Page 22 of Veiled Amor

They were massive throughout the States. Like Kings.

A growling sound brought her back from her thoughts. “Why are you talking like that?”

“Like what?”

“As though we’re fucking strangers, Lucia.”

Aren’t we? She questioned.

She let his statement slide because what could be said? She’d wanted him in her life more than anything, and she realized if he’d wanted that too, he would have made it happen.

“I thought I would stick around for a while, get a job. But now I’m not so sure.”

Giancarlo sighed, watching her, a tick working in his firm jaw.

He looked entirely too masculine and beautiful.

Like a God had dropped to earth to play with the paltry humans for a while.

He’d always been big and imposing. It seemed natural he would join a club like the Renegade Souls because Giancarlo wasn’t made to follow any orders but his own. It made more sense why her father latched onto Santiago instead. She immediately felt guilty for putting Santiago in the weaker role, but it didn’t stop it from being the truth.

He was dead.

And Giancarlo wasn’t.

Even before she knew she had feelings for the dangerous man, she’d always loved sneaking glances at him. He’d filled out in recent years. Shoulders so broad he could be mistaken for a world-class swimmer. She was dying to know if he had slabs of muscle underneath the shirt and jacket. How polite would it be to ask him to strip off the top half of his clothes?

Having him in front of her, finally, had whipped her brain into a frenzy. She took two fortifying breaths, not stealing glances through her lashes.Not at all. She didn’t notice how much shorter his hair was today. Or how his jawline was sculpted in pure marble and coated in the richest brown skin. Beautiful men existed, but Giancarlo was something else. A hint of darkness in his eyes. She wondered if he ever smiled. His lips were full and lush, surrounded by clipped facial hair that only added sexiness to his bad-boy persona.

There was so much on her mind, important life things, but of course, all her thoughts were very female because she wanted to know if he had someone special in his life.

Lucia all but bit down on her tongue to stop from asking the question.

When he moved suddenly to pace across to the window, she caught her breath. The back of him was as imposing as the front. She streaked her eyes down his long legs, lingering on a firm ass encased in the denim jeans.

Giancarlo was gorgeous back then, painfully so, and he’d grown into a formidable man.

How was she going to cope knowing her feelings were one-sided? Ugh. Talk about jumping out of the fat directly into the fire.Good going, Lucia.

“We can stay here tonight, but we’ll move your location somewhere else tomorrow. I gotta make a few calls,sí?”

All she heard was stay here tonight. Did he mean him too?

“You’re… you’re staying in here with me?”

Was that her making that wheezing noise? A hand caressed around her throat, and sure enough, her pulse was galloping.

She’d read books like this. Forced proximity. Only one bed.

Only, those romances ended in a happily ever after for the couple. Not one half of the couple being pathetically in love with a man she couldn’t have, because he was indifferent to her like a lump of stale bread.

“Relax, Lucia. We’re family. I don’t wanna be in another room if something happens.”

She blinked. “Do you think something might happen?”

He turned from peering out of the window, just a hot snatch of a glance over his shoulder. “You’ve been on the run for three weeks. I’d be surprised if your father didn’t have eyes on you already.”

Oh.