Hope Entangles: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (Book 2 of 3) (9 page)

I looked to him, horrified. “I don’t
want you to have to eat rotten fruit.”

His eyes went wide.

“
I can go buy you some more
food if there’s a… a problem?”

He started to smile, and then he
started to laugh. “No, I’m not out of food. You just have to let
the bananas get over ripened before you can make them into banana
nut bread.”

Oh…

“
You don’t cook much, do
you?”

I shook my head. “But I’m great with a
phone and a carry out menu.”

He stood there for a beat, just staring
at me. “I’ll bet.”

I had to remember to breathe. I took a
step back.

He chuckled.

“
I can’t help you with the
dress. Maybe Bette… or one of my sisters could take you
shopping.”

“
That’s a good idea.” And
way better than trying to find one myself.

“
But I can help you out with
your other problem.”

I stared at him, waiting, but he just
stared back.

“
What other problem?” I
finally asked.

“
Finding a sexy date for the
party,” he said.

I still just stared. “Who?” I hoped he
wasn’t considering hiring one of his construction crew to take me
to the party.

His brow furrowed and he made a fairly
displeased sound.

“
I meant me.”

I blinked, suddenly not understanding
simple English. What on earth was he saying?

“
Huh?”

He scowled and tilted his head, looking
at me like I was mentally challenged, crossing his un-tattoo
adorned arm over his tattoo adorned arm.

I licked my lips just watching the
muscles in his forearms—his biceps and triceps—flex
enticingly.

Then I looked up into his gorgeous
face. Dark brown eyes—almost black—accented by the longest
eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man or woman. Flawless deeply tanned
skin that seemed to glow with health, and the most kissably thick,
curvaceous lips.

Then it hit me what he was
saying.

I closed my eyes, inwardly saying every
curse word I knew. I couldn’t take him to the party. Except for the
last ten minutes he had been the biggest asshole I’d ever met. If I
let him anywhere near my career he’d find an excruciatingly evil,
painful way of ruining it for me.

Or, the sexy bastard might just go off
and have sex with someone, maybe even one of the authors, and then
what would I do? I’d be humiliated to the point I’d have to
quit.

“
No way,” I
blurted.

He added some pique to his
scowl. “Why not? You said you need a sexy date.” He opened his arms
and gestured to himself like he was a prize on
The Price is Right
. “Don’t I fit the
bill?”

Danger, danger!!!
Obviously he was, but I was not, not, not going to
tell him that I thought he was. No way in hell. The sneaky bastard
would find some way to use it against me.

I gulped, bit the inside of my cheek,
and then took a deep breath.

“
Thank you for the offer,
but I can find my own date for the party.” See, I can be
diplomatic… even when talking to a gorgeous,
attempted-tree-murdering maniac.

“
Aha…” he said, his eye
brows rising in a clear sign of not believing me.

“
Yeah, sure. I know at least
five guys that would love to go out with me.” Lie, lie, lie… I knew
no one, especially a sexy guy that would go out with me if I asked
them.

Wait, maybe I should go to
Wal-Mart…

But a shockingly detailed mini movie
trailer of my recent failure in the love department of Wal-Mart
flashed through my head. It actually made my chest hurt.

“
So what day is this party?”
he asked.

I had to think. Oh sweet Jesus, it was
in five days.

“
Five days,” I
mumbled.

He smiled and reached for his coffee,
taking a languid sip.

“
That’s plenty of time to
find someone. I’ll probably have a guy by this
afternoon.”

He shook his head pitiably. “So you’re
going to call an escort agency, is that it?”

How the hell did he know about
Vinny?

Oh, wait. He didn’t mean a model
agency, he meant…

“
You see,” I said, plunking
my now empty coffee cup down hard on his polished granite
counter—nice counter space, by the way. “I could never take you
anywhere, especially anywhere near the people I work with. I’d have
to quit on the spot just from the humiliation you would cause
me.”

“
You think I can’t behave
myself in a public environment?”

It was my turn to scowl, planting my
hands on my hips. “You can’t behave yourself for the duration of a
cup of coffee.”

His dark eyes darted to my empty cup
and back to me. His lips quirked in a smirk.

“
Fine, you made it through
an entire cup of coffee, but you lapsed right back to your… your
smart-assed ways right after. You’d have to be good for hours. You
really think you can do that?”

He took a step closer to me, making it
so I’d have to look up at him even more.

Why, oh why, was everyone taller than
me?

I could smell him. Not cologne, but
whatever primal scent he naturally exuded. A couple of sniffs and I
started to feel hot all over.

He was too damn close.

“
You’ll find, if you’re very
lucky, that I can do many things… for hours at a time.”

I gulped again, and took a step back…
and tried to pick up the aroma of the zucchini bread to wash his
scent away with.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing
came out. I cleared my throat while I took another step back.
“T-that’s okay, really. Thanks again for the offer. But I’ll be
fine.” I ran into the counter, not watching where I was backing up
into.

I jumped, and made a little squealing
sound as I whirled around to make sure it was just the counter I’d
run into. You never knew, he might have another homicidal maniac
just like him roaming around the house.

When I turned back Raphael had his arms
crossed over his chest, one hand casually covering his infuriating
smirk. But he was chuckling: I could see his shoulders and chest
rising a falling in little jerks… the big jerk!

