Neighbors with the Single Dad (The Single Dads of Seattle Book 8)

by Whitley Cox

  You, beautiful Eva, hold all the power.

  Had she ever heard any sexier words uttered?

  Nope, she certainly hadn’t.

  She’d never held any kind of power ever either.

  And yet, Scott just handed it all to her on a silver platter.

  She swayed where she stood and reached out, gripping the back of the chair to stabilize herself. Was she already drunk on power? Did it happen that fast?

  He stepped into her space and tilted her chin up with his knuckle. Her lips parted. “I really just want to get to know you, Eva. Any part of you.”

  Scott couldn’t say he’d ever had a woman literally throw herself at him. Sure, women had done so figuratively, but Eva actually launched herself into his arms, crushing her mouth against his and shoving her tongue down his throat.

  Whoa!

  He could not get a read on this woman. One minute she was all smooth and seductive, oozing sexy confidence and inviting him back to her hotel suite, saying she’d be the one taking advantage. The next minute she was nervous and choking on her wine. Only to turn around and leap into his arms and kiss him.

  She confused the hell out of him but also intrigued him to no end.

  He liked that.

  He liked her.

  Wrapping his arms around her back, he parted his lips and took control of their kiss, sweeping his tongue into her hot, wet mouth and tasting everything she had to offer. The sweet zinfandel tasted even better on her tongue.

  A small, feminine moan slid up her throat, and she pressed her tits against his chest, his leg wedged between hers to keep them vertical.

  Without breaking them apart, she set her mug down and somehow her pizza too and began to back up toward the bed, her hands free to roam across his chest, and began to unbutton his shirt.

  But something tickled at the back of his neck—a warning? Red flags? Alarm bells? He broke the kiss, much to the protestations from his other head.

  “Let’s eat first. Have some wine and maybe talk a bit,” he said gently, easing her down to the bed, then retreating to the table to grab her wine and pizza. “You’re sending off some real conflicting signals, and I just want to make sure you know what you want.”

  Big, gorgeous green eyes looked up at him with total confusion, and her puffy lips opened to form the perfect little O. He had to stop himself from groaning at how utterly fuckable she looked at that moment. How he wanted to do nothing more than grab all that hair into a tight ponytail at the base of her head and ease that little O over his now throbbing erection.

  But his mama had raised a gentleman. He had a little sister, and even if he didn’t, he could see that Eva wasn’t entirely sure of what she’d proposed to him downstairs half hour ago. He needed to give her a bit more time to think things through. He also just wanted to get to know her better. Even though he had no problem with a one-night stand with no strings, no expectations and sometimes even no names, the tickle at the base of his skull told him Eva was not one of those women.

  “A-are you having second thoughts?” she asked, accepting her wine and pizza. “D-did I do something wrong?” The slight shake in her voice made him want to scoop her up into his arms and hold her, take away whatever insecurities or pain she was clearly harboring.

  But instead, he kicked off his shoes, grabbed his own slice of pizza and his mug of wine, then sat down at the head of the bed, propping himself up on the pillow. “You did absolutely nothing wrong, beautiful Eva. I just want us to get to know each other a bit first. Have a drink. Have a meal. Have a conversation.”

  The sexy line of her long throat lifted and dropped as she swallowed, still sitting on the edge of the bed, staring beneath the table. “Didn’t we already do that downstairs? The drink and the conversation?” She blinked slowly, then pivoted her head to look at him. “What is it you want from me?”

  Scott was midway through a bite of pizza, but he dropped the slice to the napkin, put it aside and leapt up to his knees, taking her mug of wine from her and setting it on the nightstand. Then he took her hand in his. “Eva, I don’t want anything from you. Except to know that you’re not going to regret something tomorrow. I hardly know you, but what I do know I like. But I’ve also had enough one-night stands to know that the women aren’t usually as conflicted as you seem. I want to get to know you, that’s all.” He tugged on her hand. “Come sit. Eat, and let’s talk. My son is with his mother tonight, and tomorrow is Sunday, so I have no curfew.” He winked, hoping to settle some of her nerves.

