"Melanie, no one wants you to be able to figure us out more than I do, but this is a waste of time. I'm telling you."
"Shut up, the two of you." Her heart hadn't stopped racing. She wanted to get this over with quickly. Just find some easily identifiable difference, then eat and go to bed. Melanie didn't know what was happening to her anymore. She wanted to stop herself from getting into some kind of isolation syndrome but here she was, about to physically examine two alleged billionaire twins for physical differences, by the light of a full moon and a campfire.
Could her life get any more bizarre than this? Maybe the isolation syndrome had already taken hold.
She looked up at the two silent men gazing down at her. One with eyes as innocent as a child, staring at her, straight into her eyes, almost pleading. The other was calm, confident and strangely caring. He held her gaze just for a moment and then looked down to the sand; his dark eyes were two moonlit pools of mysterious intent.
She approached them cautiously, as though they might take fright and run into the forest. Melanie stifled a nervous giggle. It was all so crazy and yet so exciting. She came closer to them and her eyes began to examine every detail, passing from one to the other, seeking even the tiniest permanent difference. The one without the armband never left her gaze for a moment, while the other held it only fleetingly, for seconds each time, and then backed down into darkness and the shadowy indentations of the sand.
There were differences all right. Maybe not physical, but certainly psychological and emotional. She would have to choose names for them, based on who she felt they were.
Her eyes covered their tousled hair, their strong brows and firmly set jaws. Each had a day of masculine stubble on a firmly set jaw. She took another step closer in until she was almost touching the one without the armband. She stared into his dark brown eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul, or so she had heard. Maybe she would find the truth in there.
The man stared back, unflinching, as though he would absorb everything she had to give, as though they were connected and he would drink her in. Melanie could hear his soft, deep masculine breathing. She didn't dare blink. Somehow, she felt if she just looked long enough, she would know who he really was. A confident smile played around his lips, she had a vision of them together, as though in mid-air with him reaching out to her, longing for her, and she was longing for him as well.