Page 17 of Rafael

As he passed Johnny’s cage, the bird fluffed his feathers and gave him the side-eye.Cheeky bastard.

Rafael laughed out loud. “Damn right, I am. And I have no regrets.”

He’d chosen the apartment over the yoga studio next door to Gisele’s shop with the express purpose of getting to know the woman better.

So far, it was proving to be a great idea.

He unrolled his sleeping bag and flipped the light switch, plunging the shop into darkness.

In the little bit of light shining through the front window from the streetlights on Main Street, he found his sleeping bag and laid down on top of it. With his hands laced behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling. If he was correct, her bed was directly over him.

He wondered if she was thinking about that kiss. He sure as hell was. The way her lips had felt against his only made him want to kiss them more.

He’d have no trouble staying alert through the night, not when his body was on fire for the woman so near and yet so far.

He’d have to work hard to win her over to go on a date with him.

But he was up for the challengeas long as she wasn’t looking for anything long-term.

Although...

He shook his head.

No.

Short relationships only.

He never wanted to stand at an altar again.

Been there, done that and had the scars to prove it.

CHAPTER 4

After that unexpected kiss,Gisele tossed and turned in her bed until she gave up at three-thirty in the morning and got up. If she wasn’t going to sleep, she might as well get to work on making more of the potions and lotions she’d lost in the break-in.

For the next three hours, she worked over her stove and kitchen table, stirring ingredients and murmuring incantations—her goal: to keep too busy to think about the man sleeping on the floor below her. No matter how hard she tried to banish him from her thoughts, she couldn’t help treading lightly to avoid alerting him to the fact she was awake. He couldn’t know how disturbed she was by that kiss.

She tried to tell herself he was playing right into her plan to make him fall in love with her so that she could teach him a lesson about love and humility.

Only the more she dwelled on that kiss, the moreshe realized how dangerous it would be to spend too much time in his presence.

She could see how Bianca, a more impressionable young woman, could fall so completely and so quickly for Rafael. The man was entirely too handsome and practically oozed sensuality by simply breathing.

She’d be a fool to carry through with her plan. When the sun came up, she’d send him on his way. She wouldn’t have to spend another night with him in the same building, running the risk of a repeat of that brief and potent kiss.

That kiss...

Heat rushed through her, coiling at her core.

Why?

He probably hadn’t given it a second thought and was sleeping like a baby while she’d been awake all night.

Cheeky bastard.

Speaking of cheeky bastards, why had Johnny refrained from biting Rafael when he’d been true to his nature and taken a chunk out of Remy’s finger?

Was Rafael a parrot whisperer as well asa fifth-degree black-belted womanizer?

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