The Spanish Love Deception Elena Armas (free ebook reader for ipad .TXT) 📖

What am I doing? “So … it’s a really good thing Aaron picked me up. He doesn’t look like he’s scared of the traffic. Actually, it’s him who can be a little scary sometimes.” I chuckled, but it died off quickly. “Not that I’m scared of him. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten in his car.” Shut up, Lina. Shut. Up. I felt Aaron’s laser eyes boring holes into my profile. TJ’s too, but in a much less hostile way and a much more absorbed one. “So, yeah, long story short, we came here together.”

Cringing internally, I reminded myself that this was what I deserved for lying in the first place.

Aaron’s friend chuckled, bringing both his hands to the pockets of his maroon tuxedo. TJ’s eyes jumped between us, his gaze bouncing a couple of times from Aaron to me and then right back. Whatever he found, it was enough for him to nod his head with something that looked a lot like trouble.

“Hmm,” TJ hummed, shrugging his shoulders. “Well, Aaron can be a scary motherfucker.” He winked. “Me, on the other hand? Just charm.”

“I can tell.” I smiled, just glad TJ had taken over.

“As I’m sure you already know, there is a bachelor auction going on tonight, and not only am I a bachelor myself”—TJ held both hands up, mischief written all over his face. Then, he peered at Aaron, as did I, and found him shooting daggers at him—“but I have also signed up for the auction. And while I’m sure I’ll be expensive, I can promise you, I am worth your—”

“TJ,” Aaron cut off his friend. “That won’t be necessary.”

Aaron’s body somehow shifted closer to me, my shoulder almost brushing his arm. That kernel that had been planted back in my apartment—that awareness of Aaron’s body, the way his proximity was really hard to ignore all of a sudden—sprouted.

I looked up at Aaron, finding his eyes already on me as his head leaned down.

“You can stop pitching yourself,” he told his friend as his gaze snared mine. Then, I felt the ghost of a touch on the small of my back. Or so I thought because it was gone far too quickly to be sure it had been real. “Catalina is bidding on me tonight.”

I blinked. Trapped by Aaron’s eyes and how close his words had fallen, almost gracing the skin of my left temple.

“You seem very sure of that,” I heard TJ say, my eyes still locked with Aaron’s. “At least for someone who sounded more like her driver than her date.”

Aaron tore his gaze off me, landing on his friend. And I did the same.

Something passed between the two men, and for a heartbeat, I felt like I should intervene.

Then, TJ threw back his head and laughed, breaking whatever tension had seemed to take shape around us. “I’m just joking, Big A.” Another cackle. “You should see your face. For a second there, I thought you were actually going to tackle me to the floor or something. You know that’s not my style. I’d never go after a friend’s girl.”

“I’m not—” My mouth opened to correct TJ, telling him I wasn’t Aaron’s girl. But the lines delimiting our deal were blurry, and I had no idea if I’d be inserting my foot in my mouth. I was his fake date and fake bidder, but did that mean I was his fake girl too? Damn, we definitely needed to talk this out before Spain. This test run was proving to be far more challenging than what I had expected. “He wasn’t going to tackle you, TJ.”

Aaron’s body seemed to relax with a sigh, somehow shifting and angling toward me. His chest brushed my arm just lightly, making me feel the warmth of his body. “I see that’s something that hasn’t changed,” Aaron muttered. “How hilarious you think you are.”

“Come on,” I intervened. “He was just teasing you.” Just how I would have if I wasn’t still feeling all tingly and weird and I could focus on something besides the point where my shoulder grazed Aaron’s chest. “It was harmless fun.”

“See? Listen to your girl. I was just pushing your buttons.” TJ’s smile persisted, lighting up his whole face. “Just like old times.”

A question popped up in my head then. Why had TJ felt the need to push Aaron like that? Was this how they were with each other? It must have been. Aaron had gotten territorial in a matter of seconds right out of nowhere.

“Oh, speaking of old times,” TJ said, his face somehow taking a somber quality. “I heard about Coach, and I’m sorry, man. I know you guys don’t talk, but he is still your—”

“It’s okay,” Aaron cut his friend off. I could feel the tension emanating off his body. The shift. I could sense how uncomfortable and on guard he was all of a sudden. “Thanks, but there’s nothing you have to be sorry for.”

I looked up at him, finding him pinning his friend with a warning in his eyes.

“All right,” TJ complied, his face taking on a somber edge. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you because you have lived through it yourself, but time doesn’t wait for you to make amends, man. Time waits for nobody.”

TJ stared back at his friend with something I failed to identify. An emotion that I wanted to understand where it was coming from. How and why did it affect Aaron, and what did it have to do with that man TJ had called Coach?

“I convinced my pops to come tonight. I signed him up for the auction.” That mischievous smile was back. “It’s time he gets out there and starts living his life again. He’s very excited.” Before Aaron or I could say anything—Aaron because he still looked a little lost himself and me because I was trying to understand why—TJ turned to me. “So, Lina, if you get tired of his boring face, just know there are not one, but two James men available