Page 10 of Love Bites
“Katheryn.” He leaned forward, his face pulled in concern. “Is everything okay? You seem…off.” He knew it was low of him to avoid answering and to use his charm to distract her. And vampires? They oozed charm in spades.
She let out a sigh that made a shudder crawl through her whole body then relaxed. “Sorry, it’s just been a long day. Anyway, to answer your question, I took a cruise around the Caribbean once, and last summer I went to Paris, but it was more like business, so I didn’t really get to see anything besides museums.”
Ignacio raised his eyebrows. “Art museums?” he asked.
She nodded.
“So what type of art do you like?” he asked. She’d said she was an artist, but there were many types of art. There were painters and sculptors, but, beyond that, his knowledge was limited.
“Well, there are all sorts -- ceramics, sculptures, watercolors, acrylics, mixed media, et cetera. But my favorites tend toward oil paintings.”
She said it as if she were reciting a list from memory. There was no real passion in the depth of her voice. Her expression appeared to be blank as she spouted off nonsense about Van Gogh cutting off his ear to make a statement. Or had it been Picasso? He couldn’t tell. She talked so fast, he couldn’t grasp what she said. He felt as though her words were weighing her down.
He reached out and gripped her hand across the table.
The static between them made her stutter then go completely silent.
“What is it, exactly, that you do in these art museums?” he asked.
“I...uh...” She blinked down at their joined hands as if that made it hard for her to concentrate. “I sell art in museums and organize events...um...I promote...the...uh...” Her face flushed, practically mirroring the color of her hair.
The heat between them built until it felt as if their fingers were being scorched, branding each other.
Katheryn pulled her hand away, shaking her head as if to clear it.
“Why all of the questions?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows.
Ignacio tucked his hand away, almost sorry she’d let go.
“You don’t seem to enjoy your work,” he replied. “You speak about it as if you’re reciting an essay, not with passion.”
Her flush was all he needed to know that he was right. “Why do you work at something you hate?”
“Because it pays well,” she practically snapped.
He frowned. “But is the money worth the unhappiness?”
She lowered her eyes, staring at her hands. He swore he saw tears glistening in her eyes. It hurt his heart to see and not understand what was wrong, knowing he couldn’t help her or say the right words to comfort her. He was about to reach out to stroke her fingers in reassurance, when she spoke in barely a whisper.
“My family was nearly homeless when I was growing up. We lived in a cheap, one-bedroom apartment in a bad neighborhood. When I was in high school, things got a little better. We weren’t completely poor, but we weren’t rich, either. I worked in order to help with the bills, because my parents would have died if we had to go back to the way things were before.”
She paused as if remembering those days, but Ignacio didn’t interrupt. He waited.
“Pretty soon, I went off to college. It was difficult. I still worked, helping my parents pay bills, as well as paying for my schooling. I was in debt up to my neck, but I tried not to let that get me down. I graduated top of my class, got a job in a laboratory as soon as I got out of school, and I loved it.
“The stress didn’t weigh me down as heavily anymore because I loved my job. It didn’t pay extremely well, but I was ready to work my way up to the top, to win more, to do something meaningful for science and win a Nobel Prize.” She chuckled and looked up at him, her blue gaze burning fire into his heart.
Good God,he thought.
“Ambitious, I know. But I didn’t care. I wanted to make my family proud; take care of them the way they took care of me. Help get them out of poverty and give them the life they deserved.”
He felt her ferocity swallow him whole. It made his nerves tingle, his heartbeat accelerate. Her passion, her loyalty and determination to care for her family spoke worlds about her. Katheryn had honor, and that was something he found fascinating, damn amazing, really. He felt himself even more attracted to her than before.
“I had been working in the lab for about a year and a half. By then, my mother had a job as a secretary for some architects. It was her first big job. She’d gotten it by calling in favors from friends. Granted, she wasn’t an executive secretary with the big bosses. All she did was answer phones, make appointments, and run out for coffee for her bosses. Basically, she did what she was told.”
There was a small pause. “Then one day, there was a Christmas party for employees at her company. She went and mingled with her bosses. Of course, she had to suck up to the big boss. He was with his son, the CEO and heir of many other companies their family owned.”
Her breath hitched as she mentioned them, but she said nothing else of it, making Ignacio wonder.
