“GO, MIJO. HE will be fine.” Maria Gonzales ushered Derek toward the front door of his house Wednesday evening. She had been their neighbor since before Derek was born, and she loved his parents as much as Derek did. A nurse by profession, and a trusted friend, Maria had cared for his mother until the very end of her life, and now, when Derek was in school or at work, she cared for his father.
“Maybe I should just run over and tell her I need to cancel.” His father was particularly agitated this evening, and Derek hated leaving him when he was like that. He should have gotten Talia’s phone number, but he’d been so caught up in her agreeing to see him again, he’d forgotten to ask for it.
Maria narrowed her dark eyes and pointed at him in the way only mothers could pull off. “You have given up enough already. I can sing to him. I can calm him down. What I can’t do”—she patted her hand over his heart—“is fill this up the way the woman who lights up your eyes can.”
“Okay,” he said, still warring with guilt over leaving. “But I’ll make it an early night. And if he doesn’t settle down, please call me. Promise?”
“Of course. Now, you promise me something.” She grabbed his black beanie and handed it to him, then lifted his coat from the rack by the door and held it open for him to push his arms through. He was a solid foot taller than Maria, and he had to bend his knees to shrug on the coat. “Promise me you will stop worrying for ten minutes and enjoy yourself. Your papa would want that.”
“Yeah, I know he would,” he relented, and pulled on his knit hat. “Thanks, Maria.”
He hugged her and drew in a deep breath. He’d been living on deep breaths for the past few years, and he wondered if he’d ever get used to it.
“Don’t forget your backpack.” She picked it up, and they both heard the unfamiliar clink of metal on metal. She peered inside, and her eyes lit up. “Ah, your delicious tuxedo mochas?”
He shrugged. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s a cold night.”
“Mm-hm.” She patted his cheek and said, “So that’s why you asked if you could use two of my thermoses. Go, mijo. Go warm up your new friend.”
The park was only a few minutes from his neighborhood, made quicker because he jogged the short distance. As he neared the entrance, snowflakes melted against his cheeks. His gaze swept over the park where he’d spent his youth chasing balls and having picnics with his family. Not for the first time, he was struck by the simplicity of nature. In such a complicated world, it seemed almost a gift to witness fresh snow kissing empty benches and decorating the peaked roof of the gazebo. He spotted Talia walking Molly by a big tree he used to climb when he was a kid. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders from beneath a red knit hat. She’d changed out of her skirt and wore a pair of jeans tucked into fur-trimmed boots. She looked up as he approached, lifting her hand in a tentative wave.
Her big brown eyes captivated him, the way they were wary and confident at once. He’d noticed it over coffee. Every time she started to open up, she quickly tightened the reins. But she had shown up at the bar, she’d confronted him about his dancing, and she was here now, all of which told him just how confident she really was. He couldn’t suppress a smile as he closed the distance between them. How long had it been since his heart beat this hard because of a woman? He had the overwhelming urge to greet her with a kiss. The impulse was so strong, he didn’t trust himself not to, so he petted Molly instead.
“How does it feel to step outside your comfort zone two times in one day?” he asked jovially.
She lowered her gaze, snowflakes dotting her long lashes. “It feels a little like when I was younger and snuck out of the house at night with my girlfriends. I got away with it, but the next morning over breakfast I confessed everything.”
He stepped closer, wanting to soak in her innocence, her honesty, and anything else she’d let him. “How’d that go over?”
“My mother told me that sometimes it was good to be bad. My father wanted to ground me, but my younger sister Piper, who never thinks before she speaks, told him that I shouldn’t be grounded because I came clean, and if he grounded me he was sending a message to her and my other younger siblings that they should never tell the truth.”
He laughed. “Sounds like Piper is a pistol.”
“You have no idea,” she said as they walked along the path that ran through the park. “But my father bought it, and I didn’t get grounded. To this day, Piper has never let me forget that she’s the one who saved me from the punishment.”
“How many siblings do you have?”
“I have three sisters and one brother. I’m the oldest. Then comes Ben. He’s a venture capitalist, and in a lot of ways, he’s the sibling I’m closest to. Piper is next in line. She works with my father as a contractor.”
“As in a builder?”
“Yeah. She’s only about as big as a twig, but she’s tough as nails and seriously talented.”
