What wasn’t a surprise, however, was her reaction to him. How painfully predictable she was. Rapid heartbeat: check. Sweaty palms: check. Jittery, overloaded hormones: double check.
Oh, and let’s not forget your deep, unrequited love for him. He can probably feel it from over there.
Lord, the man had turned her into a head case.
She set her camera down by her laptop, when RJ said something in a low tone. Brody’s response was a deep, rumbling laugh, which danced across her sensitive nerve endings like a feather. Then he said something back to his brother, which she missed because her head was too busy spinning like a damn top.
Maybe she could fake some stomach bug, so she could hightail it home. The uneasy feeling in her stomach was close enough to making her want to vomit.
Instead, she pulled in a cleansing breath and forced herself to focus on work. This was, after all, why she was being paid. Not to fall at the man’s feet. That was for behind closed doors.
She took the SD card out of her camera and inserted it into the slot of her laptop. The photos took a few moments to transfer from the card to her hard drive, time she used to keep her back to Brody. The conversation behind the bar had stopped. Her willpower around the man was weak, but she somehow managed to keep her attention in front of her and not steal peeks over her shoulder.
But then she felt him. And not because he’d touched her. No, he didn’t need to make physical contact in order for Elisa to know Brody was around. Simply being in her personal space was enough for her senses to go on high alert.
And then there was how he smelled. Oh sweet mother, the man knew how to work it. He worked it in such a way that Elisa didn’t know which way was up or how to get back down to Earth. Where her sanity was.
“Looks like you’ve made some progress already,” he finally said. Entirely too close to her.
She plastered a smile on her face and hoped the heat flaming her cheeks wasn’t all that noticeable. “It’s been successful so far. I just have to get these photos uploaded. Then you can take a look at them and we can go from there.” Like maybe to a bed?
His gaze ran over her features, and a peculiar look passed in his eyes as though he had something on his mind other than pictures.
Well, she did as well so the man was in good company.
The moment passed when he nodded. “Sounds good.”
They spent the next half an hour going over the shots she’d taken in the kitchen, with him making comments and her taking notes of what he liked and what he didn’t. The magazine was allowing them only three images, so they had to weed out the photos that weren’t strong enough. Anthony thought they all looked good, which was surprising given his hesitancy in the first place.
After they were finished with that, Elisa closed her notebook and worked the kinks from her neck. “Sounds like we’re good to go,” she said.
“I’d say so,” he agreed.
Then the two of them stood there, staring at each other. Elisa was already wound so tightly that her head felt like it was going to explode. She stepped around Brody, grasping her digital camera a little more fiercely than she needed to.
“Well, I’ll just get this stuff ready,” she said in a lame attempt to pretend to be busy, when what she really wanted to do was grab Brody and yank his mouth to hers.
How could he seem so indifferent when she was ready to come apart?
His had shot out and grabbed her wrist. “Elisa,” he said.
She halted in her tracks, mostly because his grasp prevented her from going any farther.
And another thing she didn’t understand. How could he come off as being unaffected and then look at her as though he wanted to tear her clothes off?
Before she could say anything, he did something that had her head spinning even more than it already was. He kissed her. And not just your everyday affectionate, nice-to-see-you kiss. Like, a real kiss. A wholehearted, full-tongue-action, melt-your-bones lip action that made Elisa forget she was standing in the middle of his restaurant. With a job to do. A job that she currently didn’t give a flying rip about, because Brody was kissing her. Tunneling his hands through her hair and making her forget her own name.
“Get a room already.”
The comment from Brody’s brother, although too close to the truth, was enough to have her pulling away. For a moment everything had melted away. No restaurant. No photo shoot. No Mongolia.
And in that moment, there was only Brody. And, for the slightest second, it almost felt as though he may have felt the same way that she felt about him. After all, how could a man kiss like that and not feel anything?
Elisa licked her lips, savoring the taste of Brody. “We can’t do this here.”
One side of his mouth kicked up, like the devilish sneaky man he was. “I know. But I couldn’t stop myself. As it was, I had a hard time talking to my brother without stomping over here and dragging you out the door.”
Oh my.
Okay, good to know she wasn’t the only one on the edge.
Now she felt better. Kind of.
“I’ll go talk to Anthony and we can get this show on the road,” he said before turning around and stalking into the kitchen.
His retreat gave her ample opportunity to admire his firm rear end.
Brody had been forced to put all his personal crap on hold when a crisis erupted at the restaurant a few days after the photo shoot. On the same day a critic from the newspaper was scheduled to eat, Anthony had contracted a nasty stomach flu. It was shitty timing, of course, and Anthony had apologized like a man begging for his life. Brody had told him to take care of his health and come back to work when he felt better. Then he’d slammed the phone down on the receiver and gritted out some colorful expletives that would have made a trucker blush.
The only thing that hadn’t made Brody go completely postal was the fact that they’d finally gotten the photo shoot done. Hours of cooking, perfecting, and standing around while Elisa snapped one shot after another when she’d been here a few days ago had been as exciting as watching paint dry. The only upside was the time he’d been able to spend with the photographer.
That day Elisa had been there to take pictures had been a long one. After her practice shots, she’d had to snap the real thing all before they opened their doors at twelve o’clock. Then, when she’d finished, they’d cleaned up the staging area, which had been the dining room. And then they’d moved her computer into his office so they could go over every shot and choose the appropriate ones. But at least they’d finally gotten it done.
Man, he loved to watch her work. Talk about passionate. Just the way she held the camera turned him on almost as much as she did in bed. He’d damn near gone apoplectic when he’d slapped eyes on her that day. And in a weak moment, he’d given into his impulse and slanted his mouth over hers. As hot as the kiss had been, it hadn’t been nearly enough. That’s why, for most of the shoot, he’d stayed scarce. Because he hadn’t trusted himself to be near her and not embarrass himself with a little tent action below the belt. Hell, the time it had taken to view the finished photos on her computer had been torture. It had been like placing a starving person in front of a buffet and then shackling their hands and feet together. Yeah, basically torture.
But he’d plugged through like the professional man he was.
He should have been relieved. They’d finally completed the task and could move on. Now Brody could focus on getting Anthony on the road toward head chef. Isn’t that what he’d wanted? Not only wanted but needed to focus on?