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“Oh,” I said, embarrassed. But I did remember. I remembered too much and still had dreams about what happened before he gave me his jacket that night. I turned before he could see any signs that I might’ve been reminiscing. Did he still have my panties? I glanced away. “I’ll get it.”
I rushed to my closet and found it and had to fight the urge to sniff it with the overwhelming scent of sandalwood, cinnamon, and pure male permeating through the material. Axel’s scent was ingrained in my brain because I’d inhaled it several times to know. It wasn’t disturbing at all. Nope, not at all.
Regardless, I curled my fingers over the soft leather. I looked over and saw him standing by my desk, glancing down at my notebook. I frowned. “Here you go.” I held out his jacket with one hand while flipping my notebook shut with the other. Did he see what I wrote?
He raised an eyebrow, and after a few seconds, took his jacket. “Can you walk me out?”
“Why?” I shot a look at Lizzie, who was now sitting on her bed, thumbing through a textbook, which I knew she wasn’t interested in because she barely stayed on one page long enough to read anything.
He gripped the back of his neck, peering at me, appearing half-annoyed, but that couldn’t be. Nothing bothered him. “Can you for once say yes?”
Not waiting for an answer, he circled an arm around me as if we were the closest of friends, moving us toward the door as his weight carried me with him. “I need a word with you in private.” He sounded so polite when he said it, but he had me out in the hall before I could protest.
“What do you want?”
He slowly ran his hand over his mouth as though covering his amusement. “I could give an obvious answer, but that would be too fucking basic.”
Apparently, I was basic and clueless because I felt like he had an inside joke I wasn’t privy to. “Then clue me in,” I finally answered.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Too busy for me?”
I’d heard this before. His comment rubbed me the wrong way because it only fed into the persona he seemed to thrive on. “Too busy for you? It seems like your life is busy enough as is. You’re surrounded by plenty of people who give you plenty of their time.” Axel had everyone’s attention, and I couldn’t get the image of him with Jeanette out of my head.
“Life is good,” he admitted. “But I’m not completely satisfied. Not by a long shot.”
He wasn’t satisfied? I didn’t want to touch that one. “Maybe you should read a self-help book or try meditation.”
“Maybe you should tell me why you’re avoiding me.”
“How can I be avoiding you? I’m talking to you right now.”
He pinched his nose and sighed. “You always have to be difficult.” He dropped his hand and peered down at me. “I’d like to take you out to dinner.”
My pulse erratically sped up, but I couldn’t allow myself to get sucked into his vortex. I’d heard this one before. “Thank you, but no.”
“Why not? I don’t just ask out anyone.”
“Am I supposed to feel special?” I quipped. “Maybe you should ask out your bae, Jeanette.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I covered my mouth with my hands.Why the hell did that slip out?
He tilted his head. “You saw the picture she posted?” he asked calmly and shifted his stance.
I nodded.
He rubbed the back of his head with a frown. “Nothing happened that night.”
I shrugged, not exactly believing what he said, although my heart fluttered unwillingly. But I could be cavalier, too. “Okay. Not my business, and you’re free to do whatever you want to do.”
“Don’t be like that. Don’t act like you don’t care,” he said quietly. “I swear nothing happened. I was drunk and going up to my room to bed, and she was staying in the same hotel because her dad is a prominent Falcons booster, and she happened to run into me going into the elevator. She said she wanted a picture and took it. It was no different from the hundreds of pictures I’d already taken with other fans that night.”
She wasn’t one of the hundreds of other fans; she was someone he’d had been with. It still bothered me, but I wouldn’t point it out. “You don’t need to explain yourself.”
“You sure about that?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. However, I can’t go out with you.”
