“Do you often help strangers, Miss Brandeau?” The woman cocked her head.
“Iama librarian.” Ellie kept her voice professional, although it struck her that she had not shared her name.Was she here for me specifically?The thought of it was impossible; but in that way she always knew whenpeople were lying, Ellie knew this beautiful stranger was previously aware of her for some reason.
She stepped closer. “What ifyou’rewhat I’m looking for?”
Ellie felt like she was a bird caught in a snare. Her pulse sped, and her hands twitched as if she might need to defend herself. “I highly doubt that, Miss…?”
“Prospero.” The woman drained her teacup and sat it and the saucer on the nearest shelf.
“What an odd name,” Ellie whispered.
Prospero placed a hand on Ellie’s wrist, fingertips grazing the thin skin there so gently that Ellie swore she stopped breathing. “Miss Brandeau, I came here to find you. You’re not quite like other people, are you? Secretly dreaming ofmore?”
Ellie shivered. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“No. A great number of people are content,” Prospero murmured, stroking Ellie’s wrist. “You aren’t, though. I wasn’t, either, you know.”
A little zing ran through Ellie, as if the gorgeous woman had an electric current in her skin. Everywhere they touched, Ellie felt a zing running through her. She stepped even closer to Prospero, so they were intimately close, although the surge of electricity felt real enough that Ellie’s heart sped dangerously.
Who knew attraction could feel so close to a panic attack?
Prospero’s free hand reached up to thread through Ellie’s hair, setting actual sparks in the air. “Tell me, Miss Brandeau. What would you do if you had the chance to be a hero?”
Ellie laughed. “I’m a research librarian with a penchant for baking and reading excessively.”
“And are you content?” Prospero stared into her eyes, as if she could discern hidden answers there.
“No,” Ellie whispered. She thought Prospero was about to kiss her, so she angled her face upward.
“This might hurt, and I do apologize for that,” Prospero said, hand curling around Ellie’s hip.
“Hurt? Kisses aren’t pain.” Ellie brushed her lips over the bold red lips that were now so ridiculously close.
Elleanor Brandeau was not the sort to kiss strangers in the library. She was sensible,uninteresting. But Prospero’s lips parted on a word or a noise, and all the sense Ellie possessed left the building.
She swayed toward Prospero. After a lifetime of secret dreams of a grand romance, it was happening. Here. Now.
Prospero’s arm wrapped around Ellie’s waist, and the electric feeling surged into something different. Ellie felt like the entire world was on fast-forward, her whole body glowing with some sort of energy that made no sense. Her heartbeat raced at a pace akin to high-speed trains, and her entire body tensed.
Was this love at first touch?
Was that actually possible?
Ellie’s knees buckled suddenly. Her heartbeat sped in a way that was closer to terrified than magical.
Something is wrong.
“What’s happening?” she managed to say, frightened and embarrassed all at once. She had an awkward realization that she might pass out. Her heart actuallyhurt.
Panic attack or heart attack?
Kisses didn’t give a person—even one as mundane as Ellie—a heart attack.
Carefully, Prospero lowered her to the floor. She crouched down and gently tilted Ellie’s face, so they were eye-to-eye. “Miss Brandeau? I fear this was a mistake.”
Ellie felt Prospero’s touch like a cool flush, and for one brief moment, nothing else mattered. “I don’t know what that was. I don’t have asthma or a heart thing.”
“I shouldn’t… I can’t…dothis to you. I thought I could. I came here to—” Prospero bowed her head, trembling ever so slightly.
