by Lora Leigh
“And so you should,” she retorted, propping her hands on her hips as she glared back at him. “You hacked your grass. Worse, you hacked it in the winter. There’s no symmetry in the cut, and you set your blade too low. You’ll be lucky to have grass come summer. You just killed it all.”
He turned and stared back at his lawn. When he turned back to her, cool arrogance marked his features.
“The lawn is perfect.”
He had to be kidding.
“Look,” she breathed out roughly. “Just stick to mangling your own property, okay? Leave mine alone. Remember the line—oak to oak—and stay on your side of it.”
He propped his hands on his hips again. The move drew her eyes back to the sweat-dampened perfection of that golden male chest.
It should be illegal.
“You are not being neighborly,” he announced coolly, almost ruining her self-control and bringing a smile of pure fun to her lips. “I was told when I bought the house that everyone on this block was friendly, but you have been consistently rude. I believe I was lied to.”
He sounded shocked. Actually, he was mocking her, and she really didn’t like it. Well, maybe she did a little bit, but she wasn’t going to let him know it.
She refused to allow her lips to twitch at the sight of the laughter in his gaze. He very rarely smiled, but sometimes, every now and then, she could make his eyes smile.
“That Realtor would have told you the sun rose in the west and the moon was made of cheese if it would assure him a sale.” She smiled mockingly. “He sold to me first, so he knew I wasn’t nice. I guess he neglected to inform you of that fact.”
Actually, she had gotten along quite well with the real estate agent. He was a very nice gentleman who had assured her that the homes on this block would only be sold to a specific type of person. So, evidently, he had lied to her, too, because the man standing across from her was not respectable, nor was he family-oriented. He was a sex god, and she was within a second of worshipping at his strong, male feet. She was so weak.
He was a rose assassin, she reminded herself firmly, and she was going to kick his ass if he attacked any more of her precious plants. Better yet, she would call her brothers and cry. Then they would kick his ass.
No, that wouldn’t do, she hastily amended. They would run him off. That wasn’t what she wanted at all.
“Perhaps I should discuss this with him.” He tipped his glasses down his nose once again, staring at her over the rim. “At least he was right about the view.”
His gaze roved over her from her heels to the tip of her head as his golden-brown eyes twinkled with laughter—at her expense, of course. As though she didn’t know she was too homey. A little too normal-looking. She wasn’t the sexy, siren type, and she had no desire to be. That didn’t mean he had to make fun of her.
It was perfectly acceptable for her to toy with him. Having him turn the tables did not amuse her in the least.
“That was not amusing,” she informed him coldly, wishing she could hide behind something now.
The ratty jeans she wore hung low on her hips, not because of fashion, but more because they were a bit too loose. The T-shirt she wore fit a bit better, but it was almost too snug. But she was cleaning house, not auditioning for Fashions R Us.
“I wasn’t trying to be amusing.” His grin was wicked, sensual. “I was being honest.”
He was trying to get out of trouble. She knew that look for what it was. It wasn’t the first time he had pulled it on her.
“I have three older brothers,” she informed him coolly. “I know all the tricks, mister …”
“Jordan. Tarek Jordan,” he reminded smoothly.
As though she didn’t already know his name. She had known his name from the first day he had moved in to his house with the honkin’ Harley he had ridden across her front lawn.
Damn, that Harley had really looked good, but he had looked even better sitting on it.
“Mister,” she repeated, “you are not putting anything over on me, so don’t think you are. Now keep your damned machines away from my property and away from me, or I might have to show you how they are used and hurt all that male pride you seem to have so much of.” She shooed him again. “Go on. On your own property now. And leave my roses alone.”
His eyes narrowed on her again. This time, his expression changed as well. It became … predatory. Not dangerous. Not threatening. But it wasn’t a comfortable expression, either. It was an expression that assured her that an abundance of male testosterone was getting ready to kick in. And he did male testosterone really well. He got all snarky and snarly and downright ill-tempered as he glared at her, his voice edging into dangerously rough as he growled at her and attempted to berate her.
She refused to back down.
“Don’t look at me like that, either. I told you. I have three brothers. You do not intimidate me.”
His brow arched. Slowly.
“It was very nice to see you today, Lyra.” He finally nodded cordially. “Perhaps next time, you won’t be in such a bad mood.”
“Yeah. Sometime when you’re not mangling the looks of the block would be nice,” she snorted as she turned away from him. “Geez, only I could get stuck with a neighbor with absolutely no landscaping grace. How the hell do I manage it?”
She stomped away, certain now that she should never have let her father talk her into this particular house.
“It’s close to the family,” she mocked, rolling her eyes. “The price is perfect,” she mocked her eldest brother. “Yeah. Right. And the neighbors suck …”
• • •
Tarek watched her go, hearing her mocking little voice all the way to the porch as she stomped up the sidewalk. Finally, the front door slammed with an edge of violence that would have caused any other man to flinch. Breeds didn’t flinch.
He glanced down at the Weed Eater hanging from his shoulders and breathed in deeply before turning to glance back at the lawn.
