Girl Next Door - The Complete Series (2 page)

“Baby, I know Cat’s your best friend, but she was coming on to me. When I turned her down, she started shouting and…”

He didn’t get any further because I released Cat and got in his face so fast he flinched and turned green. I mean, seriously, did he think that all my brain cells had died overnight?

“I saw everything.” I hissed. “You have one minute to grab your balls and go. Anything of yours will be in a box on the front porch this afternoon. You don’t pick it up today, it’s in the garbage tomorrow.”

Whatever Jack saw in my face must have told him I meant business. He glanced at Cat, went from green to white again, and heaved himself off the floor.

Within thirty seconds, he had his keys and was out the door. He didn’t even take the time to grab shoes.

I turned to Cat. She was watching me with sympathy and wariness in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” she whispered. “I promise, I would never...”

I cut her off with a shake of my head. “I know, babe. I know this was not your fault and I don’t blame you a bit.”

Her eyes got shiny with tears. “Nat,” she whispered.

I hugged her tight and blinked back my own tears.

Now, three weeks later, I was still super pissed and disgusted with Jack. Most of the reason I was pissed was how his betrayal made me feel about myself. It hurt, yes, but, surprisingly, I wasn’t heartbroken. What bothered me the most was I had thought Jack could be something special to me. Maybe even
the one
, if I believed in that fairy tale. He always wanted to spend time with me, worried about my safety when I went out without him, checked in via text on a regular basis, and he was very touchy-feely. Cat had worried he was too clingy, but I appreciated how into me he seemed. Now, I doubted my ability to be a good judge of character. That’s what pissed me off the most. My self-confidence took a direct blow when Jack proved himself to be an asshat. If I couldn’t see an asshole under the surface, how could I ever trust my judgments about men again? Sure, Jack’s actions were his problem, his fault, but my bullshit detector never buzzed the three months we were together. How could my boyfriend be so sleazy and I was blind?

I pondered, okay, stewed, over the Jack issue every weekend for the last three weeks. Cat warned me Friday that this was my last weekend in isolation. After the first few calls from Jack that I had answered, I refused to take his calls. He’d even showed up at work once and I had the front desk tell him I was unavailable. When I had talked to him on the phone, he’d tried to apologize again, I’d cut him off and explained that his actions were beyond my ability to forgive. He’d tried to beg, reason, and eventually lost his temper. When he began cursing at me, I’d hung up and refused to answer his calls since. His sudden and intense pursuit were freaking me out a little. It seemed almost too obsessive.

Earlier this week, Cat had called me and laid down the law.

“Next weekend, Nat, your ass is mine. We are going out and having fun.”

Cat never made idle threats.

So, here I was, eating a pint of cookie dough ice cream and watching the Golden Girls. Dressed in my cute pink camisole and short-short pajama set, no make-up, and hair in a messy bun, I almost ignored the doorbell when it pealed. I didn’t want company and I certainly wasn’t dressed for it. Still, I figured Cat decided to enforce her threat a week early. She could be sneaky like that. So, I hauled my butt off the couch and peeked out the peephole.

Jack’s handsome face stared back at me. His hair was a mess, like he’s been running his hands through it, and he was swaying slightly.

Shit. I was pretty sure he was drunk. As quietly as I could, I took two steps back from the door. Before I got further, Jack started banging on the door LOUD.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

“I know you’re in there, Nat! I saw your shadow in the window. Open the door! I wanna talk to you!”

I rolled my eyes. Apparently Jack couldn’t take a freaking hint. I’d told him I never wanted to speak to him again, turned him away from my work, hung up or ignored his calls the last couple of weeks, but he still didn’t seem to get that I didn’t want him anymore. I hadn’t thought he would start acting like a stalker.

Since he was on my doorstep at midnight on a Saturday, I guess he had decided stalker actions were immediately necessary.

Bambambambam!

Whoa, the door was shaking under the force of his hard, drunken blows. I backed up further. This situation was deteriorating rapidly and I wasn’t even actively participating. Crap, I really didn’t want him to wake up my neighbors. Mrs. Crabtree on the east side of my house was almost deaf. She usually had her hearing aid out this time of night. The house on the west side was vacant until about a month ago. I saw a moving truck parked out front for a couple of days, but no movers or my new neighbor. I prayed my neighbor was either old and deaf like Mrs. Crabtree or young enough to have a social life and be out on the town on a Saturday.

“Nat! Open the damn door!” Jack shouted.

I wondered if I should go ahead and call the cops. I really didn’t want to, but I knew people three houses down could probably hear Jack’s banging and shouting. If I didn’t, they would. It would be humiliating to have the cops show up. All the neighbors would be in their yards, staring and gossiping about crazy Natalie York and how the cops showed up to her house at least twice a year. I swear every time they showed up before, it wasn’t my fault.

Still, the cops were probably going to be called anyway by me or someone else. Also, there was the added bonus of men in uniforms. I was contemplating which was more appealing, attempting to ignore Jack or calling the cops when another man’s voice boomed in my front yard.

“What the hell, man?”

Oh man. He had a great voice. Deep, resonant, with just a hint of a growl. Goose bumps broke out on my arms.

“If she hasn’t answered the door, she’s either not home or she doesn’t want to see you. Either way, take the hint and go. Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“Fuck you!” Jack yelled.

