The stranger smiled at her, revealing a row of perfect white teeth on top, but the bottoms, there were two teeth that were just slightly crooked, and she found it disarming and completely adorable that the rest of him might be utter rugged perfection but that one tiny flaw made him human.
“Here?” One dark brow rose, almost to the swatch of dark hair that shadowed his forehead.
God, does he have to be so- so good looking? Even her thoughts stutter stepped. She wished the service was faster in the diner, just so she didn’t have to be left alone to turn into a puddle of melted goo on the other side of the table, but that was a no go. Though they were the only people in the diner at the moment, apparently the servers had other pressing matters to attend to. #Frickingresorttowns.
“Yeah. I mean, do you like- ski or something?”
He blinked back at her. “Ski?”
“Well, I don’t know. It seems like people would only choose to live here for one reason. Because they like to ski. Although, I don’t know what people do in the summer. Hike maybe? Are you into hiking?” She gave him a quick once-over that tried to convey confidence, but only resulted in her having to slam her thighs together so that the tingling burning up her legs wouldn’t make it all the way up to some more vital areas.
“I don’t ski.” An arrogant grin settled over his beautifully rugged face.
Noemi half expected sirens to come screaming down the block to arrest the bastard for being so smugly confident in his own attractiveness. Or maybe he was just trying to be nice, because she was the one acting like a crazy person, and he didn’t even know that he had a body made for fantasies and romance novels. She’d read about the whole stupid statue or god-like description. She’d just never encountered it in the flesh before.
She’d also never understood silly girls who went googly eyed over a guy. She kind of got that now, like a big wet slap of reality. It was humbling to realize she wasn’t immune to his animal magnetism. She wished she could turn off her body’s reaction with a hidden switch so she could stop feeling like she was glowing and buzzing and doing all sorts of strange things.
It’s the jetlag. It’s the shock. It’s the last few days. It’s not him. It’s not me. There is simply no equation here.
She nearly jumped off the red vinyl bench seat when she blinked and found a hand hovering in front of her face for a handshake. The owner tilted his brow again and a wrinkle furrowed into his strong, bronzed brow.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. Said my name is Cason.”
Noemi shook her head and kept her hands folded on the matching red tabletop. The only thing that didn’t match the red in the place was the chrome lining the counters and stools and the black and white checkered floor. It really was the real deal, fifties style diner. Waffles and milkshakes were definitely on the table. The stranger hadn’t lied about that.
“No, it isn’t,” she breathed.
He blinked at her with those lush, blue eyes. Lush. If eyes could be lush, his definitely were. They were wet and fluid and she found herself wanting to drown in them like the pathetic creature who knew the water was poisonous but drank anyway.
“What?”
“Oh.” Noemi lifted her hand and tentatively slipped it into the guy’s grip. His hand was massive, twice the size of hers, strong, the fingertips surprisingly smooth, though she wasn’t sure why that shocked her. Maybe because she actually believed he was a real-life lumberjack. “Sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”
Maybe because the heat of his hand curled around hers was making her stupid. It felt like someone just handed her a fork and made her jab it into an electrical socket. No, it was worse than that. More like falling into a swilling pool with a toaster plugged in. In short, it actually hurt to touch him, and she withdrew her hand as quickly as she could and tucked it between her legs. The very same legs that felt like the toaster was jammed between them when she hit the pool…
“If you don’t like my name, you can call me however you choose to.” Cason picked up the menu and began to browse, but she had the feeling he was watching her even while he wasn’t looking at her.
“N-no. I mean, what would your mother think? Or your dad? I- didn’t mean to- insult their choice. It’s just an uncommon name. I pictured you’d be more of a Shane or a Will or something.”
“Something boring?”
“No,” she breathed.
She picked up her menu to hide the fact that her face was probably fire engine red. Why did she have to be so entirely useless at interactions like this? Simple things. Innocent things.