Taken the Spaniard's Virgin

“If you do not stop looking at me like that, we are not going to make it to theLa Rambla this afternoon.”

CHAPTER FIVE

SHEcould feel herself blushing, but she gave up on the embarrassment because she simply couldn’t help herself. “Are the shops open during siesta?”

“Not all, but siesta does not start for more than an hour.”

“Oh.” She looked down to where one of his hands rested on the table. Would he react to her caressing his palm as intensely as she had done to his touch? Her fingers itched to find out.

He abruptly stood. “Let us go.”

She let him lead her out of the café, his arm around her waist to guide her. The hold pulled her body close to his and she didn’t know about his peace of mind, but it wasn’t doing a thing for hers. Or her ability to control the desires raging through her.

The noise and sights of theLa Rambla offered a small measure of relief. Businessmen dressed much like Miguel walked amidst elderly women, teenagers and obvious tourists. It was a people Mecca, showing the cross section of Barcelona that Miguel had promised. The bird market was filled with a cacophony of sounds; birds chittering, twirping, singing and cawing while sellers hawked their wares and customers bargained for the best prices.

The human sculptures fascinated her and she insisted on stopping at each one they passed to toss a coin, just to see the person who had done such an incredible job of holding their statuesque pose move to a new one.

Miguel bought her flowers at one of the stalls and she clutched them with pleasure while they wandered down the long pedestrian way. When shops started closing, he took her to a café for a drink and then on a short walking tour of where they’d started earlier in theBarri Gotic . It was very quiet compared toLa Rambla, but she didn’t know if that was because it was the hour of siesta or because it was always that way in central downtown.

“It’s deliciously shady down here,” she mused,almost used to the way it felt to have his arm around her waist.

“The buildings are close. There are many areas that have not seen direct sunlight in more than a century, sometimes far longer.”

“Wow. I remember being in New York City once and walking down a narrow road between skyscrapers. I wondered then if the sun ever shone on the pavement.”

“Most likely not,pequeña, but when it is hot, that is not a bad thing.”

“No.” She inhaled the air that seemed to carry the fragrance of the age of the city’s inner center. “It’s relaxing here.”

“I think so, though I do not come here often enough. My offices are in a newer part of the city.”

She understood that. “I think it’s easy to take the beauty of our home for granted. I can go weeks without visiting the beach.”

“Do you live near it?”

“Yes, it’s less than a fifteen-minute walk from our house.”

“Our?”

“I live with my mother. I’ve never seen any reason to move out and she’s happy to have me there. My career takes me away so often, it just seemed a waste to get my own apartment.”

“Perhaps this explains your lack of experience with men as well.”

“I suppose so.” She didn’t see any need to reiterate the fact that she’d never felt this way with another man. If she had, she didn’t think living with her mother would have stopped her from having a relationship. The truth was, Helen Taylor had suggested more than once that Amber needed to date more.

“Shall we go back to my apartment for the rest of siesta?”

Amber did not think they would be leaving it again that night if they did, but she realized she was ready for that. More than ready. At least physically and right now, her desires were waging an effective battle with her common sense.

“If that is what you want.”

He turned her to face him and met her eyes in the shadowy light of the narrow cobbled street. “The question,mi cielo, is whether that is what you want. I can return you to your hotel suite and come for you later to take you to the casino.”

Part of her wished he would kiss her and take the decision out of her hands, but a much bigger part really liked the way he refused to push her. If all he wanted from her was sex, wouldn’t he be a lot more insistent on getting it? There was no doubt that he wanted her, not with the hungry way his eyes devoured her or the way he was constantly touching her.

She licked her lips, a nervous habit she’d thought she’d broken as a teenager. It dried her lips and messed up lip makeup for a shoot. “I want to do both…go back to the safety of my hotel for a while and join you at your penthouse for the siesta…and more.”

He cupped her face, his thumbs brushing along the underside of her jaw. “The question is, which do you want more?”