Page 26 of Captivated

She liked it a lot.

Sobering from his laughter, Joe crossed his arms over his broad chest, and gave her another once over with his gaze. The action caused his white T-shirt to strain against his muscles in the best way, while the veins in his forearms and strong hands stood out even more.

Liliana had her thing.

All women had their things when it came to men, and what they found attractive. Apparently, she had more than just one thing because she suddenly had the strangest fucking urge to feel those hands of his grabbing ahold of her tightly while she traced the veins in his hands and arms with her fingertips.

Preferably naked.

Wow.

She went there fast.

“Dancing today?” he asked.

“Training,” she clarified, hoping how turned on she was didn’t come through in her voice. “But basically, yeah. I dance six times a week, and sometimes seven. Really just depends on what’s coming up, and what’s happening.”

“What would you have done, if not ballet?”

Liliana blinked at the unexpected question. People never asked her that—she knew why, too. Everyone just always assumed when they heard that she was a professional ballerina that dance was all she had ever considered as a path in her life. It was probably all she had ever known, and she didn’t fault them for that way of thinking.

She kind of adored Joe for asking something different. He was different, so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to her.

It still was.

“A nurse,” Liliana said, “and it still might be an option once this career gives out.”

A brief frown flickered across Joe’s face before he schooled his features. “Why would you think this career would give out, sweetheart?”

“Even the best ballerinas can’t dance forever.”

“Teaching. Mentoring. Owning their own studio. There’s lots of options.”

Liliana nodded. “There are, but I spent the first three years after high school trying to get in with the company I am currently at, and going to school all at the same time. A demand of my father—if I couldn’t be a ballerina, then I had to have something else to fall back on. I never got to finish school, so …”

“Because you got the spot in the company,” Joe assumed, and rightly.

“Exactly. I learned something about nursing, though.”

“Which is what?”

“After all the world gave me, it’s nice to give a little back.”

“So, a nurse, then?” he asked.

“Someday,” Liliana said.

It was another dream of hers. It wouldn’t mean her name would be in lights, or that a whole theater full of people would be enamored with the way she floated from one side of the stage to another, but it did mean fulfillment. A kind of fulfillment she had not yet been able to find as a ballerina.

“Sometimes, that’s how life works,” Liliana said vaguely.

“I get that.”

Joe didn’t press her for more details about her strange statement. She thought right then and there to ask the man to dinner, or even for a coffee, but it was the sound of footsteps echoing from down the hall that stopped her from asking anything at all.

Her father, and uncle, it seemed.

In a blink, Joe’s entire demeanor changed. He reverted back to that stone-still statue with little expression, and no clear emotion as he regarded the oncoming men. He still looked like the same man, and his woodsy scent was still lingering with every breath Liliana took in, but it was clear he put on a different mask depending on who was around.