AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, sir.” I lifted the bag. Wow, okay. That was somewhat smooth. At least my voice hadn’t cracked. But where had the “sir” come from? I didn’t grow up with any men in my life, and I wasn’t Southern; I was born and raised a Northern Californian—yes, the geographical distinction mattered. I pointed to his bag. “You have mild?”
He nodded, warily taking the bag from me as the elevator doors began to close us in again. He deftly moved inside and narrowly missed getting hit in the incredibly toned bicep by the sliding metal door.
Would it be breaking any laws if I leaned forward and ran my hand down his arm, just to feel the definition? Hmm, better not.
He opened the bag and peeked inside before lifting a perfectly sculpted eyebrow—but not sculpted by man, you know? Like specially shaped by Zeus—at me. “Where’s my garlic naan?”
“In my room.” I repressed a cringe.
He was silent, his lips parting slightly in surprise. “But I want to eat it.”
It was such an inane comment from a man I had waited half my life to meet that I couldn’t form words. I mean, he wasn’t human. He was above us lowly humans, hovering somewhere between Mount Olympus and the heavens. For the second time in under five minutes, I had nothing to say and instead stared at this beautiful creature standing two feet away from me with a handsome, quizzical brow.
Did I think the wordquizzical? Clearly I’d been watching too many period dramas with my Austen-obsessed bestie.
“My naan,” he repeated, as if I hadn’t heard him. “I want it.”
“Then come and get it,” I said. I winced inwardly at the overly saucy way those words had slipped out of my mouth, as if my speaking functions hadn’t caught up to the situation here.
I’d been planning on marrying this guy since I was fourteen, and I was blowing our meet-cute.
The elevator doors dinged and opened, and Rhett looked over his shoulder toward the lobby. A family stood there with an inordinate number of suitcases and bags. Rhett immediately made himself bigger, pushing out his arms and moving slightly closer to the center of the elevator, tome, his chin tucked and his back toward the family. Was he trying to avoid the people?
He was one of the most famous men in America. Nay, in theworld.Of course he was trying to avoid the people. That was what he’d done when I entered the elevator too, right?
I reached behind him and hit the “close door” button, smiling apologetically at the irritated family. It was late, and I was sure they wanted to get to their room.
“Sorry!” I called as the door shut over their sour faces.
“Thanks,” Rhett muttered. “But I’ll pass on the room invite.”
The room invite? My cheeks heated from his implication, and I realized we were much closer now. It was really hard not to lean in and inhale. He smelled heavenly, like whatever you’d expect a man on a giant black-and-white cologne billboard to smell like. There wasn’t any way to describe it other than manly and expensive, and I really wanted to know what it was called so I could douse my life-sized Rhett Myers cardboard cutout with the cologne when I got home.
I wasn’t a lunatic. I’d just been crushing on this guy for years. A man who was now stepping away to put some space between himself and the crazy naan hoarder.
I scoffed. “I wasn’t trying to get you in my room.”
“No?” He tilted his head to the side, better showing his perfect jawline. “Then why didn’t you bring my naan?”
“Because I didn’t know what kind of person my food was swapped with,Axl, and I didn’t want to end up with nothing to eat for the night in case it had been tampered with.”
His gorgeous eyes narrowed at me under the shadows of the blue baseball cap, completely ignoring my hit at his fake name. “You’re a germaphobe?”
“No, I have common sense. I’m not eating chicken that someone spit in.”
“I didn’t spit in it,” he said, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he actually looked a little hurt that I would even suggest such a thing.
“Well, obviously. But I didn’t know it was going to be a responsible adult and not some teenager.”
“I did dip my finger in it though.”
I stilled. Rhett’s finger was in my sauce? Was it super weird that the idea of him running part of his body, however small a part, through my dinner didn’t turn me away from the tikka masala at all?
His deadpan face was trained on me. “What floor are you on?”
“Four.”
He reached around me and hit the number four. Smart move, Rhett. If the door opened again and that family was still waiting, I had a feeling they would push their way in regardless of how big Rhett made himself. And let me say, he was kind of a big guy already. He towered over me, and I wasn’t short. Five-eight in my socks, taller with my sneakers, and this guy had inches upon glorious inches on me.
