“Not sure if you noticed, but I haven’t been a barrel of laughs. Nax is more fun.”
“You can be fun. You were today!”
“Couldn’t be for a while.”
“And now?”
“Now’s different.”
She stops walking, letting the distance grow between us and the rest. “Are you forcing yourself to try?”
I frown, “No.”
“Because if you do that, you’re not ready.” Tempest touches my arm, sending electricity as she tenderly explains, “Everything takes time, and that’s okay. If you force things, they fight back.”
“You’re speaking in yoga terms.”
“I’m speaking in life terms.”
“I thought you meant specifically me.”
“I mean everyone. We’re emotional beings. All of us.” After staring at me for a few seconds, she drops her gaze and her hand, slow to say, “I’m sorry. It’s not my place.”
“Tempest, I’m not forcing anything. If I were, you’d know.”
She tilts her head, eyelashes rising. “What does that mean?”
I step closer until I’m gazing down into her speechlessness, inches away. “You’d know like you know right now, as you feel me here, this close to you.” I lift her chin with a hooked index finger that’s steady and sure. “You’d know what my intentions are. Are you beginning to guess?” I let her go, and walk away. “That’s what I mean.”
Chapter 23
I stare after him, body on fire, mind a tornado.
What just happened?
Primal.
Sensual.
Sexual.
An announcement.
A warning.
He’s not here for any of the reasons I thought. Not to relax. Not to fuck with me. But…to fuck me.
I felt it.
I feel it now.
In a daze, I follow the others and do as they do, take off my sneakers, feel the sand warm under buzzing toes.
We’re entangled in a web made by the people we care most about, so there’s no way that Josh — a man I know has integrity — would toy with me as a possible one-night-stand or a vacation fling. In fact, I don’t believe he’d toy with me at all.
So what is he saying?
I came here to build something.
I’m having such a hard time with this!
Will is really hoping that you two might get together.
It goes against everything I’ve received from him before.
Do you have any idea how important this could be for both of us?
I blink as a slow wave envelopes my bare feet, the dawning question impossible to ignore. Did Josh come here for me?
My gaze rises from the water and locks with his, several of my students happily wading in the waves between us. I tilt my head, and Josh walks over, boots imprinting on the sand a path to me. “You get it now?”
My lips part and his dark gaze drops to stare as I lick them in an effort to speak. No words come, and Shaun interrupts us, “Tempest, how about if we stay here an hour longer?”
I tear my gaze from Josh, and nod. “The shops will always be there. Stay as long as you like.”
Looking more content than I’ve seen the angry New Yorker, ever, Shaun turns to the water and wades in until his pants are wet to his knees. He looks like a kid again.
Josh’s smile comes slow, patient, and he gobsmacks me again. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. There was a reason. I’ll tell you about it when we’re alone.”
Joan shouts, “Tempest! Come look!”
I rasp against a lump of shock in my throat, “Excuse me,” and pull myself away from him.
Pointing to a beached white fishing boat that couldn’t fit more than two people — Joan asks, “Do you have family from here?”
I crane my neck to read it. “Tuck,” I smile, blinking as sunlight reflects off the paint. “Not that I’ve heard of.”
“I bet you never expected to find that here!”
My gaze drifts to Josh as he strolls on his own, back to us. “No, I really didn’t.”
My schedule for today was as thought-out as all of the others, but this is the only one where we don’t have free time on our own.
I wish so much I hadn’t done that, because all I want to do is hear the reason he’s been rude to me, and to talk to him. Be alone with him.
Because it’s our first full day, we adhere to my schedule with the exception of a prolonged stay in Marina Grande. Shopping in Sorrento with its walking path of stores, Josh stays by my side as the group does what groups do, bobbing and weaving into old buildings, sharing the experience of buying everything from souvenirs to jewelry to expensive Italian bags.
For me, it’s impossible to forget our conversation, and from the looks we share while browsing, he feels the same.
I interact with everyone as I’m supposed to, participate as best I can, no one the wiser.
It isn’t until we walk back to our parked scooter that we’re alone. Stopping in front of Piazza Della Vittoria park, a statue of an angel brandishing a sword to my left, I find my voice. “Josh, wait.”
He stops, and returns to me, a shadow over his eyes again despite the beating sun.
Chapter 24
Shopping was more brutal than normal. Never been interested in browsing. I’m like most guys — get what I need and get out. With a plan.
But this was a group activity in a foreign country, whole different vibe, sure. I’ve never been to Sorrento, and it’s beautiful. There’s no denying it.
But now that I know what I want, nothing is more beautiful to me than her.
Every damn store we went inside I couldn’t see anything that was pointed out — have no memory of a single item — because my mind was grinding over what she thought about what I’d said.
What I want.
Now that we’re alone, she wants to talk? I don’t like her tone. I feel the worst is coming.
It was a possibility she’d say no to me, I made that clear to everyone. But inside of my gut the belief wasn’t there. Now I’m second-guessing my instincts.
Before she has a chance to
