“It’s not like I can board them up.”
“No, but we can get alarms for them.”
“I can’t afford alarms. Besides, I’m renting this place–”
“They don’t have to be fancy or expensive. The main purpose is to scare off whoever’s trying to get in, or to alert your neighbors that something’s wrong. We can go look at them tomorrow and then you can decide if you want them. Will that work?”
“Why are you doing all of this for me?”
Zeke shrugged, forehead wrinkling slightly. “No one deserves this. And if I can help, I will.”
She was going to push the issue, press him to answer why, but he stepped closer to her and all thought of arguing left, along with the air between them. His eyes were fixed on her lips, the line of his body drawn tight.
“Viv, I’ve got no damn right do this, especially right now, but I’m going to kiss you. So if you don’t want that to happen, you’d better tell me.”
Wow. Those clipped, factual words should not have been any kind of turn-on. Too bad her nerves frizzled somewhere between her clit and her brain and she just stood there dumbly waiting for him to make good on his warning.
Did he ever.
He was shockingly gentle. Fingertips grazed the column of her neck, sliding down to rest against her collarbone. His lips brushed hers, tentative until she sighed and her mouth parted. He stepped in, still not touching her anywhere but where his lips and fingertips were. The lack of contact made her tremble, eager to press herself to him. His tongue caressed her lower lip and she could only wait in breathless anticipation for him to finally grab her, dig his hands in to her hair, and take the kiss he must want—
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Lock your door.”
It wasn’t until the door closed that some dull, sluggish part of her brain recognized that she was still standing in her apartment—eyes closed, lips parted, heart beating erratically—utterly alone.
***
He finally got up the balls to call Vivian around nine that morning. It hadn’t been easy. He hadn’t slept worth shit, the image of her parted lips, flushed ch
est, and take-me-now expression burned into his mind all night. He had no doubt that if he’d waited around any longer, they would have ended up in bed. And as tempting as the prospect may be, he didn’t want her to do it out of some misguided sense of appreciation, or worse, hero-worship.
She answered on the second ring. Her voice was breathy and his cock immediately shot to attention, tenting the denim of his jeans.
“Zeke?”
“Morning.” God, he hoped his voice didn’t sound as strangled as he thought it did.
“Detective Mancini called. An officer stopped by my car this morning. I just have to go to the station to sign the report.”
“I’ll take you there.” He pulled on his boots, pinning the phone between his ear and shoulder.
“Don’t you have work today?”
“Nope. I’ve been putting in extra shifts, so I got today off.”
“Do you mind dropping me at the station? I can get a taxi to one of the tire places and get my car fixed up so you’ve got the rest of the day free.”
“Viv–”
She fell silent when he said her name.
“I’d like to spend some time with you today. If you don’t mind, I mean.”
“No...I mean, it'd be nice to spend some time with you too.”
Yeah, if he’d thought her breathy voice was sexy, it had nothing on this new one. Low, sultry, with a purr that wasn’t affected. Oh shit, he was in trouble.
He tried to cover. “What else do you want to do today?”