by Lauren Wood
“Carlos? Are you coming back to bed?”
She didn’t even ask who it was. Cassie was just worried about if I was going to come back to finish her off. Cassie knew not to ask questions and I liked that about her. I called back that I would be there in a minute, but I found myself not as eager as I had been about it. I wanted Eve in my bed all of a sudden, my cousin and his sensitive heart be damned. The new neighbor was my kind of woman, even though I was starting to get the feeling that I was not her type of man.
***
I knocked on the door and pushed the brown hair back from my face, trying to calm it down from where it was springing up from rolling around the night before. I wasn’t sure what I was doing there, but I knew that I wanted to see Eve again. I had a coffee in my hand that I had retrieved from the coffee shop down the road. I was looking at it as a peace offering.
“Hello?”
The door didn’t open, but I could hear her voice on the other side of it. I had a feeling that she was looking at me through the peephole and part of me wasn’t sure what to think. Why wasn’t she answering the door?
“I thought I would bring you some coffee, my way of apologizing for last night. I hope we didn’t bother you too much.”
The door still didn’t open and I was starting to think that it wasn’t going to. After another long pause I heard a couple of locks move over and she cracked the door open finally. “You didn’t have to bring me anything.”
“Just muzzle her next time huh?”
The red in her face was back and she opened the door a little wider. “I’m sorry I said that. I just haven’t been getting a lot of sleep is all and I just popped off at the mouth. You didn’t have to come by here Carlos.”
I insisted that she take the coffee and she refused, telling me that she didn’t drink coffee that late in the day. “It’s only noon.”
“I’ve been up working since five. It is about the only time I can while you are here and it actually quiet around here for a little while.”
“Is it really that bad?”
I don’t know why I expected any other answer but the one that I got. “Yes it is. I am looking into moving because our lifestyles are just not compatible together. I don’t think it would be wise to stay living in the building, but I thank you for the apology. I hope you have a good day and I am once again, sorry that I was so rude with you last night.”
The door closed and I was left standing there holding two coffees like an idiot. I don’t know what I expected from her, but it wasn’t what I got. Instead I had been dismissed like I was a child and I now had an extra coffee that I wasn’t going to drink. I didn’t like it to begin with, but I didn’t think my normal shot in the morning was going to do well to share with a woman like her.
Getting back up to my apartment, I silently the girl downstairs that was taking up too much of my attention and mind. I wasn’t used to caring and I could tell that I still didn’t really care for the sentiment. I didn’t like having to care and I certainly didn’t like it if I was going to have to live next to her, not able to get into her panties. That was all I could think about when she came by last night and it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. I didn’t need this in my life.
Now, I was left to call Cassie if I wanted something and when I thought about it, I didn’t find myself too enthused to see her. While I should have been, I just wasn’t. What I wanted I couldn’t have, so instead I turned up the music and tried to forget her. I didn’t even think about going down to the bar and picking up someone new. It was only Eve that had me going.
There was no noise from downstairs and I had to wonder what she was doing. It seemed to me that a woman like Eve would come around eventually. I had never met someone that I couldn’t have and I was sure she was no different. The only thing that could stop me was her moving and I had to make sure that it didn’t happen. I could be quiet if I wanted to be…
I looked over at the radio and felt the floor underneath me moving. I was already being too loud, but I hadn’t thought about it that way. I had always been a little loud, but now I was starting to realize how much. Going to the stereo, I turned it way down and sighed deeply. I wasn’t doing this because she asked. I was just doing it to get on the right side of her. That was all this was, just until I convinced her to give me a chance and then I would run with it. I’m sure as soon as I have her the way I want her, I will be able to get her off my mind once and for all.
Chapter 4
Eve
The music stopped upstairs after Carlos left. I was sure that it was going to be louder and he would be worse than before, but it seemed like he was actually going to be better. I could have handled talking to him a little nicer, but it was hard to. All I could think about was how he had looked the night before when he had opened the door to me. I had not been expecting the hard chest and hard rod that was practically bursting from underneath a very thin sheet around his waist. It was something that I wasn’t prepared for and talking to him after seeing him in such a way was not how I was going to be able to look at him straight.
Now it was becoming a problem. Before I couldn’t write because I was too tired and everything was too loud, but now things were different. Now I couldn’t work because I was thinking about Carlos and I couldn’t help but think about how long it had been since I was with a man in that way. My last boyfriend was my only boyfriend and he didn’t look anything like Carlos with his clothes off. If he had, maybe we would still be together, but Tony never looked like that. He had been upset when I left, but now I was starting to see that there were a lot of things that I never knew about, things that were now making me wonder.