The cut of the grass was fine, he assured himself, barely managing not to wince. Fine, it might not look so great, but he had fun cutting it. Hell, he even had fun using the Weed Eater. At least, until Ms. Don’t-Attack-My-Roses came storming out from her house.
As though he wasn’t well aware that all the female fury was more feigned than true anger. He could smell her heat, her arousal, and her excitement. She wasn’t hiding nearly as much as she thought she was.
He chuckled and glanced back at the two-story brick-and-glass home. It suited her. Nice and regal on the outside, but with depth. Lots and lots of depth. He could see it in her wide blue eyes, in the pouty softness of her lips.
She was a wildcat, though. Well, she was as fiery as a wildcat anyway. He cleared his throat, scratched at his chest thoughtfully, then hefted the Weed Eater off his shoulders and headed back to the little metal shed behind his own house.
He liked his house better, he told himself. The rough wood two-story with the wraparound porch was … comfortable. It was roomy and natural, with open rooms and a sense of freedom. There was something about the house that soothed him, that eased the nightmares that often haunted him.
He hadn’t been looking for a home when he gave in to the Realtor’s suggestion to check out the house. He had been looking for a rental, nothing more. But as they pulled into the driveway, the fresh scent of a summer rainfall still lingering in the air, blending with the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting from the neighboring house, he had known, in that moment, this was his.
This house, too large for him alone, the yard begging for sheltering trees and bushes and the laughter of children echoing with it, called to him. Six months later, this home he hadn’t known he wanted still soothed the rough edges of his soul.
He pulled open the door to the shed, pausing before stepping into the close confines of the little building to store the Weed Eater. He was going to have to replace the shed with a larger one. Each time he stepped into the darkness, he felt as though it was closin
g in on him, trapping him. Caging him in.
There was something different, though. He paused as he stepped from it, staring back into the interior as he considered it thoughtfully.
He hadn’t smelled the usual mustiness of the building. For once, the smell of damp earth hadn’t sent his stomach roiling with memories. It was because his senses were still filled with the soft scent of coffee, fresh-baked bread, and a warm, sweet female.
Lyra Mason.
He turned and stared back at her house, rubbing at his chest, barely feeling the almost imperceptible scars that crisscrossed his flesh there.
Coffee and fresh-baked bread.
He had never eaten fresh-baked bread. He had only smelled it drifting from her house in the past months. It had taken him forever to figure out what that smell was. And coffee was, unfortunately, a weakness of his. And she had both.
He wondered if she could make better coffee than he did.
Hell, of course she could. He grunted as he turned away and stalked to his back door. Jerking it open, he stepped into the house, stopping to pull off his boots before padding across the smooth, cream-colored tiles.
The kitchen was made for someone other than him.
He still hadn’t managed to figure out the stove. Thankfully, there was a microwave or he would have starved to death.
He moved to the coffeepot with every intention of fixing some before he paused and grimaced. He could still smell the scent of Lyra’s coffee.
His lip lifted in a snarl as a growl rumbled from his throat. He wanted some of her coffee. It smelled much better than his. And he wanted some of that fresh-baked bread.
Not that she was likely to give him any. He had cut her precious bush, so she would, of course, have to punish him. This was the way the world worked. He had learned that at the labs from an early age.
Well, he had known it. The scars that marred his chest and back were proof that it was a lesson he had never really fully learned.
He propped his hands on his hips and glared at Lyra’s house. He was a Lion Breed. A fully grown male trained to kill in a hundred different ways. His specialty was with the rifle. He could pick off a man a half-mile away with some of the weapons he had hidden in his bedroom.
He had excelled in his training, learned all the labs had to teach him, then fought daily to escape. His chance had finally come with the attacks mounted on the Breed labs seven years before.
Since then, he had been attempting to learn how to live in a world that still didn’t fully trust the animal DNA that was a part of him.
Not that anyone in the little city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, knew who or what he was. Only those at Sanctuary, the main Breed compound, knew the truth about him. They were his family and his employers.
He dropped his arms from his chest and propped his hands on his hips.
He couldn’t get the smell of that coffee or that bread out of his mind. That woman would drive him crazy—she was too sensual, too completely earthy. But the smell of that coffee … He sighed at the thought.
He shook his head, ignoring the feel of his overly long hair against his shoulders. It was time to cut it, but damned if he could find the time. The job he had been sent here to do was taking almost every waking moment. Except for the time he had taken to cut the grass.
And the time he was going to take now to see if he could repair the crime of cutting that dumb bush and getting a cup of Lyra’s coffee.
A taste of the woman would come soon enough.
• CHAPTER 2 •
Bread lined the counter of Lyra’s perfect, beautiful kitchen. Fresh white bread, banana nut bread, and her father’s favorite cinnamon rolls. A fresh cup of coffee sat at her elbow, and a recipe book spread out on the table in front of her as she attempted to find the directions for the étouffée she wanted to try.
The cookbook was no more than several hundred pages, some handwritten, some typewritten, and others printed from the computer and bound haphazardly over the years. Her mother had started it, and now Lyra added her own recipes to it as well as using those already present.
