Page 65 of Shiver

He shakes his head with a humorless laugh. “Keeping my hands off you when you’re within arms reach,looking like that,” he says, dragging a hand through the air for emphasis.

The hungry look in his eyes nearly brings me to my knees. I feel unsteady on my limbs from his admission, but it’s best that I ignore it. “Well, it sounds like you’ll just have to practice some self-control,” I say, hoping he doesn’t notice the way I gulp for air. “Are you almost ready? Because I’m starving.”

“So am I,” he says under his breath, standing immediately, putting his cell back in his pocket, and heads to the door. He looks me over with a soft expression and asks quietly, “Are you ready for this?”

I blow out a long breath before nodding, and we make our way out into the hallway.

Chapter fifty-four

Luca

We make our way out to the pool, where there’s a restaurant attached, and I see a family that rivals my own in size and know it must be Samara’s. I recognize their faces from our little family lesson, and several of the women have her same beautiful curls too.I couldn’t miss those anywhere.

When one of the older women sees us heading in their direction, she throws her hands up. “Mara! My baby girl and her man are here!”

Samara tucks her chin, looking a little embarrassed by the faces we’re getting from those hanging around the pool.

When we reach her mom, she throws her arms around me immediately, squeezing the life out of me before grabbing my cheeks for a big kiss on either side.Damn, she’s stronger than she looks.I return the gesture, familiar with this type of greeting from my own family. “You must be Luca. We’ve been dying to meet you!”

I give her a wide smile. “And you must be the beautiful Camila.”

She pretends to fan herself with a playful smile and says, “Such a charmer,” before looking to Samara and adding, “You’ve got your hands full with this one.”

She winks at me, and I hear Samara say, “You could say that again,” just loud enough for me to hear. I pinch her on the back of the arm, pulling her out of her doom spiral. Blazing eyes sear up at me. “What was that for?” she whisper-screams.

I smirk at her, heading to greet the rest of her family. They each take turns hugging us and introducing themselves. If I hadn’t spent a solid three hours the other day going through Samara’s social media accounts so I could match faces to names, I’d be unbelievably lost.

This must be how everyone feels meeting my family.

“Come on, come sit down.” Her sister, Vea, instructs us to sit beside her, her husband, and their children.

Shortly after, the waitress brings out menus for everyone.

Samara bites her lip as she looks over the menu, her eyes flickering back and forth between her mom and sister.

I lean into her, keeping my voice low as I speak. “Having trouble deciding?”

Her eyes flit up to mine. “I want the coconut shrimp, but the grilled mahi-mahi with tostones sounds good too.”

My brows pinch as I tilt my head. “Just get both.”

She shakes her head. Those pretty curls framing her face fly around, and I catch a whiff of her signature scent. I fight the groan working up my throat at what it does to me.

“That’s too much food,” she tells me quickly, straightening in her seat.

“Fine, I’ll order the coconut shrimp and the hot honey and pepperoni flatbread, and you can have as many of my shrimp as you want. Sound good?” I don’t really get what the big deal is. We’re on vacation, and coconut shrimp are basically an appetizer, but the panic written across her face when she looks to where her mother sits makes something very clear to me.

She’s uncomfortable.

I’ve genuinely never seen this side of Samara in the months that I’ve known her. She’s been nothing but headstrong, self-assured, confident, and sassy, uncomfortable on occasion but never like this. Ever since we landed here, she’s been the opposite. She’s acting all timid and looks like at any moment she might shatter, and it fucking breaks my heart to see.

I settle my hand on her thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and revel in the fact that she can’t push me away with her family watching. It’s a serious misuse of my newly found powers, but I think I just love having my hands on her.

After the waitress takes everyone’s orders and collects our menus, the string of excited questions begins.

“Suh, Luca, wah yuh do fah a living?” her dad asks.

“I’m a goalie for the Philly Scarlets hockey team, sir,” I tell him from across the table.

---