“How about you?” she asked him, inclining her head to capture his gaze.
“What about me?”
She pulled her lip between her teeth. Damn, she was sexy. Even sexier when she looked uncertain about something.
He loved the way she always kept him guessing.
“What ended your last relationship?”
“I haven’t had one in a while.” He shrugged.
“You dated that supermodel. Soraya.” Mia swallowed. “She’s very beautiful.”
“We saw each other a few times. I wouldn’t exactly call it a relationship. I think the press was more invested than we were.”
Mia rolled onto her front, resting her hands on his chest and propping her chin on them. “Why didn’t it go any further?”
He screwed his nose up. “You really want to talk about this? It’s old history.”
“I guess I just want to know more about you. You know all about my marriage breakdown. You’ve spent time with my family. You’re an enigma compared to me.”
“You could just Google me,” he suggested. “I’m not exactly a closed book. What you see is what you get.”
“I don’t believe that for a moment.” She smiled at him. “Your online presence is probably managed to death. And anyway, there’s nothing on the internet that tells me why you aren’t still dating Soraya.”
“So you have been Googling me,” he murmured, tracing his finger down her spine. “That’s kind of hot.”
“I notice you keep avoiding my question,” she said, tipping her head to the side.
“Okay. We met when I was doing a cologne commercial. I was the big brawny football player, she was the woman who stopped me in my tracks. You might have seen it. All dark with stupid music playing.” He’d never lived that one down with his brothers. And of course, he got at least one bottle of cologne from them every Christmas. It was like a thing now.
“And you fell for each other?”
He laughed. “We didn’t exactly fall. We talked and she was fun. We went out on a few dates. And then she got busy with her work, I got busy with the season, and it felt too hard. Neither of us was invested enough to coordinate our schedules. That spoke pretty loud. So we stopped seeing each other.”
“Did you have sex?”
He blinked, surprised by the question. “Yeah.”
“I guess you’ve had sex with a lot of people.” She smiled. “It’s alien to me, you know? You’re only my second.”
There was a wobble in her voice that belied her calm expression. Just the merest hint of insecurity. Somehow it made her even more attractive, more real.
He liked that she showed her flaws. He had enough of his own, after all.
“I’m thirty years old, so I’ve had a few partners. But probably not as many as you think.” And never one he wanted to see as much as her. He loved the way she made him laugh. The way she challenged him, made him work for what he wanted.
She shifted on his chest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He knew they were walking a tight line in this conversation. The most confident of people felt exposed when talking about their sexual history, after all. And she’d taken one of the biggest knocks of all.
“I’m being stupid.” Her eyes were warm, even though her voice was wary. “I just keep thinking about you being with supermodels, and then, me.”
“You think I compare you to them?”
“Honestly? I don’t think you do. But I compare me to them. And maybe that’s worse.”
He hooked his arm around her waist, pulling her against his naked body, until she was laying over him. Running his hands down her back, he pressed his lips against her throat. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met,” he told her, sliding his palms over her behind. “You may not think it, because you’ve been through a lot these past years, but somewhere inside you have to know it. Because I knew it from the moment I saw you standing at the front door, your eyes flashing fire at me because I was chasing your kids. Do you know how fierce you are when you’re in protection mode? It was hot and scary at the same time.”