I stumbled backward as soon as the magic connection was broken. I pressed my hand to my chest to feel the racing of my heart. What was that all about? That man actually had me freaking swooning. I met with different people all the time, and never swooned over any of them. I was a pretty good judge of character, and I had never met anyone like him. There was something about his warm yellow aura that dragged me in, made me want to be closer to him always.
Honestly, when I was looking into Hatcher’s eyes, Alek didn’t exist in my world. It was only me and him. The way I felt around Hatcher was also different. Just as powerful as what I felt for Alek, but incredibly different. I couldn’t figure it all out, it was too confusing. I almost wished I had kept him in front of me longer so I could have tried to explore just what was happening to me. Maybe I could still find him in the crowd to have a couple more moments, to find out what he was trying to say…
“Oh my God,” I whispered under my breath. “What is happening?”
I couldn’t talk to Hatcher right now because he was in the middle of a conversation with other people. One of them being Alek. My heart couldn’t stand them that close to one another. The guy I’d screwed on his private jet, who I was pretty sure I was falling head over heels for, and the man who had just knocked me off my feet. I almost wanted to run over there to split them apart because it was just too much for me to handle. I didn’t, of course, because that would be really weird, but the urge was there regardless. I cocked my head to one side and watched them interact, trying to figure out just what was going on, how close their bond really was. They didn’t seem like the best of friends, but they were cordial, which was something. Really something…
All of a sudden, both men seemed to sense my eyes upon them. They turned almost at the same time and fixed their eyes on me. My heart thudded under their gaze. But weirdly, it wasn’t with nerves. It was with excitement. My stomach was twisting around in knots. I almost wanted them to both to sneak me off to some room somewhere to have their wicked way with me.
My God, did I really just think that? Right before the speech from the Bear King? What was wrong with me? I was insane. But they were staring at me like I was a snack spread out on the table for them to consume. Both of them.
I’d always been liberated and wild, but this…this was new to me. Yet it didn’t scare me, it thrilled me. I was really excited by the idea.
“Karly!” Ben’s barking snatched me away from the staring. It took me out of the magic of the moment and reminded me of the professionalism I was supposed to be holding onto here. “We can’t have the camera positioned here. It isn’t right. We need to have it at this angle, don’t we? We want to be in the best lighting…”
“Huh?” I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, all I could really hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears. I was still lost in the fantasy of Hatcher and Alek, which was oh so wrong. “The camera? Sure, move it to where you think is best.”
I should have cared, but I didn’t. That wasn’t good. I needed to get my head back in the game.