Lust Thy Neighbor (7 page)

"I missed you today." Violet was surprised at the airy sound of her voice.

"Violet, please introduce me."

"Oh, right." She detangled herself from him but noted with a stifled grin that he kept one arm wrapped firmly around her waist. "Declan, this is my grandmother, Alexandra Clarkson." She emphasized the word in hopes that he would keep playing along.

"Hi, Declan Pierce." He stuck out his hand to the petite, flawlessly dressed woman for a shake. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Clarkson.”

"Violet says that you own your own construction company." Alexandra quickly launched into her interrogation. “How long have you been in business?”

"Did she?" Declan turned to look at his beautiful, strange neighbor. "Actually, fixing things around the house is just a hobby. She must've gotten confused."

Violet squeezed her eyes shut. "Ah, yes. Sorry about that."

"That's okay, sweetheart." Declan bent down to peck her cheek lovingly.

"You've been dating for nearly a month and she doesn't know what you do for a living?" Alexandra raised a questioning brow, her displeasure clear. “Perhaps this relationship is—” She narrowed her gaze at his hand on her granddaughter’s hip, at the way his fingertips drummed an uneven rhythm against Violet's skin. “—purely physical.”

"Remember how I told you I write a daily column for the front page of the paper?" Declan nudged Violet and Alexandra tapped her designer clad foot, waiting for an explanation.

"Column. Paper. I’m so sorry for forgetting, babe,” Violet choked out. “It’s great! You're great.”

"You must've been too distracted by me to have noticed the mistake." A big, shit-eating grin split his face and she knew she'd owe him big time after this. "Your granddaughter is really something. I feel like I've known her forever. We just clicked. She's even given up a few of her weekend mornings to help me around the house.”

Laying it on a bit thick, aren't you, neighbor?
"Right, we clicked!" Violet imitated.

"Declan ... I'm gonna throw up again." A sickly voice came from behind them and Violet closed her eyes, begging for the nightmare to be over. It had to end soon or she was going to throw up too.

"Who is that?" Alexandra craned her neck to peek into the house.

"That's my younger brother, Jacob." Declan paused and seemed to be reluctant to offer more information. "I have custody of him."

"And where are his parents?"

For the first time since she had unexpectedly launched herself into his arms, Violet noticed that his chocolate brown eyes hardened and a muscle ticked in his cheek. Her heart lurched and she steeled herself for his response. “Our parents died two years ago in a car accident, ma'am."

Alexandra lost a bit of the steel in her spine. "I see. I'm so sorry to hear that."

He nodded but his eyes had lost that teasing glint.

"Declan?" Jacob appeared behind him and Violet felt his arm slip away from her waist. "What's going on?”

"Jake, this is Violet's grandmother, Mrs. Clarkson." Declan nodded.

Jacob scrunched up his face and she instantly felt horrible in recruiting her student into this fiasco. "Okay.
Why
?"

"Violet wanted me to meet her grandmother. Since I've been dating her for the past few weeks." Declan gave Jacob an unreadable look, and her heart melted a little at the sight of him coming to her rescue.

“But—” Jacob started, and she immediately jumped in, grabbing her grandmother’s forearm.

"Grandma, we should get going. Jacob is sick and we should be leaving. You wouldn’t want to catch anything before your party on Saturday night.”

Alexandra nodded reluctantly. Even being a certified germaphobe wasn't enough to stop Alexandra Clarkson from a good and proper meddling.  “Declan, I look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Young man—” Alexandra looked to Jacob but took a step in the opposite direction. “It was nice to meet you. I hope you recover quickly.”

Declan shot Violet a questioning glance but when she shook her head fervently, he dropped the look and adopted a smile instead. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Clarkson.
Sweetheart
,” he added, and a tingle coursed down her spine. “I'll see you later.”

D
eclan watched the two women disappear into the house next door, and he laughed at the way Violet scurried after her grandmother like a small child who was desperately trying to explain herself. He had been pleasantly surprised when he saw her at the door and beyond shocked when she threw herself into his arms.

