NFH 02 Perfection (15 page)

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.

"Here you go," the bartender said with
a delicious little smile that made Zoe even happier.

"Thank you," she murmured, handing
over a twenty and waving away the change. She picked up her drink
and sipped it as she looked over the crowd, wondering what the best
way to approach a man for sex was.

Her eyes landed on Trevor as he walked
into the bar and she nearly sighed. He really looked good, she
thought and judging by the way every woman in the bar seemed to
stop what they were doing to look his way she didn't think she was
the only one that thought so.

She raised her hand to wave to him
only to stop mid-raise as she reminded herself that it wasn't like
that between them. They weren't friends and the last thing she
needed tonight was to look pathetic, well even more pathetic than
coming to a bar alone to pick up a guy. For a minute she sat there
sipping her drink as she discretely watched as he approached the
corner where a lot of guys from work were hanging out.

While all the guys greeted
him the women looked him over hungrily. Not that she could blame
them. He did look rather delicious tonight. Through narrowed eyes
she watched as that jerk that liked to make fat comments about her
when he thought she couldn't hear approached Trevor with several
women. He wasn't an attractive man, not by any stretch of the
imagination, but he obviously put a lot of work and time into his
appearance. His hair was over styled, she'd bet everything that she
had that his black designer tee shirt was ironed along with his
pants and she
knew
the large bugle in his pants had to be a rolled up gym sock.
The man was pathetic and a jerk and she was getting sick of his
comments, but she kept her mouth shut only because she didn't want
to start any drama at work.

Obviously Trevor liked the big jerk,
she thought as she watched him greet the women that the jerk
practically shoved his way. She couldn't help but feel disappointed
when Trevor didn't tell the jerk off or walk away from the women
who looked like they'd been around the block one too many
times.

Of course nothing disappointed her
more than when he looked up and met her eyes only to look away.
Then again it shouldn't because they weren't really friends, she
thought, making a mental note to short change him on his lunch
Monday morning. She forced herself to look away and focus back on
the task at hand.

Having sex.

"You're a pretty little thing," a man
with shoulder length blonde hair and pretty grey eyes said as he
took the stool next to her and gestured for a beer. He looked clean
and had the boy next door look going for him and would probably be
a good choice to help her get over her sexual slump.

"Thank you," she said, feeling
secretly pleased by the comment and attention. At least someone was
happy to see her, she mused.

"Are you here with someone?" the man
asked as he ran assessing eyes over her, pausing on her
breasts.

She opened her mouth to answer only to
have a familiar deep voice answer for her.

"She's with me," Trevor said, throwing
his arm around her shoulders as he gave the man a pointed
look.

The man opened his mouth, looking as
though he wanted to argue, but quickly snapped his mouth shut as he
took in Trevor's large build. With a forced smile and a nod
farewell the man grabbed his beer and walked away.

"You're welcome," Trevor said, taking
the newly vacated seat and signaled for a beer.

"Why the hell did you just do that?"
Zoe hissed, watching the man hurry across the room towards a much
prettier brunette. Great, now she'd have to figure out how to get
another man to approach her, she thought, taking a sip of her very
delicious drink.

"Because he was bothering you," Trevor
simply said, looking around as though he'd already dismissed her
and he probably had, she thought, taking another large sip of her
drink.

"He wasn't bothering me."

"No?" Trevor asked, sounding bored as
he winked at a pretty blonde across the room. Even from this
distance Zoe could tell the blonde was giggling behind her hand and
loving the attention.

Hmmm, perhaps that's what she should
do. If she spotted a man that she wouldn't mind having sex with she
should wink or giggle or something to let him know she was
interested. Yes, that was a good plan, she decided, but she should
probably wait until after she had another drink to put her new plan
into action.