“I don’t want to watch a chick movie,” he complained. “Nothing like that Bridesmaids movie or one of those Ashton’s movies. I hate those stupid things.”
Men! Why did they always assume a woman wanted to watch a chick click? She wasn’t and never would be the chick flick female. She loved action or horror. Even Shauntie couldn’t beg her into seeing one of the romantic ones. Why did Brian believe she would put him through one of them?
“Brian, I never mentioned wanting to see any kind of date night movie because I’m interesting in seeing if Shauntie has the newest Jason Statham movie on DVD. He’s so hot!”
“So you think Jason Statham is attractive?” He wondered what women saw in him. The actor wasn’t all that great in his opinion.
Sapphire moved her arm away from Brian and opened the car door. “Jason is more than attractive. He’s sexy as hell. I love his accent. Now come on. Let’s get some extra groceries for that endless appetite of yours.” She got out of the car closing the door behind her.
Sitting inside the truck, Brian stared after Sapphire noticing how her hair blew around her shoulders as she went towards the store’s entrance. He had to find a way to make Sapphire see she didn’t have to lust after some actor when he was right under the same roof as her.
Brian was more determined than ever to find a way to win Sapphire over. He’d spent day after day staring at her inside her office wishing for a moment or two alone with her. Now that he had it he wasn’t going to blow it. Things had to change and soon or his chance to win Sapphire over would be gone before he knew it.
Chapter Fifteen
What else could he possibly need, Sapphire wondered as she continued to walk next to Brian in the grocery store? They’d already been here close to forty-five minutes and she was ready to go. She had things to do back home. She wasn’t used to wasting this much time shopping for food.
“Are you about ready to leave?” Sapphire asked, stopping next to him in the cereal aisle. This trip was taking a lot longer than she thought it would in the beginning. Who knew Brian would love strolling through the aisles like he had all the time in the world?
Grabbing a box of Frosted Flakes off the shelf, Brian tossed it into the cart and then faced her. “Are you always this impatient?” he asked, leaning on the handle of the basket. “Relax and enjoy being out of the cottage. Nothing back there is going to be gone by the time we get back.”
Crossing her arms over her breasts, Sapphire glared at Brian. She wasn’t a restless person. She knew how to relax; Brian just hadn’t seen that side of her yet.
“You don’t know me well enough to tell me that I’m impatient.”
Moving away from their shopping cart, Brian came towards her stopping close enough that she could feel the pull from his lean, muscular body. “You’re right. I don’t know you that well yet; however, if you stop trying to hide from me or pick a fight with me anytime I’m around you I might actually learn more about the woman behind the gorgeous face.
“How dare you!” Sapphire snapped.
“How dare I what?” Brian countered. “Tell you the truth? Come on, I’m not being over the top or hard on you. I used to see you watching me when I came to your office. I even heard you talking about me once with one of your co-workers. Are you really trying to tell me you aren’t attracted to me?”
Sapphire couldn’t believe it. Brian had known all along she was checking him out. Why hadn’t he ever approached her? He could have made a move instead of having her think he wasn’t interested in going out on a date with her? The nerve of him. Who did he think he was?
“Tell me why you always found a way to leave anytime you saw me coming towards you?” she questioned. Sapphire couldn’t wait to hear what Brian would tell her. This better be good or she would give him a good piece of her mind.
Instead of answering her, Brian spun away from her and went back over to their grocery cart. He grabbed a couple of more items off the shelf behind him and tossed them into the basket before walking away from her.
“Hey, aren’t you going to answer my question?” Sapphire questioned as she followed behind him.
Stopping by the end of the aisle, Brian turned around to look at her again. “I’ve already told you a secret about me. So, it’s up to you to take the next step. I want you to confess something to me about you. I can’t be the only one opening up now, can I? What would that accomplish? I still wouldn’t know anything about you and you would have the upper hand over me.”
Pivoting, he continued on around the corner leaving Sapphire standing alone in the aisle. The first thought that came into her head was why would she ever think about opening up to a man she barely knew?
She started after Brian to tell him the same exact thing until Shauntie’s voice unexpectedly popped into her head.
Stop over thinking everything in your life and live in the moment more. Let go. What do you have to lose?
A part of her wanted to disagree with her inner voice, but it was right. Seeing Brian the other day brought all of her buried emotions to the surface. Brian had caught her attention from the second he walked into her dental practice wearing those sexy blue shorts, way before Emerald ever brought up her hunks challenge.
For weeks, Sapphire battled back and forth in her mind how she would ask him out on a date. She wanted something more imaginative than a cup of coffee or a quick lunch date. All of her other relationships went like that and not one of them ended up going the distance the way she envisioned them doing.
The failure with her old boyfriends could have been her fault because she liked having her boundaries too much. Brian was pushing her to leave her well beloved comfort zone and find a way to open up more to him, something that was hard for her to do with anyone besides Emerald or Shauntie, but she would take one step forward and she how it worked out for her.
