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He nodded his approval then crouched down to access his own pack. She watched as he withdrew a largish bag and unzipped it. The ‘tent’ he proceeded to erect was, just as he’d promised, not at all large. Oh, it would be fine for two people to lay side by side, but there’d be scant room between them, she realised with a thickening in her throat.
Fine for two old friends who wanted to shoot the breeze. But for virtual strangers? And for virtual strangers who seemed to spark off one another like fireworks?
She almost groaned but he was watching her, and she didn’t want to risk giving herself away.
“Great,” she said cheerily. “You’ve obviously done that before.”
“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his thick, brown hair, then let it fall to the back of his neck, which he massaged with long, lean fingers, in a way that was utterly distracting. Because she couldn’t help imagining what it would be like for him to massage her like that. She glanced away quickly; her cheeks over-warm.
“You do this a lot?”
“Go hiking with beautiful women I’ve just met? Strangely, no. I didn’t have that on my bingo card for this year, actually.”
Her gaze flicked back to his face, her pulse ratcheting up at the compliment buried in his drawled observation.
“Or a lot of things, come to think of it.”
“Right. You just broke up with someone, didn’t you?”
He winced. “I’m not surprised you heard about it. Apparently, my life is entertainment for broad swathes of the population.”
“I guess that comes with the territory,” she said, in a way that had his eyes narrowing a little. Contemplatively, and sadly. She wondered why?
“It does, yeah.”
“And you hate it?”
“I wouldn’t choose it, but it’s just part and parcel of what I do.”
“Of whom you are,” she amended, not without sympathy.
“Right. Hungry?” He changed the subject, dipping into his pack and retrieving a small container. When he removed the lid, she saw it was a platter of food—cheese, olives, ham, dips, bread. Her stomach grumbled in excitement, and she laughed, pressing a hand to her midsection.
It was a mistake. The innocent gesture drew his attention immediately and it suddenly didn’t feel remotely innocent.
She bit into her lower lip and focused all her attention on the food. “That looks…well, good enough to eat, actually.”
He grinned, gesturing to a log that was lying down across from them. “Have a seat. It’s safe,” he added. “I use it all the time.”
“How often do you do this?” And now, she clarified, to avoid any uncertainty. “The hiking, I mean.” And, as an afterthought, she tacked on, “Your Highness.”
His laugh surprised her. It seemed to rumble through the tree trunks. “You invited yourself on my trip—I think we’re past the formalities, don’t you?”
Mortification made her toes curl. “I’m…sorry, about that,” she admitted, bashfully.
“Yeah? You seemed pretty determined to join me.”
“It seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.”
“To get to know me?”
Her lips parted at the conclusion he’d drawn—and she could see why he thought that. They’d both admitted as much atthe car, hadn’t they? But it hadn’t been what Sofia had meant now. At least, not completely. “I really want you to choose the Santoros for this project,” she confessed. “It means a lot to me.”
Something crossed Ares’s face then. A wariness. A caution and uncertainty.
“You came so you could keep pitching to me?”
“You told Salvatore he’d have three days to win you over…”
