Girl Next Door - The Complete Series (27 page)

“Hi, Grayson. Let me grab my purse, and we can go.”

Grayson’s eyes were locked on a point over my shoulder. “Who’s that?”

I glanced back and saw that Troy was standing in front of his side of the duplex, both hands on his hips, watching us.

“That’s just my neighbor. He just stopped to say hello when he saw me outside getting my cell out of my car.”

I watched as Grayson’s face tightened. I could tell he didn’t like the idea that Troy was my neighbor. I couldn’t say I blamed him. I would probably be a little worried too if some gorgeous Latina moved in next door to him.

I reached down and laced my fingers through his. It caught his attention, and Grayson looked down at me.

“Let’s go inside and get my stuff. I’m hungry.”

He smiled at me. Grayson didn’t have Troy’s dark good looks, he was actually pretty average looking. Yet, when he smiled, he was handsome. He was also very photogenic. Also, looks weren’t everything. Grayson was considerate and sweet. He also didn’t make me feel like I needed to peel off my skin to stop the itchy feeling I got when I was around Troy.

I led him inside, ignoring Troy’s intent stare. I started gathering up my things, including a blanket that Grayson had asked me to bring for our picnic.

“When did your neighbor move in?” he asked.

I was in the process of trying to dig my house keys out of the bottom of my purse. I glanced up at him.

“A little over a month ago. Maybe five weeks.” I answered.

Grayson didn’t look happy. “You never mentioned him.”

I shrugged and shoved my cell phone in my bag. “I hadn’t met him before yesterday.”

When I looked up, Grayson was watching me with skeptical eyes. I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes at him. Jeez. Was he actually jealous?

I walked up to him. “Grayson, he’s had four different women over in the last five weeks. That’s almost one new woman a week. You might not think that’s a lot, but that’s three too many for my taste. I would never have introduced myself to him if I could have avoided it. Manwhores rank just below cheaters on my list of men who deserve to be kicked in the nuts.”

His jaw clenched.

I decided to just ignore the fact that he was acting like a moron. I hadn’t been lying when I said I was hungry.

“Are you ready?” I asked calmly.

Grayson nodded, still looking frustrated, and headed toward the door. I stood there for a second, watching his back. Men. They were so weird.

I followed him out and he waited next to me on the front porch while I locked the front door. I snuck a quick glance around as we walked to his car. Troy was gone.

I gave a sigh of relief and thanked Grayson when he held my door open. I couldn’t shake the bad feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time Troy would be a pain in my ass.

I found out later that my premonition was spot on.

I tried to sigh quietly as Grayson pulled up in front of my duplex. What should have been a fun, romantic date had been a dud. The Arboretum in Dallas was beautiful. The food, which I was pretty sure Grayson hadn’t cooked, not that it mattered, was excellent. Still, the spark hadn’t been there. We talked, but I felt like I was hanging out with one of my guy buds. It was fun, yet the heat wasn’t there. Not like it had been when I talked to Troy earlier. The short conversation we had in my carport carried more sexual tension than my entire two hour date with Grayson.

I turned and looked at Gray. “Thank you for the lovely date.” I decided to give it one more shot and leaned forward. My lips met his. It was nice because he was a good kisser, but that’s all it was, a nice kiss.

I pulled away. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Grayson’s face fell. “You don’t want to spend more time together?” he asked.

I struggled to keep my face neutral when I actually wanted to scowl at him. For the last few dates, he had been pushing to spend more time with me. It would have been nice if he actually wanted to hang out or talk, but he was using it as an excuse to come into my house and try to get into my pants. He was so passive-aggressive about the whole thing that it was starting to piss me off.

“I’m sorry, Grayson. I’m really tired today. Maybe next time.”

I thought I saw anger flash in his eyes but it disappeared so quickly I was sure I was imagining things.

“Okay, Amy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

I smiled over my shoulder at him and climbed out of his car. He waited until I was in my house before he drove away, a chivalrous move I appreciated, even if the chemistry wasn’t there. I locked the front door behind me and threw my bag on the table by the front door with a huge sigh.

As I walked through the house to the bedroom, I stripped off my cardigan. Disappointment filled my gut. Grayson was a decent guy. He was attentive, kind, and attractive. But kissing him was like kissing a friend, and he was obviously interested in taking our relationship to the next level.

I hung up my cardigan, unzipped and removed my boots, and took off my jewelry. Within minutes I had shucked my jeans and replaced them with yoga pants. Once I was home for the day, I liked to put on my comfiest clothes.

Heaving a huge sigh, I stretched out on my bed to stare at my ceiling. When things got to be too much or I needed to think about things, I would lie on my bed and just let everything simmer in my brain.

I stared at the ceiling and thought about my love life. I was twenty-eight years old. I wanted a husband and children. I came from a family with five children and I wanted that for myself. But I wasn’t ready to settle for the first guy that seemed like a good bet. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic but I wanted it all. I wanted a great sex life, a man who helped out around the house, and someone who would be a devoted father to our children. Too bad I couldn’t just have three husbands. I would have been married and settled a long time ago.

But, since polygamy was illegal, I would have to continue my search for Mr. Amy Bennett. I heaved another sigh and rolled over. I grabbed my phone, thinking about calling Nat or Cat to bitch about my love life. Now that they were married, it wasn’t as much fun, but I needed to vent. Before I could decide who I needed to call, there was a knock at my door.

