Excerpt: The Element Series: Air (Book One)

I looked up as the bell chimed. I never enjoyed doing inventory, so I was always eager for customers. Usually, it was someone I knew, someone from town. But the person who walked in did not look like he was from around here. He looked like he belonged somewhere far away from the simplicity of this small town. He was too unusual to belong here, and too beautiful, which was not a word I ever used to describe members of the opposite sex, but nothing else seemed to fit. I watched him as he stood in the doorway. His eyes, the deepest brown I had ever seen, found and never left my face. I wondered how I looked to him, thinking that I probably looked as normal and boring as my life felt.

I knew I had never seen him before, but he walked towards me with purpose, his gaze unwavering. It was as if I was his reason for being there, like he had come to the store to find me. I knew that was impossible, but it was hard to mistake the look in his eyes.

I watched him as he reached the counter, towering over me by almost a foot. His tall frame wasn’t lanky, instead it seemed to be made of stone. Everything about him - from the lines of his face to the curve of his shoulders and cut of his chest - seemed hard. However, the look on his face stood out against it all. He continued to stare at me with the softest expression, one I could not begin to understand. I watched, almost mesmerized, as his lips parted. After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke.

“Era.”

His voice was deep but his tone was hushed as the name rolled off his tongue. I was so caught up in the sound that it took me a minute to realize what he had said. My eyes flicked down to my shirt, making sure my required name tag was still in place before I looked back at him.

I pointed at my chest. “Eve,” I replied.

His eyes flicked down to the tag, and I watched as his brow furrowed in confusion. The expression lasted only a second before his face set in determination.

“Era,” he repeated.

Not sure what he was talking about, I pointed more dramatically, tapping the name tag with my nail so it made a sound. “Eve,” I said again.

I spoke slowly, drawing out the sound as if I was talking to a child. Couldn’t he read? I never understood why we had to wear these name tags, since all our customers knew who we were. As he stared at the small plastic tag, unconvinced that it read what I said it did, it convinced me that they were completely useless.

He studied me carefully, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside his head. I hated to disappoint him, but whoever he was looking for, I was not her. For a second, I found myself wishing I was the person he was looking for, but I immediately squashed that thought. As gorgeous as this guy was, he was clearly taken. That or there wasn’t too much going on upstairs if he couldn’t grasp that I knew what my name was. Either option put any potential fantasies on hold.

I started to feel anxious under his intense stare. After a long moment, he seemed to come to a conclusion. He took a small step forward, and I watched as he slowly lifted his hand. I stared at it, and then looked back at his face. I didn’t know if he was planning on touching me, but hoped the look on my face told him that was a bad idea.

Apparently it didn’t, and as his hand got closer, his fingers extended and I couldn’t stop myself from letting it happen. Though I wanted to, the urge to tell him off was overpowered by the strange desire to feel his hands on my face. I didn’t know where these thoughts were coming from, but I had clearly been spending too much time in the Romance section of the book store.

I felt my eyes find his again. Every logical part of my mind was telling me to look away, but I couldn’t help but feel pulled in. His fingers grazed my cheek for the tiniest moment, but then he abruptly pulled his hand away. I felt like I had been shocked. It was like static electricity, like the feeling of touching a door handle that suddenly sends sparks up your arm. My own hand flew to my face as his returned to his side, and I turned to find Tess standing in the doorway of the back room.

I looked back and forth between them. How had he known that someone else had come into the room? There was no way he could see Tess from where he stood, and she hadn’t made any noise, but his whole body had turned and the look on his face said I had to be wrong. It was as if they were staring at something they couldn’t see but knew was there. I watched Tess walk through the row of books, her gaze never leaving the spot where he stood. It was like I had completely disappeared from the room. As Tess got closer, and he came into view, the look in her eyes told me that the mysterious stranger had just found who he was looking for.

I tried to ignore the strange feeling that followed that thought.