Page 41 of Captivated

Liliana shrugged. “Yep.”

“Made from scratch?”

“How else would I make it, Joe?”

“And is the recipe super, secret, too?”

“Are you mocking me?”

Joe let out a hard laugh, and straightened to his full, towering six-foot-five inches. “No, not at all.”

Liliana side-eyed him. “Are you sure? Because it kind of sounded like you were getting there.”

“I was just thinking …”

“What?”

“My mother would love you, that’s all,” Joe murmured.

Liliana froze all over, and glanced up to find Joe was still staring at her in that intense way of his. He could make her heart skip beats with that look, or get her stomach rumbling as it tied up in knots. That look invoked too many emotions for her to handle—shyness, lust, amusement, and curiosity.

Did he even know he did that to her?

“Why’s that?” Liliana asked.

“I swear my mother has a secret sauce for everything,” Joe said, shaking his head a little. He tipped his wine up for a drink before setting it back down, and adding, “And if you think I am kidding, I’m not. My dad even made her this special locked cupboard where she can keep all those super, secret recipes.”

Joe’s grin turned sly when he said, “We learned Dad put an alarm on the cupboard—because our mother gets a little crazy about the sauces—when my younger brother Cory accidentally put his head through the door.”

“How in the hell did he—”

Joe cleared his throat. “He might have had a little help—you know, when I kicked him. We were rowdy teenagers, that’s all.”

Liliana guffawed. “Are you serious?”

“About the sauce thing, or the brother thing?”

“Joe.”

His teasing expression came back in a blink. “We’re still a little … rowdy. Is what it is when it comes to me and Cory.”

“You must drive your mother nuts.”

“My father is quick to say it’s how we show our affection for one another. I can’t say he’s wrong, but a lot of the time, affection is the last thing on my mind when Cory and I go through one of our rounds together.”

Liliana grinned. “He sounds awesome.”

“Who, my dad?”

She nodded.

Joe shrugged one shoulder. “He certainly loves my mom, even when she’s in one of her moods, and gets a little over the top.”

“And you, too, clearly,” Liliana returned.

“Me, what?”

“You love your mom. I can hear it in your voice.”