Mike pinched the bridge of his nose and turned on his heel.
It took him about ten minutes to move a few of her boxes around in the car and squeeze out of the garage. He parked on the street in front of the house and scanned the perimeter. There were still no signs of anyone preparing to fumigate. He considered he might have read the message wrong. As he climbed the steps to the front door, Mike read the pest control company email once more.
He didn’t recognize the company, but he knew Everett was pretty picky about the businesses he used. Just below the confirmation and order numbers on the invoice attached was the appointment information.
Saturday, March 14th, 9:00 a.m.
It was the right day and not too far off the right time. They were either late or simply had the wrong address.
Mike was getting the feeling something else was wrong altogether.
The top of the invoice included a phone number, so he dialed them up. After four rings the line cut off, leaving him staring at the screen. It wasn’t a call failure and there was no option to leave a voicemail. He needed to tell Zora.
Mike walked back into the house and rushed down the hall, following the sound of her sneezing. He rounded the corner into her bedroom without thinking.
“Hey, something’s up,” he said, but then he stopped in his tracks.
Through the steam, he saw Zora’s naked form in her bathroom mirror. His gaze glided over her tight body. He wanted to run the pads of his fingers over her wet silken brown skin. She was leggy and slender, but with sensual, endless curves. Her breasts were small but full, and her ass was worthy of being endlessly kissed.
He sucked in a stark breath, as electricity coursed through his veins. Then he released a low growl.
He’d thought it was low, anyway.
Zora looked over her shoulder and saw him watching her. As she met his eyes, his mind went blank. She was striking, and he was struggling with the decision to look away or keep staring.
In the meantime, she didn’t move to cover herself.
Zora raked a hand through her fringe of dark hair and lifted an accusatory brow at him. It wasn’t a wistful glance. Heat flared in her eyes.
“You were saying?” She urged him to continue as she turned off the water.
Mike made a strangled sound.
In turn, his face grew hot and he chided himself for standing there gawking like he’d never seen a naked woman before. While he had many times, he never saw a woman as captivating and disarmingly beautiful as Zora.
Suddenly, he was twenty-two again. A breathless Zora lay beneath him with her breasts and soft curves pressed against him, he hovered over her gently and nervously, thankful she’d chosen him. His darkened gaze had moved over her as a slow and sexy grin crept through her tears. Her eyes were hooded, and she’d whispered his name.
Shaking off the thought without turning away, Mike forced his eyes to meet hers.
“I’m sorry,” Mike managed. It didn't sound like an apology, though. It was more like a low whisper full of the angst and desire coursing through him.
The same half grin from years before settled on her face as she stepped slowly and sexily out of the shower and leveled him with a penetrating stare.
There was no towel—just beautifully sculpted flesh and her mouth-watering womanhood.
Fuck me.
He bit his lip, and his breath stuttered. The heat in her eyes seared through Mike, gripping his groin low and tight. Another growl pried its way out of him as he took in the fullness of her lips, the supple swell of her breasts, and, Lord have mercy on him, the delicate curve of her neck.
She’d rattled him. Again.
She was the only one who could.
Mike was breathless as he blinked out of his trance. He’d seen her naked before, but never like this—never when she was so confident and empowered.
“I…” he trailed off, swallowing hard over the lump in his throat. “I’ll just talk to you when you’re ready. We’ll drop your stuff off at my house first, but we need to get to the restaurant.”
He slinked out of the room with his hard-on between his legs.
“Sounds good,” she called after him.
They were definitely at an impasse, but it was too late. He was afraid it might be need, not lust, settling in the pit of his stomach.
It shook him to the core.
If he was going to do this, it would need to be slow and well thought out. Most importantly, it would be a decision he made with his head and his heart, not his dick.
Chapter Thirteen
Zora
Zora walked out of the bedroom with her head held considerably higher than it was when Mike first arrived to pick her up. The steamy shower cleared her sinuses and her mind. Mike was waiting for her by the front door reading something on his phone, standing about as far away from her as he could, which was a good thing. The heat on her skin when Mike looked at her naked body had left her horny as hell, and their proximity almost tipped her over the edge. The rules were working, but not exactly in her favor.
She patted her purse to make sure her phone was in it.
“I’m ready. Just let me lock up.” She passed by him and waited for him to make his way down the steps before locking the door and following behind him.
The rules were going to try her willpower for sure. They were backfiring by the second. She was completely turned on. Mike’s ass was one of the world’s greatest testaments to exercise and fitness. She could just sink her teeth into it.
Zora bit the tip of her finger and tried not growl.
Just then her phone vibrated against her hip.
“Hold on a sec. Let me get this,” she called ahead to Mike. She fished her phone out of her purse and took the call. “This is Zora.”
“It’s Leanne. I’m so glad I caught you. Now, find yourself something to hold onto. Have I got news for you!”
Leanne Ramey was not only the best literary agent on the face of the earth for anyone who ever picked up a mixing spoon, but a genuinely happy person. Every single time Zora talked to her, she was at a New Year’s Eve level of excitement about everything—a new book tote, a new place to eat with the best fries in town, a cute pen. Don’t even get her started on day planners and Washi stickers.
It didn’t take much. So, Zora wasn’t exactly ready to grab at something to steady herself over Leanne’s great new purse or the fact the sun was smiling on Portland this morning.
“Oates Book Group bought your book!” The decibel level of the ear-piercing squeal Leanne let loose was epic.
Maybe I should have taken her advice.
Zora wasn’t sure her eardrums would work again, but she matched Leanne’s squeal with a masterful scream of her own and danced on the brick walkway. Then she just stood there shaking her head in disbelief. Her heartbeat was off the charts and all of the hair on her body was standing at attention.
She tossed a worried-looking Mike the thumbs-up, waving off his visibly rising panic.
Not until she heard Leanne’s faint voice calling her, did she come back down to earth.
“Zora? Zora?”
“Are you kidding me? Please don’t be kidding me because I’m dying! I’m dead. I died.”
“Don’t die,” Leanne said. “This is real. When I say they wanted the book, I mean, we were almost about to go into a bidding war with James & Jensen over it. This is big.”