Page 79 of Play for Power (Central Sparks #3)

“Does it bother you? If I try to cook a few of the Chilean recipes? It was only a suggestion, Rosie, we don’t have to.

We can go visit Carmela and have her show you, if that’s something you’d prefer?

” I hadn’t thought about whether I was steamrolling all over her and her connection to her family’s history.

I only saw that it was something she wanted…

and well, I’d give her the moon if she wanted it.

After a beat, she shakes her head. “No. it doesn’t bother me…it’s just…well,” she sighs, “Carmela would like you, I think.” She smiles shyly and then her attention is back on her plate. She doesn’t say anymore, and I don’t push, more because her smile is back and I just love watching her.

After only a few moments of companionable silence between us, an older man, perhaps in his mid-to-late fifties, wanders over, wearing a flannel poncho and a large, wide hat.

He looks every bit the traditional man and his charming smile is warming.

“ Hola , senor ,” he directs to me before his full smile turns to Rosie.

“ Senora. ” Rosie looks at me for a beat, her playful smile intact as she gives the man her full attention.

And though I get the distinct impression he is talking to me, his attention is mostly on Rosie…

and I don’t blame him. “ Le importaría si me prestara su cita para la cucea ?” I repeat the words slowly in my head, trying my best but it’s fast and my lessons apparently didn’t cover this.

I smile apologetically at him and then Rosie giggles under her breath, reaching over to rest a hand on my thigh.

“ Oh sí! Eso sería encantador! ” she responds fluently, and I can’t help but beam at her. She quickly turns her face to me. “We’re going to dance.”

“Where’s my invite?” I toss back at her playfully, but she giggles, shaking her head.

“It’s the national dance of Chile. Unless you’ve been taking lessons in that too?” I hadn’t, but now I wish I had.

“Have fun, pretty girl,” I say quietly as she leans closer. Clasping her hand, I kiss her knuckles as she turns to the man.

“ él todavía está aprendiendo espanol. ”

“ Gracias, senor . I will take good care of her.” They wander off, talking quietly to each other.

Rosie laughs, looking back over her shoulder at me, her face lit with excitement, before leaning in to whisper something to the man.

Of course, he throws his head back in a laugh, and I follow silently to where they will be dancing, finding a seat in the front row.

The crowd turns their attention from conversation to the couples in the center.

A clapping begins among the crowd as the men who are dancing stick out their elbows to their dance partners.

Rosie loops hers with the man who approached us, both of them smiling, and then he parades her around the circle, almost like he’s showering her off.

My cheeks almost hurt from how wide my smile is as I join in on the clapping too.

Watching Rosie, her radiant smile, the laughter and happiness feeding off the people dancing and the people in the crowd, makes my heart swell with so much joy.

Like a slow, dull ache, right in the center, and I’m completely enraptured by her, unable to take my eyes off my girl.

I watch them both the entire time. The man untucks what looks like a white handkerchief, handing one to Rosie and keeping one for himself.

They both stand opposite each other, clapping for a moment before they descend into their movements.

Rosie holds the skirt of her dress, and they circle each other in a dance, the handkerchief moving over her head, her heel and toe tapping as she trots her feet.

The laugh that leaves her throat is of absolute pure joy as she and the man float across the dance floor, chatting, smiling, and laughing.

She is completely mesmerizing. It feels like time moves in slow motion, her skirt spinning around her soft tan skin, the curls of her hair bouncing around her face, her eyes sparkling with how happy she is, and the hypnotic sound of her laugh pulling me into a trance I can’t seem to snap myself out of.

I had been nervous leading into today, unsure if I’d be overstepping, or if I’d made the right choice. But right now, in this moment, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

Rosie dances her heart out, and I’m realizing that the dance is quite flirtatious. Rosie gives him a playful look, teasing and rueful with her eyes as she smiles and waves her white handkerchief, twirling and twisting the skirt of her dress.

I have so many questions about how she knows it and what it means, but I’m content to just watch her. And I am more than happy to be on the sidelines; there is no way I’d pull off this dance.

