Page 45 of Tangled Up In You

He stared at her. “Just take the photo, Sunshine.”

“You look mad!” She peeked around the phone at him. “Do that sweet smile where your eyes crinkle and you look so handsome.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ren wanted to suck them right back in. Heat engulfed her cheeks as a wolfish grin spread over his lips. “The sweet smile where my eyes do what now?”

Ren quickly snapped a photo. “Okay. That one works, too.” Fitz laughed, and she took a few more, staring down at them. She’d captured the eye-crinkly smile after all, but she’d also captured that smoldering first expression. It wasn’t the fake enticement he used on everyone, and which she’d seen on his face countless times. This was the direct tether between his gaze and hers, the seductive curl of his full lips that carried what felt like a promise.

Ren’s blood heated, her pulse accelerating. But with a sinking sensation in her gut, she remembered Miriam’s warning: Don’t let him seduce you. He’ll only break your heart. Was this what her roommate meant? That Fitz knew how to captivate every kind of woman, especially one as inexperienced and naive as her? Was she simply a game to him? A sort of conquest he’d never made before?

She tried to shake away the longing, to look away from those penetrating eyes, but she couldn’t. For the first time ever, Ren wished she had a phone so she could send herself these pictures.

“Okay, weirdo,” he said, standing and taking his phone back, “stop falling in love with me, let’s go see that mountain.”

It took a few seconds for his words to penetrate, and when they did, he was already several steps away. Ren jogged after him. “I wasn’t falling in love with you.”

“You were.”

“Was not!”

“Staring at my photo with horny eyes.”

Mortified, she burst out, “Oh my God, I was not!”

Fitz stopped walking and nudged her with his elbow. “Will you stop arguing with me and look?”

She followed his attention up, up, up to the monument. “Huh.”

“Huh?” he repeated. “That’s it?”

“It’s smaller than I expected.”

“Some will say that it’s not the size that matters, but what you do with it.”

Ren slid her eyes to him, frowning. “I think you’re making a dirty joke.”

He laughed. “I might be.”

Taking a deep breath, she redirected. “Seeing this gives me mixed feelings, though. This land was stolen from the Lakota.” She gazed up at it. “I feel sort of guilty being excited to see it.”

“I know,” he said, and gently bumped his shoulder against hers. “But the way to handle problematic things isn’t to just pretend they aren’t there. It’s good to see it and feel this way. Also, you can still be impressed with the artistry. Both things can be true.”

This time Ren nudged his shoulder with hers. She liked the contact a little too much, but pushed the thought away. “That sounds very wise for someone who pretends to not care about anything.”

He laughed. “I’m not pretending.”

“Yes, you are,” she said. “You care a lot.”

When he looked over at her, Ren turned her eyes back up to the monument, unwilling to show how much it meant to her that he did.

CHAPTER TWENTY

FITZ

Morning found Fitz staring at the ceiling. He was eating into his schedule for these detours with Ren, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember why he’d been in a hurry in the first place. His interview at the law firm wasn’t until the following Thursday. Even a couple days with Mary would be plenty; he just needed to get eyes on her and make sure she was as fine as she sounded on the phone. Fitz knew most of his urgency was a driving need to get as far away from Spokane as possible, but being with Ren and seeing her experience so many things for the first time made him want to be leisurely for once. When had he ever slowed down enough to just…enjoy something?

Never.

Not that he should be enjoying her, he reminded himself as they woke and moved easily around each other in their morning routines. It was a miracle they made it through dinner and bedtime the night before without Fitz crumbling under the weight of his attraction and kissing her. He fell asleep to the sound of her soft, even breaths and the knowledge that she was only a few feet away, curled on her side, warm and soft. And he woke to the awareness that he’d never slept as soundly as he did when she was nearby.