Posting daily to her blog was so much easier for Sapphire to do than sitting down and telling Brian something about herself. With the internet, she was a faceless person with a laptop writing topics to her loyal followers. The only insight they got was the information she supplied to them. Yet, Brian would be able to see her body language and inquire why she was reacting the way she was.
Year after year, she dated man after man in the same high paced profession as her because it was expected of her to do so, but in all honestly a white collar man wasn’t who turned her on. She was drawn...she loved men who used their hands and were covered in sweat and dirt after a hard day at work. Brian might not fit the image most women had of a hunky worker, but he still fit it for her.
She never missed any kind of home improvement programs where a hot guy worked with his hands. She thought he was hotter than Jason Statham. If she’d gotten a wish for the sexy man she wanted in her life, Brian would match the vision in her head.
So, why wouldn’t she allow herself to see where things could go with Brian? What happened at Shauntie’s cottage would stay at Shauntie’s cottage. Who would be the wiser? Brian hinted that he wanted to know about her and she would let him get a glimpse of what made Dr. Sapphire Rhodes tick.
Squaring her shoulders, Sapphire hurried around the corner to catch up with Brian. She wouldn’t let anything worry her or bring her down while she was waiting to ring in the New Year.
Chapter Sixteen
“Alright, I’ll take you up on it.”
Turning away from the frozen pizza case, Brian found Sapphire standing behind him. His eyes wandered over her body pausing at her blue jeans admitting how the denim showed off her long legs.
A good pair of legs on a woman always got his blood racing and Sapphire’s legs were the best he had ever laid eyes on. Back at the cereal aisle while she was checking out a box of Fiber Plus cereal, he had taken a second to check her out instead of shopping for a sugary breakfast food.
Sapphire’s hips tapered into long, shapely legs making her slim waist seem even smaller. He wouldn’t think of her as skinny but a woman with curves in all the right places. Her
black, thick rich hair hanging long and straight over her shoulders only made her entire package more appealing to him.
Brian almost reached out and touched it until he snatched his hand back. Sapphire was tough and she might not take too kindly to him touching her like that. Something in her personality soothed the restlessness in him. He was powerless to resist his body from stepping onto that road toward unchartered territory.
Yes, it rattled him some; yet, his curiosity was aroused to the point. He couldn’t lose another night’s sleep like he had gone through last night thinking about Sapphire. She was so unlike any other woman he spent time with. She was stunningly beautiful, owned her own business and had so many layers he wanted to peel back bit by bit until he finally reached the true Dr. Sapphire Rhodes.
“You’ll take me up on what?” Brian asked, knowing full well what Sapphire was telling him, but he wanted to hear the words come out of her pretty mouth. He hadn’t known her for that long, but he could tell Sapphire liked to keep things bottled up inside of her.
Well, he was going to change that about his new roommate. Sapphire was going to be forced to do some things that might make her feel out of her element, but the change would be good for her. It wasn’t healthy for her to keep herself hidden away from the rest of the world.
Everyone should have the ability to be able to change one thing about their personality without it sending them into an absolute and utter tailspin.
“Sapphire, what are you taking me up on?” Brian asked again. He waited while Sapphire glared at him like she wanted to shake some sense into him.
“I’ll try to share something about myself with you.” She snapped the words at him like he was trying to get her to confess all of her deep, dark secrets on a talk show.
“It won’t be as bad as you think. I just want to know more about you. I find you very intriguing. I was drawn to you way before I knew we would be staying under the same roof. I promise you that I won’t ask about all of your heavily guarded secrets. If I get too personal just tell me to back the hell off and I’ll do it.”
Brian noticed a small smile flirting at the corner of Sapphire’s mouth and he knew that he was winning her over some more. Yes, this was going just the way he wanted it to.
“You don’t look like a man who would back off after hearing the word no,” Sapphire tossed back. “How do I know that I can trust you?”
“Give me a chance and I’ll let you see for yourself.” Brian winked at Sapphire then spun back around making his way to the checkout lane.
Behind him, Brian heard Sapphire as she mumbled something under her breath like. “I’ll have to see how well that works out for us.”
****
Back at the cottage, Brian sat the four bags of groceries down on the island. Sapphire had offered to help him to put them away, but he told her he could do it so he would have some time alone to think about their time out together.
Usually, he didn’t have to work this hard to make a woman spend any time with him, but Sapphire was different. She wasn’t falling for his easy smile and charm. He knew she was affected by him, the same way he was curious about her.
He wasn’t the type of brag about the woman he dated, but the opposite sex loved him when it came to his charisma. However, Sapphire passed over it like it wasn’t even front and center.
Brian realized this might be one instance he would have to change the behavior he used most to get a woman to show more interest in him because Sapphire wasn’t allowing herself to fall for their mutual attraction alone. She desired more and he would find a way to give it to her.
