Page 15 of Chasing Storm
I curl my lip at him in annoyance of his friend, the luscious smelling dickhead, who is a massive cock-nugget.
His eyes go wider as I practically sneer at him. I feel a bit bad. He wasn’t even there, but friends get tarred together, as far as I’m concerned. Besides, the whole of Notting Hill knows that the brooding one is just as bad as his friends when it comes to wedging his dick inside women.
“Do you want to check it over first, hun?” Red head asks.
“Yes, please,” I grit out. I have zero clue what I’m looking for, but I want this guy to know I’m watching him.
“Elle, there is a customer waiting. I’ll sort this out,” Josh says quietly, catching me slightly off guard.
Elle catches my eye and grins. “Yep.”
She turns away from me to help the person next to me, abandoning me to the likes of the idiot with my mum’s book in his hand.
Glaring at him to get on with it, he places it on the counter and with shaking hands, which I findalmostendearing, he unwraps the old book and, to my utter dismay, melts my heart when he strokes it lovingly before he picks it up carefully to hand it to me.
What a dick.
There I was, prepared to hate him in solidarity with his best friends, when he shows me a gorgeous side of him that makes me want to grab him and kiss him at the same time as knee him in the balls.
“Here,” he says quietly. “It’s in perfect condition for its age.”
The book hovers between us in his hands, but our gazes are locked, his brown eyes filled with something I can’t quite put my finger on. Admiration, maybe? Not for me, but for the book.
“Thanks,” I murmur, taking it and looking down as I place it on the counter in front of me. “Looks good.”
“Yes, it does,” he replies, croaking slightly. “I hope you love it.”
“It’s not for me,” I state. “It’s for my mum’s friend.”
“Oh.” His disappointment is almost as crushing as Angela’s. Fuck. What is up with people today? Or more to the point, what is up with me upsetting people all over the borough today?
I sigh and wave my card at him to get a move on. I want to go back to work now, finish up my day and go home to snuggle in my bed and hope that tomorrow is a brighter day.
11
JOSH
Stunned.
I’m stunned into inaction by the very woman I’ve been daydreaming about all day since I let her into the coffee shop this morning. She is standing in front of me, talking to me, glaring at me as if she hates me, and getting impatient with my bumbling, but I’m like a deer in headlights. She has changed from all white with a splash of pink into all black, and she seems shorter than she did earlier, which leads me to believe she is wearing flats now. I’m curious why she changed, but who really cares? She is just as beautiful now as she was this morning. More so now that I’m staring into her glaring green eyes, taking in her exquisite features and long dark hair, still tied up into a high ponytail.
“Helloooo?” she waves her black credit card at me, which shows she comes from money. Although she doesn’t appear stuck up or snobby, so she is down to earth and doesn’t flaunt her wealth.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “This has come full circle.”
She frowns. “What has?”
“This book. It’s what gave me the money to start this bookshop.”
She blinks and presses her pink lips together. I inhale her perfume, the fresh cherry burst, and force a smile on my face, hoping I don’t look like a constipated rat.
“That’s an interesting story,” she says eventually, but I can’t tell if she is actually interested or not. “Sorry, my mum bought it for her friend…you know…”
She chews her lip, looking a bit upset about it.
“No, don’t be! It’s going to a good home, I know it. Your mum comes in here a lot.”
“Yeah, she said. I didn’t know you owned this place, though.”
