"Where the hell are you going?" he demanded, giving up his pacing to lean back against the sink counter.
"Out."
He snorted. "Out where?"
"Just out," she answered hesitantly a moment later.
"Are we still on for the book tonight?" he asked even though he knew there was a good chance, god willing, that he wouldn't be around for that tonight. Then again if it was a quick lay he might be able to get back here in time.
"I, uh," he could just make out the sound of her clearing her throat, "might not be alone tonight," she said, stunning the shit out of him.
"You have a date?" he asked in a disbelieving tone that probably sounded a bit insulting.
"I could have a date!" she argued.
"But do you?" he asked, noting that she hadn't really answered.
"The shower's all yours," she said brightly, obviously trying to change the subject, which at the moment was fine with him. She could go out with whomever she wanted. He didn't care. They weren't really friends. She was his employee and tenant and nothing more.
Okay, so she also read to him at night and put a smile on his face first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, but she could still do that if she was seeing someone else. It would probably also help get his head straight if he knew she was off limits since he didn't poach. Well, he did, but he wouldn't try to steal her since she really wasn't his type and sooner or later his body would remember that.
Of course if she started to date he would really have to look into having the walls reinsulated. There was no way he wanted to hear her fucking some other guy. Again, not that he cared, but that didn't mean he wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to hear her scream some other guy's name. He wasn't a masochist after all.
This could work, he thought as he tugged off his tee shirt and tossed it into the hamper Zoe picked up and demanded that he use. That woman could be so damn pushy sometimes. He still didn't understand why he had to dish out twenty bucks for a hamper when the bathroom floor did the same job for free. She was just making more work for herself by having to pull all his clothes out of the hamper instead of just picking it up off the floor and when he explained that to her she just rolled her eyes and told him to use the damn hamper.
Thinking on it now he really couldn't understand why he wanted her. She was so damn bos-
A high pitched scream broke off his thoughts.
"Trevor!" Zoe screamed.
His name was barely out of her mouth before he found himself running out of his room and taking the stairs two at time. He flew out of his apartment and into hers, glad that they didn't lock the doors, but worried that someone had managed to break into the front door and go straight into her apartment. He didn't stop to check the front door, but ran up the stairs, following the high pitched screams and dog's furious barks and growls that wouldn't stop, to her room.
He only paused in her room long enough to see that she wasn't in it and headed for the open bathroom door and nearly tripped over Toby in the process. As he stumbled over the dog and tried to right himself he felt the breath in his lungs freeze and his mouth drop open.
There could have been an ax murderer in the room for all he knew and he wouldn't have been able to look away from the sight of Zoe standing in the corner of the bathtub with her back to him as her baby pink towel threatened to drop even further, revealing more of that generous bottom that had him licking his lips and groaning. Thankfully her high pitched screaming covered the betraying sound.
Somehow he managed to tear his eyes away from the beautiful sight before him to look around for the serial killer that had to be waiting to attack them, judging by her screams. When he didn't find anything but Toby, he really hoped his new owners would take pity on the damn dog and change his name, looking in the open cabinet beneath the sink, growling and barking he couldn't help but feel confused and a headache coming on from all the noise.
"What the hell is going on in here?" he demanded loudly enough to thankfully cut through Zoe's screams and get her to shut the hell up along with the dog.
Without looking back she reached behind her and pointed frantically in the direction of the growling dog. "It's in there!" she screeched as if that said it all.
Sadly enough it really didn't. Although he did appreciate the fact that her towel had managed to drop another two inches, revealing the top halves of two perfectly rounded cheeks. It was the least she could do for scaring the shit out of him, he decided as he crouched down and gently pushed the growling dog aside so he could take a look.
He carefully pushed aside extra rolls of toilet paper, a first aid kit, a can of shaving gel, pre-treater and an unopened box of a twelve pack of condoms that earned a frown, but didn't find anything even remotely scream worthy.
"What exactly am I looking for?" he asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder at his shivering tenant who was still hiding in the corner, which was probably a good thing since she'd probably rip him a new one for staring at her ass.
"A spider," she said, sounding so horrified that he couldn't help but laugh.
"That's why you were screaming bloody murder? Over a spider?" he asked, knowing for any other woman and he would be yelling at her for scaring the hell out of him, but for his little tough as nails tenant he couldn't help but laugh. She was always so strong, always spoke her mind and loved to piss him off for fun. So to see Zoe freaking out over something as ridiculous as a spider was too much to believe. Other than keeping her mouth shut when she thought he was just the landlord's asshole nephew and from what he knew about her last job he couldn't imagine Zoe being intimidated or afraid of anything.
"It's huge!" she clarified, not moving one iota away from the corner of the tub.
"Uh huh," he said, not bothering to hide his disbelief. No doubt it was some tiny little thing that she saw out of the corner of her eye and had overreacted.
"Well, I'm not seeing it now," he murmured, taking another look for this "huge" spider and chuckling.
He felt more than heard Zoe rush past him and wasn't all too surprised to find her standing in the middle of her bed with the towel now snuggly wrapped around her body much to his disappointment a few seconds later.
