Page 22 of Paradise Found
Finally, she gathered her energy and walked back to work.
She would admit everything to her mother. Explain why she could never, ever work at Axel’s house again. Because if she stepped into that house one more time, she was going to confess. She would have to look at his angry face and cold eyes. Eyes that saw her but didn’t see her.
Head heavy and body dragging, she watched her feet move one in front of the other as she approached the office.
“Oleanna?” The rich depths of Axel’s voice filled her heart. Was she going to hear him in her daydreams, too?
“Oleanna!” The voice was more insistent, forcing her to look up.
There he was, fiercely beautiful and achingly earnest. Axel took her breath away. When their gazes caught, she felt alive and complete and found.
Oleanna was lost and now she wasfound.
Overcome with happiness, she began running toward him.
Abruptly, she stopped because… oh, no,why was he here?
To call out her lies. To fire her family. And to throw all those pictures at her face because she was a liar and a disgrace.
“Axel, what are you doing here?” she asked, struggling with the gravel lodged in her throat.
“Oleanna,” he uttered reverently. Axel reached over to run his hands on her upper arms as if checking if she was real.
“I’m sorry, Axel,” she said miserably. “I’m sorry I walked out on you, but now you see. You see why, right?”
He looked confused before pain clouded his features, as if she slapped him. His mouth opened though nothing came out.
“How did you find me?” she had to ask, ashamed that it came to this. An embarrassing confession in the middle of a half-empty parking lot.
“I heard your voice on the phone. And what you said. You said it was a photo. I never mentioned that. I looked up the office address and drove over immediately.” He spoke in a rush, as if he was brimming with emotions too frantic for words.
The familiarity of his cobalt blue eyes and the newness of a lush beard distracted Oleanna. The contrast was devastatingly handsome. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch his thick hair. She imagined running her palm through Axel’s stray blond strands.
“What do you meanI see?” he asked gruffly, brows furrowed. “I don’t see. Why did you leave? I thought we had something special.”
His choking sounds propelled her forward. She couldn’t bear to hear his misery. She didn’t know how to witness his pain and not comfort him.
“You need to understand, Axel. We’re from different worlds. You’re, well,you,and I’mme.”
“What? What does that even—” As if realization hit him, Axel squared his shoulders and looked at her seriously.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” he hissed. “Your family is proud, and you should be, too. What in the world would make you think I cared about what you did? Or that I would think differently of you? The very first moment I saw you—”
“It wasn’t,” she interrupted, her apology morphing into indignation. “Kamea Koa wasn’t the first time you saw me. I’ve been in your house at least a dozen times this last year, Axel. So no, don’t you dare say that was the first moment you saw me. You saw me when I was a maid, and you looked right through me!”
He stared at her in shock. She stared back, eyes just as large, though not from shock.
She was hurt and hopeless. Oleanna spun around to walk away, just as Axel reached to grasp her hand.
Goosebumps chased up her arm, and she shivered. It was too much. She had to get away because he wastoo damn much. To have him this close physically and yet so impossibly unreachable in ways that truly mattered.
Her small shivers turned to forceful shaking, as if she was left in Antarctica without a coat. Oleanna’s teeth chattered uncontrollably, her bones felt brittle, and her body trembled because it was breaking. Like her heart.
Swiftly and with confidence, Axel saved her from splintering. He wrapped her in his arms so tight, he absorbed her violent shakes and held her together. His embrace stopped Oleanna from shattering into a thousand pieces.
“Shh, baby, shh…” Axel mumbled into her ear while caressing her back, smoothing her hair. “I’m here, Oleanna, I’m not going anywhere. C’mere. Let me hold you. God, I’ve been dying to hold you.”
She clung tight and breathed him in greedily.
