Lust Thy Neighbor (8 page)

"So what are you going to do now?" Beckett’s smooth tenor interrupted her thoughts.

"Breathe." She sighed. Inhaled then exhaled. "And try to remember that all things happen for a reason and even though it hurts to be dumped and two-timed, it was better that it happened this way than to have gone through with a marriage that would have been even more painful.”

*

V
iolet clutched Bear for comfort as she quietly knocked on Declan's front door. When it opened, her eyes expanded at the sight of him clad only in a pair of low-slung sweatpants, his dark hair wet and tousled. Keeping her eyes on his face and not the V of his torso or his slightly damp abs was already proving to be a difficult task.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire,” he said before she could mutter a single word, a teasing grin slowly tugging the corners of his lips.

"Guilty," she confessed. She bit her lip then raked her hand through her long mahogany locks. "Mind if I come in?"

"Sure." He stepped aside and she noticed that Jacob was stretched out on the living room sofa, snoring softly.

She hesitated in the entryway, one hand on the doorknob behind her. "I’m sorry. Maybe I should come back at a better time?”

He shook his head. "No, it's okay. He's a heavy sleeper." He reached out to pet Bear and scratched beneath the tiny dog’s chin. "Look at that. The tiny terror is starting to like me. If you don’t think he’ll change his mind and decide to attack or piss on the new floors, you’re welcome to put him down.”

"Thanks." She let a wriggling Bear out of her arms, and he immediately jumped up onto the couch, investigating Jacob’s snoring form. "Bear! Don't you dare wake him." His ears perked at her admonishment but he ignored her as he bedded down and snuggled next to Jake.

"Looks like he's found a friend,” Declan mused. “My kid brother must be the dog whisperer or something. So ... Violet—”

"I want to explain," she interrupted softly, turning to face him to find that his arms were crossed over his toned chest, and he was staring down at her with the strangest look in his brown eyes.

"Come in here.” A shock rushed through her petite body when he touched her shoulder to guide her away from the living room to the kitchen. Once they were there, he leaned against the newly installed granite countertop, the corners of his sexy lips twitching. “Alright, neighbor, explain.”

She flushed hotly and when she realized her legs were trembling, she sat down on one of the bar stools on the other side of the island. She tapped her fingers in an unsteady beat against the countertop. "I'm so sorry about that. I was caught in a bind.” At his skeptical expression, she let out a little groan. “Look, you don't know my grandmother. Alexandra Clarkson strikes fear into the hearts of children and small animals."

“And I'm guessing her granddaughter too?”

She buried her face in her small hands and bobbed her head. "So when she started to get pissed off at me since I didn't RSVP to her dinner, she said she had a dinner companion all laid out for me. And when I tried to bail out, I told a tiny white lie and said I already had a boyfriend. For some reason, and I don't know why, I said he lived next door. Then she pops in to give me this cocktail dress to wear and demands to meet my boyfriend. And you just happen to live next door."

She took a breath and chanced a glance up at him. He looked like he could barely contain his laughter as he rocked back on his bare feet, giving her an excellent view of his sculpted chest. "Breathe. You told her I owned a construction company?"

"I didn't know what to say. In my defense, we’ve never talked about what you do for a living and you’re always sawing, fixing, or screwing something."

He barked out a laugh. "Screwing? God, sweetheart, our relationship really has done a 180.”

"Oh god!" Mortified, she covered her face again and prayed that his kitchen floor would open up and swallow her whole. "I didn't mean it that way."

"And that kiss? How did you mean that?”

She winced. How was she going to talk herself out of this mess? "I had to make it believable." She uncovered her face and looked over at him. “I panicked, okay?”

Before she realized what was happening, he came around to her side of the island and braced his arm on either side of her as she turned around so that they were face to face. She fought to breathe. To think clearly around this beautiful, half-naked man who smelled too good. Felt too right. “Are you panicking now?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded tiny.

“I liked the kiss,” he murmured. “Maybe a little too much, to be honest.”

"Yeah?"

"Oh, hell yes." He leaned closer to her.

