Page 28 of Sweet Little Lies
And I love it. I want it all. All of him. Every kiss, every touch, every secret hidden within him.
One minute I’m being sucked into his warmth and the next I’m bereft and cold when he pulls back suddenly, stopping the currents of lust zipping through my body.
“Wha-?” I ask, but instead of an answer, I hear a very disgruntled and disappointed sigh.
My eyes go wide as I look from Lance to the person standing a few feet behind us. Glancing over my shoulder to see my mother, her head bowed in disapproval, and her hand making the sign of the cross.
“Querido santo padre, please forgive my sinful daughter for being so easily swayed byel diablointo behaving in such a disgraceful manner,” she prays in Spanish and I nearly laugh at how ridiculously sincere she seems.
It makes me wonder if she uses the term the devil to mean the actual entity or Lance.
Lance coughs with embarrassment and he drops me to the ground, as I adjust my shorts to ensure my butt cheeks aren’t exposed. God, what we must have looked like in the heat of the moment. No wonder my mother is in contemplative prayer.
My cheeks bloom red with heat and embarrassment and I return my gaze up at Lance with a pleading look.
“You should probably go. I’m sorry,” I begin but he waves me off.
“It’s my bad. I shouldn’t have…”
I can tell he feels awful and that’s the last thing I want him to leave here with.
I reach to touch his wrist, looking for that connection we’d just had and lost so abruptly.
“Can I still come over later to study as planned?”
A slow smile returns to his face, as if he’s received an unexpected gift. His hand reaches out to touch my shoulder, like he wants to pull me in for a hug, but then he thinks better of it and drops it to my arm, giving me a gentle squeeze.
“Of course, you can. I was hoping. Just text me on your way over. And take all the time you need here, okay?”
He dots my nose with a sweet kiss and then straightens to his full, magnificent height, ready to walk toward his truck parked in the lot.
As he passes my mother, his eyes downcast, he simply says, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Reyes. For everything.”
It makes me so angry when I see the expression on my mother’s face that I almost don’t want to speak to her. Her judgement of Lance and me is without merit or just cause. The glare in her eyes demonstrates exactly how she feels about Lance.
“You know nothing about him,madre. He is a good man. He was the one who took action to save Alvaro today. But you don’t see that, do you?”
She clutches her purse with both hands, disappointment coloring her face. “What I see,mija, is a young woman who is being deceived by aguapo guerowho will never be good enough for her. He is not for you,querida.Lo siento.”
She says she’s sorry, but that’s not what’s written in her expression. She’s just sorry because she knows I’ve fallen for Lance. That I’m already in so deep I don’t know how I’ll ever find my way back to reality. I know she wants the best for me. But what she doesn’t understand is that Lance is that man. He makes me happy and lights something in me that was dark before.
She’s so wrong about him, but there’s no arguing with her. She believes he’s not good enough – but really what she means is that we don’t fit into each other’s worlds. I get that, because I feel it too. I won’t ever fit into his day-to-day life. I’m not a blonde-haired, blue-eyed cheerleader. To be seen with him, there’s bound to be looks and stares that will eventually make us a target for cruel gossip. People will slander him. They’ll speak ill of me. I just know it. That’s the unfortunate business of our lives.
But what can I do about it?
There’s no way in the world I will ever find love with Alberto Silva. And the truth of the matter is that regardless of how hard I tried to keep a safe distance from Lance Britton, my heart found a way to lose itself in him already.
And it’ll be near impossible to ever get it back.
“Mamá, I’m sorry you disapprove. I wish I could turn off my feelings for Lance, but they are there. Strong and relentless. There is nothing I can do except ask you to accept it.”
I don’t ever want to find myself in a position where I have to choose my family over a man. But if push comes to shove, and they are so adamant on refusing their blessing of my relationship status with Lance, then I’ll have no other option. I just hope it never comes to that. It would break my heart.
As would not pursuing this attraction with Lance.
And tonight, I hope to find out exactly how far that attraction will go.
