Love is for Show

16 - Your Secret's Safe With Me.

"Do you not like me, Nathan?"

I blink and slowly pull the gloves on my hands off. "Excuse me?"

His eyebrow twitches and with the moonlight shining in from the windows, it gives him a sort of intimidating backlight that I don't really know how to feel about right now. "You're unusually formal and distant with me,"

The air is stolen from my lungs at his directness and instead of keeping up with the staring contest, I turn my gaze back down to his pants. "I don't not like you," I whisper. Merely a breath surrounds my words and I can't tell if it's because I didn't expect him to hear it, or if I'm not confident in my own response. Either way, it doesn't matter. He heard me.

A suffocating silence fills the air. Maybe I should've just said whatever would've made him happy-

"Do I scare you?"

My gaze flits back up with my mouth slightly parted. "You're..." I pause. I remember Elias saying Axford's a different person in the privacy of his own home. Is he going to mind work being brought up right now?

"Go ahead, say whatever's on your mind, Nathan,"

The way my name slips past his lips in the most soothing manner. As if trying to calm the most nervous animal in this instant, but without any arrogance or a sliver of impatience to be noted from his tone. I guess this is his way of bringing truths out of people.

I inhale sharply and exhale slower. "Someone like you was never supposed to meet me,"

My own voice is a stranger to me. Nothing but short breaths and whispers coming out and I can't even meet his gaze. It's ten times stronger than mine and I can never get a feel for what he's thinking. It's as if his eyes alone could strip away what walls I do have and bare any honesty to him at his will. Especially since he rarely seems to smile, at least around me, so I always think he's displeased in one way or another...

"What do you mean by that?"

I feel my shoulders tighten as I force myself to look up. The blinking from outside's city lights strobe across the ceilings and floors, the gentle tickle of the cool air that fills his place, the soft snoring of the two sleeping beauties on the sofa. Everything is so calm, so soothing, so everything I wasn't expecting coming here. Yet, the tension that's soaking this conversation is nearly unbearable. Or perhaps it's just me. He seems perfectly fine with his hip leaning against the edge of the table as he once again patiently awaits my response.

"You're a multimillionaire CEO, live on the top floor penthouse, probably own other places, your face is a constant feature on countless magazines, crap I mean- you even have Elias as your own personal assistant to help you out every single day, like-" I run my suddenly sweating hands through my hair, over and over again, feeling my heart push and squeeze at rapid paces. Darn it...

"Nathan-"

"People like you, the air of success surrounds you and you bat eyelids at huge wads of cash as if they were tips and- and..." My eyes hone into the last few blotches of paint filling the back of his pants. "I'm me, here at your disposal to clean your freaking pants, a lost person doing absolutely nothing with their life no matter hard I try to find some sort of passion, motivation even, and you're-"

"Nath-"

"We're polar opposites in every way, so yes," I blink back up at him. "You and I were never meant to cross paths,"

When did it get so hot in here? My ears buzz and the silence that was once so suffocating is now a welcomed idea. Ugh, this is so frustrating. I just had to open my big mouth...

"You raise me to a higher standard than I actually stand at, Nathan," he finally says after a particularly long beat of silence. "I apologize for that tip I attempted to offer you, I can see now how that would make you feel,"