They both slid from the booth, and Jake glanced at Brax. “Kick ass pitchin’ today, bro. You smoked the hell out of it.”
“Yeah, I know,” Brax said, still eyeing Kenny.
Without another word, Jake and Kenny left.
Brax’s gaze stared them down until they were out of sight.
“What was that all about?” I asked calmly. I hope Brax hadn’t noticed the sheer dread Kenny had caused in me; I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. That would only raise questions, and I wasn’t willing to give any answers. So I thought making light of it all and hiding the fact that I’d almost had a panic attack was the best route. “I thought he was going to start chewing on my hair.” I laughed softly, forced, and it felt as fake as it actually was. “I was almost compelled to use my safe word.”
For a second, Brax didn’t respond. Those ghostly eyes were hardened, terrifying. Then, he took a visible deep breath in, closed his eyes briefly, and when they opened again and focused on me, they were clear, bright, and most of the fury had disappeared. But it was still there, the anger. Simmering in those odd blue orbs. “Kenny’s a fuckin’ prick, Gracie. Excuse my French, but he is.”
Before I thought about it, I’d reached across the table and grazed his knuckles with my fingertips. “It’s okay. Really. Forget about it.”
Just that fast, Brax’s eyes went from clear to smoky gray-blue. The cocky sly half-grin was back. He looked down at my fingers, then back to me. “What’s your safe word?”
I lowered my hand and met his gaze square-on. “It wouldn’t be a safe word if I told you, would it?”
A slow, wolfish smirk curled his sexy lips up in the corners. “You touch me like that again, Gracie Beaumont, and you’re gonna need a helluva lot more than a safe word.” He leaned back and studied me for several uncomfortable moments, and his eyes never left mine, never wavered, not once. “Now how ’bout you tell me why you got that wild ass look in your eye when Kenny grabbed your hair?”
As those severe blue eyes examined me, awaiting my response, I realized something extremely important about Brax. His perception level was way higher than I’d thought. He’d seemed so occupied in staring down his obnoxious frat brother that I hadn’t noticed the depth of intensity in which he simultaneously studied me. That relentless scrutiny focused, measured, weighed as he stared, and while those ethereal eyes promoted his peculiar looks I immediately knew one thing for absolute sure. Brax Jenkins was not an empty-headed, popular, tattooed man slut of a baseball jock. He was exceptionally clever. Intelligent. I could see it in his watchful, alert gaze.
But I was smart, too, and wasn’t about to reveal my secrets to a virtual stranger. No matter how oddly drawn to him I was. Maybe, with a little luck, my apprehension could be successfully masked, because the less of my horrific senior year in high school anyone knew, the better. Pasting a smile to my face, I straightened in the booth, fixed a confident stare to my gaze and answered his question. “I told you, I’m not like the typical giggly partying flirtatious college girls you usually meet. I just don’t like strange guys crowding my personal space, is all.”
Brax studied me for several seconds, his eyes fixed and concentrating on mine. I knew he was trying to figure me out, and I hoped with all mighty hope he failed. Finally, he ducked his head, as if trying to get a better view from my chin up. “All right, Gracie,” he said in an even, low tone. Then his crooked mouth lifted at the corner, puckering the skin around the scar on his cheek. It made him look fierce and sexy at the same time. He leaned toward me, eyes never leaving mine. “I crowded you.”
Although I made a conscious effort not to fidget under Brax’s scrutiny, I couldn’t help the flush of fire that raced up my neck and pooled in my cheeks. The heat pouring through the pores of my skin actually stung, so I knew I was probably beet red. And by the way Brax’s grin lifted a little higher at the corner, he hadn’t missed it, either. Enjoying it a little too much, I’d even say. I did my best to shrug off my reaction, and drew a calming breath in, nice and slow. “I guess I just don’t feel threatened by you,” I smiled, “since we’re only friends and all.” Stranger yet, I actually didn’t feel threatened.
Brax’s smile didn’t fade. “And all, huh?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Just a figure of speech.” I shifted in my booth seat, tucking my foot under my bottom, determined to shift gears from myself. “So do you have any brothers or sisters?”