The Rented Husband (Southern Nights Series)

Chapter 11

                After several long minutes, he finally found his voice again.   Reaching out, he covered her hands that she was still wringing in her lap with his own and squeezed them to still the motion. 

                “Olivia, look at me,” he told her softly, the deep timbre of his voice both smooth and commanding at the same time, making it hard to refuse his request.

                Olivia continued to keep her focus on the front windshield of the car.  She felt his hands on hers and had frozen when he first touched her.  His hands were warm and comforting; all together unsettling and she had no idea what to think of that.  The one thing that she was sure of was that she was not ready to come face to face with Brody O’Connor.

                This time Brody sighed.  “Olivia,” he started and releasing one of his hands, he reached up and gently cupped her cheek, guiding her face so that she was forced to look up at him.  Once he had her full attention he asked her, “Olivia, answer me this one question.  Do you want to call this off?”

                Olivia closed her eyes and wished that this one man didn't have the effect on her that he was so obviously having.  She was supposed to be in control of her emotions.  That was precisely why she had chosen Brody for this job, so emotions wouldn't be a problem and if she had anything to do with it; they would not be a problem.  She would regain her control.

                I can do this, she told herself silently with steely determination.

                “No,” she finally breathed out after several long minutes of awkward silence.  Cautiously she opened up her eyes to meet the most tantalizing set of orbs that she had ever laid her eyes on staring back at her.  "Damn, those devil eyes of his," she cursed under her breath so that he couldn't hear her.

                Taking in a deep breath she spoke louder and told him, “I can do this,” and offered up a pinch of a smile.  “It’s just been a long day and my sister rattled my cage a bit, then seeing you so perfect with her, well… that had me a bit flustered.  What-,”  She had to pause for a second, unable to hold up under his careful scrutiny any longer, she adverted her gaze back out to the front to the windshield before continuing.  “What if I mess this all up?”

                “Ahh,” he said, now understanding.  Ms. Murray was first and foremost a perfectionist.  He knew that from her work alone and now she doubted herself.  A few stray hairs that had somehow slipped from her elegant hairdo caught his attention and without thinking he found himself reaching up and pushing them back behind her ear.  “You’ll do just fine,” he told her.  “Mom may come off a little overbearing at first but she really is easy to please.  Give her that award winning smile of yours and she will be putty in your hands,” he assured her.

                 Olivia had to laugh at that. “Putty, huh?” she said turning back around to face him.

                Brody was caught off guard once again by the sweetness of her expression when their eyes met.  Electricity crackled in the air between them, taking him by total surprise.  Gulping, he simply answered her, “Yeah.”

                The nerves that had been knotted so tightly in Olivia’s belly seemed to be loosening.  There was something about Brody, when he was near, that calmed her.  Maybe it was his confidence or maybe it was his arrogance, either way it soothed her like nothing before ever had.  That much, on this night at least, she was thankful for. 

                Then, for the first time tonight she looked at him, really looked at him.  She studied his strong jaw line and the high cheek bones that were a trait of his Native American ancestry, took in the dark lashes that framed his eyes and the cleanly shaven face that was remarkably more handsome that she had ever considered before.  She had always thought he was cute but in more of a play-boyish way rather than the maturity that she was seemingly viewing for the first time now.  He was down right sexy and as quickly as that thought entered her mind, she pushed it back out.