The soft tunes of a new country band were playing on the stereo in the living room, and her foot was swaying in a cheerful rhythm along with the music.
“Do you actually like that music?”
A shocked squeak of fear erupted from her throat as she jumped from her chair, sending it flying against the wall as she nearly threw the coffee cup across the room.
And there he stood.
Her nemesis.
The man had to have been placed here just to torment and torture her. There was no other answer for it.
“What did you do?” She turned and jerked the chair from where it had fallen against the wall, snapping it back in place before turning and propping her hands on her hips.
He was here. And acting just a little bit too awkward to suit her. He had to have messed up something again.
He stood just inside the doorway, freshly showered and looking too damned roughly male for any woman’s peace of mind. If he were conventionally good-looking, she could have ignored him. But he wasn’t. His face was roughly hewn, with sharp angles, high cheekbones, and sensual, eatable lips.
A man shouldn’t have eatable lips. It was too distracting to those women who didn’t have a hope in hell of getting a taste.
“I didn’t do anything.” He ran his hand along the back of his neck, turning to look outside the door as though in confusion before returning his gaze to her. “I came to apologize.”
He didn’t look apologetic.
He looked like he wanted something.
He rubbed at his neck again, his hand moving beneath the fall of overly long, light-brown hair, the cut defining and emphasizing the harsh planes and angles of his face.
Of course he wanted something. All men did. And she doubted very seriously it had anything to do with her body. Which was really just too bad. She could think of a lot of things that tough male body of his would be good for.
Unfortunately, men like him—tough, buff, and bad—generally never looked her way.
“To apologize?” She caught the half-hidden, longing look he cast to the counter and the cooling bread there.
“Yes. To apologize.” He nodded ever so slightly, his expression just a shade more calculating than she would have liked.
She firmed her lips, very damned well aware that he was not there to apologize. He was wasting her time, as well as his, by lying to her.
He wanted her bread. She could see it in his eyes.
“Fine.” She shrugged dismissively. What else could she do? “Stay the hell away from my plants, and I’ll forgive you. You can go now.”
He shifted, drawing attention to his wide chest and the crisp white shirt he wore. He had changed clothes in addition to showering. He wore form-hugging jeans with the white shirt tucked in neatly. A leather belt circled his lean hips, and the ever-present boots were on his feet, though these looked a little better than the previous pair.
His gaze drifted to the bread once again.
It figured. And the hungry, desperate gleam in his eyes was just about her undoing. Just about. She was not going to let him sweet-talk her out of it, she assured herself.
She stared back at him coolly as her hand clenched on the back of the chair. He was not going to eat her bread. That bread was gold where her father and brothers were concerned, and she desperately needed the points it would earn her. It was the only way she was going to get her pretty wooden shed built, and she knew it.
He glanced back at her, this time not even bothering to hide the cool calculation in his gaze.
“We could make a deal, you and I,” he finally suggested, his voice firm, almost bargaining.
Uh-huh. She just bet they could.
“Really?” She let go of the chair and leaned against the counter as she watched him with a skeptical look. “How so?”
Oh boy, she just couldn’t wait to hear this one. It was going to have to be good. She knew men
, and she knew he had obviously been preparing the coming speech carefully.
But she was intrigued. Few men bothered to be straightforward or even partially honest when they wanted something. At least he wasn’t pulling out the charm and pretending to be overcome with attraction for her to get what he wanted.
“However you wish,” he finally stated firmly. “Tell me what I would have to do to get a loaf of that bread and a cup of coffee.”
She stared back at him in shock.
She wasn’t used to such straightforward, fully mercenary tactics from anyone. Let alone a man.
She watched him thoughtfully.
He wanted the bread; she wanted a shed. Okay, maybe they could trade. Not what she had expected, but she was willing to roll with the opportunity being presented.
“Can you use a hammer any better than you can a Weed Eater?”
She needed that shed.
His lips thinned. He glanced at the bread again with a faint expression of regret.
“I could lie to you and say yes.” He tilted his head and offered her a tentative smile. “I’m very tempted to do so.”
Great. He couldn’t use a hammer, either.
She stared back at the muscular condition of his finely honed body. A man didn’t look like that as a result of the gym. It was natural muscle and grace, not the heavy, packed-on appearance guys got from the gym. But if he couldn’t cut his own lawn or swing a hammer, how the hell did he manage it?
She shook her head. Obviously nature really, really liked him, because Tarek Jordan was so not an outdoor sort of person.
“Let me guess. You’re really good on the computer?” She sighed at the thought. Why did she attract the techies instead of the real men?
“Well, I am actually.” He offered her a hopeful smile. “Does yours need work?”
At least he was honest—in some things. She guessed that deserved some compensation, though she fully admitted she was just too nice sometimes.
“Look, promise to keep your machines away from my property line, and I’ll give you some coffee and a slice of bread,” she offered.
“Just a slice?” His expression fell, rather like a child whose favorite treat had been jerked from his hands.
