He was headed to the bar and she thought about going and saying hi, but decided against it. She couldn’t keep allowing herself to hope that each time they talked it would be like the first day they met. Enough time had passed to prove that wouldn’t be the case.
She turned back to her friends.
“Are you going to go say hi?” Ali asked.
“Nope.” Brynn lifted her drink and took a larger gulp than normal.
The two women looked at each other and both pulled out their phones. Since Jess and Ali had been friends since childhood, the two women shared a silent language. They didn’t need words to communicate with one another. Her mom would say that they were telepathically connected.
“What?” Brynn’s eyes bounced between her friends. “What are you guys doing?”
“Well, since you won’t let me ask Ethan to do an official background check…”
“We’re gonna have the guys do an unofficial one,” Ali finished gleefully.
“You’re what?”
“We’re going to have Kade and Ethan buy Axel a beer and get to know him a little.” Jess rubbed her hands together.
“Aren’t they doing fantasy football?” Brynn argued, trying to come up with a good reason for the girls not to do this.
They both just gave her a look dismissing her objection.
Brynn wanted to tell them not to, but she knew her friends and once they decided something was a good idea, there was no talking them out of it.
She sipped her drink and tried not to look in Axel’s direction. But her eyes had a mind of their own and they sliced toward Axel. It felt like every time she turned around he was there. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was interested in her. But since he hadn’t initiated any conversation or made any attempt to spend time with her, she knew it was just wishful thinking on her part.
A sigh fell from her lips…so much for an Axel-free night.
***
Axel let outa breath he’d been holding for the past ten minutes as relief rushed through him. The moment he walked into the bar, he’d clocked Brynn out of the corner of his eye seated at a table with Ali and Jess.
She was out with her friends.
Not on a date.
He’d been doing his best not to let his imagination run wild as he waited outside the restaurant. He allowed enough time to pass so it didn’t seem like he was following Brynn. Which, of course he was.
When he’d seen her leave her house, his first thought was that he should roll his tongue back in his mouth, because it had rolled out like Jim Carrey’s in The Mask.
He’d been temporarily stunned by her beauty. Her hair was straightened, falling just past her shoulders. It reminded him of the most beautiful golden-red sunset. Her shirt revealed just enough skin to drive any red-blooded man crazy. The front was cut to tease a hint of cleavage and it ended about a half an inch above her jeans, exposing a flash of skin. The fit of her jeans hugged her sensual curves. Not that he’d needed to imagine what was beneath them. Thanks to Lucy, he’d seen the whole “kit and caboodle,” as Brynn put it.
And what a kit and caboodle it was. Her naked form was branded into his consciousness. No matter what he did, he couldn’t stop envisioning the dip of her waist. Or the gentle curve beneath her breasts. Or the tiny heart-shaped birthmark that sat on her creamy left thigh, just below the curve of her butt cheek.
Brynn was beautiful, that was an indisputable fact. But she was so much more than that. Her appeal wasn’t just sex-based. He wished that was all it was, then maybe he’d have a shot at making it through this without her driving him fucking insane.
He hadn’t been blowing smoke when he’d told Ryder that any man would be lucky to have her. They would. She was the total package. The most magnetic and alluring woman he’d ever come into contact with. Each time he saw her he could feel himself falling deeper under her spell.
But he was here to do a job.
A cursory scan of the restaurant didn’t set off any alarms internally. No one seemed out of place. The bar area was filled with townies, no unfamiliar faces. He stepped up to the bar, intentionally not looking in Brynn’s direction.
He lifted his hand to get the attention of the bartender, who reminded Axel of Izzy’s surfer boy Ken doll.
When California Ken looked his way, Axel asked, “Can I get a Hef on tap?”
The guy nodded. Axel waited and noted the decor. The entire back wall of the bar was covered in a painted mural of lanterns floating into a dark sky. Tangled had been one of Izzy’s favorites. She’d watched it so many times he knew most of the dialog by heart.