by Melody Anne
Not that he minded a woman checking him out, but that wasn’t what Ella was doing when she was shooing him away. Normally, if a woman sent him on his way, he took the hint.
For some reason, though, he was more intrigued than ever before by Ella, and so he found himself doing almost underhanded things to secure her company. It wasn’t exactly underhanded, he assured himself. Her own cousin was the one who insisted he keep an eye on her.
Still, she thought she was meeting a blind date for dinner, and instead she was going to get him. He shifted on the stool as he watched the door, waiting for her to appear.
He wondered if she’d walk out, or if she’d join him. He’d soon find out. Calling the bartender over for a refill, Axel didn’t know if he should slow down. After all, he wouldn’t make the best impression if he slurred his words or slid off a bar stool. For some reason, he found himself nervous.
“This isn’t a date . . . not exactly,” he murmured to himself, making the bartender raise a brow at him. “It’s complicated,” he added to the man who poured his scotch on ice and then went to see to slightly less crazy customers.
As Axel turned toward the door, the legs were what he noticed first. He didn’t even need to look up the rest of her terrific body to recognize that the sleek ankles encased in thin straps, the shapely calves, and the buttery smooth thighs belonged to her. Damn, they stretched forever, and at the moment, Ella was wearing an almost indecently short dress, the hem riding high on those showstopping legs, which were perched on four-inch black heels that had his mouth watering.
When she stopped moving, his head slowly came up, along the fitted dress, pausing on her pushed-up breasts for a moment long enough to be obvious, and finally he met her very irritated eyes.
“What are the chances of running into you in here?” he asked, quickly recovering from the shock of seeing her in such a mouthwatering dress. He needed to fess up that he was her date, but why not play a little first.
“I would say the chances are good if you got insider information,” she said as she surprisingly sat down next to him. “I’ll also say that when my date arrives, you will disappear and leave me alone, and at least try to have some decency,” she added, as if that would be much too hard a thing for him to do.
Ah, the smooth disdain in her voice sure as hell turned him on. She might be trying to dismiss him, but damn if she didn’t do it with enough flare that he was panting at her perfectly shaped feet.
Maybe he’d gone too long without a woman who actually challenged him, maybe he’d been with too many airheads, but Ella was a mystery he had to solve before his babysitting job was over.
“So, hot date tonight?” he asked, grinning. Damned if his gaze didn’t travel to the short hem of her skirt again while he did.
“My eyes are up here, Axel,” she said, a trace of irritation in her voice.
He met those narrowed eyes and smiled. “If you don’t want to be objectified, then I suggest you wear a hell of a lot more material. This dress could almost be considered lingerie,” he said with a wink.
She didn’t look offended in the least as she turned away from him and ordered a martini before turning back. “My dress is perfectly suited for a night out. It’s men like you who turn it into something it’s not,” she pointed out.
“I’m not complaining,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender.
Her expression was unreadable as she gave him her full attention. “I wouldn’t have taken this as a place you’d normally frequent.”
Axel knew her words were meant to insult, but they made him smile instead. Little Ms. Priss knew nothing about him, or what he did or didn’t have. He enjoyed that fact.
“You’re absolutely right. I can’t stand these uppity places and much prefer to go to a good honky-tonk bar on the outskirts of town,” he said with a deep southern drawl.
She paused for a minute, and then, to his surprise, laughed. “Okay, I can admit when I’m being a bit of a brat. I don’t know you, and I don’t know where you hang out. You just seem to be a steak-and-fries sort of man over lobster and caviar.”
“Well, considering caviar is killing poor defenseless little fish-to-be, I can’t stand the stuff,” he said, making her lips twitch again. “And I’ll take a good hearty steak any day of the week over a tiny piece of seafood that you have to work far too hard at to eat.”
“Do you want to know a secret?” she said as she leaned in and he got a nice glimpse of her succulent cleavage.
“More than you can imagine,” he told her.
“I can’t stand caviar, either, or escargot. But whoever thought it was a good idea to cook up slimy snails and then charge exorbitant prices for them was a damn genius, wouldn’t you agree?”
Axel was rarely thrown off-kilter by anyone, let alone a woman, but as Ella’s eyes sparkled awaiting his reply, he could admit, if only to himself, that at this moment he was thrown.
And intrigued.
More intrigued than he could ever remember being. This woman lived in a million-dollar home, was currently wearing a diamond necklace that probably cost more than a typical middle-class annual salary, and yet had a sense of humor and said things that were completely unexpected.
Who was the real Ella Brooks? Axel was determined to find out.
“It seems your date is running late, Ella,” he said, his voice almost hoarse.
“Then I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I rarely agree to go on blind dates, but Bryson’s been hounding me for so long that I finally threw my hands up in surrender. It was either that or next he’d be showing up on my doorstep to drive me crazy.”
“I guess you’re stuck with me for the evening.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked toward the door and then back at him again. Ella was far from stupid, and he could see the pieces clicking into place. She didn’t look too happy about it.
