He found her down in her bedroom area, doing something with a bag on her bed, babbling.
“It was hard to pack. I know you guys are good at what you do, so it won’t take long for you to catch this jerk, but maybe it will. I’ve got rehearsals every day. And obviously I need regular clothes.” She looked his way. “Can I borrow your teeth-strengthening mouthwash? I’ll buy you a new bottle later. But we have the same brand so it kinda seems stupid to pack mine.”
He had no clue why she had to put the “teeth-strengthening” part before the word “mouthwash.”
But it was cute.
As she was on a regular basis.
He would not have pegged himself as a cute-girl guy. His leanings had always been toward tall, cool, slender blondes. And as such, when Lottie made her choices for all the boys, and he got a look at Hattie, he knew this wasn’t going to happen.
He was seeing now it never worked out with those tall, cool, slender blondes, not because there was anything wrong with them.
But because he was about curvy women of just above average height who had a mass of loose, brunette curls, big brown eyes, a frustrating instinct for self-preservation, could soar through the air five feet above the ground with the grace of a gazelle and were cute.
Also, one more thing.
A woman who was able to select adorable, even girlie dresses that she wore like she was in jeans and a tee and it made her a thousand percent fuckable.
“You can borrow whatever you want,” he told her.
His voice was not the usual.
It was lower, rougher, and it made her head jerk his way again.
“Are you okay?”
Outside of needing—very badly—to fuck her in that dress?
Yeah.
He was okay.
Though the need was so strong, and now she was standing by a bed, he was just barely okay.
“Fine, baby, but we got a reservation and it isn’t like we’re flying to my place in Aspen. We can come get anything you forgot whenever we need to do that,” he told her.
“Oh, right,” she replied, her gaze drifting to her bag. It came back to him and she asked, “You have a place in Aspen?”
He grinned at her. “Sorry, no.”
She grinned back, returned her attention to her packing, seemed to make a decision, finished shoving whatever in her bag and started to zip up.
Axl took that as his cue to move from where he was standing, at the top of the two steps, down into the space.
Her bedroom area had wood floors. White walls. White furniture.
Also, a white comforter.
Pale pink sheets on the bed. Dark pink throw pillows.
There were white vases with fluffy fake flowers in them in vibrant colors. She obviously read, because there were stacked books on the floor under her legged nightstands. And an eReader with a hot-pink cover sat on a night table.
The space was small. She’d utilized it well. And the way she decorated, as he’d found earlier that day, was feminine and kickass.
He reached beyond her to grab the strap of her big overnighter and hefted it on his shoulder.
Fuck, it felt like it weighed fifty pounds.
“Set up to stay awhile?” he teased.
“It’s shoes,” she replied, grinning and reaching for a canvas book bag that said FORTNUM’S USED BOOKS.
She scooted quickly to the nightstand, grabbed the eReader, pushed it in the bag, and put it on her shoulder.
Her bare shoulder, seeing as she was wearing a dress that was mushroom colored and it dropped down the sides of her shoulders, hugging her upper arms. It had long flowy sleeves and a wide, flirty ruffle at the short hem. It was belted with a thin belt in the same fabric.
She wore nothing else but earrings, those were big gold hoops.
And on her feet, she wore a pair of sandals that looked to be made with nothing but gold string crossing her foot and wrapping around her ankle. The heel was high and thin.
And yeah, he was fucking her in those shoes too.
She grabbed the last thing from the bed, a muted gold clutch, before she led the way up out of her bedroom space, and he waited at the door as she turned off lights and joined him.
Then he got her and her bags in his car and he did this hoping that she had to use the restroom while they were at dinner so he could watch her walk away in that dress.
She waited until he pulled out before she asked, “Where are we going?”
“Beatrice and Woodsley.”
He felt her eyes on him. “You got a reservation at BW in a day?”
“Lucked out,” he muttered, and he did. There’d been a cancellation right before he called in. “You been there?” he asked.
“Once, a few years ago, for Galentine’s Day with my mom.”
“Galentine’s?”
“The day before Valentine’s. It’s just for girls.”