“I want to hang out with you. I’m assuming you’re a package deal, so I’ll be seeing Haven. Me being a dick is inevitable, so I’m prepared to be called a flapdoodle.”
“Or Rumpleforeskin.”
His eyes closed like he was pained. He had to be. Santiago could make me laugh, but the man had a serious soul. And that was okay. Not everyone could be goofy like Murray. I liked Santi’s serious side.
“You’re for real?” he asked, incredulous.
“Oh yeah. Poor Liam has heard it all.”
“Tell me who Liam is.”
I grinned, wondering whether I should keep torturing him. I thought better of it. “Haven’s brother. My friend.”
“He ever touch you?”
“Never. He’s a kid.”
That same pained look passed over his features again. “You’re just a kid, Maeve.”
My hand came up to his, pulling it away from my face. “Don’t say that to me. If you think that, if you really believe it, why the hell are you touchin’ me and givin’ me smoldering eyes? Why were you in my bed last night if I’m a goddamn child?”
“I don’t know.” He tossed his hands in the air and took three frustrated steps away from me before turning back and cutting the small distance between us in two long, determined strides. Palms cupped my face, tilting it back. “I fucking want you. I can’t stop. I can’t even push you away, not again. I don’t have it in me.”
I tried to push his hands off me, but he had me. “I’m not some piece of forbidden fruit that’s going to damn you if you have a taste. I’m a fully grown woman, capable of making my own decisions and learnin’ from my mistakes. The biggest mistake I ever made was allowing a man to keep comin’ to me even when he was conflicted over his own feelings. I won’t do that with you.”
He released out a long exhale and let his forehead fall onto mine. “Maeve...I’m not that guy. And if you point me in his direction, I’ll gladly fuck him up for you.”
His offer to fuck up Drew Rossi was said with so much gentleness, my heart stuttered. He was being sweet, in a violent, Santiago kind of way.
“He lost me, and from the texts he continues to send me two years later, his regret is fuckin’ him up just fine, thank you.”
Santiago could stew in that knowledge. He wasn’t the only man who wanted me, not by far. I might not have been skinny or conventional, but I’d come to realize I was sexy as hell and desirable. Not every man wanted me, but hell, I didn’t want every man either.
He straightened, pulling back from me. “We better head back. We gotta get ready for the show.”
“Fine, that sounds great.” I tossed my hair over my shoulder and raised my chin high. Even though Santiago had cleared up some of what happened between us when we first met, I still didn’t have clarity. When I’d walked into the lobby, I’d been absolute in my stance that we couldn’t be together again in any capacity beyond friendship. But something had shifted, and I’d questioned myself. And now…God, I didn’t know where I was now.
A little angry. A lot befuddled.
In the lobby again, Santiago gripped my elbow, pulling me into an alcove. “We’re not done talking.”
“Says who?”
He sighed my name, then covered my mouth with his. My surrender was immediate, opening to him. He kissed me deep, licking my tongue and teeth. If he’d kissed me like this five years ago, I would have followed him around like a little puppy, begging for more. Now, I trusted myself not to beg, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have me hooked.
I pushed him away before I climbed his body and got us both thrown into Spanish jail.
“I need to go,” I practically panted.
“Yeah.” He thumbed my bottom lip, then leaned in and bit it. I pushed him away again.
“Stop. Let me think.”
“Come to my room tonight,” he said.
“Can’t.”
He bit my lip again, then sucked it between his. When he withdrew, his hot breath skated across my wet lips. “You can.”