Addison leaned forward, like she was going to, but stopped. Instead, she fell back and turned toward him. His beast rose and threatened to fill his eyes, already too close to the surface. He struggled with it. Addison’s eyes tracked the rise and fall of his Adam’s apple.
“What made you step in front of that robber? You could have died!” Addison spoke like she already worried about his personal safety.
The words wrapped around his heart and tightened, making it hard for Reid to breathe. He ducked his head and worked to temper his pulse.
Chapter Four
Addison watched the man. He smelled of beer and fresh wood, an intoxicating blend that beckoned her toward the other end of the couch. When he dropped his head, she thought he would tell her it was none of her business. Clearly, she’d crossed a line. This wasn’t a friendship, but an agreement.
She was a tenant, and nothing more.
“If I can stop bad things from happening, then I will.” Reid’s voice startled her. She’d expected him to ignore her. He looked up at her, pale eyes flashing in the darkness and making her heart stutter. “I’m, ah, stronger and hardier than most men. If I can withstand a little pain to keep others from feeling a lot of pain, then why not step in?”
Addison pulled her knees to her chest and set her chin atop them. “I heard you do that a lot. I asked Lieutenant Vargas about you after you left. He said you’ve stopped other small robberies and even intervened in a domestic dispute or two.”
“Vargas?” Reid raised a brow, clearly confused. She could see the gears slowly working behind his eyes. “Oh, is that the cop with the bushy brows?”
Addison laughed. “Yeah, they are pretty bushy. Kind of like two furry caterpillars.”
“Awful of me, but that’s how I remember him. I call him Caterpillar Brows. He gave me an earful the first time we met, but time has not been kind to him. Even a small-town cop deals with a lot of crap.”
“It’s his job. I’m not sure what you do for a living, but you aren’t a cop. I still don’t understand why you do what you do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful. The robber…” Addison shuddered. “The robber could have hurt someone. It’s a miracle the gun didn’t hit anyone when it went off.”
She heard a low sound emanate from Reid. Was he…? Was he growling? She couldn’t tell. Maybe she was hearing the hum of her laptop’s fan. The poor thing had been on most of the day and was probably overheating as they spoke. She reached over and closed it before shifting to face Reid.
There was a deep-seated curiosity bubbling inside her. She wanted to know everything about this man, where he came from, his favorite childhood cartoons, and what made him think he was an invincible superhero. So, few people risked their own lives to intervene on the behalf of others anymore. People were selfish and scared.
Reid seemed…far more caring than he’d let on.
“Are you saying I should have let him shoot you?” His voice was tight, a ticking time bomb that shuddered with each word.
Her blood ran cold. Addison remembered the moment her life passed uselessly before her eyes. Her legacy would have been nothing and it’d broken her heart to realize it. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I appreciate what you did. I owe you my life, but what about yours? Why are you so ready to throw it away?”
There it was. That was the question she’d been searching for. Reid might seem like a hero on the outside, but his actions indicated otherwise. It was almost as if he wanted to feel pain, to come close to death’s door. Did he welcome the reaper? Or, was it a thrill he sought just to feel alive?
“Do you not have anything to live for?” Her voice grew softer and softer until it was barely a hushed whisper in the dark room.
No answer. Addison had pushed a button that turned him off. She mentally kicked herself, suddenly trying to look anywhere but at the glorious man sitting on the other end of the couch. Perhaps it was time to go to bed. She’d overstepped all the boundaries she’d been given. It was time to call it quits.
She unfolded and set her feet on the floor. Pausing, she glanced to Reid once more. His face was unreadable in the dark. If she just inched closer, she might be able to see what he was hiding from her.
Was it really her place? She was trying to overstep a boundary once again. And for what? Did she think she would use this as creative inspiration? Would she try to write Reid’s pain onto the pages of a book and sell it for six figures? That was cruel, a thought that made Addison hate herself. While she knew that wasn’t the reason she wanted to know, the fact that the thought occurred to her made her feel sick.
She needed to leave, to lay down, to be anywhere but where she was.
As she stood, a soft hand stopped her. She turned to find Reid looking up at her in the dark. His eyes were gold, but his lips were parted. The usual veneer of grumpiness that he wore was gone. In its place was a tenderness she’d never noticed.
He seemed like he had something to say, then his eyes dropped to his hand on her arm. The small space between them pulsed with possibility. Addison wanted him to pull her back down onto the couch, onto his body so she could feel all the hard planes of his muscles and the protective warmth of his arms. Her face flushed, making her grateful for the darkness.
Without a word, Reid shook his head and released her. Disappointment was a brick in her stomach, but she carried it all the way to her bedroom before dropping it and herself into bed. Distantly, she heard Reid’s footsteps follow her. They hesitated, then the creaking of her door filled the air as he closed it for her.
Addison knew she was a fool for wanting more with Reid. He was officially her landlord. Fooling around with him was completely asinine and could lead to so many complications. Something about him constantly drew her closer. He was a book whose pages hadn’t been read in ages. She doubted anyone had ever gotten past the first chapter.
