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Is this when I decide to be a little braver, a little more like my sisters?
“Lust,” I tell him, letting my gaze linger over his eyes, lips, and back up to his eyes. My sunglasses shield my perusal from him but he’s not stupid. I bet he can feel the potent desire just as strongly as I do.
“Will you let yourselfreallydo this with me, Eloise?” he asks.
I want to say no. I want to tell him to bring me back and to keep this as professional as possible.
But I also want to stop being afraid.
“If you shut up for long enough, I might.”
He chuckles—healwayschuckles—and reaches for my fingers, rubbing them in his easy grip. “I have a question.”
“Shoot,” I say.
“Why does everyone call you Lucy?”
There’s a smile on my face before he’s even finished. “All of the Bordeau girls go by their middle names. I’m Eloise Lucille Bordeau. Kitty, my younger sister, is Eleanor Katherine Bordeau. And my older sister is Elizabeth Sophie Bordeau.” My smile widens at the memory. “When we were kids, we always wanted code names. Something for just the three of us. Kitty was four and hated stumbling over Katherine. Everyone else started using our middle names too and…here we are.”
An image of us running through the house holding hands replays in my mind. We were inseparable. And with the loss of our parents, one would think it would have brought us even closer.
But growth is a damning thing sometimes. If you aren’t ready for it, it can chase you away, your tail tucked between your legs.
If I ever kept a secret from Sophie, it was that I knew she was going to leave, way before she ever told me.
It was in her eyes. In the way she’d stare off in the middle of dinner. Or when she’d cry once Kitty went to bed after a really hard day.
She loved us but this wasn’t the life she saw for herself.
I understood that.
“And if you had the life you’d always dreamed of, what would it look like?” Ezra asks.
It’s a loaded question for a woman who doesn’t get asked many personal questions.
But the answer is easy.
“Something like this,” I whisper. “Something that feels a lot like this.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NOT PLAYING BY HER RULES
EZRA
I haven’tkissed Eloise in seven days.
The last time I touched her was when I helped her off my boat yesterday before the sun went down. My hand on her warmed-by-the-sun skin is something I’ve thought back on often, like a kid with a crush.
We parted ways and haven’t spoken since.
I stare at my laptop, willing an email to come in.
But because Eloise is who she is, she doesn’t respond to me. She doesn’t answer my request to come over. She doesn’t give me a sign of life; only when she’s ready will she. Everything is on her terms, and I want to grind my teeth at the need to controlsomething.I’ve never been the man who waits around for anyone, let alone a woman I had to talk into a contractual agreement just so I could see her again.
I hang my head, wishing I could find more comfort in this empty place, just as my phone rings.
Ivan’s name on my phone’s screen has me running a hand over my face, attempting in vain to will the vibrating to stop. I step into the kitchen and accept the call.
