She launches into her weekend read and has me laughing about the audacity of the brooding duke and his love affair with a scullery maid until she suddenly stops.
Her eyes flare behind her glasses.
“Well, you better get to your meeting. I don’t want you to be late.” She’s a little too eager as she nudges my coffee cup toward me. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about the duke next time. You’ve got places to be.”
“Okay.” My gaze narrows as she waves her hands in my direction, clearly shooing me away. When I have everything balanced again, I spin toward my office.
But I smack right into a wall of muscle, and the scent of sage and soap invades my senses.
Two big hands wrap around my arms to steady me, and my coffee cup is crushed between our bodies before it splatters to the ground.
“Oh, dear...” Eleanor squeaks behind me, but there’s a satisfied lilt to it.
A sigh of defeat leaves my lungs, and I drop my forehead to the crisp white shirt before me.A moment of silence for the spilled coffee at my feet.My sanity will be hanging by a thread without that Americano.
Liquid seeps through my dress and into my bra, snapping meback to the reality. I pull away and find a dark stain covering the top of my dress. So much for making a good impression this morning.
My eyes are reluctantly drawn to the gray tie in front of me. Planets run down the line of fabric, and a little splash of coffee stains the blue of Neptune.
Shit.Pins and needles creep up my spine. I know for a fact that this tie belongs to a man with a gorgeous face, but his permanent scowl ruins the appeal for me.
I swallow, trying to wet my dry throat. There’s no hiding from this run-in, so I plaster on my brightest smile and muster the courage to look up.
Past the tie, up the strong column of throat, over the short, trimmed beard, and into... stormy blue eyes behind black-rimmed glasses.
My stomach drops at the crease between his dark brows and the tense line of his mouth.
Dr. Finn Ashford has glowered at me every time we’ve made eye contact, but this time is the most severe.
All the air seems to vanish from the museum as I realize how wrong I was. The scowl doesn’t ruin the appeal for me at all. The director of the astronomy department is still more attractive than should be legal for a man with his general demeanor.
Our lives are a wealth of opposites. My job delves into small, up-close discoveries right under our feet, while his focuses on enormous, faraway things humans may never reach.
We are microscopes versus telescopes. Smiles versus scowls. Warm versus frigid.
Was there ever a chance for us to find common ground?
Goose bumps skitter up my neck as his breath moves the hairs that have escaped my braid. He seems to remember his hands arearound my arms and quickly drops them, making me stumble back a step. He spreads his fingers wide, flexing them by his sides before shoving them in his pockets.
The distance allows me to take a deep breath and let the replenished oxygen fill my lungs. “Sorry,” I mutter, looking at the coffee on his tie.
“Yeah.” He lowers his head and rubs his fingers over Neptune like he can brush away the stain.
His clipped tone makes me grind my teeth together.
The nerve of this guy. Theaudacity.
“This isn’tallmy fault,” I say, my pulse quickening with irritation. “You’re the one hovering so close that you could’ve given me a back massage while you were there.”
His scowl remains, but his gaze jumps to my hair, my cheeks, and then my mouth before it snaps back to my eyes as he clears his throat. “Shouldn’t you be working instead of chatting with Eleanor about dukes and secret affairs?”
That raises my hackles, and my usual conflict avoidance turns to dust in the wind as I spit the first thing that comes to mind. “Shouldn’t you be rewatchingStar Trekso you have something educated to say at work today?”
A ghost of a smirk flashes across Finn’s mouth before he can contain it. It’s the most positive reaction I’ve ever gotten from him.
I think it would be a point in my column if we were keeping score.
His jaw works as he narrows his gaze. “I’m more of aStar Warsguy, actually.”