I rolled my eyes again. I know this is a bad habit, but it’s better than vocalizing all the curse words I said in my head. I peeked out the front window by the door and saw the shadow of a large man a few feet from Jack. He was broad and a couple of inches taller. Okay, not only did I now have a witness, but I also had a man bigger than Jack around. Maybe he could pull me off Jack if I started to strangle him because I suddenly decided I’d had
enough.
Jack was going to get a piece of my mind and I wasn’t going to filter it at all. I was tired of avoiding his calls and hiding out. I wasn’t the one who screwed up.

Driven by this instant and probably bad decision, and embarrassment, I yanked open the front door and stepped out into Jack’s space. He whirled around to face me. Barefoot, I just reached his collarbone, so I rose up on my tiptoes and poked my finger in his chest. The smell of whiskey hit me hard, but I was too pissed to care.

“I do not want to talk to you, see you, smell you, or hear your voice EVER AGAIN! You kissed
my
best friend, in
my
kitchen, in
my
house, with
ME
in it! This is Texas, you know. I do own a gun. If you set foot on my property again, I WILL SHOOT YOU!”

By the end of this diatribe I was almost screeching. Jack leaned back from my jabbing finger and tried a different tactic.

“Baby,” he muttered. He opened his mouth to say more, but I cut him off.

“NO, Jack, GO!”

His eyebrows came down when it was obvious his sweet ploy wasn’t going to calm me down as it would have in the past. I occasionally, well, regularly, went on rants when we were together, but they were rarely ever directed at him. Usually, he could calm me down with a soothing tone and sweet words. When he realized this was not going to happen now, the pissed off look returned. He reached out to grab my arm and then,
poof
, he was gone.

I was left staring at a broad back and short blond hair. The lighting wasn’t great, but good enough for me to see the heavy muscles in my protector’s back. Holy shit, my witness-slash-protector was shirtless, muscular, and, if the front was anything like the back, HOT! He was also now standing between me and Jack and close enough to me for me to feel his body heat.

“Man, she said go. If you won’t do that on your own, I’ll make you.” The guy crossed his arms and looked like he was settling in for the night. Damn, but his voice was sexy. Too bad I was only five-foot four. I would have loved to see the look on Jack’s face. All I could see though was smooth tanned skin and muscles. Okay, so maybe this view was better anyway.

Jack was silent for a moment. He worked out, was in decent shape, but he was lean. He still had to be three inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter than the human wall in front of me. And most of those fifty pounds
had
to be muscle.

“We’ll talk later, Nat.” Jack said.

I rolled my eyes again and muttered under my breath, “No we won’t, you asshat.”

Wall o’ Muscle in front of me made a weird noise but said nothing.

If Jack heard me, he ignored it. I heard his footsteps fade, a car door slam, and an engine roar to life. Then, Jack peeled out and tore down the quiet street.

Suddenly, I realized all my muscles were tight and I was barely breathing. I sucked in a deep breath and let my forehead rest on the back of Wall o’ Muscle for a second. I let out my breath, straightened and stepped back. As I did, shirtless guy turned to me and I was face-to-pecs with major hotness. At least, major hotness from the neck down. Even in the dim light I could see he was in very good shape. I swallowed hard and stopped breathing when I looked
waaay
up to meet Wall o’ Muscle’s eyes.

Whoa. I thought his body was good, but his face was even better. He wasn’t a pretty boy, but rugged and striking. His jaw, cheeks, and nose were carved and sharply delineated. I thought his hair was blond, but it was hard to tell in the dark. His hair was cut short around an extremely masculine face.

I couldn’t see the color of his eyes in the light leaking out my door to the porch, but I could see them narrow as he took me in, top to toe.

I remembered what I was wearing and my messy hair and felt heat creep up my face. Thank God, it was dark and he couldn’t see me blush.

He remained silent, staring down at me. He had to be at least six-three, I thought inanely. I tried to control my crazy lusty thoughts and focus on speaking to him.

“Um, I appreciate your help…um, who are you?” I stammered.

Wall o’ Muscle, aka Extreme Hottie, gave me a half-smile.

“I’m Aidan Hart. I moved in next door a few weeks ago.”

So this was my new mystery neighbor. I almost grinned, and then I remembered Cat’s fight with Mike a few weeks ago. God, I hoped he wasn’t home then. The clitoris comment was top volume and definitely took the prize for insanely inappropriate.

I held out my hand. “I’m Natalie York.”

He grasped my hand and I swear I felt it all over my body. Before I completely recovered, Aidan let go of my hand.

“Nice to meet you, Natalie.”

I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry you got dragged out of bed, Aidan. This kind of thing doesn’t usually happen.” There, I sounded almost normal, okay, maybe a little bit breathy.

“He your ex?” Aidan asked.

“Um, yeah. We broke up a few weeks ago.”

“When he tried to kiss your best friend?” He looked like he was trying not to smile.

I nodded.

“Good.”

Okay, what did that mean? Was it good he’d kissed my best friend? I cocked my head to the side and wrinkled my nose in confusion.

“Huh?”

He gave me the half-smile again and shook his head. “Nothin’.”

I was still confused but I returned his smile and stepped back into my house. I was beginning to feel very awkward.

“Thanks again, Aidan. Have a good night.”

“You, too.” he said.

I shut the door and locked it. I didn’t hear Aidan walk away until I threw the deadbolt.

Great. I lived next door to a major hunk and he’s already seen me with messy hair, sans make-up, and dealt with my screaming asshole of an ex. Maybe it had been too dark for him to see me clearly, but nothing could cover up an asshole ex shouting drunkenly on your front porch. Way to make a first impression, I thought. Then I sighed, shut off the TV and headed to bed.