Page 4 of Branded
A new or unforeseen trigger jumped up and latched its teeth into me, gripping me tight, shaking me roughly from side to side like a dog with a stuffed toy.
And my façade threatened to drop.
The mess threatened to escape.
Today, it was because of his thumb.
He’d steadied me, hands gripping lightly to the outsides of my arms, sitting on the sleeves of my blouse.
But his thumb…his thumb drifted down and caught my skin, the calloused fingertip making me shiver.
A strong sensation when I needed nothingness, when I needed quiet and less stimulation and for my heart that had already begun to race to chill the fuck out, for the restless energy that had been coiling inside me from the moment I’d agreed to come that night to calm. Instead, that touch of his skin to mine pulled me right into the moment, dumped me right back into the heaviness of what I’d been trying to escape.
The people. The noise. The obligations. The fragility of my façade.
It all tore through me.
And I couldn’t snap at him. I couldn’t shove him away or declare sharply that I wasn’t interested in him.
I couldn’t do anything.
“You okay?”
Couldn’t speak to answer that question, couldn’t step away to get away from that thumb, couldn’t look away when he crouched low enough to meet my eyes, his own filled with concern.
“Kailey?” he asked again.
I barely held back my shudder.
“Come on, everyone,” Lexi called. “Grab your pots and don’t forget that there will be a prize for best name.”
That time I couldn’t hold the shudder back.
More competition. More pressure. Over a freaking name.
His brows furrowed. “Are you o?—?”
“Smitty!” someone yelled, making me jump despite my spiraling efforts to hold myself together. “Come help us move this table!”
That thumb on my skin moved, and then the rest of his fingers did, tightening slightly. “Stay,” he ordered. “I’ll be right back.”
But he didn’t immediately let me go, and it took my spinning mind a moment to realize what he was waiting for.
A reply, I heard my father snap. He’s waiting for a reply, dumb shit.
Right.
Normal people replied.
But I didn’t have it in me for words. So instead, I just nodded.
Luckily, it was response enough for him to go away.
He released me, and my lungs loosened slightly. I turned, gaze following him as he moved toward the mass of bodies, toward the men who apparently weren’t happy with the provided space for the competition and needed more space to properly plant and name their flowers.
He looked back once, eyes hitting mine, that coil in my belly tightening.
But then his lips turned up just a bit at the corners and the coil relaxed enough so that when he turned back again, grabbed one half of the table and hefted it like it weighed nothing, I took my opportunity.