Sighing to myself, I knew there was nothing that I could really do, but leave the apartment. I couldn’t work and I was starting to get a little cabin fever. A run was just what I needed and before it got too much later and hotter, I was going to get a run in. I was hoping that it was just what I needed to get the man off of my mind. He was off limits after all. A man like that would be dangerous to a girl like me, to any girl really.
I left the apartment and did my best not to look up at the balcony of Carlos’ apartment. There was part of me that wanted to, to see if he was up and smoking a cigarette like I saw him doing some days. But I didn’t look. I was trying hard to be good and ignore the temptation that was right above me.
The pace that I started was faster than usual. I had too much energy to get out of my body and all I could think about was the hard abs that I had seen the day before. It was hard to think of anything else and I found myself on the wrong side of the road, going the wrong direction. Where was my mind at today? I was never going to get any work done this way. I knew what I needed, but there was no clear answer on how to get it.
Passing up the coffee shop that I had seen Joel in, it gave me an idea of how I could get my mind off of everything. I knew that Joel liked me in a way that I wasn’t sure I liked him, but he was nice and didn’t push. He was also one of the only people out of work that I knew in the city and I was starting to feel lonely. The knowledge that I wasn’t going to see my friends at home for months was hard to fathom. It was rather lonely in the city that didn’t sleep.
Calling Joel when I got back to the apartment, I asked if he wanted to go out and do anything that evening. I was sure that I knew how it sounded, but I was hoping that he would take it as a friendly invitation. That was what I was hoping for anyways.
***
“You look, stunning Eve.”
I had made the effort and I was already rethinking it when I saw the look in Joel’s eyes. Maybe I had done too much because he looked like he wanted to eat me alive at the moment.
“Thank you Joel. You clean up nice as well.”
He grinned at me and I noticed that he was wearing a leather jacket. Joel looked different and I knew that the jacket had something to do with it. He looked like a biker all of a sudden and it made me wonder what form of transportation he was going to be
taking me out in. When he handed me a helmet and walked towards the bike, I knew that my fears were realized.
“We are taking this?”
His smile faltered and he shook his head. “I told you that I had a bike, didn’t I?”
Shaking my head that he didn’t, I was sure that I would have remembered such a thing. There was no way that I was getting onto the back of it. That was all I could think about. I was going to die, I was sure of it if I did get on.
“You don’t want to ride with me?”
About to answer him, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and I could tell that it was Carlos on his porch. He wasn’t usually home this late in the day, but of course he had to be there. I didn’t want him to think that I was a coward, so against all better judgement, I put the helmet on and got on the back of the bike.
It moved when I got on and it scared me for a moment, but I was happy that the helmet covered up my face and the expression on it. More regret came when Joel got on and my body naturally nestled up against him. It was too close and I could feel my face getting hot. This was supposed to be a night to get Carlos out of my mind, but it was only getting me in trouble so far.
I couldn’t ask him where we were going because of the loud bike, so I was left to hold on for dear life and hope that we didn’t crash on the way to wherever it was we were going. When we stopped at a particularly rough looking bar that was lined with other bikes like Joel’s, I started to wonder if I would have been better off in a wreck. There weren’t a lot of women there from what I saw and the few that were there were not dressed like I was. I was dressed to go out to a restaurant and eat, not this. What had I gotten myself into?
***
“This is Carlos’ place.”
“Carlos?”
“Yeah my cousin that lives upstairs.”
“Oh.”
Looking around, it started to make sense why Carlos was always gone when he was. His lifestyle was far different from mine. Curiously enough though, I didn’t see the man that Joel kept talking about. I could tell that the man admired Carlos and it wasn’t hard to see that there was a loyalty there. I liked that about Joel and it made me rethink Carlos if he had someone that thought that highly of him. Maybe I had seen him all wrong before?
“You still haven’t really met him yet?”
I was sure that Joel had heard about my comments the other night, so I told him that we had met when I had went over there.
“I wouldn’t really call it a social call though. It was three in the morning.”
Joel just smirked and shook his head. “I hope Carlos wasn’t too gruff with you. He has a tendency to be that way sometimes, but his bark is worse than his bite.
“He was actually pretty nice about it and they were quiet the rest of the night. He even brought me coffee the next morning, so that was nice.”
My words stunned Joel and I wasn’t sure why.
“That doesn’t sound like my cousin.”
“Why?”
Joel just shook his head. “Carlos usually doesn’t give in to anyone.”
The look on his face was different than before. Joel was looking at me strangely and I took a drink of the glass in front of me to break the eye contact.
“What are you two doing here?”
Speak of the devil.
“Just taking Eve out to see the place. She is still new to the city, so she had to come to the best place here.”
I agreed with Joel, but it was Carlos that took my attention. His look was similar to his cousins, but with Carlos it didn’t look like a want, it looked like a need that he had every intention on getting his way.
