His Unexpected Lover Page 0,2
five other men, all of them laughing about something. But not him. He was staring right back at her. His eyes seemed to capture hers. That look was so powerful, his gaze so strong that it jolted her all the way down to her toes. More than just her eyes were captured. Her whole body was frozen in place, the noise and crowds, the damp smell of beer and other drinks…all of it just disappeared from her consciousness as she stared right back at him. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t pull her eyes away. She couldn’t even move.
She hadn’t even realized that Debbie had turned around and was trying engage her in conversation until Debbie breathed, “Who is that?”
Kiera struggled, but she was finally able to pull her eyes away and glanced at her friend. To her horror, Debbie was staring at the man! Her man! And there was a great deal of interest on Debbie’s lovely features. Jealousy, hot and powerful stabbed through Kiera’s body. She didn’t like her friend even looking at a man she already considered to be hers.
Okay, so that was ridiculous. She couldn’t claim ownership of a human being simply because they were looking at each other from across the room. But there was no way to suppress the furious feelings that surged through Kiera as her friend surveyed the tall, handsome stranger. Kiera tried to be rational about this. She had no claim on the man. But regardless, she was suddenly incensed that Debbie had dared to look at the guy. It was a sudden and all-consuming jealousy, something Kiera had never experienced before, so she wasn’t sure how to handle that level of intensity. Men had never affected her in the past. To her, they were simply other human beings she could study with or joke with during non-study hours.
It was completely different with this man. And completely irrational.
Instead of revealing her jealousy, Kiera took a sip of her beer and pulled Debbie through the crowd until they couldn’t see the man anymore, although Debbie’s blond head kept craning at different angles to try and take another gander at him.
Debbie wasn’t shy about letting a guy know she was interested. But didn’t she need a bit of time to get over Brian? Debbie had just broken up with her boyfriend earlier this week! What was she doing ogling another man so quickly? It was ridiculous and disrespectful of Brian’s feelings not to mention the three years they’d been together.
Kiera tried hard to ignore her jealousy, pushing Debbie to talk about classes and their friends in an effort to distract her from the gorgeous man. When a couple more friends showed up, Kiera was relieved to finally have support distracting Debbie from the man Kiera had already claimed, at least mentally. Not that she would do anything about her gnawing desire to find out more about the tall, intensely handsome man with the piercing, ice blue eyes.
Unfortunately, Kiera wasn’t like Debbie. Where Kiera was shy and introverted, Debbie was the party girl, the one that pushed Kiera to get out and have more fun. Debbie also didn’t hide her interest in the opposite sex. When Debbie wanted a man, she walked right up to him and started talking to him. Kiera hadn’t ever felt this way, but she knew that she wouldn’t go up to that man tonight. She wasn’t that brave. Besides, the look he was giving her sent some scary feelings right through her body. And he hadn’t even touched her! No, she couldn’t handle him, so it was better to just stay away from that kind of…whatever it was.
An hour later, Kiera desperately needed to use the ladies’ room. Unfortunately, the man she’d spotted earlier had been positioned right next to the hallway where the bathrooms were located. She wiggled in her chair, determined to ignore the need. But when Debbie popped up with the same intention, Kiera wasn’t going to allow her to go alone. “I’ll come with you,” she said, determined to keep Debbie and the stranger from seeing each other again. Kiera knew she couldn’t have the man. She wasn’t glamorous or rich or any of those adjectives that would apply to the woman on that kind of man’s arm. She was passably pretty with curly brown hair that tended to get out of control. She had a good enough figure but she wasn’t any lingerie model.
In short, Kiera knew she was just an average kind of