And when she had kissed him ... damn! He hadn't felt desire like that so instantly since he was a horny teenager in the back of the ancient Volvo he’d received as a sixteenth birthday present. At thirty-two and going through a major dry spell, Declan hadn't ever considered that he could get hard so quickly.

Apparently, he could.

He rubbed at his mouth, still relishing the cinnamon taste of her on his tongue.

"What the hell was that?" Jacob demanded, then immediately winced and hunched over. He wrapped his arms protectively around his stomach. “Why was Violet over here with her grandma?”

Declan shrugged. "I told you, she wanted to introduce me to her grandma since we've been dating.”

"Miss Kelly is your girlfriend?” He snorted in disgust. “That's so not right.”

Although he'd only been joking before, he turned to stare his little brother down. "And why is that?"

"I don’t know. It's just not. Dude ... she’s my teacher."

"And she’s still a woman.” He gave a harsh chuckle. “And up until you found out she was your teacher, weren't you talking about how hot she was?”

“Yeah, well, she
is
my teacher and I don't want to talk about her at all right now. I have to throw up." Jacob tossed Declan a green look. "Literally."

He watched Jacob sprint out of the living room and heard the sound of the toilet flushing a couple minutes later. He stayed at the door, replaying the last ten minutes in his mind. And remembering her taste. God, he would never look at a piece of cinnamon gum the same again.

*

"Y
ou did what?" Beck demanded incredulously and Violet could just picture his jaw dropping even through the telephone.

"I told Grandmother I had a boyfriend to get her off my back."

"Violet, I said it was time to get an
actual
boyfriend, not a pretend one."

She giggled hysterically. "That's the thing, he wasn't exactly made up. Oh god. What am I going to do?"

She heard him exhale, then a moment later he patiently asked, "What happened? Tell me everything.”

"So, my grandmother came over with this designer dress from Lord & Taylor to wear and—"

"Ooh, the Wicked Witch of the Northeast is dropping the big bucks on you. I hope you accepted it and didn’t ask her to take it back like you normally do?"

Violet raised a brow even though she knew Beckett couldn't see. "Beck, focus."

"Goddamn party pooper."

"I’m going to just ignore that. Anyway, once she was here, she demanded to see my boyfriend."

"Wait, wait, back up for a second because this is where you’re losing me, Vi. How did she get the idea that you had a boyfriend to begin with?"

She skimmed her teeth over the back of her thumbnail. "I sort of told her."

"Why?"

"Because she told me she lined up this ‘eating partner’ for me, like I was some poor slob who couldn't get my own date to one of her stuffy parties." Violet considered her words for a second. "No, don't say anything." She didn't want to hear how that assessment of herself was sickeningly close to the truth. "When I refused to go with some corporate lawyer who knows my granddad, the excuse of having a boyfriend just popped up! All I wanted was for her to drop the whole date subject, so I told her I was dating Declan."

Beck snickered, reminding her of one of her students when the word ‘loins’ showed up in reading material. "And let me guess, she decided to go over to strike the fear of Alexandra Clarkson and her manicured talons into him?”

“Of course.”

“So did Mr. Neighbor blow your cover?"

"No." She paused and studied her cuticles. She knew that, as soon as she told Beck what happened next, he was going to have a thousand questions. "He ... kind of kissed me."

"Whoa, what? How the hell do you
kind of
kiss someone? I think that’s right up there with
kind of
screwing someone or
kind of
getting hitched in Vegas."

She rolled her eyes. "Grandma was walking really fast up his driveway. I'll tell you, she might be old but that woman can out-move just about everyone I know. So, I'm hot on her heels and when he opened the door I just flung myself onto him for a hug and whispered for him to play along. Then we went in for a kiss."

"Well damn." Beck paused, and she could easily picture a slow, cat-like grin lighting his golden features. "Was it any good?"

Another pause. "Yeah."

"Good as in, 'I'm surprised we have chemistry and this man knows how to properly kiss’ or good as in, 'Holy fuck! Instant orgasm!' "

Violet couldn't help but laugh at Beck’s ridiculous statement. "Somewhere between the two." But it had definitely been leaning more toward the Instant Orgasm side of the spectrum. Her toes had actually curled when she felt Declan’s mouth and hands on her.

