Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11)

by R. L. Mathewson

  Irresistible

  A Neighbor from Hell Novel

  by

  R.L. Mathewson

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events described in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Irresistible © Rerum Carta Industries, Inc. 2015. All rights reserved.

  http://www.rlmathewson.com

  Edited by R.L. Mathewson and Casey Leigh

  eBook:

  ISBN- 978-0-9986017-5-5

  Dedication Page

  As always, this book is dedicated to my children, Kayley and Shane, who put up with me, hook me up with plenty of Coke to keep me going, and make me smile every day.

  A special thank you to Miriam Rivera, Laura Rose, Debra MacArthur, and Shannon Rutherford for putting up with me.

  Thank you, Jo Ann Willard Reinhold and Poli Vagras for the last-minute help!

  Thank you to the ladies at the R.L. Mathewson’s Neighbor from Hell group for all your help, answering questions, suggestions, and cheesy pick-up lines!

  Thank you for purchasing this book and for being there for us every step of the way.

  For the latest news, giveaways, and information, please sign up for my newsletter or follow me online:

  Newsletter

  R.L. Mathewson Amazon Author Profile

  Facebook

  Bookbub

  Twitter

  Instagram

  Goodreads.com

  Pinterest

  R.L. Mathewson Website

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Bradford Family Tree

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Epilogue

  A Sneak Peek at Finally

  A Sneak Peek at Devastated

  A Sneak Peek at Tall, Dark & Furious

  Other Titles by R.L. Mathewson

  Follow Me

  About the Author

  Bradford Family Tree

  Timothy and Regan Bradford’s children are:

  1. Jared, married Megan, their son is Jason Bradford, (m. Haley) father of Cole, Elizabeth, and Joshua.

  2. Sarah, passed away. Her son is Trevor who married Zoe, and fathered, Jonathan, Sebastian, Mathew, and Jessica.

  3. Ethan, married Mary, and their children are, Duncan (m. Necie), Danny (m. Jodi), Lucifer (m. Rebecca), Kenzie, Arik, Garrett, Reese (m. Kasey, child Mikey, twin boys with another set of twins on the way), Darrin (m. Marybeth, triplet girls), and Aidan.

  4. Mark married Jessie, sons are Reed and Matt.

  5. Ryan, married Amanda, their children are, Eric and Theo.

  6. Shane, married Caylee, son is Devin (Father of Dustin and Abbi)

  7. Thomas, married Heather, daughter is Nikki.

  The James Family

  (Cousins to the Bradfords)

  Raised by Wes and Beth Bradford:

  David James, divorced, raised children by himself, Rory (m. Connor, two children), Bryce, Johnny, Craig, Brian, and Sean.

  Prologue

  “Do you have a band-aid? Because I scraped my knees falling for you,” Aidan said, watching as the incredibly beautiful woman that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since he first saw her, smiled.

  “Still not the worse pick-up line I’ve ever heard,” Melanie, his brother’s tenant and the woman that he had no business being with, said with a warm smile while Aidan sat there, absently finishing off his drink as he watched her, unable to help but wonder what it was about her that made him nervous.

  Nervous…

  That was an understatement because she fucking wrecked him. For the past two weeks, Aidan hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. He’d tried to force himself to forget about her, but he couldn’t, and he had no idea why. He’d never reacted to a woman like this before. Normally if he was attracted to a woman, he simply asked her out and if she said no, he moved on without a second thought. With Melanie…

  When he saw Rebecca’s lab results waiting for him this afternoon, he’d decided that it was now or never and used the results as an excuse to go see her. As soon as he saw Melanie, something inside him settled, something that he couldn’t quite explain, but it had him deciding that it was time to stop playing games.

  “Do you have a name or can I just call you mine?” Aidan asked, reaching for the shot of tequila that she’d ordered for him and couldn’t help but wonder when the last time that he drank this much was as he downed the shot and signaled for another one.

  “I just feel like you’re not even trying,” Melanie said with a pitying look as she picked up her shot, took a sip, and-

  “Oh, that’s bad,” she said with an adorable frown that had him chuckling as she finished the rest of the shot with a wince.

  “You’re the one who ordered the shots,” Aidan reminded her as he picked up his beer.

  “I needed sustenance to help me get through your cheesy pick-up lines,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly.

  “They’re not that bad,” Aidan said even though they were, but he was more than happy to repeat the asinine pick-up lines that he’d heard over the years if it made her smile and he definitely wanted to make her smile.

  “They really are,” Melanie said, chuckling as she took a sip of her beer.

  “Can I follow you home? Because my parents told me that I should always follow my dreams,” Aidan said, making her laugh.

  “Do any of those lines even work?” she asked as he sat there, unable to believe just how badly he wanted this woman.

