“You don’t think I’m coming off as an arrogant snob?” he murmured, one raven eyebrow arched.
Colleen had the decency to glance away in embarrassment. It was precisely what she would have thought of his gift a year ago.
“No. I think it’s a generous, but also a very personal and heartfelt, gift. The fact that you worked so hard to get it and are putting some of your own labor into it only adds to that. Natalie is lucky to have a brother like you,” she finished hoarsely.
“Colleen.”
She kept her gaze averted, but something about the resonant timbre of his hushed, deep voice made her heartbeat escalate. That increasingly familiar feeling of longing she’d been experiencing lately chose that moment to swell in her chest.
“Yes?” she asked softly.
“I know Lucy is an eyeful, but do you think you could look at me?”
She hesitantly dragged her gaze off the boat to Eric’s face.
“I’m sorry for pushing you the other night,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“You don’t have to apologize. I’m over it.”
His mouth twitched at that.
Not that she was staring at his mouth or anything.
“Are you sure there isn’t some other reason why you don’t want to become involved with me?”
Colleen glanced furtively at the back of the boat. She could hear the children talking excitedly on the other side.
“I told you. I’m not ready to be in a relationship. Besides, haven’t we already established that you don’t take your relationships seriously anyway?”
He grimaced in obvious frustration and took a step toward her. Her breath caught when he reached for her hand. “Didn’t we cover this? I do take it seriously. Very seriously.”
For a moment, her entire awareness resided just beneath his thumb stroking her wrist below the ridge of her palm. She blinked, forcing her sluggish brain back to its logical task.
“You take sex seriously. I don’t want to be in a casual sexual relationship,” she whispered.
“You have to give me a chance, Colleen. I’ll go at your pace, but you have to let me in, just a little. Maybe it’ll become more than just attraction, if you let it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t really buy that. Not you. Not the Great Disbeliever.”
“I’m beginning to really wish we could start this whole thing over again,?
? he grated out between a clenched jaw.
“Well, we can’t,” she whispered feelingly.
“Sure, we can.”
His eyes looked hot. The lines of his face were rigid, making him appear almost fearsome in his determination. She found herself leaning into him, as helpless as a planet feeling the magnetic pull of a burning star.
Chapter Seven
They were interrupted by a shout from Brendan.
“Mom, you gotta see the leather seats…and check out these instruments!” Brendan called ecstatically. The angle of her son’s voice made it clear Brendan had somehow boosted himself into the air to look down into the boat.
“Excuse me,” Colleen murmured abashedly, extricating her wrist from his hold. Had she really just almost made out with Eric Reyes with her children fifteen feet away? He watched her from beneath a lowered brow. His face looked impassive, but his eyes spoke to her in concise shorthand.
He desired her, and more than a little bit. And Eric Reyes wasn’t the type of man to want something more than a little bit and not get it.