“Yeah, it definitely is.” Grabbing the stuff, I stepped backwards and used the bottle of wine to point inside my apartment. “Come on in. I’ll put the ice cream in the freezer and grab a pair of shoes.”
“I should’ve tried bribery sooner,” he chuckled, shaking his head.
A lock of his dark hair fell against his forehead, and my fingers itched to sweep it back. Instead, I tossed the carton of ice cream into my freezer, set the wine on the counter, and bent over to slip a pair of sandals on my feet. When I straightened, Trace’s eyes jerked up to my face. Glancing down at my shirt, I realized what he’d been staring at. “Enjoying the view?”
His gaze swept down the length of my body, pausing to take in the fluffy, white cat that’d strolled over to twine around my feet, and then back up to my face. His green eyes were filled with hunger...but definitely not for pizza. “Damn straight I am.”
I felt my cheeks fill with heat, but not from embarrassment. It was pure, feminine satisfaction at Trace’s unabashed interest in me. “You’re not going to try to deny you were staring at my tits?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Why bother with games like that? I think I’ve already made it obvious that I’m attracted to you.”
“This is true,” I murmured as we left my apartment.
He waited until we were on the elevator to add, “And trust me when I tell you that any red-blooded man would find it damn difficult to tear their gaze away from the sight of your tits in that white, lacy bra you’re wearing.”
“Is it hot in here?” I tugged at the collar of my shirt. Then I pressed my hand against my chest when I realized that with his height, I was giving Trace a view straight down my shirt to my bra again.
“It’s definitely getting hotter,” he chuckled.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, I hurried out into the lobby. Trace didn’t let me go far before he slid his palm against mine and twined our fingers together. It felt so good to walk hand-in-hand that I almost changed my mind about our destination so we could do it longer. But the place around the corner from our building had the best pizza in town.
“That wasn’t even a two-minute walk. Are you trying to get through our date as fast as possible?” Trace joked as we walked inside.
I tilted my head back to look up at him and widened my eyes in pretend surprise. “Is this a date?”
“I asked you out, you finally said yes, we’re going to have lunch together, and I’m paying.” He lifted our hands and pressed a kiss against my knuckles. It felt like the touch of his lips sent a jolt of electricity through my skin. “This is definitely a date.”
“Well, then,” I sighed, gripping his hand more tightly while we followed the hostess to our table.
Since I was a regular, the waiter brought over an iced tea for me when he came to take our order. After he went to get Trace a glass and give the kitchen our ticket for the pizza, Trace grumbled, “Why am I not surprised that he remembered what you like to drink?”
“He’s served me like a hundred times before. Remembering that I order iced tea whenever I come in here is the bare minimum in customer service. It just means he’s decent at his job.”
“And what’s the cashier’s excuse?”
I glanced up at the young girl at the counter who took care of all the telephone orders and handled the payments for the wait staff. “Who? Her?”
“No,” he chuckled, his green eyes filled with humor. “The guy at the grocery store from the night we met. He noticed pretty much everything about you, right down to how often you come in and what you’re usually wearing.”
“That’s super creepy.” I shivered, thinking about some random guy keeping such a close eye on me without noticing it.
Trace waited until the waiter finished dropping off his iced tea to reach out and cover my hand with his. “Don’t worry about him. He and I had a little chat, and he understands that watching you like that isn’t a good idea.”
Even though I hadn’t known Trace that long, I could easily imagine how that conversation had gone. “You took care of him for me, huh?”
“I told you that I’m a handy guy to have around.”
I grinned, remembering his offer to help with Madison’s situation the night we met. “That you did. And considering how big you are, it’s easy to see how you were able to intimidate the guy at the grocery store.”
“My size was also helpful back when I played hockey in school.”
“Hockey?” With my elbow on the table, I leaned my chin into my palm. “I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a game before.”
“Say it isn’t so.” He pressed his hand over his heart like I’d wounded him. “How is that possible?”
“I’m more of a sun and sand kind of girl.”
“You’re killing me here, angel face,” he groaned. “Now all I can think about is you, on the beach, in a bikini.”
I winked at him. “Maybe you’ll get the chance to see it in person someday.”
“How does tomorrow sound? I had planned to go into the office to get some work done, but that can wait until Monday if it means I get to spend time with you.”
“In a bikini,” I added.
“Well, yeah,” he chuckled. “But also fully clothed if you had something else in mind.”
Of course, now the only thing on my mind was seeing him in swim trunks. I shook my head to clear the haze from my brain. “I don’t think I can answer that until you tell me what it is you do for work. What if I lure you away for a bit of fun at the beach while someone’s life hangs in the balance?”
“No lives are at risk,” he assured me. “Just contracts and money since I’m a sports agent. I moved here to open the West Coast office for my agency.”
“Your agency?”
“Yeah, I’m one of the founding partners.”
Damn, that was impressive. We chatted about our jobs until the waiter dropped off our pizza. By the time we’d finished devouring it, we were swapping childhood stories and talking like we’d known each other for years instead of just days.