“That’s cool.” He playfully nudged her arm and said, “Almost as cool as being a professor.”
She laughed. “Trust me, all of my siblings are much cooler than me. You should meet Willow. Talk about cool? She’s fearless. She owns a bakery in Sweetwater, where we live, and she recently married Zane Walker, who is Ben’s best friend.”
“The actor?” he asked.
“Yes, well, former actor, really. He’s written a screenplay and he’s working on getting it made into a movie. Willow is as outgoing as Piper, without the chip on her shoulder, and she’s beyond beautiful, but she doesn’t like Hollywood very much, so they spend most of their time here.”
“I don’t blame her for that. Why do I get the feeling you think she’s more beautiful than you are?”
“Because she is,” she said frankly. “My sisters are gorgeous, each in their own way. Willow’s a buxom blonde with a warm personality that everyone adores. Piper’s like a pixie doll, as beautiful as she is fierce. And Bridgette, the youngest, has hair about a million shades of brown and blond. She was always the riskiest of us, which makes her even more attractive. She ran away and married a musician when she was in college. Unfortunately, she lost him to an accident right after their son, Louie, was born. But she’s amazing, the way she handled raising Louie alone these last few years.”
“That must have been very difficult for her.”
“It was, but she never complained, and she’s always managed to keep a piece of Louie’s father alive in his life. Louie collects baseball cards, like his dad did. And now Bridgette’s wildly in love with Bodhi Booker, who is an incredible man. We’re in the midst of planning their wedding.”
Her eyes lit up when she spoke about her family, and he wanted to keep her talking, to experience that passionate side of her. “You really love your family, don’t you?”
“I do, even though they drive me bonkers sometimes.”
Molly stopped to sniff a bush, and Derek stepped closer to Talia, loving the caution and heat battling in her eyes. “And tell me, Parking Lot Plower, what makes you think you’re not more beautiful than all of them put together?”
She laughed, and the playful, unrestrained sound wound through the air like a song. “Parking Lot Plower? Seriously?”
“Well, you’re more of a princess than a plower, but Princess Hit and Run doesn’t really work since you didn’t drive away.”
She covered her face, and Molly rubbed against her leg, panting up at her. “I can’t believe you called me that! I’m a great driver. The best in my family. I was just distracted, and I’m sure you weren’t watching where you were going, or you would have seen me approaching, right? Maybe I should call you . . .” She scrunched her nose, looking freaking adorable, and said, “Oh, heck! I’ve got nothing!”
“Nothing? Well, what am I doing hanging out with a woman who’s got nothing to offer?”
“Hey, I’ve got things to offer.” She was smiling again, breathtakingly radiant. “I’m just not snarky enough to figure out what to call you. I don’t even know you well enough to pretend to figure something out.”
He couldn’t resist reaching up and brushing a snowflake from her cheek. The light in her eyes heated, burning up the space between them. “You’ve got a hell of a lot to offer, Talia Dalton. I don’t know your sisters, but I’ve met a lot of women in my travels, and I have yet to meet any who are as pretty, or as interesting, as you.”
She worried her tempting lower lip. He stood so close, all he’d have to do was lean in to worry it for her. Their breath mingled, and man, did he want to mingle with her. But the caution in her eyes had him stepping back, struggling to regain control of his runaway desires.
“I, um . . .” She looked down at Molly, then out at the street, and finally, back at him. “Thank you?”
Now he was the one laughing. “You have no idea how attractive you are, do you? Or how refreshing and intriguing it is to talk to a woman who isn’t afraid to go deeper than clothes or makeup.”
“Oh boy,” she said on a long exhalation.
“I’ll shut up now, for fear of you taking better aim in the parking lot next time.” He nodded to Molly, who was digging her nose in the snow. “Is she allowed off leash?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Oh, you are cautious, aren’t you?” He picked up a handful of snow and made a snowball. “I thought I’d toss it for her.”
“How did you know she loves that?”
“Most dogs do.”
She unhooked Molly’s chain, and they spent the next little while throwing snowballs for the pup and talking. Talia told him about her parents. Her mother made soaps and fragrances and sold them in shops in Sweetwater, and her father had been a professor before he’d retired and opened the contracting company he and Piper now ran.
“You said you traveled,” she said. “I’ve never been any place interesting. Was your dad in the military?” She threw a snowball for Molly, smiling as the dog caught it in her mouth.
