Page 30 of An Inconvenient Marriage
“You’re introducing me to your brother?” The excitement in her voice reached inside my chest, happily tapping against the wall surrounding my heart.
It could tap all it damn well wanted, I wasn’t letting anyone or anything in.
Without facing her, I said, “I am.”
She sighed. It was another one of those cheerful sounds that wanted to break down my walls.
“Hmm, he’s younger, right?”
I nodded. “Javier is twelve years my junior.” Stealing a quick glance at her, I added, “So about your age.”
Natalie shifted in her seat. Turning her body toward me, she tucked one leg under her. I caught the movement in my peripheral vision but still didn’t miss how her dress slipped up her thighs or how quickly she pulled it down again.
I also couldn’t ignore how close we were. Close enough that if I reached across the console, my hand would be on her leg, and if I stretched just a little, I could slide it up all the way.
How would she react to my touch?
My whole body vibrated with an almost desperate need to find out.
“It must have been so nice to have someone around when you were little.”
Natalie’s words stopped my illicit thoughts and forced my attention back to the here and now. I swapped the images of my fingers on her soft flesh for memories of me and Javier.
A frown formed. “The age difference didn’t always make things easy.”
“I guess I can understand that. But it still must have been nice to have someone.” She leaned her head against the headrest, her voice wistful when she spoke. “There was a time when I’d wished for a sibling. Someone to play with.” There was a brief pause, then she softly added, “Someone to talk to.”
“You were alone?” I specifically didn’t ask if she was an only child. I already knew she was. But not all children without siblings were lonely.
She hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “In the beginning it wasn’t so bad. I had my mom, and she always made sure I knew I was her world, but then she—” Natalie’s voice shook, and it wasn’t hard to figure out she was holding back tears.
I knew why, too. I’d read about what’d happened to her mother, and oddly enough, losing our mothers was the one thing we had in common. I understood her hurt, and I wasn’t about to let her relive it.
“Trust me, having Javier around wasn’t always a blessing. Especially not when he stole my chocolate and gave it to potential love interests.”
Glancing sideways, I noticed her quickly wipe under her eyes.
“He stole your chocolate?”
Her voice was light, but I knew if I looked at her right that second, those blue eyes would still be full of pain.
Others’ emotions did not easily affect me, but for whatever reason, the thought of Natalie being sad—or worse, crying—didn’t sit well with me. It grated at a part of me I didn’t understand.
Evoked emotions I didn’t know how to process.
That was why it was safer to keep my eyes trained on the road when I answered her. “My brother is the reason I still don’t share my chocolate.”
She laughed then, and holy hell, I almost totaled my damn car. It was the most beautiful sound in the world, and I’d happily fight bears bare-handed just to hear it again.
Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me?
“Good to know. I’ll be sure not to ask you to share, then.”
Her laugh had tapered down to a small giggle which still affected me so much a smile curved my lips.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek to stop it from spreading too wide. “We’ve covered Javier and chocolates… Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
Natalie grew quiet for so long, I had to glance at her. She was staring at me with those big blue eyes taking up almost half of her face and her pretty lips slightly parted.
