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Well shit.
My feet were rooted to the floor for the several seconds it took my brain to reengage after short circuiting—because that was the kind of effect the man had on pretty much everyone, men and women alike.
Before he could look up and spot me, I ducked behind a group of fellow singles and booked it for the side exit as my heart beat wildly, attempting to escape the confines of my chest.
As soon as I rounded the corner, I plastered my back to the wall, breathing like I’d just run a mile at a dead sprint. I chanced a quick peek, unable to help myself where Pierce was concerned. From the very first moment I’d met him, the man had some kind of crazy power over me. Inappropriate as hell, given that I’d been in a relationship with his little brother at the time. But it couldn’t be helped. There was just something about him, he was a freaking wizard or something.
A few people passed by, giving me strange looks, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as I leaned farther for a better look. Just another inch... and there he was. God, the man still took my breath away.
It really was too bad we hated each other.
In my defense, my hatred of him was solely reactionary. He’d hated me first, so I figured it was only fair I hate the stupid sexy jerk back. I’d have been fine with the guy if he hadn’t decided within the first half hour of meeting me that I was somehow seriously lacking for whatever reason.
I’d been dating Frank for six months when he’d taken me to meet his family for the very first time. I was standing in his mother’s kitchen, helping with the last-minute preparations of the very lovely dinner she’d made, when the back door suddenly opened and a Grecian god came waltzing through.
I was stunned into immobility at the mere sight of him. In his expensive-looking suit and well-polished shoes, he looked like he belonged on the glossy pages of a magazine, modeling men’s designer clothes, not stepping into a small, countrified home in a small mountain town. Then I looked down to the little toddler holding his hand, a near spitting image of the dark anddangerous man who’d just come in, and nearly swooned into a puddle of goo.
The only way I could describe how I felt in that moment wasdazzled. I was completely dazzled by this gorgeous stranger while standing in the kitchen of my boyfriend’s childhood home.
He looked up at me with eyes so blue they glinted like glaciers in the middle of the sea, and for a beat, he seemed almost as flummoxed as I was. There was something in his penetrating gaze that I wasn’t able to read, but whatever it was, it had warmed me to my core. It made me fidgety and antsy. I wanted to dive in and get to know him at the very same time a tiny voice in the back of my head was telling me to run away because this man was Dangerous with a capital D.
We stood there, staring at each other in surprise for what felt like an eternity before Mrs. Walton cleared her throat and broke the spell. Then he smiled a smile that rattled me to my very core.
“Well, hello there,” he said in a velvety smooth voice that had just the right amount of delicious rasp to it. “I’m Pierce.” He extended the hand not attached to the adorable kid, and the instant his long, thick fingers engulfed my hand, goosebumps broke out across my whole body. “And who might you be?”
His mother jumped to introduce me when it became obvious the power of speech had failed me, and as soon as the words, “Frank’s girlfriend” left her mouth, a switch flipped. The man who’d nearly knocked me on my ass just a minute earlier with nothing more than a smile was suddenly giving me the deep freeze.
Every encounter after that was downright chilly. Every forced conversation felt layered with frost until I eventually just gave up all together.
Frank used to bad mouth his brother constantly, always going on about how arrogant and condescending he was, how he thought he was better because he’d gone to law school andworked in the city. The colder Pierce acted toward me, the easier it was to understand Frank’s animosity toward his big brother, and eventually, Frank’s animosity became my own.
Once again my breath caught in my throat as I watched him. With the sleeves of his expensive button-down rolled to mid-forearm, I was able to stare, transfixed, at the cords and muscles flexing and straining beneath his golden-tanned skin as he wiped down his prep station.
The last place I’d ever expected to see Pierce was at a cooking class. It was a complete contradiction to the callous man I knew him to be.
His hair flopped down over his forehead as he leaned over, adding a boyish element to the man’s hard, chiseled face that managed to somehow soften his granite-like features just a bit. I hadn’t thought it possible for the man to ever look soft. He always seemed to be in a bad mood. In the three years I’d dated his douchebag of a brother, I’d only been around Pierce a handful of times and, with the exception of that very first encounter in his mom’s kitchen, I’d never seen the man smile.
On top of hard, brooding features, he had the most incredible icy blue eyes I’d ever seen. They had the ability to freeze a person to their core with just one look. I knew that for a fact, considering after each run-in with the glacial man I felt like I had frostbite.
Still, as much as it irked me, I couldn’t help being fascinated by him.
“Uh... everything okay here?” I jerked up, whipping back around so fast my hair slapped me in my face when I turned to the woman standing a few feet away. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper as she looked off in the direction I’d just been staring. “Do you need me to call the police or something?”
“What? No! Oh God. No. Sorry. I just—” I stopped myself mid-ramble and held my hands out, palms up. “No, sorry.Everything’s fine. I just spotted someone I know, and I didn’t want him to see me, so I’m hiding.”
Oh great, Marin. Because that admission totally doesn’t make you sound like a wackadoodle.
Her brows climbed higher on her forehead. “Why didn’t you just leave then?”
I gave a small, self-deprecating laugh. “Well, because I didn’t wanthimto seeme. ButIstill wanted to seehim, you know?” Realizing how that sounded, I quickly added, “But not in a weird way! In a totally normal, non-creepy kind of way.”
I’ll take Things Stalkers Say for a thousand, Alex.
If anything, the woman looked even more convinced that she needed to call the police.
I pulled in a slow, steady breath in an attempt to calm my nerves that had been firing like crazy since I saw Pierce, and explained, “He’s my ex-boyfriend’s older brother.”
Understanding lit her eyes, and the panicked look ofI’m standing here talking to a psychodrifted away. “Ah. I see.” She joined me at the wall and peeked around with me to get a better look. “Wow,” she breathed. “He’s very good looking.”
