Page 70 of The Rebel

“You convinced her to switch sides and spy for you?”

“Not exactly, just not report anything.”

“You have mad negotiation skills.”

“I certainly do.” We laughed at that, but I had to wonder if hewas talking about convincing people to do his bidding or something else entirely.

Wait a second.His eyes were… Oh yeah, they were dark. Clearly he was having sexy thoughts, just as I was.

He kissed the side of my temple as we moved into a narrow side alley, which opened up into a huge picnic area. Even though there were already plenty of people here, we easily found an empty table. We sat down side by side and put our bag of goodies on the table.

“I’m starving,” Anthony said.

“So am I. I only had coffee this morning. I was going to eat something but ended up spending all my time just getting ready. I swear it never takes me so long.”

“You look stunning,” Anthony said.

He put a hand at the small of my back, tilting his mouth toward me. Was he going to kiss me now? I honestly needed one.

“Then again, you always do. That’s the problem.”

I licked my lips. “Why is that bad?”

“It makes things at the office difficult.”

“Oh no!” I put a strand of hair behind my ear, glancing at my feet. The last thing I wanted was to complicate things at work.

“Right. My mistake.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You just withdrew into yourself. Let’s not mention the office at all today.”

I nodded. “Great idea.”

He tilted his head again, and I was certain he was going for my mouth this time, but nope. He kissed my cheek, then my earlobe before straightening up. I pouted. He started to laugh, glancing at my lips.

“What gives?” I asked. “I thought you were going to kiss me the second you showed up at my door.”

His eyes flashed, and he cleared his throat. “I will only kiss you under special circumstances, Daisy.”

“Such as?”

“One, we’ll be indoors. Two, we’ll be alone. I want to have my fill of you, and I can’t possibly do that in public.”

Oh, this man didn’t beat around the bush.

“Okay, then. No kissing,” I whispered.

He moved a bit farther away from me on the bench, as if he needed the distance. I was tempted to slide right back next to him and touch him, but why poke the bear?

As we took out all the goodies and spread them across the table, he asked, “What did you do this morning?”

“I caught up with Mom. Dad was out and about as usual. I swear, the man doesn’t know how to relax. Then again, there’s always something going on at the farm, or someone visiting.”

“Family?”

“Nah, friends. Village life is never lonely. I’m grateful for that because I think it’s been helping my parents, too, since I left home. Annelise visits them often. I used to pretend she was my sister growing up, though I was quite content being an only child.”