“You’re my date.” It wasn’t a question. He wondered if she was going to slide off the bar stool and click her way out of the nice establishment. Somehow he doubted it. She didn’t seem to be the type of girl to run away. “I guess the least you can do is buy me a drink, then.”
Axel smiled. This was going to be one hell of a night.
Wanting to tug on the ridiculously short hem of her dress, Ella cursed Maycie, thinking revenge was on the horizon. Her friend had insisted on lending her the skimpy, cleavage-baring dress. She’d said it’d been forever since Ella had gone out and had a good time, and she needed to wear something that would knock a man’s socks off. Of course on Maycie, who was only five four, it wasn’t quite so indecent.
One thing was sure, though: the outfit had certainly garnered a reaction from Axel. She hadn’t necessarily wanted it, but then again, whom was she fooling? It was always nice to be appreciated, even if she didn’t trust the man sitting next to her.
The sad part was that he made her smile, made her laugh. He wasn’t exactly bad company. Still, she wasn’t going to sit there and banter with him too much longer. She didn’t want to put ideas in his head. This wasn’t a real date.
She reasoned with herself that she had spent the time dressing up, so she may as well have a few drinks before heading home to watch a sappy Hallmark Channel movie and eating something deliciously greasy and salty followed by a heaping serving of ice cream.
“I’ll buy us both another drink,” Axel said as he signaled for the bartender.
“Sounds good,” she said, her voice just a little too seductive, making his attention snap right back to her. What was wrong with her? Why was she flirting with this man, giving him hope that something could ever happen?
Maybe it’d been too long since she’d been on a decent date. Maybe she was scared after everything that had happened with Felix, or maybe she just wasn’t drinking enough. Whatever the reason, she needed to pull herself together.
If only the look he was sending her wasn’t making her insides stir, wasn’t making her want to climb from her seat and right into his lap. She wasn’t even
sure who she was at the moment.
“I can see that you’re berating yourself internally, but why try to fight what you’re feeling? You like me. Admit it,” Axel said as he reached over and took her hand, his thumb making circles on her wrist, right where her pulse began to speed up.
“I’m not attracted to you,” she lied as she pulled on her hand to no avail.
“Come on, Ella. There had to be a small part of you that knew it was me you were meeting tonight,” he said, those lazy arcs his thumb was tracing driving her slowly insane.
“I had no idea.” If she had thought it for a brief moment, she wasn’t going to admit that to him.
“Why don’t we stop the games and just have a good night?”
She was being pulled in, could feel it with every fiber of her being as his touch sizzled through her. And then at the last second before she leaned forward and discovered what his lips tasted like, she snapped back to reality. This man was a Casanova, and she’d be a fool not to remember that.
She did lean forward, taking pleasure in the triumph she saw light his eyes. “Mmm, you’re smooth aren’t you, Axel?” she whispered.
“Just honest,” he replied, leaning forward to meet her.
“I’m smoother . . . and not easily fooled. Now give me my hand.” The change from sultry to commanding seemed to pull him out of his sexual haze and he dropped her hand as if he’d just been burned.
He lifted his drink and took a long swallow before turning her way again.
“I guess none of my normal moves are going to work on you,” he finally said, sending her a wink that told her more about the man than anything he’d said aloud. Yes, he was confident, but he used humor to cover up when he was feeling something that possibly frightened him. Interesting.
“Why don’t you share something about yourself, Axel? If I’m going to be stuck with you shadowing me, whether I want it or not, then the least you can do is tell me who you are.”
“I’m an open book,” he said, giving her what she now knew was his trademark smile.
“Well then, it shouldn’t be hard to read me a few pages.” Ah, that had produced a real smile. She waited.
“Fine. I was born into a great family with a younger sister who is a lot like you, actually, named Kaylee. I move around a lot, work for the FBI, and love to catch the bad guy,” he said almost flippantly.
She found it interesting that the only real piece of information he gave her was to mention his sister, who put a little bit of a glow in his eyes when he spoke her name. He wasn’t an open book at all, but there was certainly a story to be told about Axel.
Ella just made sure to tell herself she didn’t in any way want to read that story.
“Do you like working for the FBI?”
“Of course I do,” he said, but she thought maybe she saw a piece of untruth in that. He continued before she could question it. “I knew when I was in fifth grade what I wanted to do.”
“Fifth grade? Really? Interesting,” she said, thinking she had pretty much known what she wanted to do by then as well. She didn’t like having that in common with him.
“I was at the store with my little sister and a guy came in waving a gun at the clerk. We lived in a small town in the middle of Idaho, and things like that didn’t happen there, so we’d never been taught what to do. I knew instinctively I had to protect my sister, so I pulled her behind a shelf and peeked out to see what would happen next.”
“What happened?”
He took a breath before speaking. “There was an FBI agent in there at the same time. He tackled the guy and had him cuffed and the cops called before the criminal even knew what was happening. I was in complete awe. Later, he told me what a good job I’d done at protecting my sister, and I worshipped him. He was from our area, and as I got older, I followed everything he did. He’d talk to me when he was home, and by the time I graduated high school there was no way I wanted to do anything else.”
