Texas King

Chapter 3: Eli

I'm trying not to hyperventilate, but seriously, the guy sitting next to me, in my car, is straight out of a book on Greek Gods. The God of muscle and sex would be my guess. And my car. Holy hell, it's a damn pig sty. I should learn to lock my doors. At least that way I might have had a chance to toss the junk from the front floorboard to the back before he climbed in. Although, if he hadn't let himself in, I probably would have driven off and left him on the sidewalk already, purely out of nervousness.

My whole body is trembling with anxiety and...electricity. Every time he touches me, I'm struck with both. Anxious that he'll realize what a huge mistake he's made trying to get to know me and electric because there's some sort of energy radiating between us that's all-consuming, at least for me, anyway.

"'Scuse me," I say, leaning over and trying to grab some of the discarded coffee cups from between his legs before I realize almost instantly what a huge mistake that is. He's got the legs of a linebacker, solid muscle just like the arms that were wrapped around me earlier when I nearly fell to the ground and he caught me.

"No problem," he says, and I swear his voice is at least an octave deeper than before.

I only manage to grab two cups before I jerk back up in my seat and toss them in the back without looking because I'm not sure I can handle making eye contact with him right now.

The heat in my cheeks tells me my face is flushed, and the goosebumps on my skin are like a neon light advertising my reaction to being so close to his body for the second time in a matter of minutes. Besides, if I look at him, I am afraid of how I might react. I don't trust myself with him, he makes me too jittery, and I just know I'm going to say or do something stupid. I always do. Cole and Corey constantly remind me of that. Especially today. After ditching work the other night, they've been relentless in torturing me for it.

Putting my car in drive, I head out to drop off the pizzas that are now sitting in my back seat and are hopefully still hot.

I can feel his eyes on me, and it is both intoxicating and nerve racking. How could someone so hot think I'm cute? And if he's really the guy who owns that place on Lakeshore, he's obscenely rich, too. No way him being here isn't some kind of elaborate prank.

I would blame it on Cole and Corey, but they aren't smart enough to arrange anything as intricate as a once in a lifetime delivery to the elite of San Marcy, accompanied by a sexy man willing to pretend he's attracted to me. Their best idea of a sophisticated prank would be putting a whoopee cushion in a chair right in front of me when I'm about to sit down. No matter how many times I just knock it out of the chair before I sit, they keep giving it a go in hopes that one day, I'll go blind or decide I just don't care and sit on the thing, anyway.

When I finally work up the nerve to glance over at him, I can't believe he's still staring at me. I don't even know who this guy is, yet he says he's been trying to meet me to ask me out.

"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Aiden."

I look over at him really quick, and he flashes me a smile that would knock my socks off if I was wearing any. And, God, even his voice does things to my body that should only happen in private.

"Uh, yeah," I say, focusing on saying each word correctly. "I guess so. I-I'm Eli."

"Yeah," he says flatly. "One of the guys at the pizzeria mentioned it the other night."

Something in the tone of his voice makes me look over at him again. The sexy baritone is gone, replaced by an edge that confuses me, and when I look at him, he's not watching me for the first time since he got in the car. Instead, he's looking straight out the front window, his jaw is clenched, and I have to wonder what dumb thing my stepbrothers did to piss him off. Whatever it was, he doesn't seem to ponder it long before he looks back over at me.