  “I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me in the morning,” Aidan said, not sure if it was because of all the alcohol that he’d consumed or the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her that had him leaning over and kissing her, unable to wait another minute to find out what it was like to kiss the woman that he couldn’t resist.

  Chapter 1

  Six Months Later…

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Melanie mumbled pathetically even as she shoved another delicious french fry in her mouth while she once again had to question the life choices she’d made that brought her here.

  “Really? I can’t imagine why,” Rebecca, her best friend since elementary school and ex-roommate, said innocently with an equally innocent expression as she sat across the booth from her, clearly enjoying herself. Melanie considered kicking her beneath the table, but right now, that seemed like a lot of work. So, she settled for taking another bite of her delicious french fry instead.

  “I ran,” Melanie said in a daze, still trying to figure out how everything ha
d gone so horribly wrong so quickly.

  One minute, the nurse was calling her name, and the next, she was in her car, tearing out of the parking lot, and debating the pros and cons of taking Rebecca up on the suggestion that she’d made last year and move to Switzerland.

  “I believe waddled is a more fitting term,” Rebecca, always helpful, added as Melanie absently dipped her fry in ketchup and popped it in her mouth with a tragic groan.

  “I panicked,” Melanie said, sighing heavily as she stared down at the half-eaten burger on her plate.

  “Yes, yes, you did,” Rebecca said absently, and Melanie didn’t need to look up to know that her best friend was probably licking her lips as she watched her husband do something that caused his insanely large muscles to bulge.

  Her best friend had it bad for Lucifer and unfortunately, Melanie couldn’t say that she blamed her. Not that she was interested in Lucifer, because she definitely wasn’t into guys who loved to glare, but she couldn’t help but notice just how much Lucifer adored Rebecca. It was something that she would probably never have, she thought, popping another delicious fry in her mouth with a heartfelt sigh.

  “You can try again,” Rebecca pointed out.

  “I know,” she said, wondering how she was going to be able to go back to that office and face his staff after today.

  She already knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it, which was probably for the best. Telling Aidan, the asshole that she’d had a one-night stand with that the Morning-After Pill hadn’t worked after all wasn’t exactly something that she really wanted to do at his office.

  Then again, it also wasn’t something that she wanted to do when she was six months pregnant, but she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. She’d wanted to tell him sooner, had actually planned on telling him sooner, but things changed when she’d almost lost the baby and the doctor was forced to put her on bed rest.

  She’d never been sicker in her life than she had in the last five months. Every day had been pure hell as she’d tried to make it through the day without ending up in the emergency room, terrified that she was going to lose her baby. It had been touch-and-go there for a while, but eventually, they’d been able to get her nausea under control and she’d started putting on weight.

  Five days ago, her doctor announced that her weight was good, her numbers were up, and that the baby, a very active little boy, was exactly where he should be, and that it was now safe to leave the confines of her bed. It had honestly been the best news of her life even though it meant that it was time to face the music.

  She had to tell Aidan Bradford, the man that had made it clear that he didn’t want children that he was about to have one. She’d waited until she knew that the baby was going to be okay before telling him because she honestly couldn’t think of anything crueler than telling a man that he was going to be a father when there was no guarantee that the baby was going to survive.

  She wasn’t supposed to be telling him now, but she didn’t want to put this off any longer. She didn’t want to be one of those women who tried to keep her child away from their father, which was the reason that she was ignoring her doctor’s orders to hold off until after she had the baby. He was concerned about what the stress would do to her. She didn’t want to do anything to risk her baby, but she had to do the right thing.

  She had to tell Aidan.

  “I can go with you if you want,” Rebecca suggested with that same worried look that she’d been giving her since this whole thing started.

  Melanie shook her head and said, “It’s better if I tell him by myself,” even though it was tempting to bring Rebecca along as a buffer. Aidan liked Rebecca and probably wouldn’t start yelling if she was there, but he would still be angry. She wasn’t sure that she wanted Rebecca around when it happened, mostly because her best friend would probably take it upon herself to beat the crap out of him if he made her cry. Melanie also wasn’t sure that she would be able to come up with enough money to bail her best friend out of jail.

  “When?” Rebecca pressed, which was something that she’d been doing a lot this past week.

  “I’m going to tell him,” Melanie promised as she popped another fry in her mouth.

  “Better do it soon,” Rebecca said with a pointed look at the plate in front of Melanie, which just happened to be the third cheeseburger platter she’d ordered in the last hour and something that would probably give away the fact that she was pregnant with a Bradford soon, “before Lucifer figures it out.”

  “He’s going to be mad,” Melanie said slowly exhaling and trying not to think of all the times he’d taken care of her over the past few months, checked on her, brought her food, sat with her, and occasionally carried her to the bathroom when she was too weak to do it herself so that she could hug the toilet for a few hours.

