Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
I hopped into the bed of the truck.
“Hey, there,” I called, though my voice was drowned by the rain battering against the metal roof.
Apparently, she wasn’t expecting any sort of neighborly welcome because a scream suddenly ripped out of her. The piercing sound ricocheted against the confined walls.
In the same second, she whirled around. Drenched locks of this dark, honey-kissed blonde hair whipped around her shoulders.
The box she’d just picked up toppled out of her hands and thudded to the floor right as these cute, dainty little fists came out in front of her like she was ready to throw down.
A vicious little thing who clearly was prepared to claw my eyes out.
I held back the chuckle that threatened. All I could think was she and Millie might be kindred spirits, only this woman had been sure she was moving in next to a serial killer.
I didn’t laugh, though. Not when I could feel it—actual fear rolling off her in waves.
I couldn’t make out her face in the shadows, but that didn’t hide the ferocity that lay beneath it, seeded deep in her bones.
I lifted my hands in surrender. “Whoa, sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, darlin’.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Sneaking up on me like that?” Her voice was low and throaty and skating over my skin.
At the sound of it, a strange sensation pulled at my stomach.
A clench of uncertainty.
A tug of familiarity.
One I couldn’t place, like some long-ago memory that scattered like debris.
My brow lifted in disbelief. “What the hell is wrong with me? I was actually popping by to ask you the same question, considering you’re out here trying to unload boxes in the middle of a lightning storm.”
I tried to keep it light, though there was a part of me that wanted to toss her over my shoulder and carry her to her door.
Being out here like this wasn’t safe.
And shit, I might not know her, but I needed her to be.
Safe.
Exasperation huffed from her mouth. It drew my attention to the sound. In the wisping darkness, I could just make out the heart-shaped lips, so plump and full I thought they might permanently look like they were puckered for a kiss.
Which was the dumbest damned thought I’d ever had since I didn’t kiss. It was too fucking intimate.
And here I was the moron thinking I might make the exception for her.
I could physically feel the shock of irritation that rolled through her, her tone pitched in a challenge as her shoulders hiked up to her ears. “Did you come to my house to tell me when it’s prudent for me to unpack my things?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. She probably meant for it to be defiant. A barrier that told me to fuck off. Too bad the only thing it did was drop my gaze to the spot.
Good God, her tits were gorgeous, too.
A beat of that lust rebounded, and a smirk took to my face as my head angled to the side. “I just was thinking you might be able to find a better time, is all. You do seem…a little wet.”
Okay, so I still didn’t know a goddamn thing about her, but I couldn’t help but tease her a bit. Wondering if she’d bite since I was definitely salivating to get a taste.
One delicious hip cocked to the left, though I was getting the message it wasn’t to be coy.
Clearly, she wasn’t impressed by the insinuation.
I took a step forward into the severity that vibrated the trailer, toward this woman who quivered with a distrust so fierce that it stabbed me in the chest. What the hell could put a chip so big on someone’s shoulder?
“I’m Cody. Cody Cooper. I live next door. Looks to me like you could use a hand, and I’m here to be of service.”
I stretched my tatted arms out like an offering.
She stumbled a step farther back into the shadows.
“You don’t have the first clue what I need,” she sneered.
Huh.
Not the usual reaction I got when I chatted up a chick.
She had a man, then. Yeah. That had to be it.
She turned away like she was completely disinterested, and she started digging through the boxes again. “You can go on back to your place. Like you said, it’s storming, and I’m sure a man like you has plenty of other things he’d rather be doing with his time.”
I was thinking something along the lines of pushing her up against the wall and getting to what was hidden under those short shorts seemed like a good place to start.
She’d likely cut off my dick and shove it down my throat if I even suggested it.
“Nah, I don’t have anything better to do. How about you let me give you a hand, instead?”
“I don’t need a hand,” she grumbled as she stacked three big boxes before she picked them up. She struggled to balance them, but the one on the top slipped.