Why am I so nervous about going inside? Or, does the way I’m feeling have nothing to do with the shop itself and everything to do with the guys who own it and are waiting for me?
I step inside and even before I’ve fully entered the building I can hear male voices echoing through the empty room, the sound amplified thanks to the lack of furniture. Despite this, I’m able to locate the speaker, my eyes immediately locking onto Elliot. Instantly I purse my lips, irritated simply by looking at him. What is it about him that winds me up so much?
He cuts off whatever he was saying and lets his eyes do a slow, obvious perusal of my body. Snorting, I cross my arms over my chest to show I amnotimpressed. He may be gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him. By the time he reaches my face, he’s wearing a smug smile. I don’t know what he has to be smug about, but I would love to find a way to wipe that look from his face.
I feel the heat of Bear’s body as he steps up behind me. I should move, to make space for him but there’s a larger part of me that wants to stay right here, to absorb the comfort that I feel when he’s close.
“You’ve already met Elliot,” he introduces, placing his hand on my lower back and gently steering me further into the building, “but you won’t have met my other brother, Clayton.”
As though drawn out by Bear’s voice, another figure steps out from a room at the back. Instantly, my body freezes.
Clayton.
Blood pounds in my ears to the frantic rhythm of my heart. I am in a room with three of the hottest guys I’ve ever seen, two of which I have had intense moments with. Not to mention Elliot, who gets under my skin whether I want to admit it or not. Palms sweaty, I feel completely overwhelmed. How have I got myself into this position? I have way too many thoughts to juggle and Ihave no idea how to handle the situation, so I’m going to focus on the biggest factor of my turbulent emotions.
Clay. It’s really him, the guy who has been haunting my dreams. He looks exactly as he did when I saw him in the club, the only difference being the dark circles under his eyes. His tattoos look somehow darker in the light, covering almost every inch of his skin. He looks dangerous. I should be running in the other direction, but instead I find myself moving forward. I thought I would never see him again, but here he is.
He’s completely frozen in place, his eyes wide. Clearly he didn’t think he’d see me here; in fact, he’s staring at me as if he can’t quite believe that this is really happening. I take several small steps towards him, the rest of the world falling away. The others are probably watching us with confusion, and I don’t blame them. To an outsider, the silence between Clay and myself might seem awkward, but really we are communicating in our own way.
Pausing a couple of metres away, I wait to see what he does. Am I making more of this moment than it really is? Should I step back and laugh it off, trying to restart the conversation with Bear?
I’m about to move but Clay beats me to it, closing the distance between us.
“It’s you.” He manages to force out, his voice strangled, staring down at me with an intensity I’ve never before experienced. Staring up into those blue eyes, I have a question on the tip of my lips.
I never get to ask him as he presses his lips to mine in a searing kiss.
ELEVEN
BEAR
Well, I wasn’t expecting this to happen.
Clay cradles the back of her head with one hand, with the other placed on her lower back and leads Holly into a deep kiss. To my immense surprise, she’s kissing him back, her back arching into his touch. This is not the kiss of two strangers.
Clay isn’t the most sociable of people and takes a lot to warm up to someone, so the chances of him kissing our neighbour on a first meeting were incredibly low. For Holly to kiss him back? Yeah, it doesn’t add up; there’s something going on here.
I’m standing here and watching them like some sort of weirdo, and I look over at Elliot and see he’s doing the same. We’ve been stunned into silence. Still, their kiss is ongoing and I’m starting to feel a little awkward. How do you go about breaking up a kiss between one of your closest friends and the woman that you haven't been able to stop thinking about?
Taking a deep breath, I cross my arms over my chest and clear my throat, attempting to look amused at what’s happening. Really, this whole situation is making me uncomfortable, I justdon’t know why. Clay and Holly pull apart, remembering that they aren’t the only ones in the room. At least, Holly does, her cheeks pink and looking adorably flustered, moving back and putting some space between the two of them. Clay, on the other hand, is staring at her as though she’s his very reason for being.
“What’s happening here?” Elliot asks, beating me to it and looking between the two of them. He looks pissed off, although he’s trying to hide it with a tight smile. It might work on someone who doesn’t know him, but I can see he’s annoyed by this little display. “You should have said that you found us a way to get the neighbours to like us, Clay.”
Holly looks like she’s seen a ghost, her right hand pressed against her lips like she can still feel his touch. I’m pretty sure she’s not taking in anything that Elliot just said, her mind completely caught up on the man before her. She’s clearly taken aback by Clayton’s show of affection, but from the way she kissed him back you could tell she was definitely enjoying her little moment with him. He would never force his attention onto a woman, so the only option that makes sense is that they have met previously.
“Clay?” I ask, needing to make sure he’s okay as he seems to have turned to stone, his entire focus locked on Holly. I have my suspicions about what’s happening here, but I’m going to keep them to myself for now. He will know what I’m asking just by calling his name, and slowly he blinks and glances across at me. Never being one for much conversation, I know this is as close to a confirmation that he’s alright as I’m going to get.
Holly is glancing around, her cheeks so red that it’s impossible for her to hide her embarrassment at having an audience. Asking questions is only going to make it worse for her, so I will hold back my curiosity and continue with the introductions as though nothing out of the ordinary just happened.
Clearing my throat again, I force my smile to stay even and gesture towards the others. “These are my friends, but they are more like brothers to me. Together, the three of us are going to run the business.” Motioning for her to follow me, which she does in a daze, I give her the tour, pointing out various areas of interest and sharing my vision for the business. “I will head up the gym side of things,” I explain as we walk around, “and Elliot is our nutritionist, so he’ll be working the health bar.”
“What about him?” she asks quietly a few minutes later, her eyes flicking to Clay, who has resumed his statue-like state, his eyes following us around the room.
Of course, she would want to know what Clay’s involvement in the gym would be. “Clayton will be helping with the day-to-day running of the business. He already runs a nightclub so he’ll be splitting himself between the two.” Is that relief I see in her eyes? Focus, Bear, don’t get distracted. “The flat above is also ours and we’ll be moving in once the renovations have finished.”
She looks overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information. Discovering that we shall be moving in right next door to her seems to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
“You said that you were just visiting,” she accuses, her eyes narrowing, and I realise she’s referring to when we first met and I told her I was staying in the B&B.
