Perfection: A Neighbor From Hell Novel

by R. L. Mathewson

  He placed his hand on her stomach. "There's nothing about your body that I don't like," he whispered against her lips.

  For a moment she didn't say anything as he pressed kisses along her jaw and throat. He slowly guided her onto her back as he gently caressed her stomach and pressed one last kiss against her lips before he pulled back.

  She looked so damn embarrassed and defeated that he couldn't stop himself from brushing his lips against hers one last time. "You're beautiful, Zoe," he said, realizing at that moment just how beautiful she really was. From her beautiful soft brown hair to her stubborn little chin she was beautiful.

  "No, I'm not," she said with a snort and an eye roll as she averted her eyes.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously on her. "Are you calling me a liar?"

  "More like delusional," she said with a snort.

  "How dare you question my taste, woman?" he demanded. "If I say you're beautiful then you're beautiful so get the hell over it!" he snapped.

  "Look, I appreciate the compliment, but-"

  "Out," he said, dropping onto his back and folding his arms over his chest as he stubbornly looked away from her.

  "But-"

  "I said out, woman!"

  "This is my apartment," Zoe pointed out, sounding close to laughing.

  "Then you know where the door is. Now get out, woman, and don't you dare come back until you're ready to apologize to me," he said, waving a dismissive hand in the direction of the door.

  "Apologize to you? For what?" she asked, sitting up to kneel beside him.

  "For what?" he repeated, stunned. "I call you beautiful and you dare to doubt my word? For that you may get your beautiful ass out of my sight."

  "Uh huh," she said, drawing out the words. "Did you by any chance eat this morning?"

  "That has nothing to do with it," he said, sniffing in disdain.

  "Oh, I think it does."

  "Does not."

  "Do you want me to go grab you some cereal or something?" she offered.

  "Not unless it comes with an apology and groveling."

  "Groveling?" she repeated slowly. "Since when is there groveling involved?"

  "Since you doubted my word and only offered to make it up to me with cereal. How dare you add insult to injury?" he snapped as he once again gestured for her to leave.

  "Don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit here?" she asked, and he could hear the smile in her voice. It pleased him that she was no longer upset, but he was still insulted.

  "No, now leave me be, woman," he said, turning his head even more away from her. "I'm no longer speaking with you."

  "Fine," she said, sighing heavily as she climbed off the bed, not apologizing or groveling, he noted.

  Would it really kill her to accept his expertise on the matter? He said she was beautiful then she should really just shut the hell up and accept that he knew best, but the woman was just too damn stubborn and until she accepted that he was right about this he wasn't going to-

  "You know it's too bad that you're not talking to me. I was going to surprise you today. There's this new buffet restaurant opening a few towns over that I was going to--eeep!" she squealed adorably when she found herself back on the bed and pinned beneath him and his mouth smothering hers.

  "I accept your apology."

  Chapter 23

  "Are you still pouting?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

  Trevor threw his truck into park as he sent her another glare. "I just don't understand how you could betray me like this."

  "I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said, getting out of the truck and headed for the restaurant sporting the "Grand Opening Weekend" banner, knowing that Trevor was probably close behind her.

  "Why did you have to tell her?" he demanded as he caught up to her.

  Zoe worried her bottom lip, wondering if he was going to throw his arm around her or hold her hand the way he did when they took Toby for a walk. Of course when he didn't, she forced herself not to be too disappointed. This was only an arrangement after all.

  She shoved her disappointment aside and answered him, knowing it was just a waste of time and energy to be upset over things that were never going to happen. "Why wouldn't I tell Haley?"

  "Because she'll tell Jason," he said, not sounding happy at all as he opened the door and gestured for her to go ahead with the medium size black plastic shopping bag that he'd brought with him. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now she wondered if he was carting around his own condiments.

  "And probably Jared and everyone else, too," Zoe pointed out, feigning innocence. Of course Trevor probably didn't need to know that she text messaged Jared with the name and location of the new buffet restaurant or that she'd made damn sure that everyone in his family knew about the buffet restaurant. He'd be pissed when he found out, but that was okay since she'd been admittedly a little pissed when she did it.

  She still couldn't believe he called her beautiful. While most women probably would have appreciated the compliment she hadn't. If he had actually meant it, and she knew the odds of that happening were zilch, she would have savored it, but he'd only called her beautiful to make her feel better. It was a nice gesture, kind of, but one that hurt more than anything.

  It was hard enough knowing that this arrangement was never going to be more than just sex, and at first she'd accepted it, welcomed it even, but now......

  She wanted more. More importantly she wanted more with Trevor, but she wasn't delusional. He didn't want more with her and she wasn't going to push for it. For however long this lasted, and she really couldn't believe that it lasted this long, she was going to enjoy it. When it ended she was going to take Toby and find a new place to live and hope it didn't kill her to have to see Trevor every day at work. If she couldn't handle seeing him she'd already decided that she'd move out of state, maybe to Florida where she could get a fresh start.

  "Would it have killed you to keep it a secret between us?" Trevor asked as they stepped into the long line for the cashier.

  "It's a buffet, Trevor. They would have found out about it within a week," she explained even though it was really just common sense.

