The air catches in my lungs when I open my mouth to speak to the soldier unashamedly flashing those dimples down at me.
“Ms. James? Are you there?” the voice in my head interrupts again.
Rowan’s smile softens—at the cuckoo look on my face, I’m sure.
“Huh?” I say. To who, what, or why I don’t even know. Maybe I really am concussed.
“What should I tell the reporter?”Geez, if this is my conscience talking, I want to file an appeal for a different narrator. Her voice is so annoy—CRAP!
My phone. There’s a phone in my hand and somebody is talking to me through it. A client. I’m a business professional with literal clients saying literal words through a literal phone held up to my literal ear.
I blink out of my stupor. “Yes, um…right…sorry, Mrs…”Wait, who is this? Oh my god, what the hell is her name?“Upton!”Woah, chill, Hannah.
“Sorry.” I clear my throat. Take a breath and steady my voice. Not my heart rate though, that’s still spiraling out of control. “Mrs. Upton, per my last email, all media?—”
Rowan closes the already small gap between us and my words vanish.Poof, gone.Eyes narrowed on the spot where the door hit me, his fingers move softly over my temple.
Keep talking, Hannah.I swallow an ungodly amount of saliva. “All media requests need to go through me. So tell your team to?—”
“Are you okay?” he mouths, but I feel the bass timbre of his voice in my bones. It’s smooth and husky and warm and…how is he here?
I can’t believe this is happening. I also can’t believe my lack of functioning brain cells and my inability to speak in complete sentences.
It’s awkward now, I have to say something.
I open my mouth to attempt human speech when something tumbles out of said mouth. My eyes instinctively follow the unknown object as it makes its slow-motion free fall to the sidewalk.My sucker.Food, quite literally, fell out of the gaping hole in my face while I’m standing in front of the most objectively beautiful man I’ve ever seen. And I probably have a rapidly swelling lump on my forehead to boot.
I. Am. A catch.
Alas, my love of strawberry Dum-Dums overrides every fiber of dignity in my body. I stare at the ruins of my sugary treat on the hot sidewalk for a few mournful beats. Teeth clenched, I take a long, slow,centering breath, then arch back,why God whyarm flailing toward the sky.
My gaze catches with Rowan’s again. Amusement pulls at every corner of his handsome face. “Cute,” he says, donning a smirk that means trouble.
I spear him with a flat look that only makes him smile harder. An embarrassing flush sweeps across my cheeks, and I dip my chin to hide it.
Kristen approaches over Rowan’s shoulder as I’m tossing the sucker in a nearby trash bin. It’s the sight I need to pull myself together.
“Sorry, Mrs. Upton,” I start in again. “I cut out there for a moment. Please tell your team to direct all media requests to my office.”
My best friend steps into the third slot of our little triangle as Mrs. Upton disconnects the call. I keep the phone over my ear as the last line of defense for my pride.
Rowan gestures toward my forehead. “You probably should put some ice on that, Hannah.”
He meets my wide eyes with a slutty little wink so subtle Kristen doesn’t catch it.Ope.Here come the flutters.
She divides a worried glance between him and me. “Wait, what? What happened?”
I wave her off, gesturing to the phone in my hand housing the urgent, non-existent call. I am an uninjured, unfazed, stoic, professional woman on a work calldammit.
Before Rowan can pull her into an explanation as to why my head is swelling to the size of a basketball while I keep up this cell phone charade, I tug Kristen by the elbow and hoof it down the sidewalk. Rowan gets a swiftgoodbye stranger whom I’ve never metwave over my shoulder.
Nothing makes sense. I have no idea what I’m doing.
Once there’s a suitable distance between him and my retreating form, I drop the phone to my side.
“What the hell was that?” She turns to look back and I pinch her arm. “Ow! Jeez!”
“Sorry,” I supply just as my stiletto lodges itself in a crack on the sidewalk. My ankle tweaks inward, and I catch myself on Kristen’s shoulder to keep from face-planting on the brick path.