“No. I grew up right here in Harmony Pointe, in the house where my father and I live.” He tossed another snowball and said, “My father was a chef. When I was a kid, I’d hang out at the restaurant where he worked. I didn’t travel until I was out of high school. My father had done the same thing, traveled before going to college. I wanted to be just like him, you know? I backpacked for almost two years internationally, staying in hostels, kibbutzim, on communal farms when I could, and then I came back and went to college. My father insisted that I get a degree before going to culinary school, and I was good with numbers. I got that from my mother. I worked as an accountant for a while, saved a little money toward culinary school. Then my dad lost his job, and I’ve been taking care of him ever since.”
“Did he lose his job because of his illness?” she asked thoughtfully and crossed her arms, tucking her hands beneath to ward off the cold.
Molly ran a little too far for his comfort, and he whistled, calling her back.
“It was before he received his diagnosis, but yeah. He made all sorts of errors and had trouble problem solving. They tried to work with him, but we didn’t know what was going on. And my dad was stubborn. He had a thing about not going to doctors. Now medical appointments are a normal part of his life.”
“That makes me sad, but he’s lucky to have you to care for him. It’s an honorable thing, to give up so much of your life for your father.”
“Family. They’ve got to come first, you know?”
She dug into the snow and made a snowball. “Team Grant all the way.”
“Yeah. All the way and then some.” Unexpected emotions bubbled up inside him, and when she threw the snowball at him, it was exactly what he needed to break through them. He dropped his backpack and said, “You’re in for it now!”
She shrieked and ran across the snow. He darted after her, but she dashed through the gazebo, scooped up a handful of snow, and tossed it at him. It hit him square in the face, and she gasped.
“Sorry!”
He teasingly growled and made a huge snowball, lightly packed so as not to hurt her, and stalked toward her.
She stumbled backward, waving her hands. “No, please!” she said between laughs.
Her killer smile was almost enough to stop him in his tracks. “Oh yes, Parking Lot Princess. You are mine!”
She grabbed another handful of snow and lobbed it at him, missing by a mile. Then she sprinted away. He took off after her and she turned, tripping over her own feet. He lunged, catching her in his arms, but their momentum sent them both to the snow. She landed on top of him, both of them laughing. Molly whined and licked their faces.
Her teeth chattered. “Sorry!”
“Hell, Talia. I’m not.”
Her eyes widened, then brimmed with heat again, dark and alluring as they skimmed over his face and lingered on his lips. Her body sank exquisitely into his. Even separated by coats and clothing, she felt incredible. Molly lay in the snow, watching them as if she felt the unbelievable moment, too. When Talia’s eyes found his again, they were like windows to her soul. Every sexy thought was right there on the surface, so tempting he was about to lean up and take a kiss, when she suddenly schooled her expression, as if she’d just realized she’d shown her true emotions, and rolled off him.
She lay on her back beside him, staring up at the sky, breathing heavily.
He leaned over her and gazed deeply into her troubled, beautiful eyes. Whatever this was between them was magnificent and stronger than anything he’d ever felt, but the caution in her eyes won again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cross a line. It’s been a long time since I’ve”—wanted to kiss a woman—“felt whatever this is between us.”
She pressed her lips together, and as he backed off, she grabbed his sleeve and said, “Me too. It’s been a long time.”
Man, she was so close, her desire evident in her tight grasp on his sleeve and the longing look in her eyes, but the tentativeness was still there, brimming before him. He swallowed his desires and went for levity.
“Do you have an ailing family member you’re caring for, too?”
She shook her head. “I have fear of the unknown, trust issues, and a full life.”
“Is that all?” He helped her to her feet, both of them smiling with his tease.
Molly got up, wagging her tail.
Talia’s teeth were still chattering. He put his hands on her arms and rubbed them, itching to pull her against him and heat her up with a scorching-hot kiss. Instead he took her hand and said, “I’ve got something to warm you up.”
“Um . . . ?” Her cheeks pinked up again.
He chuckled. “Yeah, that, but since we’ve already tabled the good stuff . . .” With Molly in tow, he led her to where his backpack lay in the snow. He dug out the thermoses he’d brought and handed her one. “It’s not as fun, but this should do the trick.”
She pulled her hat a little lower on her ears. “What is it?”
