CHAPTER 2
“Oh my god!”
Axel watched as the stunning redhead’s face flushed to the color of her hair as her hands fumbled to cover herself back up.
Axel Vaughn had always considered himself a gentleman, but in that moment, he’d made no attempt to look away. Instead, he stared in shocked wonder.
Brynn had a body that rivaled any filtered Instagram model. He’d seen multiple pictures of her. He’d known that she was beautiful. But nothing had prepared him for the mesmerizing jade-green stare that met his when she’d opened the door. Or the full pink lips that had turned up when she’d hit him with a mega-watt smile. And he sure as hell hadn’t been prepared to see her completely naked.
“Lucy! No!” She tugged the material from the pug’s mouth, or at least she tried to.
The dog must’ve thought it was a game because she was pulling it away as she thrashed her head back and forth. Ultimately, Brynn won the battle. When she was finally able to secure the robe in place, she gripped the material holding it closed.
Her knuckles were as white as the terrycloth material she fisted as she gulped and said, “I’m sorry.”
Axel wanted to tell her that she had nothing to be sorry about but he didn’t think that would help the situation. Also, he wasn’t sure he could even form words. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
“I’ll be…I’m just…,” she flustered before closing her eyes and inhaling sharply. When her lids reopened, Axel was struck by the emerald depths surrounded by dark lashes.
He could easily fall into a trance from her hypnotizing stare. Captivating wasn’t a word that he’d ever thought or considered using in the thirty years he’d been alive, but it was the word that described Brynn perfectly.
“Come in.” Her tone was curt as she opened the door wider.
He stepped inside and her lips pursed as she raised her hand and instructed, “Wait here.”
Then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone.
Axel watched as she disappeared down the hallway. It took him a full beat before he snapped out of the spell that she’d cast on him.
When he did, he realized he was wasting an opportunity. He quickly assessed the front door. There was a single lock, no deadbolt. He scanned the front room and kitchen. It was small, but cozy. It felt like home.
He blinked, shocked at where his mind had wandered to. What the hell was going on with him? He’d never been driven to distraction on the job. And now, here he was, day one, hour one, minute one, and he’d forgotten where he was, who he was, and what he was supposed to be doing.
He cursed beneath his breath as he did a cursory sweep of the space. In the front room there were three points of entry. Two windows and the front door. He was still trying to focus when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Very few people had his phone number and of that group, even fewer had ever used it. Axel was a loner. He always had been. He wasn’t sure if that was due to his unconventional childhood or if he would’ve turned out this way even if he’d grown up in an idyllic home. Whatever the reason, his circle of friends and family was a small one.
He pulled out his phone and saw “PITA” displayed on the screen. His little sister Izzy had saved her contact under the acronym he lovingly called her that stood for Pain In The Ass.
“Hey, Iz, I’m kind of bu—”
“I hate it here!” his sister interrupted dramatically.
“You haven’t even been there for two days.”
Axel had dropped his little sister off at the best prep school in the state a little over twenty-four hours ago. She was gifted. Not in that, oh she’s really smart, kind of way. Izzy’s IQ was somewhere in the 160 range.
From the moment she was born, Axel had known that she was special. He was sixteen and he specifically remembered looking through the nursery window and staring down at the newborns all swaddled in blankets, lying in their bassinets. Several were sleeping, one was crying, and one was alert, aware. She seemed to be taking in her surroundings.
That baby was Izzy.
She started speaking at eight months old. She was putting full sentences together before she was one year old. Her preschool teacher had suggested that she enter kindergarten a year early, but his mom hadn’t wanted her to be “weird.” In first grade, when they’d lived in California, Izzy was tested for G.A.T.E. (Gifted and Talented Education). She’d been in that program through fifth grade and had excelled in it. Then, three years ago, their mother up and moved from San Diego to Chicago to marry a man that she’d only ever met online. She’d drug Izzy along with her.
Axel had followed. For the past three years, he’d lived in a suburb of Chicago. Close enough that if his sister needed him, he was there, but far enough that he didn’t have to see his mother every day.
Everything changed last month though. His mother announced that she and husband number eight were divorcing and she was planning on moving to Brazil to be with a man that she’d met, wait for it, online.
Being a big brother was not something that Axel took lightly. His mother hopped from relationship to relationship, and her children were, at best, an afterthought to whatever man she was involved with at the moment.
When he found out that she planned on leaving the country, he’d known that there was no way that he could allow her to take his sister. He’d thought that she might put up a fight, mainly because she still received child support from Izzy’s father. But to his surprise, his mother had been not just willing, but eager to sign over guardianship to Axel.
