Shane (Mallick Brothers 1)

I laughed at that. “You’re an odd friend.”

Colton moved away to take the keys from his guy who nodded at me then ran back into the building. Colton reached into the pocket on the driver’s side door and held out my cell. “Seriously put a lock on this. I could have looked at all the naughty pictures you have saved,” he told me as I took it.

“I don’t have any naughty pictures.”

“I know. I checked,” he said with that lazy, flirtatious grin again before he moved away. “Go give him hell,” he said as a goodbye as he disappeared inside his building.

I got in my car, shaking my head at the fact that they had even Armoral’d my interior, then turned in the direction of Shane’s warehouse.

See, when I had woken that morning and finally gotten a good look around, I had to admit it was better than I thought it would be. My expectations were a bit low with the not having walls in the bathroom thing. It was a typical bachelor pad, uber masculine with all its exposed metal beams and brick walls and simple, stained concrete floors. It was a massive space, taking up the entire floor. To the furthest end was the kitchen I had become acquainted with in the dark, but it was nicer in the light which made the slate countertops really pop. The appliances were all stainless steel and new. The fridge was almost twice the size of any normal one I had seen before. Directly in the door from the stairs was a framed, but not finished bathroom. To the center of the room was the bedroom space with the king-sized bed I had slept in, two nightstands, and a dresser across from it with a giant TV that sat in front of the row of windows that lined the whole front of the building and looked down on the street. There was an oversize beat-up leather arm chair in a corner with a lamp, but no real living room. There was a wall behind the bed and bath space that I didn’t get a chance to peek behind, so I had no idea what I might find there.

The building had four floors. The first, as Shane told me, was unfinished. I was left wondering if the top two floors were as well.

But those weren’t exactly at the forefront of my mind as I parked out front, stupidly annoyed that my car was driving so well. I found out about halfway through my drive that Colton had fixed my radio too. It hadn’t been working when I bought the car so I never even thought to touch it. But then I heard a low hum and turned the knob and, sure enough, there was music.

It wasn’t that I was ungrateful.

It was that he was overstepping.

I learned to be ultra aware of behavior like that, knowing where it had led in my past.

I needed to make it clear that doing things, even nice things, without my permission was not acceptable.

I climbed up the external stairs and paused, hearing slamming from inside. On a shrug, I banged loudly on the door until I heard something crash inside. “Fuck. Keep your panties on,” Shane’s voice called, a little breathless. There was another crash. “Just come in,” he growled, sounding distracted.

I let myself in and came to an almost immediate stop, seeing what he was doing that was so loud. He was putting up Sheetrock for the bathroom.

Hearing the door slam, his head snapped in my direction and a slow, knowing smile spread on his face. “Colt called you, didn’t he?” he asked, pushing up off the floor and brushing his hands on his shirt. “That fuck.”

“Um, what the hell were you thinking having him do that?”

“I was thinking that your car was dead and that Fee said it needed to move.”

“Right. But I could have handled it.”

“I don’t doubt that, Lea. But I handled it instead.”

“But you didn’t have the right to do that.”

“Was I overstepping? Maybe. But this wasn’t a trick. It wasn’t me trying to gain your trust. It wasn’t something I did with strings attached. Okay? Your car needed to be fixed; I had it fixed. Case closed. It doesn’t mean anything. You can still tell me to fuck off at anytime and you’ll never hear a word from me about doing it.” Well, that effectively took the wind out of my sails. He paused for a minute, watching me with those light eyes I swore could see right through me at times. “Tell me to fuck off, Lea,” he demanded, his voice a little quiet. But I couldn’t. As much as I knew I should, I couldn’t force those words out. “You can’t, can you?” he asked, a wicked little victory smile on his lips. “Well, if you aren’t going to tell me to fuck off, why don’t you come over here and give me a proper hello?”