“Tuxedo mocha. Have you ever had one?”
She shook her head, wrapping both hands around the warm thermos. “Thank you for not making me an alcoholic drink the other night, by the way. That was really nice of you to remember.”
“You’re hard to forget, Talia.” He loved the sultry look that earned him and had to distract himself before he made the mistake of tasting that look. “I shouldn’t have waited so long to give this to you. The whipped cream and chocolate curls are probably melted.”
“You had me at whipped cream.” She took a sip and closed her eyes, moaning appreciatively. “Holy cow,” she said breathlessly. “This is heaven in a cup.”
He clenched his jaw as his mind chased that moan down an X-rated path. “It’ll be even better next time, when I make it fresh for you.”
“Next time?” she asked, and took another sip.
The tip of her tongue swept over her lips, seriously testing his ability to hold his tongue. He shouldered his backpack and took Molly’s leash from where it dangled out of Talia’s pocket. As he hooked it onto Molly’s collar, he said, “How can I help you step out of your comfort zone and get over all your hurdles if we don’t see each other again?”
Speaking of hurdles, he realized he’d been so caught up in her, he hadn’t told her the truth about having stumbled into her classroom. As he opened his mouth to do so, his phone rang. His gut pitched as he dug it out of his pocket and saw Maria’s number. “I’m sorry. I need to take this.”
Talia was flirting with a thin and dangerous line. Technically speaking, Derek was her student, at least until Fletch was better, and personally speaking, she was already way outside her comfort zone. Sure, she surrounded herself with new and different people on a near-daily basis, but she didn’t meet them for walks or nearly kiss them. And boy, did she want to kiss Derek! It had taken every ounce of restraint not to lean up and taste his full lips, to feel the emotions of a man who had given up everything for his father. She wanted to see him again, to get to know even more about him, and there was no denying she wanted much more than a kiss, which floored her.
Maybe Piper was wearing off on her.
She watched him talking on the phone, not wanting their evening to end, but as worry fell over his face like a curtain, she had a feeling it was about to.
He tucked his phone in his pocket, and those gorgeous blue eyes held a hint of sorrow. “That was Maria. She takes care of my father. He’s having a hard night, and sometimes I’m the only one who can calm him down.” He stepped closer. “I really didn’t want tonight to end so soon.”
“Me, either.” She was usually much more careful about sharing her feelings, but Derek was testing all the things she thought she knew about herself. “I’m sorry he’s having a hard time. Of course you have to go. What will you do to help calm him?”
He pulled off his beanie—which was also crazy sexy. She loved beanies—and raked a hand through his hair, pulling it away from his face. His long hair had been one of the first things she’d noticed, along with his intense blue eyes, and embarrassingly, she’d let his holey jeans and long hair sway her impression of him. Now she wanted to run her fingers through his hair and get to know him better. Everything she’d seen in him since their first encounter made him even more attractive—his love and loyalty toward his father, his kindness, his sense of humor and intelligence. She wondered how she could have mistaken him for anything less than the man he was, and she couldn’t deny that she’d never seen a more beautiful man. Which is probably the same way the women who watch him dance feel.
That reality hit her like a kick to the stomach.
“When he gets like this,” Derek said, bringing her back to their conversation, “all it usually takes is playing my guitar and singing to him. One song and he’ll be out like a light. He taught me to play when I was a kid.” He paused for a moment, then said, “You know, you could come with me. I know it’s a little strange as an extension of our night, but . . .” He took her hand in his again, and his gaze turned tender, softening her resolve. “I’d really like to spend more time with you.”
The image of him playing his guitar for his father pushed away the cold reality of his dancing. Her thoughts raced. She glanced at Molly to try to sort them, but all she heard was Go! There wasn’t much else to sort through. Apparently, her cautious brain had taken a hiatus for the night, because she said, “I have to bring Molly home first.”
Ten minutes later she was rushing into Fletch’s house, talking a mile a minute as she wiped Molly’s paws and hung up the leash. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m never like this! I’m going with a guy I barely know, and almost ran over, to see his father? What am I doing?”
She paced, and Fletch sat on the couch, chuckling.
“Why are you laughing?” She looked in the mirror on the wall and said, “I half expected to see Piper looking back at me. I almost kissed him, Fletch. When have I ever done that the first time I’ve gone out with someone? And this wasn’t a date! And he’s a stripper. Well, he says he’s a dancer, but . . . yeah, there’s that little golden nugget.”
