“Huh.” She tilts her head, scrutinizing me in a way that makes the back of my neck break out into a cold sweat. “So it’s you and not me then? Alrighty. I’m not sure what to say to that. It’s amazing to me how different I thought you were, but obviously you were playing a role to get laid, and this is who you truly are. No eggs or sugar. Emails and Zoom. Got it. Have a good night, Dr. Fritz.”
Her cool tone and sharp words pull me up short. Most likely because they’re true.
I’m not the man she met that night. Not anymore. But I was with her, and it wasn’t all an act. Sure, I told her I was Luca, and yes, in pretending to be him—it relaxed me—but with her…
With her, I was someone I haven’t been in a very long time.
Someone I thought died along with my wife.
My heart rate spikes, pounding painfully in my chest. That sweat on the back of my neck does nothing to cool me as my blood burns me from the inside out.
I need to get home. I need to eat some dinner and check in with Stella and take a shower. I need to leave this room where Elle is now rounding her desk, her purse on her shoulder, along with her laptop bag.
She’s back to ignoring me, shutting down her room, and when she moves to brush past me to turn off the lights and leave me behind, instinct eclipses sanity, and I grasp her arm, stopping her.
“What are you doing?”
Good question.
“Why do you care if I’m rude to you? I thought you hated me.”
Turbulent hazel eyes meet mine. “I do. But I’ve had enough meanness hurled my way to last a lifetime. I think it’s safe to say I’m over it by this point and frankly, meanness doesn’t suit me. I just moved here. I know one person in this town other than you and even if you’re not exactly my favorite person, you’re still my neighbor.”
My grip on her arm tightens so she can’t pull away. “What does that matter? That I’m your neighbor? You thought we’d do book club and gossip on the sidewalk like besties?” I mock.
She grits her teeth. “No. You don’t have to worry about that. I genuinely dislike you, which I know was your goal with me. Especially with how you’ve spoken to me tonight. But I had been hoping…” She trails off on a bitter laugh. “It’s stupid. Maybe it’s the Southern girl in me or the one who automatically searches for the best in everyone or who is always sweet and friendly, as you put it—a character flaw I should have killed off by now considering how many times people have disappointed me—but I was hoping I was wrong about you. Clearly I wasn’t, and that’s all there is to it.”
There’s so much in her little statement it’s making my head spin. But I can’t focus on that. After the way I’ve treated her, why would she ever want anything to do with me again? Nothing else can happen between us. She’s the kind of woman you don’t work out of your system. She makes you crave her. Hang like a fool on her every smile, word, and laugh. She has you coming back for more until she’s an addiction you worry you’ll never be able to quit.
But the feel of her soft skin beneath my hand. The way her chest is rising and falling, pushing her tits up with every inhale. The scent of her perfume. The way she stares into me—as if she’s still clinging to the hope I’ll prove her wrong and be the guy she wishes I were.
My fingers twitch against her arm. I should release her and run from here, but instead, I’m tightening my grip. Marching forward, thrusting her back until she crashes into the wall, and slamming my mouth down on hers like I’ve been possessed.
I must be.
I can’t be kissing her. Not my daughter’s teacher in her school—that’s an automatic off-limits. Not the woman who looks at me like she wants me to be more than I’ll ever be.
I can’t kiss her.
But I am.
Because I had to fucking kiss her.
And she’s kissing me back, gasping against my lips as my tongue dives into her mouth. A sweet, little, breathy moan escapes her when our tongues touch, her hands getting lost in my hair. Her purse and computer bag slam into my side, but it does nothing to stop us or bring sanity back into our minds.
My hands fist on her silky blouse as I angle my head, deepening the kiss and pressing her harder against the wall. I want to rip her pants off, wrap her legs around my waist, and fuck her raw right here. Hard and fast. Desperate and angry because I’m both things right now.
My hand slips down to her waist, gripping her, nearly taking action on my thoughts when a sound breaks through my lust-induced haze, and my brain takes over, wrenching me back from her. I take a step and then another, both of us panting, chests heaving, eyes dark and feral.
I glare at her, and she glares right back. My sexy little vixen.
“Elle, you ready to go?” a woman calls out seconds before she enters the room and finds us both like this, not touching, but a visible mess as we stare at each other. “Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were still with a parent. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Fuck.
“You didn’t,” I bark out and take off, plowing past the other woman and out the door without so much as a backward glance at either of them.
What did I just do?
9
Landon kissed me. Why would he do a thing like that? And why the hell did I allow myself to not only kiss him back but enjoy it?
“What the hell was that?” Bridget asks, bewildered, practically reading my thoughts.
I clear my throat, straighten up away from the board, and will my heart to slow. I can still feel his lips. The powerful, hungry kiss he just planted on them is making them tingle and swell.
“My rude neighbor,” I tell her because even though I likely should have said a student’s parent, it was obvious there was something else going on between us.
“Holy shit.” She gasps as I shut off the lights. “You live next door to Landon Fritz?”
The way she says his name with a hint of reverence has me frowning. Sure, he’s hotter than anyone I’ve ever seen before. Especially as he stands tall in green scrubs that match his eyes, his broad shoulders and muscular chest, abs and arms on delicious display because his scrubs do jack all to hide them. But come on.
I don’t respond, but I don’t have to. This is Bridget, and she’s already all over me as we leave the building, heading for her car in the parking lot.
“And wait,” she stops abruptly, the door to her car now ajar and the interior light on. “What do you mean he was rude? Did you already have an encounter with him before tonight? You just moved in like forty-eight hours ago.”
I say nothing, and a smile spears her lips.
“You’ve been holding out on me, Ellery Jane. I want details.” She points a stern finger at me over the roof of her car before slipping in the driver’s seat and starting it up.
As she drives, I explain everything that happened during the encounter at my front door, all the way through meeting Stella outside while I was planting bulbs. I don’t mention anything about the hotel or the kiss in my classroom tonight. First, my friend is tenacious and will be hungry like a bear waking up after hibernation. Second, neither of those things should have happened. I mean, not now that I know who he is and that he’s a total jerk of a man.