"Are you going to kiss me again?" He smelled fresh and clean, like dryer sheets and soap. Violet swore she also detected a hint of sandalwood—maybe in his aftershave—and it attracted her on a raw, basic level that she had never experienced. He was like a magnet and she was powerless to resist the force drawing them together at this very moment. And the thing that scared her was that she didn't want to resist. What she’d learned of Declan Pierce so far, she liked—also maybe a little too much. Because the more she discovered, the more she wanted to know about him.

"As long as we're making things believable,” he murmured inches from her mouth.

"Oh.” She swallowed hard and then did it once more because the tightness in her throat was still there. "I see."

He bent his head closer, a few locks of his damp hair skimming her forehead. He could see the jump of her pulse at the base of her neck and moved to cover it with his palm. Her breath quickened, and she moaned against his lips. He felt his body tighten and contract, every muscle going rigid.

“I'm going to kiss you now,” he told her roughly.

"Yes, please.”

He nuzzled his mouth against hers, testing the softness and her heat. Capturing her fuller bottom lip between his teeth, he tugged gently. When Violet opened up with a small cry, he moved his hands to her back, one hand at the nape of her neck, and the other pressed against the small of her back. He kissed her slowly, teasing and tasting and exploring slowly because tonight, he wasn't ready to let her go so easily. Tonight, he tasted chocolate on her tongue instead of cinnamon gum, but it drove him just as crazy.

When her tongue peeked out to play with his, his hand fisted her long hair, and the silky strands tumbled over his knuckles and wrist.  When he heard her moan and felt her move against him, he shifted their bodies until her legs parted and he moved between her widened thighs.

Her hands wandered up to his chest, stroking the muscles beneath her fingertips, and he felt his heart leap at her tentative touch. Her soft fingers gripped his shoulders like she was holding on for dear life. He was so glad he hadn't thrown on a shirt when he answered the door because he liked feeling the scratch of her nails against his bare skin just as much as he enjoyed listening to the little moans coming from the back of her throat.

“We better stop.” He pulled back reluctantly, thought better of it, then bent to run a heated trail from her lips to the swell of her breasts with his own mouth. "We need to stop."

"No.” Her hands moved restlessly over his torso. "Please don't tell me we have to.” If this was making things believable, she wanted to practice like this with him daily. No, hourly.

"Jacob is in the next room." He feathered a kiss across her temple. “Not that I'm not tempted to throw you over my shoulder and finish this in my bedroom.”

Her core tightened at his words as she slid off the barstool and attempted to put a fair amount of distance between them. "You're right." She stood in front of his new stove shaking her head and pressed her hand to her chest, trying her best to tame her erratic heartbeat. "Thanks for the kiss."

He caught her hand in his and pulled her back to him, making her painfully aware that she'd affected his body just as much as he had her own. "You're welcome,” he murmured against her mouth.

"And thanks a lot for playing along the other day."

"Anytime.
Trust
me.”

She cleared her throat and put her hands on his chest, staring up at him with a serious expression. "That dinner that my grandmother mentioned? I plan to tell her that you can't make it."

Declan was on the verge of accepting her decision when he heard himself ask, "Why?"

A deep frown wrinkled her small nose. "You actually
want
to come?"

"I think I was invited, right? Your—.” He cleared his throat and waggled his eyebrows wickedly.  “—plus one.”

"Well ... yes."

He paused and decided to be upfront with her. "I like you, Violet."

She smiled—a sweet, shy turn of her lips—and his chest clenched. "I like you, too."

"I want to be honest; I'd like to spend some time with you. But I don't know if I'm ready for something serious. That probably makes me sound like a dick, but I have Jacob to think about, and he's already having a rough time. I really doubt me dating his teacher is going to help him adjust."

She moved her head up and down. "Yeah, I understand."

He tilted her chin up and kissed her lightly. She molded against him perfectly, sighing deeply. "If it weren't for Jacob, I'd be all over you right now." He pulled away, giving her a pained expression. "But he's a big part of my life and I've learned that unless I'm ready to get serious with a woman, I shouldn't be parading them around in front of my kid brother. I have to set a good example and all that shit now. Plus, I want to make sure Jacob is settled before I think about dating again."