  "Yes, but that would have been a week that I could enjoy the place before those greedy bastards get us all banned," Trevor sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration.

  "Gee, I hadn't thought about that," she mumbled, trying not to laugh.

  Trevor slowly looked down at her. His eyes narrowed dangerously on her as she did her best to bite back her smile, but lost that battle several times.

  "Oh my god.....you sold me out," he said, looking shocked and affronted, which was kind of ridiculous since at this point he really should be used to it.

  "I wanted to see how an entire family could get banned from a restaurant," she admitted with a shrug. Ever since she first heard that he'd been banned from most of the fast food places she'd been admittedly curious. Of course that curiosity only tripled when she discovered the entire family had a history of being banned. So when she accidentally discovered this place last Monday she thought that perhaps she could entertain herself with a live show.

  "You sold me out? For your own amusement?" he demanded.

  "And this shocks you how?" she asked, stepping up in the line.

  When Trevor looked around before leaning down to whisper something in her ear she fully expected a promise to spank her ass, but she got something entirely different instead.

  "If I wasn't certain that I'd be banned after today, you and I would be heading to the nearest hotel where I could fuck you until neither one of us could move," he whispered harshly in her ear, making her breaths come a little faster and her knees threaten to give out.

  "I-I'm not that hungry," she stammered, more than willing to opt for plan B. Well she was hungry, but she was also feeling a little sick as well. She was starting to get a little worried that she might have something worse than food poisoning like e coli. "And I'm pretty sure I spotted a fe
w hotels close by."

  "Too bad, you need to eat," he said, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek before stepping back so they could move up in the line.

  She opened her mouth to argue only to have Trevor give her a stern look and a shake of his head in warning. He'd already warned her that he didn't want to hear anymore nonsense about needing to lose weight and told her that he would end things if she didn't take better care of herself. It was actually kind of sweet that he cared so much.

  "Fine," she sighed, stepping up to the front of the line.

  "How many?" the friendly cashier asked with a huge smile and Zoe idly wondered how long the woman would be able to keep it up before it became painful.

  "Two," Trevor answered.

  Zoe pulled out some money from her pocket to pay for her meal and went to hand it to the woman when Trevor threw her a dirty look as he gently pushed her hand away. With a sigh she put the money away, knowing this wasn't a date and really wishing he'd just let her pay her own way.

  "Over here," Trevor said, placing a hand at the small of her back to guide her through the already crowded restaurant towards the booths closer to the long buffet tables.

  "Oh, there's Haley and Jason," she said, gesturing towards the opposite side of the room where Haley and Jason sat with their two little ones. Haley went to gesture them over only to have Jason grab her hand and shake his head.

  Frowning, Zoe raised her hand to at least wave to her friend, wondering what Jason's problem was, when she found herself in a similar situation.

  "Don't," Trevor said, gently pushing her hand down as he continued to usher her towards a row of empty booths near the large bay windows overlooking the parking lot.

  "I was just going to say hello," Zoe explained as Trevor placed their receipt down to claim the table.

  "You can't," Trevor said, giving her a little nudge in the direction of one of the buffet lines, the black bag still firmly in his left hand.

  "Why not?"

  "Because she's with the enemy," Trevor said tightly.

  Zoe shot a look over at Haley to find Jason glaring in their direction. "Jason's the enemy?" she asked, starting to feel a little confused. She'd come for entertainment, but instead she'd found a new level of insanity among the Bradford males. Well, it was entertaining, but a different form of entertainment than what she'd been expecting.

  "Now you're getting it," Trevor said approvingly. "Every bastard from my family is a potential threat. We need to maintain our distance and watch our backs," he said, sounding completely serious, which she found rather cute.

  Really, who would have thought a large paranoid man could be cute? She certainly hadn't, but she just couldn't help but find the dirty looks he was sending his cousin anything but cute, especially the way he scowled when Jason discretely flipped him off.

  "Why exactly are they the enemy?" she asked, drawing his attention away from Jason, who appeared to be glaring down at his son as Cole grabbed another fistful of spaghetti from Jason's plate.

  "Because one of them is going to get banned today and if we're not careful he'll take us all down with him," Trevor said, handing her a plate. "Now go get some food, some real food."

  With a little sigh she took the plate from him and wandered around the long self-serving tables as she looked around to see how many Bradfords were there. After Jason, she spotted Jared and his wife sitting at the far end, but they didn't seem to see her or rather they didn't acknowledge her in any way. She found several of the Bradfords that either worked for Jared or stopped by the office from time to time and several large devastatingly handsome men that could have passed for Bradfords.

  As she walked along the buffet tables, trying to figure out what wouldn't upset her sensitive stomach she wondered which Bradford would get banned. That of course led her back to her earlier thoughts.

  How exactly did someone get on a restaurant's banned list? Or more importantly how did the entire family get on the list? The possibilities simply boggled the mind.

  "You're with Trevor?" a gruff voice demanded, drawing her attention. She looked up from adding French cut green beans onto her dish and kept looking up until she saw a rather stern, yet incredibly handsome older man with peppered short black hair looking down at her and looking way too serious for a man with deeply etched laugh lines around his mouth and eyes.

