Oh.Okay, so Pace Leigh did have a flaw.
He made terrible jokes at the worst possible time.
A borderline hysterical laugh bubbled up out of me—it was too absurd to react any other way. I laughed so hard that the desk chair hit the back of my knees, and I sat back down. Because, obviously, he was joking. It was enough that he had materialized to this place and time, and maybe he wasn’t making fun of me exactly, but surely this was some cosmic joke, nonetheless.
Hurt and confusion crossed his features as his eager smile melted off his face like whipped cream off the side of warm pumpkin pie. If knowing all possible variables was my imagined superpower, then his effortless ability to manipulate people with those sweet little puppy dog features was his. And I’d just laughed in his face.
I snapped my mouth shut, feeling remorse for my outburst.
“You were being serious?” I asked in dawning horror.
“Yes. Why not?” His jaw flexed with a tight swallow.
It was a distractingly perfect jawline.
“It’s mortifying enough that you’re aware of the list. I can’t even—my brain actually will not let me understand why you would offer to help me.”
He pulled out the chair next to me and sat down with intense determination. His long legs caused his knees to spread out wide, almost touching my shut ones.
He leaned forward, elbows on his thighs, direct eye contact on full blast. So much that I felt on fire with my awareness of his focus. How could he look directly into my soul like that? Like he wanted to. I had no idea how long to hold his gaze or whereexactlyto look: left or right eyeball, maybe his forehead just above his eyebrow? If I stared back with the same intensity that he held right now, I would look like a cornered animal.
Iwasa cornered animal.
And yet.
Andyet.
His cologne-y man smell was so unfamiliar but nice in this small space. His body, so big and masculine, taking up more mass than the molecules of air, breaking laws of nature. I was acutely aware of the thick canvas material of his pants radiating heat, the breadth of his shoulders ... sowide.Those thick veins on the back of his loosely clasped hands. If I slid the tiniest bit forward, our knees would brush. The idea of it was so titillating that I felt a pulse of dangerous excitement. Meanwhile, this tension was likely not something even on his radar. He was so used to just existing without even thinking about how his mere presence impacted those around him.
I had to get a grip.
“I think that it was fate that I found your note,” Pace said, sincerely and still. Holding. My. Gaze.
“Fate was, in fact, a cruel mistress if that was the case.”
“I’m serious. Look.” He leaned forward, and I swallowed. His head turned toward the note sitting on the desk between us, causing him to display his neck. That was a man’s tendons and muscles, thick ropes of muscles leading down to his shoulders that were, I mean, my goodness, the man’s shoulders were really something else. His dark reddish-blond hair was almost completely blond on his neck, his skin tinged with a red hue. And his ear. Look at that beautiful ear. Just inches from my face.
I was truly overwhelmed by the desire to lean forward and bite his neck or lick along that perfectly square jawline. His Adam’s apple moved along the column of his throat as he swallowed, and I couldn’t look away.
Must ignore wild, intrusive thoughts.
“Check this out,” he said. I blinked away from memorizing every hair and freckle on his neck, like the little weirdo that I was, and focused on the task. Wait, what was the task? Why was he still here in my bubble of safety, confusing all my senses? Shouldn’t I want him to leave?
“I was made to help you with this list. The gym?” He blew apfft.“AKA my second home. Karaoke? Once a month at Bookers atleast.” His finger floated down the list, continuing to name all the things he was great at. I didn’t doubt that he was being honest. But it wasn’t helping. All things that came so naturally to him were my impossible hurdles. This was just proving the point.
Also, how was I ever supposed to be near him if seeing his neck made me this distracted? And he wanted to gallivant around town together? I wasn’t this person. I wasn’t even one of his peripheral people.
I could wax poetic about being a modern woman with contemporary wants and needs, but the second a hot firefighter with rippling muscles and an easy smile was tossed in my face,suddenly it’s allhere, let me slip out of these panties,andcan I suck on your earlobe?
“You see what I mean?” he asked.
I’d been watching his lips move, but to be honest, I had no clue what he’d just said. But he must have been used to whatever he saw on my face, because he just kept moving on down the list.
I stuffed a sock in my hormones and focused on what he was saying. I would be respectful. I would not objectify him in the way women have been objectified for millennia.
But seriously, what was that muscle between the neck and shoulders called? It’s like it was purposely designed to be bitten on when riding his?—
He cleared his throat awkwardly. Please don’t tell me my thoughts were actually words.
