I’m frozen to my spot,
and I’m staring uncontrollably. What is wrong with me?
“Don’t worry, sweet girl. I’ll keep an eye out for you,” he says before winking, and he turns to go back inside his house… His house that is next door to mine. His house that is so close I’ll be able to see through his windows from mine.
Oh, damn. I’ll be mute for the entire time we live beside each other.
***
ROSLYN
“This stupid, demonic thing is messed up!” Jenny yells from the kitchen, and I rush in to find out what the hell she sounds so panicked about.
Water is spewing everywhere from under the kitchen sink, and she’s soaking wet.
“What the hell?” I gasp.
She looks up while clutching a large wrench thing. “The bolt thingy won’t tighten back up. My ring dropped down the drain, and I was trying to get it back. Now the water won’t stop!”
I go to help her, and even between the two of us, the old pipes are too rusted to get the stupid thing to tighten back up. Water continues spraying out as though the sink is possessed. I’ve never seen anything like it.
My shirt is drenched in no time, and I keep slipping on the sopping floor. No matter how hard the two of us pull the damn big wrench thing, nothing happens, and water continues to spill everywhere.
“Find someone!” she pleads.
Thad. That’s the first person that comes to mind, and I rush out without a second thought. It doesn’t take but a few seconds to reach his house, and I pound mercilessly on the door.
“It’s open,” he calls from inside, and I barge in, dripping water all over his hardwood floors as I stumble inside.
His kitchen is directly across from the living room, the open floor space allowing me to see far more than I was expecting.
There, behind the kitchen island, Thad is a shirtless wonder, and all my panic dies as I go numb. Hard lines of muscle detail the abs of flesh-encased steel. His chest… damn his chest is a marvel. His broad shoulders glisten under the low beams of light, and I half expect a sparkling effect to start up at any minute.
Perfectly tanned, amazingly sculpted, and he owns a face that can haunt dreams. So not fair.
“Like what you see, sweet girl?” he drawls, reminding me that I’m drooling.
Words and stuff…
My eyes snap up to see him displaying amusement, his lips curving in a wry grin as he tosses a grape in his mouth.
“Um… I… Uh… My water is everywhere,” I stammer like a fool.
His amusement stays put, but it’s crowded slightly by confusion. “You do look a little… wet… And you need help?” he asks, trying to decipher my disastrous attempt at an explanation, but he seems so damn cheeky about it.
“The pipe… we can’t get it back together,” I prattle on.
His eyebrows cock up, and he chuckles lightly while leisurely taking a sip of coffee, certainly not making any hasty moves to help.
“Well, good for you I’ve learned a thing or two about plumbing,” he says idly. “And I wouldn’t mind helping with your… wet pipes.”
His devilish grin and double entendre has my face burning red, but then he steps out from behind the kitchen island, and I fall—literally, I fall. My ass slams down to the ground as the breath leaves my lips, and I gawk at him.
He’s naked. Oh my damn, he’s really naked. Or I’m having a really, really good hallucination.
“Where… you’re… I… uh…”
He snickers while continuing to walk toward me, and I can’t help but notice that his muscles aren’t the only hard things on his body. Oh. My. Wow. He’s turned on? How? Why?