She gasped in horror as she jerked her hand back.
As she bent down to retrieve the fallen keys, she began apologizing profusely. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…I just…”
“It’s not a big deal. I was just waiting for you to ask me to turn my head and cough.”
A high-pitched sound that turned out to be a nervous giggle filled the silent space as she straightened and offered him the key ring. When their gazes met she could feel her cheeks flaring with heat. “Sorry,” she heard herself apologizing again.
“It’s fine.” His deep voice rumbled as he took the key from her hand and a warm, comforting smile spread across his face. “Really.”
His fingers grazed hers as he cradled her hand in his. His touch felt strong, safe, and super-charged. Just like their handshake, except even more intimate and connected.
Brynn sucked in a startled breath at the electricity that sparked between them. She pulled her hand away and tried to shake off the feeling of familiarity that was there. Her body was responding to him as if he weren’t a stranger, but her brain was doing its level best to remind her that that’s exactly who he was.
His pants buzzed and her eyes shot down to the same area where her hand had been just a few moments before.
She watched as he removed the phone from his pocket and her palm tingled at the memory of what it had just touched. His hand wasn’t the only thing that felt strong and super-charged…
Axel lifted the phone to his ear. “Let me call you back in—”
He was cut off by a sound that Brynn was very familiar with. Hysterical teenage girl. She couldn’t make out what the girl was saying but she knew from the pitch and tone that it wasn’t good.
Figuring Axel would probably like some privacy, Brynn started toward the door. He quickly held up his hand indicating for her to stay.
She remained in place, easily held captive by the depths of his stare.
As a person that studied people and their behavior for a living, she’d always believed that there was some truth to the saying that the eyes are the window to the soul. From a purely anthropological perspective, eye contact had always fascinated her. How long people held it. What their body language was like during contact; did they look away or maintain a constant stare? These were all things that revealed personality traits.
It wasn’t an exact science, but there were commonalities in behavior that rang true more often than not. From what she was seeing with Axel, her mother might’ve just been on to something in her reading of him. Brynn was definitely picking up confident, strong-willed, protective, and grounded.
And passionate and sexual. Her core tingled and clenched as those descriptors ran through her head.
“Pita…” Axel tried to speak but the voice on the other end just got louder. “Pita, I ne—”
He shut his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose. When his arm fell at his side, he spoke with a command that he hadn’t had before. “I’m going to call you back.”
The authority in his stern tone did something to her insides that Brynn didn’t want to admit or acknowledge. She swallowed over a newly formed lump in her throat and tried to sound as unaffected as possible as she asked, “Your sister again?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full.” Her cheeks started to flush at her choice of words.
What she’d felt behind the zipper of his shorts was definitely a handful.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem like Axel picked up on her double entendre. He looked distracted and…worried.
Brynn watched as he ran his hands through his dark brown hair. Her mouth automatically watered when she saw the prominent vein pop out on his forearm. A shiver ran down her spine at the chiseled perfection of his triceps. He blew out a breath. His eyes closed briefly and she noticed just how long and thick his eyelashes were.
Her mouth was alternating between watering and going dry as a bone. He had an effect on her that was making her senses go haywire.
When he opened his eyes again, her mind switched from hot and bothered to concerned.
There was a pain and vulnerability in his whiskey stare. She’d always been highly empathetic. It was a big reason she’d chosen the career path she had. But over the years, she’d picked up methods to protect herself when counseling people, or even just watching the news. It helped her not be a blubbering mess each night when she lay in bed, otherwise she felt the pain of all the hurting people and animals in the world. But Axel shot right past the barriers that she’d constructed.
It seemed her hormones weren’t the only thing that this man triggered; her heart was about to join the party, too.
“Are you okay?”
***