I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you said it was still under construction, which means I’ll probably trip and fall on my face.”
“I’ll make sure you won’t, I promise.” He gestured at my face. “Close your eyes. Please.”
My first instinct was to say no and charge into the room. Rafe hadn’t really done anything to prove he was trustworthy yet.
However, at the pleading look in his gaze, I acknowledged that Iwasmarried to this man, would be for a year, and I should at least give him a chance.
I closed my eyes. A second passed and another before I felt Rafe’s heat behind me. Then his breath danced against my ear as he whispered, “Walk until I say stop.”
His hands came to my shoulders, and a jolt of heat spread throughout me. Combined with his breath still on my ear, I wanted to lean back against him, feel his hard body against mine, and ask for his hand to travel down, down, down until he reached my clit and made me scream.
Thankfully, his voice broke my mini-sex fantasy. “Walk, Abigail. I’ve got you.”
He pushed gently against my shoulders, and I followed his guidance. He steered me left and then right, and eventually he said, “Stop and open your eyes.”
I did and stared right at a plaque on the door that said, “Abigail Wolfe, Tutoring Director.”
It was a simple brass plaque with my name, and yet my throat tightened at the sight. “I thought I’d never teach again.”
“Well, you’re going to kick some ass here, Abigail. It won’t be long before I’ll be fighting off head hunters.”
I laughed. “You’re rather optimistic.”
“No, you worked bloody hard to become a teacher, to fulfill your dream from childhood, and that tells me how much you care about educating others.”
He was right—I’d wanted to be a teacher since I was about five years old. “You remember that?”
His hands gently squeezed my shoulders. “You tried to make me and West your pupils that one time, when we were trying to dig a swimming hole in one of the fields.”
“I forgot about that! How you ever thought a giant hole in the middle of a field—one with cows in it who could fall into the hole before it ever filled with water—would be a good idea, I never understood. It was stupid.”
He chuckled, the sound almost rusty. How often did Rafael Mendoza laugh?
Before I could think too hard on it, he replied, “You told us it was dumb back then, and said we should play school with you.Then we’d know better for the next time. You even got us to sit down for about ten minutes, somehow. Even as a little kid, you were stubborn.”
My lips twitched. “That is kind of the Wolfe family motto—stubborn bastards till the end.”
Rafe laughed. “Fits.”
After turning around, I raised an eyebrow. “Pot meet kettle.”
“All right, all right. Yes, I’m a stubborn bastard. You have to be to make it as far as I did. But when it comes to this tutoring center, I bow down to your expertise.”
I glanced at the plaque again and then back at my husband. “Not Abigail Mendoza?”
“If you want, I can change it.” He lowered his mouth to my ear and whispered, “But you’re already doing me a huge favor and I didn’t want to take your name from you without asking first.”
My throat tightened with emotion. Would any of the guys I’d dated before think to ask me about such a huge change?
No, rang through my head.
How was Rafe still single?
I would find out, whatever it took. There had to be a reason he’d acted the playboy so long. And yes, I did think at some point it had become acting. Because this sweet man would’ve yearned for more than just endless, meaningless sex.
Wouldn’t he have?
Not wanting to think about his parade of women before me, I turned back to the door and stared at my name. Abigail Wolfe had gone through so much, nearly hit rock bottom, and had struggled to think of what to do with her future.