Page 29 of Honk if You Love Real Men (Tempting SEALs 1)

“I’m glad of that. I couldn’t think of you by another name.”

There was caring in his voice. And something more. A question?

Of their future.

She caught her breath. It was too much for her to believe that he could forgive her deception so easily. “Aren’t you angry with me at all?”

His answer was measured. “That depends on why you did it.”

Estrella took her time, pretending absorption in making another batch of churros. Finally she set down the emptied pastry bag and leaned her butt against the edge of the counter, making herself look into Jesse’s eyes even though that only got her more antsy. “I did it because I wanted to know what it was like to be different from the real me. The truth is, as I’m sure you figured out, I work as Eve Romero’s maid. I do many housekeeping and personal chores for her too, but mostly I clean. I ride the bus to work every day in my maid’s uniform, and that was when I first noticed you on the road crew.”

She took a breath. “So, well, I started fantasizing about you. Then I started thinking that maybe I could make you want me, if only I was different. When Eve went out of town on business, I took off my uniform and got into her convertible.” She shrugged. “The rest of it, you already know.”

He rubbed at his forehead. The chair creaked. “Why did you think you had to be different?”

“Because it was a fantasy. One night where I could be as wild as I secretly wanted to be, after all these years of always being cautious and good.”

“Maybe I would have preferred the real you.”

Do you? she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t.

“What happens now?” Jesse asked.

“I don’t know, except . . .” Suddenly she was shy.

His eyes searched her face. “What?”

“I know you only said it to help me out with Eve, but I liked it when you called yourself my boyfriend.”

“I liked that too. But I’m not—” He frowned and wrenched the words out of himself. “I’m not your best bargain right now. Aside from my background, I don’t have money, and no real prospects except what I can earn with my hands. If you want a better life . . .”

She ached to hug him, but she didn’t dare that either, not yet. “Don’t you know that it’s not money alone that makes a better life?” He looked up at her and she quickly smiled encouragement. “Besides, I have plans of my own. I’m in night school, getting a degree. Someday I’ll have a good job, one to build on.”

“Really? What are you studying?”

“Don’t laugh,” she said, remembering that the last of the churros were still frying. She dipped her slotted spatula into the sizzling oil. They were a bit too crispy.

Aware of Jesse’s gaze, she pushed a damp tendril behind her ear. “I’m going to be a pharmacist.” She shot him a little grin. “Something about wearing a white coat and being clean and orderly appeals to the maid in me. Plus, it’s helping people.”

She rolled the hot churros in her sugar mixture and brought him three of them on a paper napkin. “Do you think that’s odd, me wanting to be a pharmacist?”

“I think it’s just fine.”

She sat and leaned her elbows on the table, licking her sticky, sugary fingers. “What about you?”

He watched with gleaming eyes. “When I still had my savings, I thought of buying a small plot of land and trying organic farming. My grandpa had a farm. I spent a summer there, once.” He picked up a churro.

“Go ahead. Try it.” She nudged his hand toward his mouth. “You could start a new savings account.”

“I already have.” He bit into a hot crispy corner of the golden-brown pastry, where it was crusted with melted sugar and cinnamon. “Mmm. Tastes familiar. Tastes like you.”

“I don’t know about that.” She leaned across the table, reaching for a kiss. A hot, sweet, melting kiss. “I’m thinking they taste more like you.”

“Sweet woman,” he said against her lips.

“Hot man.”

“Not a bad combination.”

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