  "Yeah, I guess, I mean we're friends," she said nervously.

  The man nodded firmly, once, before shooting a look of what could only be described as a warning across the room at Trevor, who was sitting at the booth with two overflowing plates and several glasses of water. Trevor either didn't realize he was the object of a glare or simply didn't care as he dug into his food.

  "You tell him as long as Jared's boys don't screw the rest of the family over like they did in Las Vegas we'll forgive them for Disneyworld," the man said, never taking his eyes away from Trevor.

  Wow, there was so much in that warning that caught her attention, but she found herself asking, "Jared's boys?" As far as she knew Jared only had one son.

  The man nodded. "Jason and Trevor. Although we all have a soft spot for the boy, Jared's the one who kept the boy in line and was able to be there from the start because he lived closer. He also took over when my beautiful baby sister passed away," he explained, his scowl softening as he continued to look at Trevor.

  He looked away from Trevor to send her a faint smile. "That doesn't mean we didn't care. I lost count how many times I asked Sarah to allow Trevor to come live with us, but she was damn determined to raise the boy on her own, of course Jared just ignored her wishes and made sure they had everything they needed and that included keeping Trevor in line."

  "Jared's a very good man," Zoe mumbled, feeling close to crying. When the hell did she become this pathetic woman where everything made her cry? Last night when she was watching television one of the old Downy commercials came on with that cute little bear and she found herself bawling her eyes out. Thank god Trevor hadn't been there, but poor Toby didn't fare as well. She'd hugged the dog, crying into his fur until he managed to break free and run to safety in Trevor's apartment.

  The man looked at her with a little more than curiosity. "Will we be seeing you this Thursday?"

  "For Thanksgiving?" she asked, wondering why the man would think she'd be joining a family dinner. When he nodded she said, "No, I have plans." The same plans she had every year since she was fifteen. It was a tradition mostly because she'd never had another choice, but one she actually enjoyed immensely.

  He sighed heavily as he absently reached out and took her plate from her and starting piling it with food almost as if he wasn't aware of what he was doing. "Alright, sweetheart, you make sure you give Trevor the message and have yourself a nice Thanksgiving," he said, placing two large dinner rolls on the plate. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead and even more surprising, placed the large plate filled to the rim with food back in her hands.

  "Thank you," she murmured, looking down at her plate and feeling her eyes tear up at the gesture. A Bradford giving up food? It was unheard of and very sweet, she thought as she made her way over to Trevor. Thankfully by the time she was sliding into the booth across from Trevor her eyes had dried up and her traitorous stomach was demanding food, which was a blessing after the weekend she'd had.

  "What the hell did my Uncle Ethan say that upset you?" Trevor asked, starting to get up and presumably go have a word with his uncle.

  Zoe rolled her eyes as she reached out and placed a hand on his arm. "Nothing. He was very sweet."

  The glare he sent his uncle, who was now carrying a large plate of food to an area well away from Jared and Jason clearly stated that he didn't believe her. He looked like he wanted to tear his uncle's head off and that just made Zoe want to cry again.

  "Are you crying?" Trevor whispered, sounding truly horrified.

  "No!" she snapped, grabbing a napkin and dabbing at her eyes. "I'm just tired." Which was sadly true and she really coul
dn't understand it since she should be caught up on her sleep considering she'd slept most of the weekend away.

  Trevor looked at her for a moment before letting out a heavy breath. "You need to make a doctor's appointment to make sure you didn't make yourself sick with that diet. You could be anemic," he said as he reached out and snagged one of her biscuits.

  She frowned at the thought. She really hadn't considered that possibility when she decided to go on her diet, but she'd lost weight and while her energy had gone up in the beginning it was lagging most of the time now and she felt tired and weak lately. With her luck she'd probably made herself really sick with that damn diet.

  "I'll make an appointment tomorrow," she promised. Hopefully they could get her in before the holiday weekend started on Thursday, because she really wasn't sure she could keep this up.

  "Good," he said, giving her the look that meant he would spank her ass if she didn't.

  "Can I ask you a question?" she said as she scooped up a bite of meatloaf.

  "Shoot," he said, not bothering to look up from his plate while he ate or when his hand shot out and stole her second roll.

  "What happened in Las Vegas and Disneyworld?

  His fork stopped halfway to his mouth as his eyes shot to her. He pointed a mashed potato filled fork in her direction. "What did that bastard tell you? Did he tell you we got the family banned?"

  "Well, he-," but he wouldn't let her finish.

  "Because that's bullshit. Okay, maybe the Las Vegas thing was our fault, well mostly Uncle Jared's and Jason's fault, but it was supposed to be a twenty-four hour buffet," he explained. "And that Disneyworld thing," he shook his head in disgust, "was all a simple misunderstanding. There was no need to get the police involved," he said on a sniff.

  "Um, okay," she said even more confused and admittedly a little frightened. Seriously, what had they done? And would they do it again so that she could see?

  Chapter 24

  "Wow, I've never seen Jason look so angry before," Zoe whispered.