"I tell you what, Ms. Scaredy Pants," he said, grinning hugely when she shot him a venomous look, "after I get ready to go out I'll come back and take another look for the killer spider. Maybe by then it will feel comfortable enough to come out."
She licked her lips nervously as her eyes darted back to the bathroom where Toby, how he hated that name, now obviously bored since Zoe stopped screaming, now lay across the bathroom floor dozing off.
"You promise?"
"Yes, I promise," he said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. No doubt he was going to have to hunt down a small spider outside and throw it into a glass jar to convince her that he found it otherwise she'd probably be screaming for help all night over "spiders."
"O-okay," she said, shifting on the bed.
Trevor bit back a smile as he paused near the bed, knowing she'd probably kill him later, but simply couldn't resist. "There's just one thing. I need a towel."
Zoe yanked her eyes away from the bathroom to frown down at him in confusion. "Your closet is full of towels."
"Uh huh, but I need a pink towel," he explained as he reached out and ripped her towel away from her. He was already halfway down the stairs when he heard her gasp of surprise and heading out her door when she started threatening the poor confused appendage in his pants that hadn't been able to go down since he spotted Zoe cowering in the bathtub.
Chapter 13
"Zoe?" Trevor called out as he walked up the stairs. "Are you still here quivering in fear?" he asked, chuckling when he remembered the expression on her face when he ripped the towel away.
Too bad he hadn't been able to stick around and steal a peek at what he'd uncovered, he thought with a heavy sigh. It was just as well that he didn't know what lay beneath all her baggy clothes.
He
walked into the bedroom to find Toby cuddled on the bed with the ratty old teddy bear that Zoe seemed to love so much. The playful pup raised his head, wagging his tail and panting happily as he watched Trevor approach the bed.
"Hey, buddy, you want to help me slay the monster?" he asked, giving the dog a playful scratch behind the ears that earned a groan of delight. After a minute Toby rolled over onto his back in silent demand that Trevor gave into with a little sigh. Damn demanding dog, Trevor thought with a smile.
If he wasn't afraid that Zoe would think he was a pushover he'd be tempted to forget his rule and let her keep the dog. Hell, he was half thinking of stealing the dog for himself. He always loved having dogs as a kid and promised himself that he'd get another one when he was older, but he never seemed to have the time for one.
He gave the dog one last rub, careful not to get any dog hair on his navy blue dress shirt or black slacks. Normally if he was going to work on something in one of his tenant's apartments he'd don his work clothes, but this was only a small spider in Zoe's freakishly neat home so he wasn't too worried about getting dirty. He started to head towards the bathroom only to come to an abrupt halt when something caught his eye.
For the first time since he walked into the room he noticed a large pile of department store shopping bags near the wall. The amount of bags kind of surprised him since he'd never thought of Zoe as much of a spender. She actually came across as pretty frugal, never spending much money on herself and getting by with the basics. He often wondered about that, thinking that maybe she grew up in an extremely thrifty family.
He was just about to get the little spider hunt over with when a familiar pink logo on a group of bags buried towards the back of the pile caught his eye. After a minute of trying to ignore temptation he shrugged and walked over to the bags. If Zoe came back and caught him he'd just tell her he that he was checking for spiders, he decided with a mental pat on the back, knowing damn well that she'd thank him too.
With one last look over his shoulder he opened the bag closest to him wider and felt his eyebrows arch clear to the hairline. The bag was filled with lace and silk of every color. Rubbing his suddenly sweaty hands on his slacks he reached into the bag and picked up the lacey baby pick item on top and nearly groaned when he realized they were panties, a little larger than he was used to seeing and in no way a thong, but still sexy as hell.
He exhaled slowly as he ran a shaky hand through his hair as he imagined that beautiful bottom of Zoe's covered in this material. Christ, he really didn't need to know what she was wearing to cover her curves and he should walk away, but curiosity was a bitch and had him quickly going through the rest of the pink bags.
Five minutes later he was sitting on the edge of Zoe's bed with his elbows propped up on his knees and his head in his hands, trying to wrap his mind around the amount of panties, bras, and teddies Zoe purchased. He still couldn't believe how sexy some of those items were and that unnerved him a bit, because when he thought about Zoe he never thought sexy. Yeah she turned him on for some weird reason, but never intentionally.
But damn if he wasn't turned on now, he thought with a grimace as he sat up and tried to adjust himself in his now too tight pants. When that didn't work he stood up and began to pace the spacious room.
Who the hell was she seeing? he wondered. It had to be someone serious for her to go nuts shopping like that and buying intimate apparel. In his experience women only did that if they were in the start of a relationship, but Zoe hadn't said anything to him about seeing some guy. There was too damn much she wasn't telling him and that really pissed him off.
Every morning and for a few minutes every night they talked about work, the book they were reading, television and all the stupid shit in between and not once did she mention a boyfriend. He knew he mostly viewed her as a tenant and employee, but he hadn't known that she only saw him as a boss and landlord, one apparently that she made small talk with to be polite. That knowledge pissed him off in the worst possible way and it didn't take a genius to figure out why.
