Love in Bloom (De La Fuente Family 3)

That got his attention. “Be yourself? Haven’t you always been your ‘bitchy’ self?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to take them back when he saw the look on Caprice’s face.

What an ass!

He knew there was something going on with her and had often wondered if Roger was behind the whole thing with hiring her.

She placed her glasses back on her face and turned to the carousel. “I’ll grab my suitcase.”

Why did he get the impression that he’d just hurt her? She’d always had a thick skin, but now it was as though she’d shredded that and someone else had been left in its wake.

Usually she’d have snapped back at him, but this time she’d looked upset.

She said she was going to be herself on this visit, so was this it? The sexy woman he couldn’t keep his eyes off. Why had he only ever seen her in designer clothes and fully made up when it sounded like she preferred this?

He had questions that he needed answers to and he planned on getting them.

Except, as he watched her head toward him with her bag, he hoped like hell that his dick wasn’t obvious behind the zipper of his denim shorts.

As she got closer, her top slipped off one shoulder as she tossed her hair behind her back, shoved her nose up in the air, and walked straight passed him. Her suitcase trailed behind her on wheels.

What the hell! You deserved that…maybe…

He grinned and burst out laughing at her antics before it hit him that he’d never laughed in amusement at her before. That shut him up.

Something told him that while she was in Montana with him and his family, it wasn’t going to be as it usually was.

Mateo quickly followed her when he realized he’d been standing there watching her stomp off in the general direction of the lot.

Before he could stop himself, he admired the view of her from behind in her casual clothes. The well-worn jeans fit her like a second skin, her legs seemed to go on for miles. He smiled when he saw the pink high-tops she had on her feet. The purple T-shirt hung off one shoulder, which gave him a tantalizing view of sun-kissed skin when her hair swished to the side. He’d never seen her with her hair loose around her face before, or even in jeans. The whole package suited her a lot more than before.

The sudden jerk of his dick wiped the amusement from his face just as he caught up to her.

He was going to be in big trouble with her if he didn’t control his libido whenever she was close. It had to stop. But since she’d been in his apartment a few days ago, he found he couldn’t get the image of her out of his head. It hadn’t been the image that she’d portrayed for months on end, it had been the one were she’d appeared vulnerable—more approachable. They’d actually had a conversation without snide comments, or negativity leaving her lips.

As he approached the rear of his truck, he realized that he was in big trouble. He felt off his game since he set eyes on her a few minutes ago because the woman with him now sure as hell wasn’t the woman he’d been pretending to be engaged too.

He watched her closely while he shoved her case in the trunk and with manners that his mother had taught him, he rounded the truck to hold her door, but she’d already climbed in and closed it again.

He shook his head.

Fucking weird!

It gave him time to rearrange his dick before he joined her inside the truck. He’d suddenly felt like a hormonal teenager, instead of the grown man he was. Abstaining from sex would do that to a guy, he guessed.

With a deep breath, he climbed into his seat and glanced at her from the corner of his eye while he set the truck in motion. For once, he had no clue how to start the conversation. What was wrong with him? She might look different and be acting like someone else, but she was still Caprice, right?

Are you sure?

“Okay, let me have it.” The words left his mouth after he couldn’t take the silence anymore. He needed to know her game plan. She had to have one because Caprice never did anything without.

“Have what?” She frowned up at him, her glasses now shoved onto the top of her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Caprice, stop playing me for an idiot. You’re different and as far as I can tell, you don’t have any make up on. Usually we can’t go anywhere unless you have a full face plastered with the stuff.”

She sighed and turned her attention to the passing scenery before she answered. “I can’t breathe when I wear make up.” She softly smiled, which he caught out of the corner of his eye. “I have mascara on and cream to protect me from the sun. Everything else can go. And as for my clothes, these are more comfortable.” She shrugged. “I seem different to you because I am. What you’re seeing is the real me.”

“I don’t get it.” A leopard didn’t suddenly change its spots especially Caprice.

“Look,” she swiveled to face him and her freshness hit him all over again, “you only need to get through this next week with me, and then you’re free and clear. I don’t need to do this as the contract is over with but I am.” She turned away while she seemed to get herself under control, and then faced him again. “I’ve played the part that I was paid to play…for eighteen months Mateo. I’m no longer getting paid so that gives me the chance to be myself instead of someone else. I know that won’t make sense to you, but this person sitting in the car with you right now…is the real me.”