Kimberly frowned. "Yeah I don't want to think about 'what you would do' in this situation because I have an idea and it just doesn't seem right to me".
Phoebe giggled.
"This is real life, Pheebs. Not some damn movie." Kimberly said but she smiled too.
Phoebe reached out and cupped the side of her face with a soothing hand. "You really must get past all this. You know that, don't you?"
"I'm trying." Kimberly said, rolling her eyes and Phoebe withdrew her hands.
And truly she had been trying for the past few weeks to get the image of the man out of her head. The attraction to him was disturbing... Never in her life had she felt such a pull towards any man. What if she fell in love with him or something? She asked herself. That was super impossible. The man hadn't given her one reason to encourage any feelings towards him. But still she didn't trust herself around him.
Kimberly had never been in love, though she had dated two guys. Both good men, each attractive. But somehow, she hadn't managed to bring herself to get fully into it. And they had both eventually realized that her heart wasn't in it.
The relationships had died. She remained on friendly terms with both of her exes, a fact that made her failure with them all the more wretched. As though both men had realized that there hadn't been enough to what they'd shared in the first place to be bitter or angry over losing it.
"Try harder," Phoebe suggested with a sigh.
"I know you're right." Kimberly said. "And I do need to get over it. I don't know why it bothers me so much. And I am completely and utterly fed up with myself, with my silly inability to get past something that didn't even really happen."
"Just hold it together. Just a little while longer till we are sure that you are safe, then everything will go back to normal" Phoebe said.
Kimberly nodded and Phoebe looked around. "Remind me again why we didn't hire people to do this?" she asked.
"Because we have hands and the work isn't even much. lazy bones." Kimberly replied.
For a while they worked in silence till most of the house was clean and returned to its normal look. Asher returned from his room and went back to the place he was standing in front of the window.
Phoebe angled her head in the direction of the door. "I have to go. It's getting late." she said. "Got some work stuff to handle"
Kimberly nodded, inwardly dreading being alone with Asher. "Thanks for your help" she said.
Phoebe must have seen the look in her eyes because she threw her head back and laughed. "Talk to him babe. Start a conversation" she whispered before she turned and picked her handbag on the couch. She faced Kimberly again and touched her shoulder. "You guys have to get along or I'm sorry but the both of you are going to be very miserable with this long awkward silence."
Kimberly nodded and Phoebe walked towards the door. She passed Asher as she walked away. "Bye Asher" she said softly to him, waving her right hand slightly. Asher nodded at her in response to her greeting and she left.
----------------------
The silence after Phoebe left was frustrating... And definitely awkward, just as Phoebe had said. Kimberly couldn't remember if she had ever been in such an awkward situation. She went to the kitchen and made some coffee. When she returned, he still hadn't moved.
She stood and watched him, coffee in hand. He stood looking out the window staring at the view, his broad back to her. He was leaning on the wall, both hands in his pocket.
Kimberly took the opportunity to stare at him. He wore Jean trousers today, with another black shirt. She was dying to see the man in another color. Why, she didn't know. It was hardly any of her business what color of clothes her bodyguard was putting on. She doubted he was enjoying the view very much. The lights from the city were beautiful, especially in the evening-at least she thought so. And she loved looking at them. The view was one of reasons why she loved the apartment. But the lights didn't seem like something a man like Asher Adams would be interested in.
Looking at the lights always calmed her. It looked so peaceful and beautiful. But she wasn't sure they had the same effect on Asher Adams. He seemed perpetually alert... Always. From the moment she'd first laid eyes on him when he came to rescue her.
He turned around that minute, like he had sensed her eyes on him, and Kimberly was too engrossed in her assessment of what a great body he had that she didn't have time to turn away.
Their eyes met and Kimberly swore under her breath. She swallowed and told herself fiercely she'd never speak to herself again if she blushed like a schoolgirl. Because the fact of the matter was, Asher Adams' eyes on her affected her rather drastically.
The lean, compact muscles of his chest were etched beneath the fine cotton of his shirt. His diaphragm was as flat as a board and she'd been assaulted by the aroma of pure man on their way to the apartment, and she had found it heady and delicious. Not only that, she'd been assaulted by a mental vision of Asher Adams naked and powerful, tanned and with springy dark hair…since after they had met.
"Hey" she said, biting her lower lip.
He didn't reply. He just stared at her obviously waiting for her to speak.
"I made you coffee," she said, approaching him.
He continued to stare at her. "Thanks," he said gruffly. "You didn't have to do that for me."
She handed him the cup. "Easy enough to do." she said, like it was nothing. It wasn't, she reminded herself.
His fingers brushed briefly against hers when he took it. A strange thrill shivered through her skin. If he weren't so taciturn, blunt, she'd consider him attractive in all the right ways.
Kimberly stifled a frustrated sigh.