I risked my health by grabbing the towel folded up in the corner and wiping my face down with it. I expected Abby to start spouting off all this stuff or find a way to loop this into something about Christmas, but she was surprisingly silent. I dropped the towel onto the counter and turned around, only to find her eyes downcast and staring at her thumbs. She was picking at them, a nervous tick many people had when they were put on the spot.
I realized her other fingers were pretty picked at as well, which told me it was something she’d always struggled with.
“I broke up with him,” she said.
“What happened?”
“We just weren’t compatible,” she said.
“Was he a rigid stick in the mud?” I asked.
Her eyes whipped over to me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Part of my job as a businessman is to know how people perceive me. I conduct some of my best business deals when I can get an accurate read on people.”
“Oh, so now you want to open up,” she said, snickering. “Is this to try and get me to open up?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” I asked. “For me to open up. Or did you only want me to open up when there wasn’t the threat of talking about yourself?”
I walked over to her, and I could see her jaw was clenching. It was interesting, turning the tables on a woman like Abby. I could tell she was getting uncomfortable, but now, I started to understand a little bit of why she had been prodding me in the car. The more I heard come from her lips and the more I studied her, the more I was intrigued as to why she was feeling the way she was, and why she acted the way she did.
Then, a chilling thought ran through my mind.
“Did he hurt you?” I asked.
Her eyes slowly panned over to me before she turned her entire face my way. It would explain the irrational behavior. The way she was so panicked to have a car and get out of Kansas. If she had been in an abusive relationship of some sort and was trying to seize the moment, then the fear and anguish I saw at the rental car kiosk could’ve been her fear of being caught by him.
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” she said.
I released the breath I was holding, but her answer left more questions for me to ask. Why did she insist on always acting like a child? What in the world was she smiling about sometimes? Why did she feel the need to fill every single piece of silence with her voice?
Why was she still picking at her thumbs?
“What happened?” I asked.
She snickered and shook her head, but she still refused to answer. My mind was whirling while she ran her hand through her hair. I noticed how silky soft it was. How her fingers just grazed through her hair like they were on ice. Even in the dim, yellow lighting of the hotel room, her hair seemed to glisten, the way her big brown eyes did whenever she turned them toward me.
Like she was doing now.
“It was recent, wasn’t it?” I asked.
“What?”
“The breakup. It was recent. That’s why you’re going home, and he’s not with you. Because you didn’t want to spend the holidays alone. You wanted to spend them with your family.”
“I always spend them with my family,” she said.
“Yes, but they always come to you,” I said.
“How could you possibly—”
“So, I was right.”
“What?”
“In my assumption,” I said. “I was right.”
Before I could reel myself in, Abby flung her body toward mine. Our lips collided in a shocking endeavor, and I threw my hands up over my head. Her palms were cupping my cheeks while her lips were massaging mine, and for just a moment, I got a taste of the warmth her body could provide. Her tongue swiped against my lips before she pulled away, and I felt the warmth of her trickle down my neck and warm my shoulders.
She pulled away before I had the sense to settle my arms around her body, and all I could do was stare at her.
“Shut up,” she said breathlessly.
Chapter 6
Abby
Okay, I got it. I finally understood why he felt the way he did about the questions I kept throwing his way. I’d stay out of his business if he just stayed out of mine. There was no way in this world I was going to rehash the last six months of my life during the Christmas holidays, much less with a stranger.
But I couldn’t deny the tension pulsing between the two of us.
His lips were tinted red, and his cheeks were flushed. I watched this rigid man in front of me slowly become fluid, like a fish floating around in its own personal water source. His shoulders relaxed, and his eyes settled. His stern brow finally unfurrowed, and the sparkle in his wondrous blue eyes soared to life. I found myself wanting to kiss those lips again. To feel his strong chest pressed against mine. The sharpness of his cheekbones was still imprinted into the palms of my hands, and as I sat there studying him, I watched his face slowly come closer.
I wanted to figure out what was underneath that expensive suit of his. I wanted to unfurl his tie from his neck and use it to pull him closer to me. I wanted