Somewhere along the line he actually started to think of Zoe as a friend.
Whatever.
Fuck her.
If she wanted to keep this relationship strictly professional then that was more than fine with him, he thought opening the sink cabinet with a little more force than necessary. He didn't give a rat's ass if they weren't friends. Why the hell would he? It's not like he went out of his way at work to talk to her, which proved that he didn't care.
Or proved that he was an asshole, he thought shaking his head ruefully. Then again she didn't exactly go out of her way to talk to him at work either, which only proved his point or that he was turning into a fucking woman overanalyzing every little thing, he thought, sighing as he shoved things around as he looked for this "huge" spider.
There was no need for all this drama. So Zoe didn't tell him about her date? So what? It didn't mean anything and besides tonight was not the night to stress over this shit. Tonight was about getting laid and clearing his head of Zoe, he reminded himself as his hand landed on the condom box. As he picked it up to toss it to the side a condom fell out, making him frown.
He could have sworn it wasn't open earlier. After a minute of feeling like an ass for caring at all he dumped the rest of the condoms out of the box and counted. Six left out of a twelve pack. Looks like Zoe wasn't the only one planning on getting laid tonight, he thought darkly as he tossed the box back into the cabinet.
This was fucking unbelievable.
He was fucking jealous.
The knowledge both sickened and shocked him. He never got jealous. Not once. Well, when he was kid he'd been jealous of Jason, but that was completely different. He never become jealous over a woman, but here he was crouching down on his frumpy tenant's bathroom floor, wondering who the hell she needed six condoms for and wanting to kick his own ass for caring so damn much.
It was past time he worked her out of her system, he decided, moving to stand up when Toby started growling. He followed the dog's glare and couldn't help but roll his eyes when he spotted the tiny little black spider racing across one of the rolls of toilet paper.
"I knew she overre--holy shit!" he yelled, falling back on his ass and scooting away from the largest spider he'd ever seen. When it decided to come after him he was left with little choice but to grab one of Zoe's magazines off the neat pile near the toilet and beat the shit out of spider as Toby barked encouragingly. Even after he was pretty sure it was dead he kept up the attack, afraid that it was just a trick and the spider was buying its time before it attacked him and dragged him beneath the sink.
Panting hard, Trevor tossed the magazine back on the pile and slowly stood up, never taking his eyes away from the gooey mess on Zoe's floor and leaned back against the wall, making a mental note to call an exterminator first thing tomorrow morning. He watched the mess intently for a moment, making sure it wasn't going to come after him again before he decided to clean it up and get the hell out of there before its friends came looking for him.
He walked downstairs, trying to calm his damn nerves, barely aware that the dog followed him downstairs and headed for Zoe's kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down, wishing Zoe had something more substantial in her fridge to calm his nerves like steak or left over lasagna instead of diet yogurt and a huge pile of green veggies.
Toby's whimpering caught his attention. "Of course she went back and bought it," he said when he spotted the large clear plastic jar filled with mini dog treats.
With a sigh he opened the jar and grabbed a handful of mini treats and held them up. "You're going to keep your mug shut about the spider, right?"
Wagging his tail happily, Toby barked.
"That's what I thought," he said, tossing the dog a biscuit.
**********
"Excuse me?" Zoe said, signaling the bartender as she did her best to ignore feeling like she was on display in her new clothes. It
was the first time in a long time that she'd worn something so revealing. Granted, compared to the scantily dressed women walking around the bar she was probably dressed more like a nun.
For probably the hundredth time that hour she resisted the urge to yank up her blouse she let the sales woman talk her into. Not that she regretted buying it. Okay, maybe a little since it put her breasts on display a little more than she was comfortable with, but it helped give the illusion that she had a nice figure so she was going to have to learn to deal with it. Besides, the blouse went really nice with the silky baby blue floral skirt that she'd loved and bought so it wasn't too bad.
"What can I get for you, sweetheart?" the bartender asked as he walked over to her.
"Could I get another screwdriver?" she asked, smiling as she held up her empty glass.
"Sure thing," he said, winking.
Zoe sighed contently as she turned on her barstool to scope out the crowd again, trying not to look desperate and doing a much better job than she had an hour ago, she thought, feeling surprisingly comfortable.
It was surprising that she could feel so relaxed with her breasts on display and wearing clothes that showed off her real figure without feeling awkward. No doubt it had to do with the excellent music playing and energy the crowd was giving off. The four screwdrivers she'd allowed herself to drink probably had something to do with it, but at the moment she simply didn't care.
Right now she didn't care that she wasn't the skinniest woman at the bar, or even the prettiest. It didn't even matter that the man in her life saw her as nothing more than a tenant to do his bidding or that in a week that man would probably break her heart by taking her precious puppy away. Hell, it didn't even matter that each drink contained over two hundred calories, but that probably had something to do with the fact that she hadn't eaten all day so she had plenty of calories to use. At this moment everything was right with the world and she felt damn good and was ready to have sex for the first time in five years.
Perfection: A Neighbor From Hell Novel Page 10