Page 10 of Painted in Love
She rolled another sip of her Toasted Almond around her mouth. Christ, he loved how she savored that drink. He imagined that was how she savored everything, from food to sex.
“I’d also like to take a break,” she mused. “Not two months, maybe just two weeks. I want to lay on a beach somewhere and let my brain explore all the possibilities about what my life could be like.”
He grinned. “Sounds like we’re pretty similar in our first things.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What’s the second thing you’d want to do?”
To be on that beach with you. Somewhere tropical with warm waters, where I could swim out into the waves, take you in my arms, and touch you everywhere under the water.
His thoughts were becoming decidedly erotic.
What he said was completely different. “I’d like to take a week and just read. No business books. Just fiction that lets me escape real life for a little while.” He’d recently come across an interesting article. “I read about this group in England that sponsors reading retreats. That’s all you do. Read.”
She gaped. “You don’t even eat?”
He shook his head, laughing. “Oh yeah, you eat. The best food. But you’re even allowed to read at the table.”
“Do you hear yourself?” She leaned forward. “You picked two things that suggest you need to relax more rather than doing and going.”
He considered her. She was right. Both of his wishes suggested he wanted to get away from it all.
Especially if he could get away from it all with her.
He admitted only, “Yeah, but I actually love what I do.” He jutted his chin at her. “What’s your next thing? Or let’s call them wishes. What’s your next wish?”
She totally surprised him by the depth of her answer. “I’d like to learn to trust more and fear less.”
Her words struck him so hard, the only thing he could say was a nebulous, “Wow.”
But she made him think about himself. It was true he didn’t trust when it came to love. Because love meant giving everything, your whole being. Which also meant expecting too much. And having too much expected of him.
His parents had loved with everything in them. Their love had been all-consuming, causing them to neglect their children, leaving Clay and his siblings with a series of nannies who never filled up the well of love that kids needed. They’d died in an avalanche while skiing in the Alps, just after he’d started high school. Even in death, they’d gone together. For him, loving meant giving over everything to that love. But that would mean losing sight of all his goals, all the things he wanted to accomplish. Losing part of himself.
Yet he’d thought of falling in love with her.
What the hell did that mean?
He would have liked to probe her answer more, but he didn’t want her probing him in return—at least not his heart.
Instead, he jumped into his third wish, his eyes on hers, drinking her in. “My last wish is to kiss you.”
Saskia couldn’t help laughing. Wasn’t that so billionaire-ish? Just flat out saying what you wanted.
Yet her skin heated with a full-body flush. She imagined his lips on her—not just her mouth, but every part of her. And her lips on him, all over him.
She’d have to start fanning herself if she didn’t get her thoughts under control.
His answers, though? She loved them. He couldn’t possibly be as bad as she’d thought when she’d read about him and watched his interviews.
He hadn’t told her much of anything that was truly deep—she’d revealed far more—but he’d still given her a few insights, especially that he was dying for a breath of fresh air, for a chance to step away from his responsibilities, if only for a couple of months.
She liked his goal-oriented reading—maybe she needed to do more of that too—his favorite movies, his favorite shows. Maybe she should take a break from her supernatural shows and try one of his.
Maybe she should try him.
The idea was crazy. Totally unlike her. Yet today was unlike any other. Being with him was unlike being with any other man.
This day, this man, this chance at something fresh and sweet after near death…