“That was pretty good for California pizza.” Trace leaned back in his chair and rubbed his flat stomach. “Not as good as the deep dish back home, but I can definitely see myself becoming a regular here too.”
“If you’re thinking about becoming a regular, then you need to try the Nutella calzone. It’s crazy good.”
“Dessert sounds like a great idea.” He glanced at the stand at the end of the table that held the dessert menu and shook his head. “They don’t have what I’m in the mood for, though.”
“What’re you in the mood for?”
He flashed me a mischievous grin. “Ice cream.”
I knew exactly what would happen if I invited him back to my apartment for dessert. After how well our date had gone, it was tempting. Oh-so tempting. But if things went wrong, living right next to each other was a recipe for disaster. I couldn’t fall into bed with my neighbor, no matter how much I wanted to or how insanely hot he was. At least not yet anyway.
Chapter Four
Trace
Living next door to Melody was both a blessing and a curse. Being able to see her every day was great, but knowing there was just a thin wall separating us at night was wreaking havoc on my ability to sleep. It was more than worth the sacrifice, though.
Melody’s looks had originally caught my interest, but I’d quickly discovered that she was a flat-out amazing person. She was as kind as she was beautiful, smart as hell, and funny as fuck. Any man would be lucky to have her, and I was determined to be the one she picked. No matter how long it took…even though the clock was ticking on my time living next door to her.
“It looks like you guys are right on schedule.”
“Yes, sir,” the foreman in charge of building my new house confirmed as we wrapped up our walk-through. “We always aim to complete construction before the promised date.”
With the drywall up and the floors installed, the place was starting to look like
an actual house. The amount of progress they’d made in the past month since I’d arrived in Malibu was impressive. It figured that I’d managed to find the one builder in all of California who actually tried to finish all of their projects on time.
It wasn’t like I could even complain. Not without being a hypocrite. If I hadn’t met Melody, I would’ve been riding their asses so I could get out of my apartment as soon as possible. But now I found myself looking for excuses to push back my move-out date because I didn’t want to lose my close proximity to Melody.
Walking to the wall of windows at the back of the house, I stared out at the view which had sold me on the location in the first place. It made me think about my conversation with Melody during our first date. My woman was a fan of sand and sun, and I had plenty of it right in my backyard. I could easily picture her there, wearing nothing but a tiny bikini. “Is there anything I can do to make the beachfront a little more private?”
The foreman joined me near the windows. “The actual beach? There isn’t much you can do about that except to snatch up your neighbors’ properties if they ever go up for sale. But we can add some additional trees along the property line if you want the back patio and upper part of the stairs to have more privacy.”
“Do it.”
He jotted a note down on his clipboard. “That’s easy to arrange with the landscapers. It won’t interfere with our timeline.”
“Is there enough space between the house and the beach to put in a pool?”
“A pool?” he sputtered.
I nodded decisively. “Yes, a pool that’s half the length of the house, surrounded by a brick patio with a glass rail between it and the beach. That way, it won’t interfere with the view of the water.”
“Um, it’s definitely doable.” He pointed out the window towards the left. “Your neighbor two doors down has their pool set up similar to what you’re describing.”
“Good.” I pointed at his clipboard. “I want it all done before escrow closes.”
“It’s a big project. We’ll need to hire out for the construction of the pool and the brickwork,” he warned.
“That’s fine.”
“It isn’t going to be cheap.”
With the ocean only steps from my back door, I hadn’t thought about needing a pool when I’d had the plans for the house drawn up. I figured I’d swim out there whenever I wanted. But now that I had Melody in my life, it wasn’t good enough. If she wanted to soak up the sun while wearing a tiny bikini, I was going to make sure she had a place to do it where guys couldn’t leer at her luscious body. And with as hot as it got around here in the summer, she was going to need somewhere to cool off. A pool would give her that. “It doesn’t matter how much it costs. I want it to be like an oasis back here.”
“It’s not just the additional cost, sir. There’s also the extra time it will take. If you want it done right—”
I knew it wasn’t really a question, but I interrupted him to answer anyway. “Damn straight I want it done right.”
“The best contractors have waiting lists a mile long.”
“Give me the names of the top three.” I flashed him a wolfish smile. “Negotiating is my specialty. I’m sure I can get one of them to agree to bump me to the top of their list.”
“Even so, sir. There’s no way we’ll be able to finish on schedule with the addition of this big of a project.”
Pushing back my move-in date hadn’t been the reason I’d asked for the pool, but it was an added bonus as far as I was concerned. “That’s fine by me.”
“We’ll need to draw up some extra paperwork with the adjusted schedule and quotes for the additional work.”
“Go ahead and prepare it, I’ll sign.”
“Whatever you want, sir.”
I turned and looked up at the loft at the top of the stairs. The master bedroom was to the left of it, and there were three more bedrooms and two bathrooms down the hall. I’d planned to set up the room directly next to the master as an office. It was the smallest of the bunch, and the electrician was supposed to add extra wiring to the room so I could outfit it with plenty of electronics. Some might consider it overkill since I had a corner office at the agency’s new West Coast headquarters, plus a library on the first floor of the house which had plenty of room for it to double as an office. But work had been my priority…before Melody.