  She seemed to relax a bit and nodded, ditching her own shoes and climbing onto the bed beside him with her pizza. He handed her the mug of wine, and she took a sip.

  Before reaching for his own wine, he grabbed the television remote and flicked the TV on, surfing until he found a rerun of The Office. Glancing over at her with raised eyebrows, he waited for the yay or nay.

  She nodded, offering him a small smile.

  He set the remote down and reached for his wine, taking a sip and then diving back into his pizza. “So, tell me what it is that makes Eva … ”

  “Just Eva,” she said through chewing.

  He nodded, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Tell me what it is that makes just Eva tick.”

  3

  Grateful for not only something in her stomach but the company as well, Eva was now far more relaxed than she had been an hour ago. Scott was sweet, kind, interesting, and absolutely hilarious. The man had her in stitches nearly the entire time they vegged on the bed gorging themselves on pizza and watching back-to-back episodes of The Office. By the time she stood up with jelly legs from the wine, she had tears in her eyes, she’d been laughing so hard.

  Todd had never made her laugh like that. He’d made her shed tears a lot but never from laughter.

  It was refreshingly wonderful, and she didn’t want it to end.

  “What’s your ex like?” Scott asked as she climbed back onto the bed with a glass of water. She handed him one as well.

  “A total narcissist,” she said blandly. “A controlling, manipulative, emotional and psychological abuser. A pathological liar. A cheater.” She glanced at him as she sipped her wine. “Pick one. My therapist never met him, so she can’t actually diagnose him, but she said that based on everything I’ve told her about the man, she can almost say for certain that Todd is a psychopath.” The lights on the nightstands flickered. Too bad Todd wasn’t dead and that was just his ghost haunting her. Next birthday wish, perhaps?

  His mouth flattened into a thin line. “I’m sorry. That had to have been really difficult. Tough to finally get out of, I’m sure.”

  He didn’t know the half of it. All she did was nod.

  “And your ex?”

  He exhaled and tucked his hands behind his head before he sank down into the pillows so he was lying down on the bed. “A narcissist too, not a psychopath though. Just selfish. But I think what bothered me about her the most, what ended our marriage, was just how damn inconsiderate she was. How disrespectful she was toward me. Treated me like her lapdog.” He shook his head. “I know I’m a nice guy. I know that, and when it came to Katrin, nice guys really did finish last. She made plans on nights I had plans and would just expect me to cancel mine, even though I’d have made my plans eons ago and put it in our shared calendar. I mean one time—and this was when we were still dating and she lived for six months down in San Francisco for an apprenticeship—I took time off from my own job, flew down there, expecting to spend the weekend with her like we’d planned, only to turn up on her doorstep and find out from her roommate that Katrin had taken off to Napa with some friends for the weekend.”

  Eva’s bottom lip dropped open. “Are you kidding me?”

  He shook his head. “I should have ended the relationship then and there, truthfully. And her excuse is always something super lame, like That’s just my truth, Scott. That’s just my psychology. I’m not a very organized person, but it doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. If you can’t accept m
e for who I am, then that’s your problem, not mine.”

  “I’m sorry, but what the fuck? If you can’t accept her constant disrespect, then that’s your problem, not hers?” She blinked a bunch of times. “You picked a real winner there, Scottie.”

  He made a noise of reluctant agreement in his throat. “Don’t I know it. I mean, she couldn’t send me a text the night before I flew all the way to San Francisco? Hell, an hour before I got on a fucking flight and been like hey babe, I would really like to do a girls’ weekend to Napa. Do you mind if we reschedule? Sorry for the last-minute change of plans. Or something like that. Like at least fake your fucking remorse.”

  “But then you wouldn’t have your son,” she said quietly, feeling the exact same way about Todd and her own children. An enormous part of her wished she’d never given Todd her phone number that night at the Seahawks game after-party. Then the last ten years and the nightmare would never have happened. Her feelings of failure, of becoming invisible, a shell of who she once was, never would have happened. Who knows what she could have accomplished if she hadn’t met Todd? Maybe she’d have her own spa by now. Her own spa chain. A franchise. Eva’s Hair and Esthetics in every major city in Washington state.