Once he’d become legally responsible for his baby sister, he’d looked into a school that his sister had been wanting to go to since they’d moved to the Midwest. It was a prep academy that specialized in educating gifted children and tuition was steep.
To afford the school, he’d taken a long-term assignment with the security firm he worked for. The firm is run by Seth Sloan his former staff sergeant when he served in the Marines in a Force Recon unit. The firm was highly sought after by both private and government contractors because Seth only hired and worked with the best.
Which normally, Axel was. But today, he was off his game.
“You have to come pick me up!”
“Izzy, give it a chance.”
“The girls here are horrible. They hate me.”
Izzy had been a tad on the dramatic side all of her life, but for the past couple of years he’d noticed a definite uptick in her emotional breakdowns.
“They don’t hate you. They don’t even know you.”
“I know they don’t know me! But they still hate me!”
“Izzy, you wanted to go to Mercy Prep. You begged Mom for years and—”
“I know, but I was wrong! I hate it!”
Axel hadn’t just picked this school out of thin air. Izzy had been talking about the high school since they’d moved to Chicago three years ago. His mom had always insisted that she go to public school, something he’d never agreed with. So when he was granted guardianship of Izzy it was the first promise he made to her. He’d told her he’d find a way to pay for her to go to that school. And he had.
“Please come get me!”
“I can’t. I’m working. You need to give it a chance.”
“Ughhhh!” she grunted before the line disconnected.
Axel stared down at the screen of his phone, which now displayed the time. He missed the sweet, angel version of his sister. He had no idea how to communicate with this irrational, over-dramatic version of Izzy.
He’d just put his phone back in his pocket when he felt something wet on his knee and he looked down to see the pug sniffing his leg.
If this was what Brynn had in the way of security, it was a good thing he was there. She’d invited a stranger who outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds inside her house and left said stranger alone with the “guard dog” that was responsible for her flashing him and the entire neighborhood.
Now who’s being dramatic? He heard Izzy’s voice in his head.
With a sigh, he bent down and scratched behind the dog’s ears. “Not exactly a guard dog, are you?”
“She hates men.”
Axel looked up and saw Brynn standing in the hallway. Her hair now fell to her shoulders, framing her sweetheart shaped face. Her wavy locks reminded him of spun gold and he suppressed an unexpected urge to reach out and touch them.
His eyes dipped down and he saw that she’d changed into a white T-shirt and cutoff sweats. He drank her in, finding himself mesmerized by the tiny threads that were resting against her upper thigh, the slope of her toned calf, the curve of her delicate ankle, and her bare feet which were painted with bright purple nail polish.
Axel had always been observant. During Brynn’s wardrobe malfunction, he’d noted a tiny heart-shaped birthmark below her left ass cheek. And now he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He wasn’t in control of his thoughts, they were being triggered by a force greater than any he’d ever faced.
Never in his life had he had this visceral, animal-based reaction to someone. And he needed to nip it in the bud.
He forced himself to look back up and saw that her emerald eyes were wide as saucers and filled with disbelief. She lifted her arm and pointed at the dog.
Axel glanced back down at the pug who was nuzzling her face into his palm before looking back up at her owner. “She does?”
“She did,” Brynn mumbled before offering him her hand. He noticed that it was shaking. He wondered if it was from embarrassment or if he made her nervous. She sure as hell had him on edge.
“Hi, I’m Brynn.”
He held her gaze as he stood and held out his hand. “Axel. Nice to meet you, Brynn.”
The moment she slid her hand into his and they were skin to skin, it felt like fireworks were exploding in his palm. He wrapped his fingers around hers and he noticed how delicate she felt in his grasp and how soft and supple her skin felt. But before he could truly appreciate the sensation, she jerked her hand out of his as if she’d just touched a hot stove.
Which, if her experience had been anything like his, made perfect sense.
“My mother said that you’re going to be staying in the apartment.” She motioned behind her.
“I am.”
He’d spoken to Brynn’s mother over Skype earlier that day. She was…eccentric. He’d worried that she would be suspicious of him calling out of the blue and asking about renting her property, but within seconds of putting the offer out there, she’d asked if she could “read” him.
Apparently the reading had gone well because she’d given him the green light to move in.
“Okay.” Brynn took a deep breath as she held up a single key that dangled from what looked like a crystal of some sort. “This is the only key I have. I had the locks changed after a particularly creepy renter left. I didn’t think my mother was going to continue renting the place, so I only got one key made. So, I’ll have to make a copy this week.” She opened the front door and walked out onto the porch.
He followed behind, trying to keep his eyes from wandering down her back to the sway of her hips, but he was finding that task to be more difficult than it should be.