“A stripper? Tal, I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain this one to me.”
“He works at Decadence, which I thought was an upscale pub.” She paced his living room.
“Upscale club, sure.”
“You know it? You’ve been there?” Maybe that should surprise her, but it didn’t. She assumed most people went to clubs like that and she was just the odd girl out. She’d heard Piper talk about male dancers like they were no big deal.
Her stomach clenched. What if Piper has seen him dance?
“Decadence features male and female dancers,” Fletch explained. “But I wouldn’t call it a strip club. It’s classier than those.”
“Do not tell me about your trips to those, please.” She glared at him. “What is wrong with me? He strips to a G-string, does pelvic thrusts that could make a girl’s toes curl, and he’s my student! Well, he’s your student, which means he’s temporarily my student, and I can’t kiss him.”
Fletch patted the cushion beside him, and she sank down to it with a groan.
“You can’t kiss your student.”
“I know!” She threw her hands up. “This is a bad idea. I shouldn’t go to his house.”
“But you can be friends with him, and honestly, babe, I’ve never seen you this caught up in anyone. Ever. Maybe it’s good for you. Maybe you needed a friend who’s more cutting-edge than boring old me. We both know I’m not going to push your boundaries. But no, you can’t kiss him.”
“Ugh! So what should I do? I shouldn’t go, right? I should just text him and say thanks but no thanks.” She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the pain slicing through her at the idea of doing that.
“You know you probably shouldn’t go.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a deadpan look. “Thanks.”
“At least not while he’s your student. The whole dancing thing, well, that’s another issue. I mean, what kind of guy is he? You should have Ben check him out.”
“My brother is not doing a background check on him! He gave up his job to care for his father, who has Alzheimer’s. He seems like a really good guy, Fletch. The kind of guy that if he didn’t dance and wasn’t my student, I would like to . . .”
“Go out with? Get to know better? I get it. And it’s obvious that you want to go to his place right now. But, Tal, this is how professors get themselves in trouble. They tell themselves they can handle the girls in the short skirts or guys wanting to ball them, but they can’t. Plus, a dancer? I can’t even see you going into a club like that.”
She looked away.
“Holy shit! You went to see him dance? What has gotten into you?”
“I don’t know! I didn’t know I was going to see him dance. It just happened.” She buried her face in her hands, and when she looked up again, she stared straight ahead, visualizing Derek’s face, the way his eyes went from playful to sensual in the space of a second and then turned deep and thoughtful as he spoke of his father. “I think it’s his eyes. They’re riveting. I got sucked in.”
“You don’t get sucked in, especially over eyes, which means this guy must have a lot more than just a hot bod and a pretty face going on. But still, that doesn’t change the fact that as far as the school’s concerned, you’re in a power position over him right now. We both know carnal desires can be a lot stronger than rational thoughts.”
She sighed. “You’re right. You’re absolutely one hundred percent right.” She pushed to her feet and said, “Thank you for reminding me that at the very core of ourselves, we’re all animals. I’ll text him on my way out and tell him I’m not coming over.”
“You must be really wild about this guy, because you didn’t even notice I showered.”
Her gaze swept over his damp, finger-combed hair, and she caught the scent of soap. “You still look like hell, only cleaner. And I’m not going to hug you, because you just turned me away from the first guy who has made me hot and bothered in years.”
“You still love me,” he called after her. “Or at least you will when you’re not getting fired because of having hot sex with a student.”
She stopped by the front door and glanced back at him. “Now it’s not just balling him, but I’m missing out on hot sex? You are very cruel, Professor Fletcher. I sure hope you’re well soon, because now every time I take Molly for a walk I’m going to see his mesmerizing blue eyes gazing up at me.”
“Up? Wait! Were you lying on top of him?”
She arched a brow and spoke as snootily as she could. “Hm. You’ll never know now, will you? Sleep well, libido killer.”
“That’s only until he’s no longer your student,” he yelled as she opened the front door. “Once you no longer have power over him, you’re free to satisfy your every desire with Mr. G-String.”
She glared at him, even though she knew she was doing the right thing by not going to see Derek. But she wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. “How fast can you be well enough to teach?”