Off Limits Neighbor

“What are you looking for?”

I clear my throat. “I’m just…making a list of everything that needs to be fixed or replaced. And my own notes about decorating.”

He looks surprised. “Decorating?”

“That’s what I do. I’m an interior designer.”

“Ah,” he says softly. “That’s why your parents called you.”

I nod.

“Still doesn’t mean they gave you a fair task.”

The same defensive reaction I had yesterday rises up. “We’ll see.”

“Yes, we will.” He steps past me, so close that I can feel the heat coming off his skin, and I haul in a breath like I’m surfacing from underwater.

Taking a moment, I look over my list and make some notes about the entryway and the living room next to me. I need a couple of minutes to center myself before I’m in the same room with him again, because clearly, I’m not able to control myself. Fuck.

“Klara?” Rey’s voice calls from the back of the house.

“Yeah?”

“You should see this.”

He’s standing in the doorway to the kitchen, and I try to move past him, but he catches me around the waist just in time. Good thing too, because the floor is…gone. The support beams are there and then nothing but the crawlspace under the house, which looks like I don’t want to be rolling around in that dirt.

“Well,” I say. “This looks fun.”

“Some of these older houses have good bones. It’s possible that the floor was a good hardwood or some kind of reclaimed wood that was scavenged.”

I sigh. “Perfect. I love that. Makes my life so much easier.”

“At least you don’t have to rip anything out. Should be an easy replacement,” he says with a chuckle.

It takes me a second to realize that he has me against his body. His arm is wrapped casually around my waist, and it’s so long that it curls to my hip. I like the way it feels. How long has it been since anyone has touched me like this?

It’s been a long time. I’ve been so focused on my work that there’s not a lot of time for dating. And the one big relationship I had ended two years ago. I have to keep myself still in order to stop myself from leaning into him. God, I love just being touched.

Slowly, Rey’s thumb moves where it rests against my hip. It wakes me up, the stab of desire that curls through my gut jolting me back to reality. I pull away from him and move back into the hallway. “Definitely something to add to my list.”

Rey smirks. “Fixing the floor or snuggling with me?”

“I was not snuggling.”

“Your ass was up against me, Klara. I definitely felt some snuggling.”

A blush rushes up my neck and across my cheeks. I hadn’t done that. I’d been forcing myself to keep still. But I can’t stop myself from glancing toward his jeans to see if I affected him at all, which only makes him smile wider.

I clear my throat. “Let’s just check the rest of the house and see if it has floors.”

“You’re the boss.”

My imagination runs wild with his tone. Am I the boss of the renovations or the boss in the naughty visions I’m seeing in my head? I’m not sure. But either way, the thought of him being the boss makes me shudder. In a good way.

I swear, this man has hijacked my brain. Just because he’s been a fantasy for years doesn’t mean that this is a good idea. Or that I can’t control myself. At least that’s what I’m telling myself because as I walk up the stairs, I swear I can feel his eyes on my legs and my ass, and I’m definitely not swaying a little bit more than necessary knowing that he’s looking.

A cold shower would have been a good idea this morning. Because this? This is sweet torture having him only a few feet away.

And it continues to be torture through this house and the last one. He’s always there. Watching me with eyes that I swear I’m imagining hunger in. But right now, all I want to do is take a shower and have a drink.

“That’s all I’m going to do for today,” I tell him as we exit the last house. “Gotta make a game plan for all of this.”

“You want to have a drink?”

“Yes,” I say automatically. “I really do. But right now, the only thing that I’m going to do is take a shower.”

Rey smiles. “How about you shower, and I’ll shower, and when you’re done you come over to my place for the drink?”

I stare at him for a moment. This is a bad idea. I can barely control myself now. And in his house? This is a bad idea. “Where do you live?”

He says an address that’s a couple blocks over. My heart thumps in my chest. So close.