“While you’re at it, scrap the plans for turning the bedroom upstairs into an office. Do whatever it takes to make it easy to transition that room into a nursery.”
“A nursery?”
“Yeah.” I hadn’t maneuvered Melody into my bed yet, but I had no doubt that she’d end up there eventually. And since that’s where she belonged, I had no plans of ever letting her leave. Preparing one of the rooms so it could be used for a nursery might’ve been jumping the gun a little, but I’d always been the kind of guy who liked to plan ahead. It’d served me well in business, and I hoped it’d do the same when it came to Melody.
The foreman made a tsking sound and shook his head. “I should’ve known it was a woman. They have a habit of complicating things.”
“You can hardly lay the blame at her feet; not when she hasn’t even seen the place yet.”
He ran a hand through his head and chuckled softly. “The pool’s for her?”
I nodded.
“She like the water?”
“Yeah, she loves it.”
“Then I’m guessing she’s probably the kind of woman who’d appreciate a nice bathtub.” He yanked a pamphlet out of his back pocket and handed it to me. “We haven’t finished laying the plumbing in the master bath yet. You may want to reconsider the layout you had planned. Trim down some of the space in the walk-in shower, switch things around a little, and put in one of these jetted, claw-foot tubs. One of our clients had us put one in during a bathroom remodel we recently did on a house we built about five years back as a surprise for his wife while she was out of town taking care of her mom after a fall. She got home today, and we did the big reveal before I came over here to meet with you. Never saw a woman fall in love with a tub quite so fast.”
I opened the brochure and pointed at the one which jumped out at me right away. It had sixteen air injectors, back rests on each end, and brushed nickel feet that would match perfectly with the fixtures I’d already picked out.
“Great choice,” the foreman complimented me. “I bet she’s going to love it.”
I was sure she would, too. I just needed to figure out how to tell her about the house and get her out here to see it. I’d been avoiding the topic since I was worried that the idea of me moving out of the building soon would scare her off.
Chapter Five
Melody
My best friend was engaged to and busy banging my boss, trying to make a baby. I was happy for Madison because her dream to have a baby was bound to come true since she was spending every free moment she had in Ethan’s bed. But I also missed her. We hadn’t had a girls’ night out in what felt like forever. And it wasn’t just because Madison had been too busy to spend time with me. Aubrey, who’d joined our girl crew when she took the receptionist job for the OB-GYN next door—who coincidentally enough was my boss’s best friend—seemed to be super busy too. It seemed like everyone and their sister was having a baby lately.
With Melody happily paired up and Aubrey busy with work, I felt like the odd girl out. I might even end up as a crazy cat lady since it was just Fluffy and me. Or maybe not since my hot neighbor seemed more than willing to spend his free time with me. Trace and I had spent just about every night together ever since our first date.
It’d been about two months since then, and he didn’t seem to be losing interest in me. If anything, I felt like it was the opposite which was surprising because I hadn’t given in to the insane chemistry between us yet. Things had grown increasingly hot and heavy over the past few weeks, but something had still held me back. I was pretty sure it was fear of the feelings that were quickly growing
inside of me. Trace Chapman already had the power to hurt me, and I figured he’d be able to destroy me once I handed him my body because my heart would go with it.
With as emotional as I was feeling tonight, it was probably for the best that he wasn’t home when I knocked on his door. Not wanting to be alone at the moment, I decided to head down the street to the local dive bar at the corner to have a couple of drinks while surrounded by strangers. I made it halfway there when Trace’s truck pulled up to the curb next to me.
“Where are you headed, angel face?”
I pointed to the run-down building less than a hundred feet down the street. “They’ve got a bottle of wine with my name on it.”
He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Hop in. If there’s a bottle of wine with your name on it, then there’s bound to be a beer tap with mine.”
I gestured at the suit he’d worn to the office. “You sure you don’t want to go home and change first? It’s a dive bar.”
His eyes narrowed as they took in the tight shirt and minuscule shorts I was wearing. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
I laughed lightly while I climbed into his truck and slammed the door behind me. “Careful, or else I’m going to think those gorgeous eyes of yours are green for a reason.”
“Only when it comes to you, angel face.” He pulled into the dive bar’s lot and flashed me a grin. “And with good reason considering how much attention you draw from the opposite sex without ever noticing it.”
“Whatever,” I huffed with a roll of my eyes before we headed into the bar. We grabbed a tall table off to the corner, and Trace went up to the bar to get our first round of drinks.
“How about you tell me what’s driving you to drink tonight?” Trace asked after he slid my glass in front of me.
I took a big gulp of my wine before diving into my explanation. With each new glass he brought me, I shared more about my friendship with Madison. We also talked about what it was like working with Ethan and helping to create families. By the time we stumbled back to the building, leaving his truck behind since we’d both had too much to drink to be able to drive, I was horny and had babies on the brain. It was a dangerous mixture for any single woman and drove me to drop the walls I’d tried to keep up around Trace.
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