  An ache began to build in her chest at the thought of a life without having ever met Todd. How could she even imagine such a thing?

  Because as much as Todd had hurt her, as much as he had destroyed who she was and who she had the potential to be, without him there would be no Kellen or Lucas. And the world without her children just didn’t make a lick of sense.

  Everything happens for a reason.

  Her mother’s vague, sunshiny, unicorns-shitting-rainbows mantra came back to her.

  Yeah, maybe everything did happen for a reason, but not all reasons made sense. Not all reasons were good.

  But Kellen and Lucas are good. Kellan and Lucas are perfect.

  She squeezed her eyes shut as the regret from even wishing for a moment that she hadn’t met Todd consumed her. She would walk through hell for her children. She would kill for her children. She’d endure all the years of manipulation, abuse and bullying from Todd all over again if it meant she had her children.

  “You okay, there?” Scott’s deep voice drew her out of the thick quicksand she’d been sinking into, and she opened her eyes.

  “Yeah,” she said on an exhale that strained her chest.

  “You’re absolutely right, you know,” he said, eyeing her warily. “Without Katrin, I wouldn’t have my son. So as much as she hurt me, made me feel like an afterthought, I’m grateful to her for our son. A world without Freddie just wouldn’t make sense.”

  Finally, someone who understood her struggle. Her mental anguish over wishing you’d never met someone but knowing that without them, you wouldn’t have the amazing things you did.

  “Did you file for divorce or did your ex?” she asked, sinking down into the pillows and turning to face him, propping her head in her hand. She wanted to get off the topic of herself and focus on him. She was boring. Scott seemed far more interesting, far more worldly and experienced.

  “I did,” he replied. “I suggested counseling and tried telling her how disrespected I felt, but it all fell on deaf ears. We tried counseling for a while, but even the counselor said it wasn’t sinking in with Katrin. So in the end, I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t be treated like a second-class citizen in my own marriage. When my opinion stopped mattering, that was the end of it.”

  “And your son? How did he take it all?”

  “Freddie?” Scott let out a deep breath and shut his eyes. “He was a trooper through all of it. We split when he was three, and he’s six now, so I don’t think he really remembers much.” He shook his head but didn’t open his eyes. “She’s still inconsiderate, selfish and disrespectful to me, my time and plans, but at least I’m no longer married to her and having to put up with it on a daily basis. I get my kid on set days of the week, and we sit down every two months and go over any changes. If she needs to make a last-minute change, I have the right to decline her—and just to prove a point, I have.”

  Eva smiled. “Good.”

  He opened his eyes. “What about your ex. Does he see your kids much?”

  She snorted, then scoffed. “No. His children are a burden. An inconvenience. He used them as pawns in the divorce, but otherwise he has very little to do with them, which is fine by them, because they want nothing to do with him.”

  “So you don’t get much free time then?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. But my boys are good kids, and even though I certainly feel drained or tapped out some days, I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

  He rolled over on his side like she was and propped his head in his hand. “I wouldn’t trade Freddie for anything either.”

  Sexy, kind and an attentive father. This guy certainly seemed like the whole damn package.

  But there had to be a catch.

  Todd had seemed like a great guy at first too. Then his manipulative monster came out of hiding after they said their vows—after it was too late.

  Did Scott have a monster lurking somewhere deep? Did all men?

  “What is it you would like, Eva?” he asked, drawing her from her roaming appraisal of him, her eyes having drifted over his face, down the length of his body and ultimately lingering on the V of his dark-wash jeans just a fraction longer than was seemly.

  She blinked a couple of times, not understanding the question. “What do you mean?”

  He lifted an eyebrow almost impatiently, as if her not understanding the question was taxing on him. “What is it you want, Eva? You invited me up to your hotel room saying that you’d be the one taking advantage, and I’d like for you to explain that to me. What kind of advantage had you planned on taking?”

