The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (novels for students .TXT) 📕

moved into the background as I recounted the nonexistent space between our bodies from our chests down.

I was feeling a little light-headed, so my arms braced themselves on Aaron’s shoulders. Our eyes never breaking contact. I didn’t think either of us blinked either.

Aaron rearranged my body in his arms, and with the change of position, I could feel the swaying of his chest against mine. I could feel the sweat on his skin under my hands and arms too. But above all, I was enraptured by those blue eyes that gleamed like diamonds under the punishing sunlight. My breath got stuck in my throat, not going anywhere. Just like I was.

Never in a hundred years would I have imagined myself in this position. Being held by a shirtless Aaron and not wanting to run as far and fast away as I could. But shockingly, I wanted to do the exact opposite; I wanted to take my time inspecting every inch of sticky and bare skin I could see. I wanted to stay right where I was, perhaps maybe even let him carry me everywhere for the rest of the day.

And that admission scared me.

No, it terrified me.

Or it should have because in that precise moment, I couldn’t find it in me to care for anything besides the wild beating of my heart, thumping directly against Aaron’s skin.

When Aaron finally spoke, his voice had a breathless texture, “You pinched my ass, Catalina.”

I had. And I was sorry. Sort of.

Which didn’t excuse the shameless, outright joyful grin that broke out on my face. I barely recognized myself in that moment, barely understood the need to smile that big and make him pay me back with one of his own. Perhaps a laugh too.

“I plead the Fifth,” I managed to say through my ridiculously silly smile. Still held in his arms. “Plus, if by any chance, someone might have pinched your butt, you might have totally deserved it.”

“Oh yeah?” The corner of his lips twitched.

Almost there. “Yep. One hundred percent well deserved.”

“Even if I’d saved that hypothetical person from a boisterous fall?” Aaron’s eyes wrinkled with the smile I was looking for, his lips remaining mostly flat. Still.

“Boisterous? I was merely going to brush the floor. Very delicately, mind you.”

“You are a ridiculous, impossible woman, you know that?”

I knew, and I was ready to admit that, but then Aaron went ahead and gave me that grin I had been craving. His lips split, and his mouth gave way to a handsome smile that changed his face completely. One that I had seen only once before and that made my heart go all crazy in my chest. My eyes probably twinkled too.

He was right; I was ridiculous. This whole thing was so very ridiculous.

“Hey, guys.” Daniel’s voice came from somewhere nearby, tearing through the moment and causing the little happy cloud I had been in to vanish. “Food is on the table, and we are all about to start. Come on.”

As I heard what I assumed were Daniel’s footsteps walking away, I knew my grin had extinguished.

Had that moment we had shared been all for Daniel and everybody else’s sake?

Probably. No, most certainly. That was what couples did. Playful touches, wide smiles, heated glances.

And that made me feel … a little dumb. Made his smile worth a little less. And made mine a very foolish one.

I guessed it was a good thing that Aaron’s handsome grin had disappeared too. Although, even with Daniel there, his gaze had never left mine. And it didn’t either when his arms shifted the hold on my waist and slid me down his body. Or so I told myself because as I went down, my eyelids might have fluttered, making it hard for me to see much as I was pressed against each hard plane, bulge, and slab there was in Aaron’s chest.

My legs landed on the ground without much confidence. Dizzy by the overwhelming sensation dancing down my body, I was grateful for Aaron’s hands remaining on my waist.

Once he seemed sure I wouldn’t topple down, he retrieved them. But not without tugging a little strand of hair that had come out of my ponytail first.

My heart proceeded to do the toppling down in that moment.

Even more so when his head dipped slowly. “Not bad for a Greek god, huh?” His voice was not nearly as playful as a few moments ago. Right before Daniel had burst my bubble. But Aaron accompanied that with a wink.

That drew a tiny little smile out of me, and I had to shake my head to hide it.

Who is this man who goes around, throwing winks and smiles at me?

My future boss—that’s who.

And wasn’t that reason enough to start thinking about having a one-on-one with that flutter in my chest? The fact that this whole thing was a charade was reason enough already. But he’d soon be promoted to head of the division—my division—and I had to remember that.

“Come on,” he said when I remained quiet. “I told you I’d put some food in you, and I am a man of my word.”

Yes, he was. And I shouldn’t forget that either.

Aaron had promised he’d play the role of my boyfriend and that he’d do it wonderfully. And so far, he’d done such an excellent job that he was starting to convince even me that he was a different man from the one I had known in New York.

Chapter Eighteen

Stopping myself from crawling under the table was becoming a real hardship. But if Isabel kept up the Aaron and Lina questioning for a little longer, I’d have no other choice but to do exactly that. Otherwise, my last resort would be to knock down the bride with one of the metallic trays containing the variety of pinchos we were snacking on. It would be a waste of food, and it was her bachelorette-slash-bachelor party, but it’d be the only way. She was a resilient woman; she’d recover in time for the