  He had no idea that his brother was the father because they hadn’t told him and when he found out that they’d kept him in the dark he would probably never talk to her again. This was really turning out to be the best day ever, Melanie thought dryly even as she had to wonder where her order of pancakes with extra butter, syrup, and bacon was.

  “No, he won’t,” Rebecca promised her with a shake of her head. “He’ll just decide that gives him even more rights to be the godfather.”

  That was true…

  Lucifer did seem rather determined to be the baby’s godfather, Melanie mused, glancing in his direction to find him sitting at the bar, glaring down at a stack of papers, which brought up a completely different subject.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be writing a paper?” Melanie asked, returning her attention to Rebecca to find the other woman shrugging.

  “I finished it, but he wasn’t happy with my choice of font and felt that my introduction wasn’t exciting enough to capture the reader’s attention.”

  Frowning, Melanie absently ate another fry as she glanced back at Lucifer, who was still glaring. “What was your paper on?” she couldn’t help asking.

  “Time management,” Rebecca said with a shrug.

  “I see,” Melanie murmured thoughtfully, wondering how Rebecca handled Lucifer’s OCD without killing him.

  Then again, since she’d benefitted from his OCD over the past few months, she wasn’t exactly in a position to talk. Thanks to Lucifer, everything in her apartment was now organized and she meant everything. From the frozen peas in her freezer to the extra pack of floss in her bathroom, everything was organized by expiration, size, likelihood of use and, in the case of her kitchen, by flavor and texture in addition to all the aforementioned categories.

  She’d felt bad at first that he was doing so much, but that quickly changed when she’d realized that he was actually enjoying himself. Whenever she tried to help him, Lucifer would glare at her, point towards her bedroom, and wait until she went back to bed before continuing with his hobby and if she didn’t move fast enough the bastard would call her mother. She still wasn’t sure how he got his hands on her mother’s phone number, but she suspected that the small woman sitting across from her had something to do with it.

  “How did you end up spending the night with Aidan?” Rebecca asked, and Melanie had to give her credit because she’d held off asking that question again a lot longer than she’d expected.

  With a shrug, Melanie said, “A lot of tequila, some beer, and a few shots of unidentifiable alcohol.”

  She decided not to mention that she could barely remember what happened when she’d left their apartment with Aidan after Lucifer threw them out. She remembered going to a bar, ordering a drink, the feel of Aidan’s hands on her as he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her, flashes of what happened once they made it to the hotel, and…

  That was it.

  The only thing that she remembered with perfect clarity was what happened the next morning when she woke up to find Aidan sitting across the room, glaring at her as he informed her that the condom broke during the night. The conversation that followed was definitely s
omething that she wasn’t likely to forget anytime soon.

  There was really nothing like struggling with a hangover while the first guy she’d slept with in years made sure that she knew just how much he’d regretted sleeping with her before she’d flipped him off, mumbled something that she hoped pissed him off, grabbed her clothes and left, more than ready to forget about him.

  Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out.

  “Fine. Don’t tell me,” Rebecca grumbled as she glanced back at her husband and groaned miserably, “He’s getting out the red pen.”

  “Sounds like you’re going to have a fun night,” Melanie said absently, not really in the mood to torture her best friend tonight.

  Rebecca shrugged. “He’s easily distracted.”

  From the sounds that she heard whenever she walked past their apartment, Lucifer’s office, or the supply closet, Melanie had to agree. As she sat there, absently nibbling on another fry, she couldn’t help but wonder if Rebecca would be willing to distract Lucifer when he found out about Aidan.

  “Do you think Aidan knows?” Rebecca asked, making Melanie’s stomach turn because she honestly didn’t know.

  “I left before he saw me and I doubt the nurse is going to make a big deal out of a patient ditching an appointment.”

  The nurse would probably just mention it to the receptionist, who would make a note of it and send her a request for a cancelation fee. They’d probably just tell Aidan that his eleven o’clock canceled and that would be the end of it.

  At least, she hoped it would.

  Feeling exhausted from her first real trip out in months, Melanie popped another fry in her mouth, tossed one at Rebecca, who was back to ogling her husband, and made her way to the door in the back that led to her apartment. Once she put her code in, the door unlocked with a loud click and she was making her way upstairs and praying that Mojo, the large mastiff with a slight weight problem and a love of naps that she’d adopted with Rebecca a few years ago, wasn’t waiting for her at the top of the stairs.

  When she finally made it to the second floor, and she refused to think about how long it took her to walk up a flight of stairs, Melanie opened the door, made sure that there weren’t any large puddles of dog drool waiting for her, and went into her apartment.