"So did you explain everything to him afterwards?"

"No, I left with Grandma."

He tssked her then released a disappointed breath. "And what about Declan?"

"I haven't told him anything yet."

"Didn't this happen last night?"

Violet had spent most of the day racking her brains to find the right words to say to her neighbor when she approached him. How did one tell their new neighbor that not only was she attracted to him but that he was also currently starring as her pretend boyfriend? "To be honest, I'm really, really embarrassed."

"Think how he feels. You used the poor guy’s lips and then probably left him with a semi.”

“You’re dirty.”

“I’m just telling it like it is.”

“What would I do without you and your smart ass mouth?” she asked before releasing a shaky breath. "Do I
have
to tell him?"

"Are you out of your mind?"

Violet vigorously rubbed her hand over her face and closed her eyes. "Damn, this is going to suck."

"Just get it over with. You'll probably laugh about it together." Beck’s own laughter floated away, and his voice came back, serious. "Violet, you're attracted to him, right?"

"Yeah."

"So what's the problem?”

She was attracted to Declan. After that kiss yesterday, there was no doubt in her mind that there were definitely sparks between them. But there was more—something that had kept her up late last night and had bothered her all day. "Beck, can I tell you something?"

"Anything."

"I'm not over Henry."

He was completely silent for a long pause before he tentatively said, "Don't tell me you want him back."

She moved her head from side to side vehemently. "No, it's not that. I don't want him back. I just want ... closure."

"It's been almost a year now, Violet."

"I know, I know. But I never got any definite closure. One day it was, 'Hey, I've fallen in love with Natalie' and the next it was 'Goodbye, we should probably part ways, but thanks for the memories, babe.' It's not that I want to be with him again; he's not the one for me, and I know that now. But it just ended so quickly. He never really gave me any warning." Violet paused and then whispered, "How is he?"

"Do you really want to know?"

She thought about it. Did
she
want to know? She had worked so hard to get him out of her system that she knew this was probably a step backward. But, how could she not wonder? "Yeah. And Beck? Just give it to me straight, okay? No dancing around the subject to spare my feelings.”

"Twatty said she thinks he'll propose."

Her throat clenched. Oh god.

"Vi? You there?"

"Yeah.” Her voice cracked, pain pushing to the surface. "He's proposing already? And I really hope you don’t call her Twatty to her face.”

"She's already told Dad and Sarah about it. They're getting ready to book the country club and all that shit." Beck sighed heavily. "Just so you know, I’ve only called her Twatty to her face once or twice but you can’t blame me. I'm just so conflicted with this screwed up situation."

She smiled weakly, loving her best friend even more as she hugged her arms tightly around herself. "I know. And thank you for staying with me."

"Well, you've been a saint about this entire thing. You never blamed her. Nor him. Well, at least you haven’t blamed them in a long time." The line when silent for another pause. "Why is that? Because if I were in your shoes, I would’ve taken a sledgehammer to both their cars."

“If you were in my shoes, you would have been arrested for destruction of property,” she told him dryly before continuing, "Besides, I told you. Henry said that he fell head over heels in love with Natalie. And that we weren't
that
kind of love. To be honest, I knew it wasn't some great love of the century with him. But I thought we were happy. Content. That's what hurts the most, I guess. I did love him. Maybe not as much as he grew to love her, but still."

"Twatty felt really guilty when she told me that the douche was going to propose, so I guess I can give her that. She really doesn't want to see you hurt. I told her she should have considered that before starting a relationship with your fiancé.”

That was the worst part of all. Violet had been friends with Beckett's stepsister, Natalie. Violet could still remember the night that Beck had brought Nat to dinner as his date. A double date with her and Henry. And wham! Violet lost Henry.

When Henry broke things off with her, she had retreated and no one really knew for certain why their engagement ended. Six weeks later, he quietly began dating Natalie and while they never flaunted that they had an affair, it didn't take much to put two and two together. So, Henry had bowed out of all their common restaurants, bars, and friends, leaving Violet surrounded with memories instead. Eventually, she couldn't take it. She had to move, even if Philly was just an hour and a half drive away now.