  Heat raced into her cheeks and wormed its way down her chest. Even if Scott hadn’t said a single word to her, the way he was looking at her, so earnestly, so seriously and focused, she would have probably swallowed her own tongue. But the fact that he actually asked her what she wanted, asked what her plan was, made it all the more exciting.

  “Hmm?” He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What is it that Eva wants? Is it still the same thing as down in the bar? Or have your intentions changed?”

  She swallowed and dragged her bottom lip between her teeth. “I … I haven’t been with anybody in quite a while, and the last person I was with was—”

  “Your manipulative jerk of a husband,” he said, finishing her sentence for her perfectly.

  With a sigh, she nodded. “Exactly.”

  “And he was controlling,” he asked.

  “Very much so.”

  “In all things?”

  “Yes.”

  “Including the bedroom.”

  “Especially there.” Which ordinarily she had no problem with. She was actually quite submissive in bed, preferring to just go with the flow and ride it out. But Todd had taken things to a whole new level. His level of control had stopped being sexy years ago. After a while, sex was only when he wanted it, how he wanted it, and if she was lucky enough to have an orgasm, she should consider herself grateful. The man never really put any energy into her pleasure. It was very much a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am kind of thing. By the end, she loathed even the thought of him touching her and would lie and say she had a really heavy period or a migraine and then go sleep in the spare bedroom.

  Just as well. Turned out Todd was sleeping with his massage therapist anyway, so it’s not like he missed the sex. And after she snuck and stole his phone one time to see if her suspicions of his affair were true, she realized just how horrible a person Todd really was.

  Not only was he sleeping with his massage therapist, but he was also one of those horrid cyberbullies. You know, the keyboard warrior guys. The middle-aged white men who bully and haunt women, threatening to rape and kill them if they don’t appreciate the unsolicited dick pics. Yeah, Todd was that k
ind of guy.

  For the most part, Todd ignored her when they were in the house together, and when she started sleeping in the guest room every night, he stopped making a stink when he started sleeping with his massage therapist. Except for that one night …

  “Earth to Eva,” Scott said with a chuckle, lightly running his hand over her arm. “You okay? Not too much wine?”

  She shook her head to dislodge the thoughts of Todd and send them flying out of the room. She hoped they landed in the toilet where they belonged. “I’m okay,” she replied. “Just remembering how controlling he really was.” She shuddered. “Glad that chapter of my life is over.”

  “You wanna burn the whole book? Start a whole new story? I can get my hands on some lighter fluid. I’m pretty sure we can figure out a way to get up to the roof of this place and torch some shit in a trash can.”

  The idea of setting fire to every memory she had of Todd held appeal. “That doesn’t sound like a half-bad idea, actually.”

  His smile got real again, and his eyes gleamed. “Back to my original question, though. What do you want, Eva?”

  The way he said her name was intoxicating. Her name on his lips held promises of what he could and would do to her. The subtle scrape of his top teeth over his bottom lip as he enunciated the V in her name. It was erotic and sexy, and with that deep, masculine rumble, she felt a quake way down in her core each and every time he said it.

  “I want to be in control,” she whispered. “I don’t normally take control in bed, and generally I prefer not to. But my ex was very controlling … very selfish.”

  “And you want a night all about you?”

  She shook her head and pushed up to the sitting position, happy that she hadn’t had any more wine and had all of her wits. Boldly she shoved him to his back and swung her leg over his torso so that she was straddling him. “I want a night I will never forget,” she whispered. Her fingers went to task on the buttons of his shirt. “I want a night with a stranger where there is no manipulation, no head games or expectations, no pre-conceived ideas. Just … ” She leaned down and drew one of his exposed nipples in between her teeth, tugging until he hissed out in either pleasure or pain, she didn’t know—or care—which. “Two people enjoying each other. Give and take. I want you to show me what I’ve been missing these past few lonely, celibate years. And I want to remember what it’s like to be with a real man.”