I took a big breath, luckily getting a
lungful of zucchini bread scented air instead of infuriatingly sexy
man smell.

They should make that into an air
freshener for your car… in the shape of, well, him…

But then I’d never be able to drive my
car. I’d be sure to have an accident if I inhaled too many of the
man’s fumes.

Ha! I smiled at that. The man’s
fumes…

“
Thank you for the coffee,
and the offer… but I’ve got to go back home now.”

I turned and dashed for the back door,
grabbing the knob like it was a life preserver and I was sinking on
the Titanic.

I turned the knob, well, tried to turn
the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. So I tried to just pull the door
off its hinges. Which didn’t work… I’m not the Hulk.

“
It’s locked,” he said
slowly, as if he were explaining it to a small child. “If you turn
the little thingy in the middle of the knob, it will
unlock.”

I nodded my head and shot him a rueful,
totally fake smile. I got the little latch thing to turn on the
first try and yanked the door open, making it bang noisily against
the nearest counter.

I jerked and winced at the sound. I was
just lucky I hadn’t broken the glass in the door with
that.

I had one foot out the door when he
said, “Hope, wait.”

I stopped, frozen, as if I were a deer
in headlights. I turned and looked at him.

He had the knife in his hand again… and
a large dish. With practiced skill he used the knife to slide the
remainder of what was left of the loaf of zucchini bread onto the
plate—which was most of a whole loaf—and with a careless
nonchalance he pulled some plastic wrap out of a drawer and wrapped
the dish over with it.

He stood there and held out the bread
to me. “You forgot your bread.”

Shiiit…

I so didn’t want to get one step closer
to the man. I didn’t trust him… I didn’t trust myself
either.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck,
fuck!

How do I get myself into these kinds of
fixes?

Easy, you came over
here.

Whose side are you on,
anyways?

I shook my head. This was a no brainer.
I would just turn back around and leave. I had plenty of bread at
home…

But that wasn’t just bread; that was
one of the most delicious things I’d ever had in my
mouth.

Way to double-entendre
yourself!

And you don’t even need Mr.
Winky…

Shuuuuuut… Up!

I edged slowly toward him, with ever
step ready to jerk away and run for the door.

Finally I was close enough to reach out
and take the dish from him. I had my eyes trained on him, so I
didn’t watch where my hand was going, so when I took the bread from
him our fingers grazed each other.

An electric shock went through me and I
jerked back and used that momentum to head for the door. I wasn’t
even going to close it behind myself, I just wanted out of there
and as far away from Raphael Morales as possible.

“
And Hope?” he said just as
I was about to pass out of his kitchen. I stopped but didn’t look
back. I could tell he had that smirk on his face. “Call me if you
don’t find a date for the party. I’ll leave that night open for
you.”

I closed my eyes and felt a dark doom
fall over me. What if I didn’t find a date in time? What would be
worse, taking him, or showing up alone?

I opened my eyes and walked through the
doorway, pulling it shut behind me.

Chapter 9: Jake

I’m not a stalker. And I hadn’t
intended on doing a drive by, not initially. I was just taking the
little Escort I’d slipped an alternator into for a little test
drive, just to make sure it charged right before I sent it off with
its owner.

But since I was out, and somehow I’d
driven all but a couple blocks toward Hope’s neighborhood, and I
was in an unknown car—okay, that does sound kind of
suspicious…

I turned onto her street and
immediately wanted to turn around. This was crazy obsessed stalker
shit, and I was too damn old—
almost
thirty—to be pulling the infatuated teenager
routine.

I drove forward. Making a U-turn would
only attract attention. If I just zipped down the street and didn’t
stop to gawk at her place, maybe I could just forget I’d even come
here.

Passing by her new neighbor’s (the
asshole) house, I looked over to it and hit the brakes.

Shiiit… there she was, walking straight
toward his backdoor.

What the hell?

She looked upset too.

Hope disappeared around the back of the
asshole’s house, and I just about flipped out, ready to jump out of
the little car and follow her. I was so going to punch the living
daylights out of that guy.

But I thought she hated him? They’d
looked pretty quarrelsome the yesterday…

Yeah, but that was passion too. Passion
could change from hate to lust like flicking a switch.

I’d pulled the Escort over in front of
the asshole’s house, and was just about to get out and head for his
backdoor when I spotted the sleek white of Bette’s immaculate
Cadillac.

I ducked down behind the dash, keeping
an eye on the advancing Caddy. Maybe she’d been too far away, or
distracted, to see me sitting here.

As the Caddy swung around and into her
driveway, she didn’t show any sign that she’d seen me. Bringing the
luxury automobile to a tire screeching halt, she popped out of the
driver’s side door, balanced delicately on stiletto high heels. She
sashayed to the back of the car as the trunk popped open, and then
bent over at the waist to retrieve some multicolored shopping
bags.

Was that all the woman ever
did?

While she was bent over I just happened
to notice how nice she looked… I mean, the woman really dressed
well. A clingy silk button down shirt, and a form fitting skirt
that came up a few inches above her knees. Between that and the
stilettos, and the way she was bent over, she made quite a moving
picture.

Practically a pin up.

I shook my head.

What the hell was I doing?

I was obsessively stalking one woman,
and ogling another.

Maybe there was a twelve step group out
there for dating-confused men.

I watched as Bette pulled her loot from
the trunk and then slammed lid back into place. She jiggled in all
the right places…