Love Me If You Dare (Bachelor Blogs 2)

“Who’s that?” Toni asked.

“A friend of mine from New York,” he said, just as Sara reached them. “Sara Rios, this is my niece Toni. Toni, this is my friend Sara.”

He heard the question in his voice. Why was she here?

“Hi!” Toni said.

“Nice to meet you.” Sara treated the girl to a warm smile.

“Hey, why don’t you go inside and tell Grandma to set an extra plate at the table for company?” Rafe suggested to his niece.

He wanted to get Sara alone.

Toni nodded, turned and headed inside.

Before Rafe could speak, Toni’s voice traveled back to him, loud and clear over the usual din. “Nana, Uncle Rafe has a girlfriend coming to dinner!”

Amused despite himself, Rafe shook his head. “She’s thirteen,” he said, figuring that explained it all.

Sara grinned. “She’s cute.”

“She has her moments. And there are seven more kids inside,” he said by way of warning.

If Sara was going to survive his family, she needed to know what she was in for.

“I’m really sorry to show up uninvited. Angel said I’d find you here.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I ate, so there’s no reason to worry about putting out an extra setting. In fact, I should go. We’ll talk later.” Obviously embarrassed and rethinking her visit, she turned to walk away.

Rafe reached out to stop her. She hadn’t driven over five hours to get here just to leave now. “Wait. My mother would love to see you again.” In fact, Mariana Mancuso had found many excuses to ask about the pretty girl who’d slept in the chair while he was in the hospital.

Rafe had found just as many excuses to avoid answering. But that didn’t mean he’d forgotten what Sara had done for him, or what those actions indicated about her feelings for him. Then there was the lingering curiosity about what would happen if they took things further and tested this thing that had been simmering between them since their days as partners.

Now she was here.

“Are you sure?” Sara asked hesitantly. “It sounds like there’s an army of people inside.”

“That about covers it,” he agreed with an exaggerated shudder. “You’d be a welcome reminder of my life in New York. So stay.”

“Okay. I just wish Angel had mentioned I’d be intruding or interrupting a family gathering.”

He placed his hand on her bare shoulder, the warm skin singeing his fingertips. “You’re not doing either. Angel knows another person is always welcome. Mom likes to say she cooks in the bathtub. In other words, there’s enough for an army. But first, tell me. What brings you to this corner of the world?”

She raised her beautiful gaze to meet his. “Actually, you do.”

Before he could reply, the front door swung open wide. “Toni said you have company. I came out to meet our guest,” his mother, Mariana Mancuso, said as she joined them, her timing impeccable as ever.

“Hello, Mrs. Mancuso,” Sara said. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Sara! This is a pleasant surprise!” His mother stepped down onto the porch and pulled Sara into an embrace.

Sara’s eyes opened wide as she hugged his overly affectionate mother, but she quickly relaxed and readily returned the gesture.

“I’m so sorry to show up uninvited.”

“Nonsense! You’re always welcome here! And that hug just showed me you’re too skinny, so come in, meet the rest of the family and eat!”

Rafe glanced at the cle**age peeking from the top of Sara’s shirt, now askew thanks to his mother’s big bear hug, and thought her curves were just about perfect.

“We weren’t finished talking,” he told his mother. “I’ll bring Sara inside in a minute.” First he wanted to know why she’d come to see him.

What she wanted.

Whether or not she wanted him. The thought, once lodged in his brain, wouldn’t go away. She was wrong for him on every level except the one that mattered most. He desired this woman like crazy. He wanted to know what would happen if they indulged the banked desire and took what they both wanted.

But he didn’t get the chance.

His mother ignored his request to go inside alone. Keeping an arm around Sara’s shoulder, she steered her into the house, where the entire clan had gathered by the front door, eager to meet Uncle Rafe’s girlfriend.

Thanks to Toni, the designation was sure to stick.

Whether it was true or not.

CHAPTER FIVE

RAFE HAD A BIG FAMILY. A really big family. As in a lot of people sitting around the dining-room table all talking at the same time. Thanks to the fractured dynamics in Sara’s family, she’d never been part of one big happy clan. The scene in front of her was a foreign one, but she couldn’t say she minded. Food passed from person to person until Sara lost track of what she’d put on her plate. Although she’d already had dinner, she felt too guilty saying no to Mrs. Mancuso’s generosity.

And truth be told, everything smelled delicious.

“You can pick at what you want and just push the rest of the food around,” Rafe leaned in close and whispered.

At his husky tone and heated breath against her ear, warm flutters took up residence in the pit of her stomach, and she couldn’t focus on anything but Rafe. His nearness. The raw, masculine scent of his cologne.

But rapid-fire questions shot at Sara from all corners of the long dining-room table, drawing her attention.

“Are you originally from New York?”

“Did Rafe really save your life?”

“What’s it like to be a female cop?”

The questions came fast and furious, giving her little if any time to answer before another one was lobbed her way.

“Do you like living in Manhattan?”

“Are you really Rafe’s girlfriend?”

The last question stopped her cold. Unfortunately, it had the same effect on the rest of the table, because everyone grew silent and turned her way, waiting for a reply.

“Sara and I are friends,” Rafe said, jumping in to save her from embarrassment. “Good friends.” He reached down and squeezed her leg.

He meant to relax her, but his big hand, fingers splayed over her thigh, had the opposite effect. Tension spiraled through every corner of her body.

Sexual tension.

Yearning.

Desire.

Since they’d been ushered inside the house, they hadn’t had any time alone for her to explain why she’d come. Or that she’d need to stay with him while she was here.