Page 47 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
They went back and forth like this for a while, when Cullen saw Anna arrive out of the corner of his eye. She walked onto the pitch and stood next to her daughter. It was still amazing to him just how much they looked alike. It was like getting a glimpse of what Leona would look like as she aged, and Cullen liked what he saw. Not that he would allow himself to think about anything past next week right now. He didn’t want to have to think about what accepting a job in Atlanta, or even simply the end of his vacation, meant for his time with the sexy little blonde.
The next time he got the ball away from Josef, he kicked it over toward the Filipe women. Thankfully it hadn’t had much power behind it and rolled slowly to a stop not far from their feet, not giving Leona a chance to recreate her maneuver from earlier today. The boys walked up to join them, and Anna greeted them both with a smile.
“Sounds like it was a good week?”
“It was,” Cullen said. “I think that Josef has really improved these last couple of weeks. I hope he feels the same.”
“I do! It was great!”
“Happy to hear it,” Anna said.
Cullen nodded at Anna’s approval. There was so much more he wanted to say, but he didn’t dare open his mouth and ruin the moment. Just like her daughter, he knew that Anna was a firecracker and, truth be told, she scared him more than a little.
He nudged the ball toward Leona and took a few steps backward and nodded toward the ball, trying to encourage her to kick it. Leona shook her head with a laugh, but took the bait, pulling her right foot back, and swinging forward.
Everyone was surprised when she actually made contact with the ball. Cullen was about to let out a cheer when a split second after her kick, the ball hit him squarely where he wasn’t wearing a cup.
“Ugh,” he let out, as the ball bounced off his crotch. He could hear her gasp, while Anna and Josef simply laughed. Fuck, that hurt…
Taking a moment to catch his breath, he could hear Leona hiss to her family, “It’s not funny!” which only made them laugh harder.
“Leona’s skills, however, could use some work,” he commented, finally standing upright again.
“C’mon, Josef, let’s let Mr. Cruz heal. We need to get home for dinner,” Anna said, her laughter finally subsiding. Turning to her daughter with a straight face, she looked her in the eye. “And you, young lady, better go tend to that. Make sure everything is still in proper working order.”
Turning to Cullen, she winked and then walked away.
Chapter Twenty-One
The ride back to the resort was full of Leona repeating “I’m so sorry,” and “I can’t believe I did that,” and “Are you sure you’re okay?” over and over again, until Cullen finally cut her off with a kiss. She melted beneath his touch and mewed softly as his tongue parted her lips, turning his dick hard instantly. When he pulled back and broke the kiss, the smile on her face was enough to make him question his promise to behave until they got back to the resort.
As promised, he let her pick dinner. For a moment he wondered what on earth he’d gotten himself into with the way her eyes widened and lit up when she verified that it could be “anything she wanted.” Certain she was going to name some super upscale restaurant, or worse, drag him to Paradise Point and make him go dancing, he told himself to suck it up. A deal was a deal.
Thankfully, that devious smile of hers simply meant she wanted to order in pizza.
When she walked back into La Isla Bonita with two large pizzas in her arms, she looked like a kid on Christmas. Her giggles bounced off the walls as she made her way out to the patio and slid the pizza boxes onto the metal table in between the two chaise lounges. Flopping down into one of the two loungers, she flipped open the top box, pulled out a slice of cheese pizza, and took a large bite.
“Mmmmmmmm,” she moaned, slowly pulling the stringy, cheesy slice away from her mouth.
“Pizza,” Cullen said, letting out yet another laugh on the subject. “I would have taken you anywhere, and you wanted to order pizza.”
“Pizza was always a special treat growing up. We didn’t order it very often,” she said, a little embarrassed about admitting such a fact. “I eat it more now, as an adult, and Miller makes great pizza, but it still always feels like a treat getting to order it from the little place downtown.”
Cullen felt an ache in his heart as she shared this. He knew exactly how she felt, and he hated that she was embarrassed about how she grew up. Even if they did have similar backgrounds in that respect, he hated to think that she might be holding back with him about anything. He wanted her to open up completely, and he wanted to know everything about her.
“I get it. Pizza to the Filipes seems to be the equivalent of chips for the Cruzes. There was a chippy around the corner from the building we lived in, and it smelled so damn good every time we walked by it, but it was
a rare occasion that we actually got takeaway from there. Takeaway was just not in the budget.”
“It’s still hard to wrap my brain around that you weren’t always rich and famous,” she said between bites.
“I was a child at one point, you know,” he laughed, opening the box and grabbing a slice of his own. He took a bite and relished the taste as the hot cheese hit his tongue. Maybe it was because he was sitting there with her, but for some reason, the pizza tasted better than usual tonight.
“Spend the day with me on Monday,” he blurted out.
“Come again?” she said, swallowing quickly.
"I know you have a lot of work to catch up on this weekend, but you’re scheduled to be off on Monday, yes? I want us to spend it together.”