She would have happily binged all of him, from beginning to end, just to get a better understanding of the man who did such heroic things for people he didn’t even seem to like.
Chapter Five
Addison crept out of her room in the early morning to grab a quick cup of coffee and a toaster pastry, the only breakfast item she could find in her rush to scramble back to bed. She’d been scurrying in and out for the past few days with the hopes of avoiding Reid. She couldn’t handle the way he made her heart flutter. Safely back inside her room, she cracked open her laptop and began tapping away at the keys. The story flowed from her fingertips in a clunky flush.
It was a first draft, she reminded herself, even though she hated every line she typed. It was almost impossible to see how this could become a polished book. She’d read that getting the first draft down was the most important step, but why did it have to be so ugly? The heroine was snippy rather than sassy. The love interest was quiet, lingering in the heroine’s presence without telling Addison why he was even there.
Finally, Addison groaned and fell back onto the bed. Her pillows caught her and let her bounce for a short moment. As she stared at the ceiling, she crammed another corner of strawberry toaster pastry into her mouth. She was writing Reid.
The love interest had magically morphed into a giant, blond oaf during this draft and Addison didn’t know how to undo it. More importantly, she didn’t know why she’d done it. Over and over, she reminded herself that he was her landlord and that the passage of money between them would only make things complicated.
She didn’t need a grumpy man in her life. Clearly, she’d already had enough of them. While Reid seemed nice on the surface, in time he could turn into a nightmare. She paused and strained to hear, as if he would be slamming things around the house if only she listened.
The room shook with a bang. Addison startled, nearly choking on her pastry. She took a chug of her coffee to wash it down. The sound transported her back to her teen years, to her father throwing fits. The mug trembled in her hands and she hated her first response. What was he doing out there? Why was he throwing thi
ngs?
Then came a timid knock on her door. “Addison? Are you awake?”
She had to clear her throat twice to find her voice. “Y-yes! Come in?”
The door creaked open and revealed a very sheepish Reid. The grimace on his mouth silently apologized for the loud sound. When her eyes dropped, she saw the reason for it.
“You made me…” Addison swallowed the rise of emotions that threatened to fill her with ugly sobs. “You made me a desk!”
It was a thing of beauty, varnished a pale, honey color. The edges were scalloped, showing careful attention to detail. When she pulled the drawers, each one glided as if it rested on a cloud. She’d known Reid for only a short while and he made this for her.
She didn’t know what to do with the knowledge. He lifted it, carting it past the bedroom door for her and situating it beneath the window where she’d mentioned wanting to put a desk. The memory struck her. He’d heard her, remembered what she’d said, and returned with exactly what she’d dreamt of.
“How much…” Addison struggled to speak. This couldn’t be free. Nothing was free. Even if she hadn’t meant to ask for it, he’d still gone through all this work and trouble. “How much do I owe you?”
Reid dusted his hands off as he straightened his back. Her words brought him to a halt. Confusion rippled across his face. “Eh?”
She gestured toward the desk. “Money. How much do I owe you for this?”
Addison was trying to keep her cool. There was no way she could afford it. She wished she could take back everything she’d said before, but it was too beautiful to let go of now. She needed to keep the desk. Even while her wallet cried in pain, her creative brain was itching to sit down and get to work.
It was a disjointed feeling, she realized. She was pulled in two directions and didn’t know what to do about it. All she could do was pay for it and move on.
“No money. It’s a gift.”
Reid’s words shook her and threatened to drop her to the floor. Her relief was so immediate that she nearly did fall. Reid closed the space between them and caught her, his hands on her shoulders.
“I didn’t mean to…” Reid paused and seemed to search for the right word. “Concern you. I didn’t mean to concern you. You mentioned wanting a desk and I happen to be good at making things, so I figured I could make you one.”
Addison quickly pulled herself upright. He had to want something. No one worked for free. She took a step back and eyed Reid. Would he ask for sexual favors? Addison was ashamed to admit that she didn’t immediately dismiss the thought. Reid was…more than just a snack.
He was a whole damned meal and she was a woman starving.
She waited, wringing her hands, for him to tell her what he wanted. She wasn’t a fool. Addison had survived worse. If he pushed too far, she would simply pack her things in the night and count her fifty dollars for rent as a loss.
“What?” Reid tracked the new space between them but didn’t move to enter it. His eyes seemed to dart all over the room before he took a step back from her.
She laughed, an awkward reaction to an awkward situation. “I’m assuming you want something for it. If not money, then what do you want?”
He threw his hands up, brows rising in surprise. “Nothing! I swear. I needed to do something the past couple of days and all I could think of was that desk you wanted. It just happened to coincide. It’s yours, free of charge. No strings attached.”
Addison narrowed her eyes and angled her body away from him. “No blow jobs?”
Reid’s cheeks turned pink. It was startling and almost laughable. Seeing the burly woodsman blush was endearing in a way she didn’t need. Her heart clenched, and she felt a tug in her stomach pulling her closer to him.
“What? No. I wouldn’t…I’d never…” He pressed his lips together. This time, he was floundering. “I’m just going to see myself out.”
