Page 12 of The Fear of Falling
Both our gazes drop to his hand, which at some point in the last few seconds shifted from my arm to my waist. “Uh.” He lets go like I’ve burned him and runs his hand through his hair. Rather than a suit like yesterday, today he wears a light blue button-down and a pair of chinos, looking very Italian. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be!” I grab his arm when I say this, which leads to another matching look down to where we’re touching.
He clears his throat, and we both shift backward half a step as I register my phone buzzing multiple times. I look down, my face growing hotter with each of Dani’s texts.
Dani:
We what? Have instant chemistry? Are going to run away together and start a cult? You can’t leave me hanging like that. You know my imagination runs wild!
Avery?
AVERY?
AVERY!
At this point, I’ve decided you’ve been kidnapped by Mister Sexy-Benson and are experiencing your first good kiss in years. Enjoy!
Also, Mason says if that kiss doesn’t involve gelato, you’re doing it wrong.
“Everything okay?” Benson tucks one hand into his pocket and points at my face with the other. “You went all…” He trails off as if he can’t think of any words to describe how I look right now.
My face is on fire, so I don’t blame him for being concerned. I need to respond to my sister and make sure she knows that there is no way I would be making out with a stranger. Especially not with gelato. How would that work? I can only imagine it being incredibly messy, not attractive. “My sister is being presumptuous,” I mutter and wave my phone in his direction.
His eyes jump to my phone, then go wide, and he grabs my wrist. “Did I see my name in your presumptuous sister’s texts?” he asks, and his voice is flooded with amusement.
Oh, kill me now. “Of course not.”
“Mister Sexy-Benson?”
Goodness, does this man have super vision? “Her words, not mine.”
“What wereyourwords?” I’m too embarrassed to resist when he eases the phone out of my hand and starts scrolling, reading through the conversation with a smile that keeps growing with each passing second. “Wow, Avery. Drop-dead gorgeous? I’m flattered, but I think you’re being a little generous with that one. And I’m with Dani and need a demonstration of how a smile can save babies.”
When he grins, I feel like I might implode. He knows full well the power his smile holds, and I will not give him any morepower by agreeing with him. “Like I said in the text, all of that was jet lag talking.”
“Now I need to know what your last text was going to say.” He fixes me with a smirk, one of his eyebrows quirked up. I’ve never been able to do that with my eyebrows. Is it a genetics thing or a talent thing? “Why can’t you flirt with me? That’s just disappointing.”
“Ha!” This can’t be happening. I set out this morning thinking I wouldn’t see Benson except maybe in passing or at a distance. This is a big enough city that the chances of us running into each other have to be astronomically low. Yet here he is, asking why I won’t flirt with him.
Seriously, is Poppy onto something when she talks about fate?
When I don’t answer, Benson leans in close enough for me to catch flecks of navy in his bright blue eyes. “If it helps, I’m definitely interested. Dani wasn’t wrong about that.”
“This can’t be happening,” I whisper out loud, pressing my hands to my cheeks to try to cool the heat that has been burning there since he appeared. “You’re not being serious right now.”
His expression falters, and I could swear there’s a bit of uncertainty behind his eyes now. This guy has been nothing but cool and collected from the moment he first asked if I was okay on the plane, and nervousness was the last thing I would have expected from someone like him.
Putting some distance between us again, he drops his gaze to the stones at our feet. “I can back off,” he says, his tone so much softer than what I’ve heard before now. “If I was reading something that wasn’t there, then—”
“No!” Ah geez, do I have to sound so desperate? Taking a deep breath, I try to force my anxiety down to a manageable level. “I just… It’s been a long time since anyone flirted with me.”
He frowns. “What about that ex of yours?”
“We were together for six years. Flirting wasn’t really a necessity by the end.”
Chuckling, he looks down at my phone, still in his hand, and scans some of the texts again. “Flirting is always a necessity. Maybe you should follow your sister’s advice and let yourself notice someone new.”
Boy, have I noticed Benson. Though threads of attraction have been weaving their way through me since my first look at this guy, there are too many reasons why I shouldn’t indulge them. “I’m not…”