“Is he still around?” Ella asked.
Axel was quiet for a moment, and Ella’s stomach clenched. She knew what he was going to say before he said it. “He was shot in the line of duty the year he was supposed to retire.”
He stopped speaking, and Ella was surprised to find herself sympathetic to the man. Without realizing what she was doing, she found her hand on top of his as she patted it. “I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” he said, letting her know he was done with this part of the conversation.
“Well then, tell me, Axel, what’s your signature move on a date?”
His head whipped around in shock. Ella was used to being around men with egos. She knew he’d opened up to her, and now he wanted it to go away. She also knew how to change the subject and make him forget he’d shared something with her.
His lips turned up in a cocky smile and he leaned forward, making her automatically want to lean into him. She stopped herself at the last minute and waited.
“The only way for you to see my moves is to continue the date,” he said with a wink.
“Then I guess we’re at an impasse, because I think the date is over.”
“You asked me some questions, don’t I get to reciprocate?”
“You didn’t tell me a whole lot.” That was a lie, though. He’d shared something deeply personal about himself.
“I told you I’m an open book. But I also told you it’s my turn to ask some questions.” He leaned back, total confidence once more in place. She knew he was stalling the “date,” but for some reason she didn’t care. “Want to order something to eat before I get started?”
She was hungry, but she feared if they took the time to move to a table, the mood would be broken, and they were actually meshing well right now.
“Maybe in a little while,” she told him. “How did my cousin get you up here to be a babysitter? Did you owe him or something? Because this is the most boring job in the world.”
There was a slight flare in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly she must’ve imagined it, and in its place was his normally carefree expression.
“You really do know how to turn the subject away from you.” She could see that he wasn’t easy to lead astray. Before she could respond to that, he continued. “Let’s just say I owe Bryson more than I can ever repay.” Now that was a story she wanted to hear about. Before she could question him further, he was sitting up straight and staring at her. “My turn. What has you so scared of dating? And why did your friends have to force you to go out on this date?”
“How in the world do you know that?” she gasped, then wanted to bite her tongue. What if he’d been guessing and she’d just given it away?
“Let’s just say I have ways of knowing things.”
“You’ll be disappointed then, because I have ways of keeping things from people.”
She hadn’t always been so closed off, but she was a little more careful since falling for Felix and his pack of lies. Not all men were liars, but she didn’t trust blindly anymore. And she had no doubt that there were more secrets than truths when it came to Axel. She’d do best to steer completely clear of him.
“I guess it’s my turn to say we’re at an impasse,” he told her.
Ella could see herself spilling her guts to this man, and that scared her more than Felix or the punks he sent after her. She knew suddenly that she had to get away from him, had to regroup. She shouldn’t be sitting here with him, laughing, sharing personal information.
The more she humanized Axel, the more she made it possible to fall under his spell. That was something she simply didn’t want to happen.
“The evening hasn’t been a complete waste of my time. I had a great drink,” Ella said before she carefully slid from the stool, landing too close to Axel, who placed a hand on her back before pulling her close to him.
“I’ll take you home then.”
She was speechless for a moment as she processed his words. Then her spine straightened and she pulled back from him. “I drove he
re, and I’m perfectly capable of driving myself back,” she told him, automatically on the defensive again.
“Then I’ll follow you. I always ensure my date gets home safely.”
“This wasn’t a real date, Axel.” She almost added that there hadn’t been a kiss, but that’d be a foolish thing to say, because he might feel he needed to rectify the situation.
“It was a real date in my book,” he whispered as his fingers caressed the bare skin on her back. A shudder passed through her. “And it was a hell of a one at that.”
Her heartbeat sped up as she looked into his eyes. She could be in trouble, serious trouble. This man was good. “I guess we just found one of your signature moves,” she whispered.
“Mmm, I guess so,” he quietly replied, his fingers still stroking her.
“Excuse me, someone sent this for you.” A man placed a glass with a note next to it in front of Ella and then disappeared before she could say a word.
“That’s a bit rude, wouldn’t you say? It’s obvious you’re here with someone,” Axel said as he looked at the drink.
“Oh, come on, Axel. It’s just a drink,” she said, laughing at his sudden possessiveness.
“With a note?” What surprised her was that she was almost enjoying his sudden jealousy.
“I’m not going to read it,” she said, picking up the paper and crinkling it.
“I don’t think so,” he said as he quickly snatched it from her hand and unfolded it.
When he froze, his eyes darting around the room, Ella felt her first tingle of nerves. “What does it say?” When he said nothing, she tapped his hand. “Axel, I’m serious, what does it say?” she repeated.
Instead of answering, he slammed the note down and moved toward the front doors, a look in his eyes sending a shiver of fear through her. “Stay here. And don’t touch that drink!”
She didn’t know what to do, so she found herself doing exactly as he’d demanded, and stood there wondering what in the world was going on.
In less then three minutes, Axel was back by her side, his body tense, his eyes wild. And damned if she wasn’t turned on by it.
