Hot New Neighbor (Alphalicious Billionaires 11)

And try and figure out what the devil is happening to me. I feel funny. Right in my chest.

No, I’m not having a heart attack. At least, I don’t think so.

“That was nice,” Lu-Anne says a few minutes later. “Thank you. And thank you for getting rid of the spider for me.”

“You’re welcome.” I lay my hand on her luxurious hair and stoke the soft tresses gently. “For both.”

When she shifts and grins up at me, my heart slams so violently that for a second, I worry I might actually be experiencing cardiac arrest. She winks at me. I can’t remember the last time anyone winked at me. At least like she’s doing.

“Is it too soon to ask if you are—uh—if you will be willing to join me in the shower?”

Yup. Cardiac arrest it is. Suddenly, all the air rushes out of my lungs. Too soon physically or otherwise? At this point, I decide that’s not the kind of question I should be asking. I file that away under the category of appropriate talks to have months from now, and somehow manage to wink back at her.

“I’d race you there, but I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m pretty competitive when it counts.”

Lu-Anne tears out of bed faster than I thought humanly possible, and she goes streaking across the bedroom. Her feet echo through the hall, and a few feet away, a door slams. I lay there, staring up at the now spider-less ceiling, grinning like an idiot.

CHAPTER 16

Lu-Anne

“Yay, you’re alive!” My expression of joy is completely genuine, so it lets me get away with the sarcastic statement I drop as soon as Leanne walks in the door. It’s only been, like, weeks since I’ve seen my best friend.

Leanne shoves a bottle of white wine into my hands. She looks amazing in a black maxi dress. Her long hair is done up effortlessly into a messy bun I could never pull off, but on her, it looks fabulous. As usual, her makeup is insanely on point, and I’m immediately jealous—friendly jealousy. There’s a difference.

Leanne flops down on the couch immediately, like she’s exhausted. It’s not late enough for her to be exhausted, though. It’s barely even dark.

“That bad?” I pour and shove one of the glasses of wine into her hands. She takes it gratefully and sighs dramatically the way only she can.

“No, it’s not that bad. I’ve just had a lot going on. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ghost you.” Leanne’s eyes sweep to the camera screen in the corner of the room. “You still have those up? Are you spying on the guy now?”

I quickly look down so that Leanne can’t read my expression, but it doesn’t work. Her jaw is gaping open when I turn back around. If the spider still lived in here, it would probably crawl right into her mouth and live there like a nice, warm, cozy cave.

Right. So, I’m probably a huge open book at the moment when I think about the night Wade and I shared. But it wasn’t just the night. When I woke up the next morning, he was down in the kitchen making pancakes for me. Pancakes. In my own kitchen. In my own house. We may have eaten the pancakes to reenergize, and we may have made out in the kitchen, and that may have escalated to us doing some naughtier things on the kitchen counter, which may have led to us going back upstairs and spending the rest of the morning in my bed.

Not that I want Leanne to know all that. Apparently, I’m failing on that score big time because she lets out a squeal that tells me the game is up, and I’ve been found out.

“No! You didn’t!”

“Didn’t what?”

“Sleep with him!”

“We just made out.” I sit down hard enough beside Leanne to make the wine in my glass slosh almost right over the side.

“Made out? You?”

“What? Is that such a shocking concept that I, too, can see some action?”

“No.” Leanne grins. “I’m just surprised although I shouldn’t be. You were obviously interested in the guy. You had a crazy obsession. Crazy and obsession both being the keywords here.”

“Shut up and tell me about the guy from the library,” I sulk.

“Oh, that.” Leanne has this talent for hiding what’s really going on with her, even from me. I’m a little envious of it at the moment. I wish she couldn’t read me like all those history books she no doubt devours because she’s insanely smart.

“Yes, that. What happened? Did you sleep with him?”

“It was just studying and writing papers together. We’re in the same class. Don’t shit where you eat.”

“I think it’s shit where you sleep.”

“Whatever. Both are unsanitary. I know the guy. He’s alright. It’s easier to get things accomplished if you can divide and conquer. We were doing some research together since we’re writing papers on similar topics.”