Addison hadn’t expected this kind gesture. In her life, people had never been nice simply to be nice. As Reid passed by, she grabbed him by his sleeve and pulled him down to plant a kiss on his warm cheek. The blush darkened. She thought he would scamper away like an embarrassed teenager, but he lingered, his eyes pinning her.
She realized how close he was now. If he wanted to, he could easily kiss her. Addison realized she wanted it. She wanted him to breach that small distance and take her lips so that she didn’t have to confront her own fears. Focusing on his nose, she caught the faint sprinkle of freckles that stretched out over his cheeks.
Just when she thought he would kiss her, a smirk spread over his mouth. He nodded his head toward something behind her, making her turn to find the bins of books stacked against the wall.
“I could make you a book shelf…or two.”
“You don’t have to, but it would be appreciated. I don’t want to ask you for things, to keep you working all the time. You have a job. You don’t need to do things like that for me.”
Reid kissed her, smothering her rambling. Addison was so stunned by the press of his lips against hers that she didn’t know what to do. He lingered, and her heart thumped, core tightening as she reached for him. Just as she would have grabbed him, he pulled away.
His eyes were nearly gold. Hadn’t they been blue before? Addison couldn’t remember. Her head spun. She needed to sit down. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t look at Reid while her body thrummed with such ferocious need.
What was wrong with her?
She hungered for more, she realized, yet when she looked up, Reid was gone. Addison wanted to cry out and run after him, but she forced herself to stay put. She couldn’t fool around with her landlord like that. There was money involved and it felt…wrong, no matter what her body tried to tell her.
Addison pushed away from the edge of her bed and moved to the new desk. She sank into the chair he’d provided and looked out at the town below. Running her hands over the smooth surface of the desk top, she could see all the work he’d put into it. It was hard to believe that he wanted nothing in return for it.
A dangerous voice in the back of her mind hissed that she knew what he wanted. The kiss said it all. The voice pulled her toward him, the voice of that tugging feeling she felt when she was around him.
She couldn’t…could she? With a groan, she let her head fall against the desk. The resounding sound brought Reid back, calling to ask if she was okay. She responded by scrambling out of her seat and rushing to close her bedroom door.
Addison had come here to write a book. Flirting with her landlord was objectively not writing a book. To make up for the chaos in her head, she spent the rest of the day behind her locked door, trying to make sense of her faulty outline while she sat at her new desk. At some point, Reid knocked, and his muffled voice announced through the door that he was leaving dinner on the coffee table for her.
When she was sure he’d left for good, the sound of the front door closing signaling his departure, she snuck out of the room to claim the plate he’d left for her. There was a soft bed of greens and a sliced steak with a soft, pink center.
Steak dinner? He’d made a steak dinner for her? When she touched the steak, it was cold. How long had he sat at the table waiting for her to appear?
It wasn’t her fault, she told herself. She wasn’t his friend, wasn’t anything other than a tenant. He shouldn’t have made her dinner. Yet, after a few bites, guilt got to her and she crawled out of her room. Reid had returned and was sitting at the table, bent over a notebook.
“Are you writing a book, too?” Cautiously, she claimed the seat across from Reid.
He looked up, and she thought she saw a small smile quirk on his lips. “No, I’m designing a bookshelf because I don’t know what else to do with myself. How’s your steak? Is it tender?”
She shoved another piece into her mouth and nodded. It fell apart on her tongue as if it’d been slow cooked, though she could tell from the pink center that it hadn’t been.
“Good. I tried a technique one
of my co-workers suggested. Apparently, onions are great tenderizers for cheap steaks.”
“I did not know that.” She chewed slowly. “Wait, did you say you were making a bookshelf?”
He raised his brows and nodded, not taking his gaze away from the design on the page.
“I think I told you not to do that.”
“Then what else am I going to do with my free time? It’s not like there are bank robberies to stop every day.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she began, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “You could do something for yourself for once? I don’t know what you like to do, but you could do that.”
“I like building things. I like making you happy. See, two birds with one stone.”
Her heart skipped a beat. He liked making her happy? What had she done to deserve a place in his heart? It might be a small place, but she knew where it was all the same. To that, Addison had no retort.
Silence filled the air, punctuated by the scratching of Reid’s pencil on the paper. Then, finally, he stopped long enough to speak.
“I have to go back to work starting tomorrow. I’ll be gone most of the day from Monday to Friday, but next Saturday the guys are having a party. If you want to make sure I enjoy myself, you should come along.”
Addison wasn’t a party kind of girl. She was more a hot mug of coffee and a well-worn book kind of girl. Maybe even a Netflix and chill kind of girl. Her mind started to slip into dangerous territory, her socked feet slipping across the linoleum floor to find his toes. They brushed his bare feet ever so lightly.
Reid paused, the only indication that he noticed, before resuming the design that he was clearly frustrated with. Dejected and ashamed of herself, Addison pulled her toes back. She folded her feet beneath her chair and turned back to her dinner.
To Save A Bear Page 3
