obnoxious as Axel.
Of course, she wasn’t in love with Axel. At least, not any more. There had been a time…
No, not going there, she told herself firmly and took another long sip of her margarita. She felt the other women’s eyes on her and silently cursed herself for revealing her feelings.
“Axel?” Mia asked carefully, her eyes narrowed as she considered the woman’s predicament.
Kiera was proud of herself for not cringing. “Everyone has their albatross,” she replied wistfully, wishing she honestly felt nothing for Axel Thorpe.
There was a bit more chatter back and forth but Kiera suddenly stopped, feeling something strange…she wasn’t sure what. She’d had too much to drink to figure it out, so she ignored the strange, oddly familiar feeling and took another long sip of her drink, still trying to get Axel out of her mind. She shook her head and set her glass down on the table. Unfortunately, the weird sensation wouldn’t go away. It was almost the same feeling she’d gotten that first time…No!
“Ladies,” she started to say, trying to give them a warning about…well, she wasn’t sure for what. Her head was spinning and she was feeling too relaxed to feel truly threatened.
Kiera smiled wistfully as Mia admitted that she was in love with Ash. It was so sweet that she stopped thinking about Axel for a few moments and welcomed the relief.
“But he doesn’t trust me,” Mia was saying before sighing with frustration.
Mia almost spilled her drink when the man snuck up behind her. “Yes I do,” Kiera’s new boss was saying, probably in reference to trusting Mia but none of the women were completely sure. Kiera swallowed painfully, her mind still too murky to figure out the rest. But she shifted in her seat and…yep, sure enough. All four Thorpe men were standing behind them, partially hidden by the décor of Durangos, but it was obvious that they had all heard their conversation.
Her eyes lifted slowly, her heart racing in that horrible way that it always did when Axel moved around the table. And he was definitely coming nearer to their table. Or was it more grammatically correct to say closer? She wasn’t sure about the appropriate grammar at the moment because her margarita-fuzzy mind was spinning with both the alcohol and his proximity.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered when he stopped right next to her. She wasn’t worried. The alcohol had taken care of any nervousness for her. But there was still that zinging chemistry that was always present whenever he was around. She’d thought the years would diminish the impact of his body so close to hers, but the truth was, the years had only made the affect more acute. She should have realized that when she’d almost tripped earlier today after just a glimpse of him in the hallway.
Axel looked down at the obviously inebriated but still shockingly beautiful woman that had haunted him for years. Damn, he’d missed looking at those freckles. She looked so sophisticated and untouchable with her lush curls flying everywhere and her brown eyes drawing him closer, as if she could read his soul.
She was a bit thinner now than she’d been in college. Definitely more sophisticated with her power suits and her killer heels. But he knew what was underneath those suits and it drove him nuts that he couldn’t strip away all those layers and get to the real woman underneath. He wanted to see the woman who writhed in his arms or laughed at his jokes, challenged his arguments.
He wasn’t sure if he was angry with her or thrilled that she was finally here in Chicago. “I’m going to drive you home,” he explained, picking up her leather bag and her purse and tucking both under his arm as he took her hand and pulled her out of her chair.
“I don’t want to go home,” she shot back, her voice breathy and nervous. She stumbled slightly, not sure if that was because she’d had too much to drink or because her legs were always wobbly whenever she was close to Axel, but his arm immediately wrapped around her waist, pulling her hard against his muscular body. “Don’t hold me like that,” she commanded, but even that order was said without much force.
He turned slightly so he was holding her against his chest, enjoying the view of her cleavage from this angle. He took in her unfocused gaze and the soft curls that had escaped the clasp at the back of her