“You flatter me Joel. I don’t think that this is Eve’s kind of scene.”
His comment offended me, even though it was dead on. “You don’t know what kind of scene I am into Carlos.”
“Well you don’t fit in here. I think you need something a little fancier, like a drink with an umbrella in it.”
Taking Joel’s shot of whiskey I downed it and asked Carlos for another. I saw the brow go up on Carlos’ face and I thought I had made myself clear. I wasn’t some weakling like he thought. I didn’t have to be handled with kid gloves, but I seemed to forget that I wasn’t a very good drinker. Never had been and by the way I was feeling, I was never going to be.
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Always Mine
A Bad Boy Next Door Romance
ALWAYS MINE: A BAD BOY NEXT DOOR ROMANCE
“I knew once I saw you that I would make you mine. You were pure and a little dirty in the same breath. It was going to take a lifetime to know you, to really know you.”
There wasn’t a woman alive that I couldn’t have…and I wanted them all.
I knew that I had to have Cameron the first time that I saw her. She was beautiful and the fire in her eyes was hard to deny.
It was only a matter of time before I made her mine. With my hard body, bike and tattoos, I was irresistible and I had never met a woman yet that wouldn’t drop her panties for me. Once I got a girl in my head, there was nothing in the world that was going to save her from Joel Radici.
Sure she can fight it, think that she has a choice.
Cameron can tell me that she doesn’t like bad boys.
She can try and scare me off with that haughty look all she wants.
None of that matters to me one bit.
Because I already claimed that curvy body of hers and I was going to make her mine. I didn’t matter what the cost, Cameron was going to be underneath me soon enough, screaming out my name for more.
How could she deny me, when I know what it is that she really needs?
***
Chapter 1
Cameron
“Hold the door?”
I looked back at the tall man in a leather jacket that was talking to me in such a gruff voice. He had his hands full, but the problem was that I didn’t know who he was. The door was usually locked for safety reasons and I didn’t want to be the one to let him in.
“I’m sorry Sir, but if you don’t live here, I can’t let you in.”
“I am moving in today, so hold the door.”
He gestured to all of the items in his hands and there was a moment that I thought it would be best if I did let him in. But there was another side of me that was sure that he didn’t live here. I had lived in the building for many years and I would have remembered a man like him. He was hard to forget with his tattoos and dark brown eyes.
“I’m sorry, but you should have a key then. I can’t let you in, but I will give you a number to call the manager if you want.”
He looked at me as if I was a little crazy and I ignored the look that he gave me. I closed the door behind me and there was a bit of noise when I did so. I looked back over my shoulder once to catch his dark gaze. If I would have been wax, I would have melted right then and there from the stare. It was clear that he wasn’t the least bit happy with me. The man’s dark brown eyes bore into me until it was hard for me to speak, let alone go up the stairs to my own apartment. What if he was telling the truth? There was no way that we were going to be friends or anything short of enemies.
I tried not to think about it again as I opened the door to my apartment. The city wasn’t as safe as it had been and if I was wrong, there was no telling what could happen. Besides, he looked a little rough for this neighborhood. Whoever the man was, he didn’t look like he belonged. It was men like him that I tried to stay away from. That was why I lived in a place that had better security than my last place and I paid a premium in rent.
Forgetting about the man from the door, I took a shower and got ready to go out for the evening. Carol had invited me to drinks and it had been one of those weeks that I needed one. It wasn’t long before I was makin
g my way back down the stairs and I stopped short when I saw the landlord and the rude man from before. I cringed inside. Of course he was telling the truth.
“Cameron. How are you doing?”
I smiled at the old man and told him that I was fine. I tried my best to ignore the look that I was getting from the dark-haired man standing next to him. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy with me and I didn’t blame him now. In my defense, I didn’t really know who he was. He could have been anyone.
“I wanted to introduce you to the new complex manager Joel. You know that I am getting long in the tooth, so I finally hired someone that will be taking care of everything for me.”
It was getting worse by the minute and all I wanted to do was scream a little inside. It was my luck that he was the new manager. That meant that it was going to be impossible to get anything fixed, not when I hadn’t let him in.
“Nice to meet you Joel.”
I moved to shake his hand and there was a moment that I thought he wouldn’t take it. Mr. Johnson was standing right there though and must not have known about us meeting earlier.
“We have already met Ron. This is the one that wouldn’t let me in earlier and made me call you down here.”
Mr. Johnson chuckled and the grip on my hand was a bit tighter. I pulled away after a moment and bid them both a goodbye. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I was more than a little embarrassed and I knew then that I wasn’t going to be calling for anything unless it was an emergency.
