Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Getting up early was not conducive with getting no sleep.
Which was why, as I threw the covers off of me, and stood up, I decided that this loud music couldn’t go on. Not to mention the occasional whine of a saw, or the tap-tap of a hammer.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
I was on the block with one other house, and that house had been rocking since the new occupants had moved into it three days ago.
At first, I understood the noise. The house itself needed a lot of freakin’ work.
But that work didn’t need to be going on at twelve o’clock at night.
Reaching down onto the floor for my sweatpants, I pulled them on, then walked in my slouchy socks that I’d stolen from Krisney, who’d stolen them from Reed Hail when we were in high school, out the door of my house.
I made it down the steps, and to the front walk, when I realized that I’d forgotten shoes.
But I didn’t care.
I was too mad at this point to care if I had shoes or not.
I was a determined woman, and this shit was about. To go. Down.
The closer I got to the sound of the saws and the music, the more I realized that maybe I wasn’t as brave as I thought.
What if this man was a killer? What if he was a woman hater…what if he…
“What are you doing here at twelve in the morning?”
I looked up to find the last man I ever thought I’d see steps away from the stupid saw that was making so much noise in the middle of the night.
My neighborhood was very quiet at night…usually.
It was the road that led to downtown, and since downtown was closed after about eight in the evening, most of the time I barely heard anything.
There were two houses on the entire road, mine, and the one that the man was standing in the doorway of.
“I’m here,” I said, licking my suddenly dry lips, “because I have to be up at the butt crack of dawn, and you’re over here making a lot of noise…though I didn’t know it was you who was making the noise.”
Tate’s lips twitched, and he held open the door.
“What’s too loud, my music?”
I followed him when he disappeared inside, and stayed on his heels the entire way, even though I wanted nothing more than to inspect every inch of the home I found myself now standing in.
“Your music, and whatever saw thing you keep using that makes a loud ‘zinging’ noise each time you use it,” I explained loudly so I could be heard over the roar of the radio.
He was in the process of turning down the music, so the last two words of my sentence were very loud in the sudden silence.
He grinned and I blushed, immediately turning away so my eyes didn’t take him in.
It was a useless endeavor, though.
Every single solid inch of the man was burned into my brain.
Tonight, he was wearing a pair of jeans, brown work boots, and that was it.
He was dripping sweat, and I wanted nothing more but to lick one of the droplets off with my mouth.
I refrained, however, but only just barely.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was loud enough for you to hear it.”
I immediately went into ‘it’s okay’ mode.
“It’s okay,” I lied, dancing from one foot to the other. “Well, see ya.”
And that was how I started walking out the door, and ended up hitting my head on something I never saw coming.
Come to find out, it was a ladder.
***
“Hey, girl.”
I blinked open an eye and stared up into a man’s beautiful eyes, wondering if I’d died and gone to Heaven.
“I like your beard,” I told him. “It’s nice.”
I brought my hand up to run over said beard, and liked how soft it was. You wouldn’t think it was soft, though. Not with the way the rest of him was so hard, but it was.
“Thanks,” he grinned. “How’s your head feeling?”
I blinked, then thought about that question for a little bit.
“The top of it feels like I shaved it with a cheese grater,” I told him.
“Why would you know what it feels like to be shaved with a cheese grater?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
The movement made his Adam’s apple bob, and I wondered if it’d be weird to suck it.
Probably.
“Why are you looking at my neck like that?” he asked.
I blushed and returned my eyes to his. Which was the wrong move.
The man was laughing at me, and that made my back straighten as my cranky bitch came out to play.
I was not a nice person when I didn’t get enough sleep. Never had been.
Even to Krisney.
She’d made the mistake of waking me from a nap one time, and one time only, and we were lucky to still be friends seeing as I threw an entire can of Dr. Pepper at her that I’d been drinking before I’d nodded off. This had been during college where we’d shared a dorm room, and she’d not come home for two days in fear that I’d retaliate in some way.