Eventually the crowd cheers and applauds, the man taking Rosie’s hand and bowing to her before they start to make their way over to me.

The man holds out Rosie’s hand, with a content smile in my direction.

“ Su senora, senor .” Rosie wasn’t my anything, but right now, that was really hard to reconcile.

Because I was feeling awfully possessive of those rosy cheeks and joyous smile.

The man spins Rosie one last time and as she lands in front of where I sit, I take her hips in my hands and pull her down to my lap, wrapping an arm around her waist so her back is flush against my chest. She doesn’t even flinch, just relaxes back into me and I can’t help but feel a sense of relief that she isn’t fighting the embrace but falling into it without a care in the world.

I feel her shift, draping an arm over my shoulders as she smiles down at me. The man offers his departing words, “ Eres un hombre afortunado, ” before disappearing.

“What’d he say?”

“You being lucky and all that.” She rolls her eyes when my smile grows.

“Well, can’t argue with that.”

“No?” She raises a brow at me.

I shake my head, my smile not dropping an inch.

“I’ve got the prettiest girl in my lap, and I know you don’t want to label it…

” I let my voice drop into a whisper, and with my hand on her cheek, I pull her a little closer, letting my thumb swipe across her soft skin.

“But right now, you really feel like mine.” And I know with certainty that I am completely hers.

Everything I feel for Rosie Garcia is all-consuming.

You could rip open my chest, and there on my heart, it would read Property of Rosie —she had all of it. I’m not sorry about it either.

When I look into her swirling brown eyes, I see her smile, but it’s guarded.

Her lips part and I watch a million emotions flood her face, each one gone too quickly.

But the pucker of her brows and the tight-lipped smile on her face, it’s like a punch to the lungs when I realize what emotion she lands on: guilt.

I don’t get to push her on it, though, because she closes the distance and kisses me.

I can’t help but deepen the kiss, my tongue slipping past her lips and tangling with hers as she softly sighs and relaxes against me.

I know I should try harder to break down her walls.

That I should be working on getting her to let me in instead of accepting her guarded smiles, but her lips are on mine, and she tastes like spice and soda and my favorite flavor of all, her.

Eventually she pulls back, her forehead resting on mine.

“I can’t thank you enough for today. This…

this is possibly one of my favorite days.

I will never forget that you did this for me, Caleb.

” Her voice sounds alarmingly like an apology, but I bury the feeling.

Telling myself that my reservations, my fears, are all stemming from the little voice that usually pops in to tell me that I’m not enough.

And I refuse to listen to it. I refuse to let it ruin this perfect day with the perfect girl.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, the need to tell her.

I’ve known for so long, been so afraid to tell her, and God, I want her to know that she owns my heart.

I want her to know. “Rosie, I—” I stutter, my eyes searching hers, and she sits a little farther back so she can really look at me, and then her brows pull down just a little more, her guilt turning into something like worry. “I…I lo?—”

“No,” she whispers, her hand reaching up and covering my mouth.

We both sit there startled for a moment, her eyes blown wide, mine the same.

My heart goes still in my chest, shocked at her response.

“We can’t, Caleb,” she rushes out in a panicked whisper.

“We agreed. Please…please don’t say it.” Her eyes start to look watery and it has a crack splitting down my chest.

I realize in this moment, there are other secrets she keeps buried.

Secrets she’s deliberately doing her best to hide from me, and whatever they are, they are stopping us from being what I know we could be.

I know that she’s the perfect woman for me.

Because I can finally envision a future shared with another person.

Before it was just cold walls, empty rooms, and utter silence; it now looks like full bookshelves, the scent of frustration-fueled mass cleaning, a bathroom vanity covered in a million and one products, oversized band T-shirts, late-night cereal, and movie marathons.

It’s teasing, and games, and comfortable silences with her in my arms and my fingers tracing the delicate lines of her incredible body.

I want . I have never wanted so badly, and it’s her.

I just needed to take the can’t for what it is.

It wasn’t no, and that’s enough…I think.