She wrinkled her nose at him and laughed. "Adulting is the worst, huh?"

"Fuck yeah, it is." He leaned his bronze forehead down to hers and drew in a harsh breath. "But seriously, I have to do what's best for him, and I’m worried adding a relationship into the mix might be too much for him. He's already having a tough time transitioning to high school. I don't think he's making friends yet and most of the time, I just screw up with him." Declan's face scrunched at that thought.

"Hey.” She gripped his hip. "You're doing the best you can. And I see you're really trying. Not a lot of guys would uproot their lives all for their kid brother."

"Well, I wasn't there for him growing up. And now, I'm all he has. This situation sucks for him too. He lost his parents, home, and friends all because of one drunken asshole. At least I had my parents for twenty-nine years. He only had them for twelve."

Declan tried not to choke on the guilt, but it was hard shouldering all the responsibility for one kid. A few years ago, he had been looking forward to a promotion and going to the hottest bars in New York. Now, he was learning how to pack school lunches and fumbling through geometry and French homework.

"Look, I'm not looking for anything serious either. I ..." Violet trailed off but she dragged in a deep breath and continued, “My last relationship was a messy, epic disaster. Well, at least the tail end of it was. I'm not ready for anything major, but I am attracted to you."

He stroked her arm with his forefinger, feeling goosebumps rise on her soft, smooth skin. "So, what do we do, Miss Kelly?”

"I don't know." She lifted her slim shoulders. Who would have thought telling a fib to Alexandra would open up such a possibility? "I really don't."

"Neither do I.” He smoothed his palm across her cheek, feeling the harsh ache of desire when she turned her face against his hand and shivered. Moaned. He could get used to hearing this woman moan over and over again. “But I also can’t deny that I felt things I haven’t felt in a long, long time when I kissed you.”

"What if we took things slow?"

He liked the sound of that. At least it was something. "How are you proposing we do that?"

"You're concerned about Jacob, which I totally understand. I’m concerned about him, too. And, to be honest, I'm still sorting my feelings with my ex. So why don't we just spend some time together, get to know each other first and be friends? You know, the kind of friends that go out on dates occasionally."

Declan considered it. And as selfish as it sounded, he wanted so much more from Violet Kelly than friendship. But he nodded. "Sounds doable. But I'm going to talk to Jacob first. I don't want him to find out from someone else or, god forbid, if he ever walked in on us kissing. I'm going to be upfront about us occasionally seeing each other. Let him know that it's nothing serious." As an afterthought, he added, "That we’re both responsible adults."

"Sounds good." She unwrapped herself from his arms. "I better get going. It's late and a school night."

"School night. After what you just did to me I'll be having bad teacher fantasies until my alarm goes off tomorrow morning.”

A flush raced across her pale skin, and she dropped her blue gaze to the floor. "Behave."

"I will for now. Jacob will probably be absent again tomorrow. Do I have to call into the school and let them know?" Declan couldn't remember if that was the policy for high school, and he had forgotten to call today.

She shook her head. "Not really necessary, but it'll make things easier if you called the office in the morning."

He nodded and he walked her to the door, stopping along the way to bend and retrieve a snoring Bear from an equally loud Jacob on the couch. He handed the ball of black fur to Violet and watched them head back to their house, releasing a low whistle. "’Night, neighbor."

"H
ow do you feel?"

Declan watched Jacob sit up, blearily rubbing at the sleep in his eyes. He looked a lot better than he had the last couple days. The color had returned to his face, and he no longer looked like he was going to throw up at any moment.

"Better."

"Here." Declan handed him a glass of ginger ale, which he happily accepted. "Drink this."

"Thanks." Jacob looked at the clock. "It's ten o'clock?"

Declan nodded. He had watched over Jacob most of the night. When he heard a weird noise just after midnight, he had checked on his brother to find him whimpering in his sleep. He remembered how their mom used to tell him that Jacob had nightmares as a kid, so Declan had sat down and watched over him, tucking the blankets close to him when he started to shiver.