God, I hoped it wasn’t Grayson. I really didn’t want to have to give him another excuse why he couldn’t come in. I would likely get angry and tell him that making out with him was like kissing my brother, and I was pretty sure that wouldn’t end well.

I rolled out of the bed on a groan and headed to the front door. I peeked out the peephole. When I saw who stood on my porch, I put my forehead against the door and started bumping it against the wood.

“Why me?” I asked. “Why freaking me?”

While I was doing this, Troy knocked on my door again. I straightened and cleared my throat before I opened my door. At least he was wearing a shirt.

“What now?” I asked.

He smirked at me. “Good to see you too.” Troy leaned against the doorjamb, standing way too close. “So, how was your date?” He made a show of glancing over my shoulder. “I guess not too great since he didn’t stay.”

I scowled at him. “Seriously, Troy. What do you want?”

He reached into his back pocket. “I got some of your mail Friday and forgot to bring it over.” He paused. “Amy Bennett.”

The ass had known my name all along. I didn’t know what game he was playing, but I wasn’t interested. I took the envelope he held out to me. It was just a piece of junk mail, but I still appreciated that he brought it over. “Thanks.”

I started to pull the envelope out of his hand, but he wouldn’t let go. My eyes narrowed.

“So what are you doing now?” he asked.

I tugged on the envelope, but he still wouldn’t release it. I sighed. “Nothing major. I need to do laundry and some other stuff around the house.”

He grinned. “Okay. Do you think you can find time in your busy schedule to come over and help me out with something?”

Um, excuse me? I was already defensive because it was the only way I could resist the pull of sexy man pheromones. His sarcasm made my hackles rise, big time.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What do you need help with? Because, you know, with my busy schedule, I need to prioritize.”

Troy laughed. “My mom brought over some pictures, and I need help hanging them.”

I hesitated. That sounded suspiciously like the old
would you like to see my etchings
trick.

“Seriously, I have no clue what to do with them, and she will make my life a living hell if I don’t have them hung the next time she visits.”

I decided I would like his mom. It sounded like she didn’t cut him a lot of slack. I sighed. “Fine.”

I stepped out onto the front porch, about to shut my door behind me.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I frowned at him. “I thought you wanted help.”

He shook his head and turned me back towards my front door by my shoulders. I wanted smack his hands away, but it was like my body detached itself from my brain.
Shrug off his hands dammit
, I told my body. Unfortunately, my shoulders liked the way his hot, callused palms felt against my skin, so they refused to move.

Finally, I was able to get my mouth to work properly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Take your hands off me.” My voice wasn’t as sharp as I wanted. It was actually more of a whisper.

Troy did as I asked but only to give me a light shove between my shoulder blades. “Put on some shoes and a sweater first.”

I glared at him over my shoulder. He followed me into my house and shut the door behind him.

“Quit givin’ me the evil eye and put on a damn sweater,” he sighed.

Obviously I was frustrating him as much as he frustrated me. Good, I thought darkly. I was glad I wasn’t the only one annoyed. I guess he realized that a staring contest wouldn’t work because he walked over to the shelves that held my books. He pulled out a copy of an erotic romance. The cover image was of a partially clad blonde wearing a blindfold with her wrists bound in front of her with black silk. He looked at the cover and then at me with raised eyebrows.

“Well now, this looks like interesting reading. While you decide what you want to wear, I’ll just sit on your couch and read some of this out loud.”

My mouth dropped open as he stretched out on my sofa, his legs straight out in front of him with his ankles crossed. Nonchalantly, he opened the book. And of course the smug bastard would manage to find the raciest sex scene in the entire novel on his first try.

“His hand slid down her torso and Meagan shivered under his touch. Something about having her wrists bound above her head made that simple touch seem more erotic and more threatening.” Troy wriggled his eyebrows at me. “Now this looks like a good place to start. Shall I continue?”

I growled under my breath and stomped back to my room. I heard Troy chuckle as I shoved my feet into a pair of huge fuzzy zebra print slippers and I grabbed a hoodie off a hanger in my closet. Within seconds, I was back in the living room. Troy was no longer reading out loud but he was staring at the page with wide eyes. Even though he was a bit of a man whore, he obviously hadn’t experimented with kink. I wanted to laugh at the expression on his face but managed to stop myself. Instead I arranged my features into a frown and walked over to him.

Jerking the book out of his hands, I threw it on the coffee table and asked, “Do you want my help or not?”

Troy stared at me blankly for a moment and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to laugh in his face.

“My God, that’s like verbal porn,” he breathed.

I couldn’t hold in my laugh any longer and clutched my sides as I giggled.

“My mother reads romance novels. Please tell me they’re not all like that.” Obviously he didn’t realize that those ‘romance’ novels his mom probably read could be extremely graphic.

I shrugged. “It depends on who the author is.”

He rattled off a name. “That’s her favorite author.”

I patted his shoulder. “It might be better if you don’t know.”

Troy groaned and buried his head in his hands. “I do not need to know that my mother reads porn. I don’t even like to admit to myself that she gave birth to me. It’s better to think that the circus monkeys left me on her doorstep like she used to say when I was a kid.”