Before meeting Sapphire, he would have avoided pursuing a woman if he felt rejection was in his future, but with her he wanted to prove to himself that he could hold a great conversation or anything else with a beautiful and successful woman like her
If he had any doubts about a working man like him landing a beautiful woman like Sapphire all he had to do was take pointers from Nash and his future looked brighter than normal. His days of searching for a woman who could fill the void in his heart was over He had found her in Sapphire. Which meant winning her over would be the biggest battle of his life, but he would succeed no matter how long it took him.
Chapter Seventeen
Upstairs in her bedroom, Sapphire logged onto her computer while her head was on other things, namely Brian. She couldn’t get her mind off her trip with him earlier. More than once she had fought down the urge to run her hand down the muscles in his arms on their trip back home. He had smelled so good, like a mixture of male, nature and soap.
The more time she spent in Brian’s company she saw there was more to him than his outer appearance. He had a way of captivating her making her long to know more about him. While they were at the store, she hadn’t paid attention to anyone else. All she could think about was how relaxed she felt in his company.
Brian had a natural savvy about him. Something about him got her motivated to get herself back in front of her laptop. Once she was finished with her new entry, Sapphire knew she wouldn’t be hiding up here.
Today, she would be downstairs trying to keep her end of the deal with Brian while learning more about him in the process. Not for her blog, but for her own selfish reasons. She wanted Brian probably more than she had any of her past boyfriends.
They never made her lose her train of thought so badly. She fought through the fog in her head to remember what she was thinking about before he walked into the room like he owned it.
She thrived on taking risks which is why she decided to place her life out there on the internet. Either people would love it or hate it. Lucky for her so far everybody loved it, so why shouldn’t she continue her love of taking new risks? Getting Brian into her life was a thrill she was craving to take a ride on.
Glancing back at her laptop, Sapphire noticed her blog was up and ready for her newest post. Her wandering thoughts about her attractive house guest made her forget about the reason she came upstairs in the first place.
Sapphire stared at the layout of her blog and wasn’t pleased by the cookie cutter design. It was too second-rate for her, but it was one of the pre-made designs that came with the site. Once she got enough free time, she would hire a professional web designer to make her a custom made one, something that would showcase her own personal style. But first things first. Her followers were due her next entry.
****
Sapphire’s World
December 27
Is everyone ready for my new update in the hunks challenge? Remember, in my last post I talked about how I had something good to share with all of you? Okay...I’ll stop dragging it out. I’ve found my hunk. He’s living under the same roof as me.
Alright. Let me start from the beginning. My best friend Shauntie sent me to this amazing little hideaway in the woods not knowing that her boyfriend had done the same thing with his best friend Brian.
So, here I am staying out in the woods with a sexy guy who has to be one of the most gorgeous men I’ve seen in a while. We both are trying to fight our attraction to each other, but it’s hard since it gets hotter and hotter the more time we spend together.
Did I mention that I had a ‘crush’ on him before running into him here? He’s the mailman who delivers the mail to my office. The guy can wear a pair of shorts. Thank God I know how to control myself in front of other people.
I can’t say that I had much control in the kitchen earlier with him. Something almost happened there, but he moved away before we actually did anything.
Does that mean the next move is mine?
****
Sapphire posted her newest blog entry and then lodged off. She wasn’t going to spend another minute up here wondering what everyone would tell her. Brian didn’t think she knew how to come out of this room, but she was going to prove him wrong. She’d made plans to go ice skating on the pond and postponed them for Brian’s shopping trip, but now they were back on.
Standing up, Sapphire hurried over
to her bedroom closet. After putting on her coat and gloves she grabbed her ice skates and headed out making her way downstairs in search of Brian. She had to let him know where she was going in case he came looking for her.
Walking down the hallway, Sapphire went in the direction of the family room and the big screen television she was positive Brian was watching. The remote was probably in his hand and a drink was sitting at the side. Opening the door, she went inside and found Brian exactly where she thought he would be.
“Brian, I’m heading out to the pond to go ice skating for a little while.”
Turning his head away from the television, Brian looked at her with an almost hopeful glint in his gray eyes. “Would you like some company? I can only sit in here and watch so much television before I lose my mind. Anyways, I thought you wanted to watch a movie.”
“I’d rather go ice skating first. The movie can wait until tonight. Do you really know how to ice skate?” she asked, clearly surprised by Brian’s offer to go with her.
Flicking off the football game, Brian tossed the remote control down on the table next to the chair. He got up and walked towards Sapphire until he was standing directly in front of her.
“I played hockey from elementary school all the way through college. I still do it every other weekend. So, yes Little Miss Doubtful, I know how to ice skate. I’m so confident in my abilities on the ice I’m willing to bet I’m better than you are. Are you up for taking the wager?”
Sapphire wondered if Brian could be baiting her. The question hammered at her making her want to take him up on his dare. Did he actually think she would back down? Not on her life.
“Forget it,” Brian laughed, stepping back from her. “I can tell you aren’t up for me beating your cute little butt. Don’t worry about it.”
Hunks: Opposites Attract Page 9