Axel had by no means been a saint in his life, especially in his personal life. He may have only had one serious relationship, but that didn’t mean that he spent his nights alone. Izzy liked to compare his dating life to revolving doors. There were some girls that went around the circle a few times, but none that ever stayed.
Most of them left when they realized that he had no interest in getting serious, even though he always disclosed that up front. It was strange to Axel just how many women seemed genuinely shocked three months in that he still felt that way. Sometimes things ended in tears and screaming, other times they just fizzled out naturally. But one thing was for sure, they all ended.
He enjoyed women and had what he considered a healthy sex drive. But he’d never felt this way about any woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Brynn made him feel things he’d never known were in him. Besides the primal, caveman instincts she triggered, he wanted to know everything about her. Not because he was on the job. The feelings he was having were far from professional.
He was here to protect this woman. It was his job. He needed to keep his head clear, his mind focused, and his hormones under control. All things that were perfectly reasonable and had never been an issue for him before. But now they seemed nearly impossible.
Axel had always been observant, and it helped him in his job. However, he was noticing things about Brynn that he’d never observed before in other strangers. The way her damp curls fell in opposite directions against the nape of her neck. The tiny heart-shaped bookmark on the back of her thigh. The way she tilted her head to the side when she took in deep breaths.
As they crossed the small side yard that led to a white wooden staircase, Brynn glanced over her shoulder. “The third step is a little wonky, so be careful.”
Axel nodded as they started up the staircase that had seen better days. Before he reached the top step, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and wasn’t surprised to see that it was Izzy again. He silenced it and shot her a quick text saying he’d call her right back. But before he could put the phone back in his pocket it was buzzing again.
“You can take that, if you need to,” Brynn offered as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.
“It’s fine.” He tried not to let his worry or irritation keep him from the task at hand as they stepped inside. “It’s just my sister.” Axel heard the words coming out of his mouth, but he couldn’t believe that he was saying them.
Axel had always been a private person. Even at five years old, his kindergarten teacher had said that getting him to talk about himself was like pulling teeth. He never volunteered information to anyone.
He’d served with his boss for four years in the Marines and had worked for him for the past three and he’d bet Seth couldn’t tell you a damn thing about his personal life. He knew that Seth was aware that he had a little sister, that his mother had a proclivity toward matrimony, and that Axel himself had an ex-wife, but that was only because of the background check he’d run before hiring him. He’d never talked about any of that during his years in the service and some of those men had been like brothers to Axel.
So why in the hell was he sharing personal information with Brynn Daniels?
His phone buzzed again and Brynn’s wide green eyes lifted to his. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. She just started a new school and she doesn’t like it.”
Brynn’s smile made the tightness in his chest relax. “Oh, that can be tough. How old is she?”
“Thirteen.”
Her eyes softened and now the feeling in his chest was unfamiliar to him. It was a warm, tingling sensation.
“Thirteen is rough. Ryder, my son, is thirteen. And I’m a counselor at the high school so I talk to kids her age all the time. Does she live around here?”
“Chicago. She’s going to Mercy Prep.”
“Wow.” Brynn appeared genuinely impressed. “That’s a great school.”
“I know. All she talked about was how much she wanted to go, and now that she’s there she hates it.”
Stop talking, Axel told himself.
“If she’s going to Mercy Prep that means she’s really bright. Sometimes it’s the gifted ones that are the trickiest to raise. Intelligence and emotional maturity are two very different things and it can be difficult to remember that.”
Axel knew that Brynn had a master’s degree in psychology, so he shouldn’t be surprised by her insight. But he was.
“I’m sorry!” Brynn apologized. “I tend to speak out of turn. My son hates it. He declared the house an ‘analysis-free zone.’ Sometimes I just can’t help myself.” Her shoulders bunched as she lifted her hands in a what-are-you-gonna-do gesture. “I love to help people. Anyway, the water pressure…” She turned her back to him as she listed details about the rental.
He was glad that she was no longer looking at him because he needed a moment to regain his composure. She’d just melted his heart that had been as frozen as Han Solo in carbonite.
I love to help people.
She wasn’t just saying that. He could see that she meant every word.
If Axel hadn’t met her, seen her, spoken to her himself, he wouldn’t believe that Brynn Daniels was real. She was beautiful, and yet seemed completely unaware of it. Smart, she had a master’s degree. Hardworking, she had a full-time job at the high school and also counseled people online. Resilient, she was a teen mom who hadn’t let that slow her down. Not to mention she had the combo punch of being adorable and sexy.
She was a unicorn. A once-in-a-lifetime woman.
And there wasn’t one damn thing Axel could do about it.