away behind the Worth family’s glassed nursery. Sweat soaked his back and beaded his brow even in the fifty-five degree February weather. He’d ditched his pullover straight away, good thing since now his T-shirt and jeans were caked in filth.

But he was lucky to find a job to make extra money before school since afternoons were already filled with work at the construction company. Money was tight and he needed the additional cash to treat Sarah to a real Valentine’s Day, a dinner out at that new fancy place in town, Jacques’. Not some cheapskate date like the ones they’d gone on over the past month.

Ice cream at the beach—then making out.

Sodas while driving around—followed by making out.

Free concert at the park—and more making out.

Rafe speared the shovel into the pile and leaned on the wooden handle to catch his breath. Hell, it was a wonder he had time for a girlfriend to give flowers to, anyway. He hadn’t meant to start dating Sarah Richards, but then he’d kissed her that night a month ago when he’d picked her up from her job waitressing at the snobby Beach and Tennis Club.

Now here he was, working for that scumbag Ronald Worth, the richest dude in Vista del Mar. At least he didn’t have to see Worth. Technically, he’d gotten the job from Worth’s gardener, Juan Rodriguez.

Still, his senior English teacher would call this short-term job the ultimate in “irony” since he’d always sworn nothing would make him kowtow to Worth’s millions. Except he’d started dating Sarah, which changed a lot of things fast.

Funny what a guy would do for a girl, but then it must run in his genes. His dad had sure worked his tail off to pay medical bills piled higher than the fertilizer reeking up the morning air…not that it had mattered in the end since she’d died anyway. Hannah. His mother. And now his dad had started up a friendship with Penny.

Rafe threw back his head and stared at the cobalt-blue morning sky until the sun burned away the lame moisture in his eyes.

Focus on the right now. Besides money for a date, he needed a proper Valentine’s bouquet to give Sarah when she got off work tonight. The job was doubly perfect in that Mr. Rodriguez had offered to wrap up some flowers as part of the pay.

The gardener—a middle-aged, Zen kinda dude—clapped him on the back. “N0, you have worked enough this week. Go shower up before you are late for school. As I tell my little Ana, education is important.”

“I agree, sir.” His dad hammered the same thing into his head often enough.

“The flowers of your choice will be wrapped and waiting with floral tubes of water on their stems. But make sure you keep them cool, in your refrigerator when you go home to shower.”

“Thank you for helping me out with this job and letting me come in so early.” He peeled off the disgusting glove and shook the older man’s hand. “I won’t forget it.”

“No thanks are necessary. You are a hard worker. Do the same favor for someone else someday. That is how the world should move, people helping each other out, helping each other find fulfillment and happiness in the moment.” Rodriguez reached into his pocket and pulled out a check.

Rafe stared at the Worth Industries label scrolling across the top, a company that had once carried his parents on their payroll, a company that fired his parents unfairly, taking away their income, their health insurance, their future.

He fought hard against the urge to crumple the slip of paper. “I won’t forget.”

Damn straight, he had a long memory, as Ronald Worth would one day find out.

Rafe’s