“You said handsome twice.”
“No I didn’t.”
“You did,” she insisted. “Twice.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, I wasn’t suggesting you consider him. I was just… Anyway.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “If you think of anyone, let me know.”
I studied her. It was impossible to tell if she was trying to help Mister Sexy or if she was trying to plant a seed in my mind. She was always smiling, which made reading her moods difficult to say the least.
“Yeah. I’ll ask around town,” I said in a sarcastic tone.
A knock on my door startled the hell out of me. I darted my eyes to the doorway.
Standing in the center of the opening with his arms crossed, Devin was looking right at me. “Couple of the fellas want to meet at the property and have a look at it.” He glanced at his watch. “You want to ride on the back of my bike or take your broom?”
My gaze fell to the desk. “If I haven’t said I was sorry, I am.”
“You didn’t. I appreciate it.” He took a few steps toward me. “To keep from pissing off the population on Gordon Drive, I should probably ride with you, though. My bike’s liable to wake everyone up from their afternoon naps. They might hold you responsible.”
He was right about the neighborhood’s perception of a Harley with loud pipes. Riding with me wasn’t an option, though.
“When do they want to meet?” I asked.
“Thirty minutes.”
If he got in the car with me, his raised handprints would be on my ass cheeks before the night was over. I needed a way out, and I needed it fast.
“Ride with Kate,” I said. “I’ll meet you two there.”
“No can do,” Kate said, tapping her index finger against the face of her watch. “I’m meeting someone for drinks.”
“When?” I blurted.
“Thirty minutes.” She stood. “Twenty, really.”
“Where’s Janine?”
“Estero.”
I looked at Devin. Remembering the mistakes of my past was crucial to my success. If being hornswoggled out of my savings, cheated on, and humiliated wasn’t enough, nothing would be.
I reached for my purse. “Give me two minutes. I’ll meet you at the door.”
He undressed me with his eyes. “All right.”
My gaze fell to his crotch.
His burrito twitched.
Fearing I was losing my mind, I met his gaze. I needed reassurance that what I thought happened hadn’t.
He winked and turned away.
I quickly looked to Kate’s chair. It was empty.
I drew a breath of courage and headed for the door. If we didn’t stop for drinks, everything should be fine.
Just fine.
Chapter Seven
Devin
Sitting within a few feet of Teddi in her Range Rover, it was impossible to deny her natural beauty. In a city where Botox injections, breast enhancements, and liposuction were the norm, she appeared to be sans any visible enhancements.
Although I hated to admit it, there was really no room for Teddi to improve in the looks department. Personality-wise, however, she could’ve used an augmentation. She hadn’t said two words since we left the office.
To keep myself from nursing a stiff dick for the entire ride, I attempted to gaze straight ahead during most of the trip across town. When the occasion arose, I stole quick glances at her. Any man deprived of sexual contact for eight years would have done the same thing.
Her blond hair was pinned in a bun. The skintight tangerine dress she wore had a low neckline and thin straps that draped over each shoulder. Her right wrist was decorated with multiple gold bracelets and her left with a gold watch. Two gold necklaces dangled over a valley of cleavage that garnered my attention each time I looked in her direction.
As much as I hoped to stare straight at the road ahead, my eyes rattled back and forth like a pachinko ball.
Teddi complained about an elderly driver in a Bentley convertible. I took the opportunity to take another look at her gravity-defying tits.
“I can’t believe she’s just sitting there,” Teddi seethed. “The light’s been green for at least sixty seconds.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t honked.”
“It doesn’t matter how mad I get, I don’t honk. I hate it when people do that to me, so I don’t do it to them.”
I made note that she was a compassionate driver. It did little to dissolve the frustration that remained from how disrespectful she’d been in the meeting. While she gripped the steering wheel with such force that it turned her knuckles white, I took another look at her magnificent tits.
Traffic cleared just as the signal changed from green to yellow. Teddi turned the steering wheel to the right and punched the gas. My road bag slid from my lap, revealing my current state of arousal. As I fumbled to slide the leather satchel back into place, Teddi glanced in my direction.
Not wanting her to think I was interested in her sexually, I slid the worn leather bag over my rigid dick.
I looked at her like she’d purposefully backed over my motorcycle in the parking lot. “You should warn a guy before you do something like that.”
“What’s in that bag, anyway?”
“Just a few things we might need.”
“Tools?”
“More or less.”
She gave the bag a quick look and then shifted her eyes to the road. Ten minutes of silence followed, which had been the norm for most of the trip. I wondered if she was reserved or if her dislike for tattooed bikers was something I should truly be concerned with.
We pulled into the home’s gated drive and rolled to a stop. Teddi programmed the code into the keypad and waited for the gate to open. “Where are your friends?”
“I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”
She proceeded up the long drive, seeming slightly uneasy about something.
“What’s with the apprehension?” I asked.
“Apprehension?” she stammered. “I’m not apprehensive.”
“You seem like it.”
“Well, I’m not,” she snapped back. She parked in front of the guesthouse and left the vehicle running. “I guess we’ll just wait for them to get here.”
“Can we go inside and look around?” I asked.
She looked at me like I’d asked her to behead a goat. “What?”
“Inside,” I said, gesturing toward the home. “Can we go inside?”
She swallowed heavily. “Do we need to?”
The driving force was apparent. She didn’t want to be alone with me. Realizing it fueled me to press the issue even harder. I opened the car door and stepped outside.
“C’mon,” I said, shouldering my bag. “Let’s look this place over.”
She got out of the car and tugged the wrinkles from her slinky dress. “Follow me,” she said over the car’s hood. “I’ll give you a quick tour.”
She conquered a pair of four-inch heels with an elegance I’d never witnessed. Each calculated step was placed perfectly in front of the other, almost as if she were walking a tightrope.