She swallows noisily before licking her lips. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for that. But I promise I’ll try. I know shit’s complicated between us, but…”
I roll back over onto my side, cutting her sentence off. “I need to get some sleep. It’s getting late.”
What I need is to stop talking about this. I don’t want her to know how scared I was, how I wouldn’t have thought twice about killing that asshole if I had been a few minutes too late. How losing her would’ve crippled me, even though I’ve spent the last year wishing I had never met her.
I hear her amused laugh before the mattress shifts. “Luke Evans. Shutting down when things get serious. Can’t say I’m surprised.”
I close my eyes. “Go to sleep, Tessa.”
“Whatever.”
I know I’m getting flipped off right now, and that causes a smile to touch my lips before everything around me fades to black.
***
I rub my eyes with one hand, while my other digs into the counter in front of me. I’m fucking drained after Tessa’s sounds, movements, and sheer presence kept me up last night. If that wasn’t bad enough, I, like a dumbass, forgot how she likes to wrap herself around me when she sleeps. The feel of her tits up against my back as I strained to keep myself from rolling over and sucking them into my mouth had my dick on high alert most of the night.
Sleep wasn’t happening. Not until he calmed the hell down.
I kept thinking I would’ve been better off staying on that shitty couch, but even with those thoughts filtering into my fantasies about what I wanted to do to her in that bed, I didn’t get up and leave. I stayed, enduring every shift of her body against mine, and somehow managing to keep my hand off my dick. If she had fucking clothes on, it wouldn’t have been that bad.
Panties. That’s all I was asking for. Jesus Fuck. Give me at least some sort of a barrier.
I hold my hand up, silencing the ramblings of the dipshit in front of me. “What do you mean, she has to pay for it? This is an apartment. You take care of maintenance issues, right?”
The manager behind the counter smiles, and flips through the contract in front of him. “Yes, we take care of maintenance issues that aren’t the direct result of something brought on by one of our tenants. If she broke her door, she will have to pay for it.” He turns the documents on the counter and shoves them across to me. “If you’d like to read the guidelines that every tenant signs as part of their contract, go for it.”
I don’t bother glancing down. If I read what he’s spent the last five minutes explaining to me, I’ll rip this shit up in front of him before I drag his ass over the counter.
“Aren’t there clauses in that contract? She was attacked last night. It’s not like she decided to take an axe to it ’cause of shitty management.”
The older man glares at me over the top of his glasses, halting the odd stroking of his mustache that I’ve had to endure since I walked over here. “Excuse me?”
I lean in, flattening my hands on top of the documents I don’t bother reading. “I broke her door. I had to get to her, and that shit was in my way. You can either replace it for her, or face a lawsuit when someone walks in to her very unsecure apartment.”
He straightens up, a cunning grin smearing on his bloated face. “It clearly states in the contract she signed that I’m not responsible for anything her or a guest destroys. There will be no lawsuit, so don’t stand there and threaten me with one.” He slips the papers out from underneath my hands and tucks them in a folder. “Maybe you should pay for it, since you’re the reason she no longer has a working one.”
He turns away from me, sits back down in his chair, and raises the volume on the small TV that’s sitting on the counter. I’m tempted to knock it off, to drag him out of here and watch as he replaces that door for her, but I know he’s right. He doesn’t have to pay for it. Money isn’t the issue. It’s not why I’m here. I have no problem buying Tessa a new door; I just can’t handle her watching me while I install it.
Or me watching her while I install it.
I go to the nearest hardware store in town, hauling ass to get there. I left Tessa still in bed this morning, and I know she likes to sleep in, so I might be able to get this done before she wakes up. That’s the only way this shit will work out in my favor. Get in and out before she engages me. I can do that.
My phone starts ringing the minute I step out of my truck. I look down at my screen, cursing at the name that flashes across it.
Goddamn it.
“Yeah?” I answer with zero interest in this phone call as I walk into the store.
“Hey, it’s Jolene. Are you home right now?” Her overly flirtatious tone does nothing for me. It never has, but she plays it up anyway because she thinks I’ll fuck her again.
I won’t. I made that mistake four months ago. She caught me at a desperate moment when I couldn’t shake Tessa from my thoughts and I needed a distraction. It was bad timing, really, and all Max’s fault. If he hadn’t needed to go outside at that exact moment, when the only thing I could think about was getting my dick wet, it wouldn’t have happened. Not with her.
Don’t fuck your neighbor unless you plan on continually fucking her. Trust me. It’s not going to end well for you.
“No, I’m not home, and I won’t be for a while. Why?”
She makes a soft pouting sound in my ear as I pay more attention to the door choices in front of me than anything coming out of her mouth. “I was wondering if I could come over and borrow your washing machine for a few hours. Mine is doing that weird thing again where it doesn’t want to drain the water out of the drum. And I need to do laundry. Today. I have, like, zero panties left, Luke. I’m not even wearing any right now.”
I’m sure that last line was added for my benefit, but I don’t react. I hold the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I work the locks on the door I’m examining, inspecting them for any defects.
“Luke?”
“What?” I twist the bolts again, clicking them into place. Five locks may seem excessive, but not to me. Not after last night, and if Tessa wants to bitch about it, she can go pick out her own door and do this shit herself.
She sighs in my ear. “I asked if I could use your washer. I can get by with just a few loads, so I won’t even need to be that long. Can you just call me when you get home so I know when to come over?”
Hell no. Having Jolene in my house only leads to her throwing herself at me, and I’m not in the mood to watch her mope after I reject her again. But I don’t want to be a dick about it. She’s a nice girl; she’s just clingy as fuck and wasting her time on me.
I grab the door and lean it against the wire racks before reaching up and gripping the phone in my hand. “Just go over and do it now. There’s a keypad on the side of the garage. Enter the code 1533. It’ll let you in the house.”
“Oh… okay, I guess I can do that. I just thought maybe we could hang out or something while I waited.”
I frown at the obvious disappointment in her voice. “Jolene…”
“Yeah?” she replies eagerly.
“I don’t wanna hang out with you.” I flinch at my own bluntness, but I don’t know how else to spell this out for her. Forcing her hand off my dick sure as hell doesn’t seem to be clear enough.