Lauren gritted her teeth and motioned upward, where the smoke alarm high up on the vaulted ceiling chose that moment to beep.
“I have a new battery right here,” she said, picking one up from a small pack of batteries she had setting on the end table next to her couch.
I set up the ladder and took the battery from her, then climbed up to change it out. I glanced down to find her standing near the base of the ladder, with her head cocked to look up at me.
“Why are you doing this?” The voice that had been haunting my dreams had a hard edge to it, which matched the frown on her beautiful face.
“I told you, the prospects were busy.”
“Yeah, but why areyouhere? Surely you have better things to do on a Friday evening?”
“Worried about my social life, babe?”
She gritted her teeth, then shook her head and pointedly looked away. I swapped out the battery, then popped the smoke detector back into place before climbing down. Lauren was still standing in the same spot, so I was only inches from her as I stepped down off the last rung. Before she could move, I reached up and lightly cupped her jaw, brushing my thumb along her cheek to see if her skin was as soft as it looked. It was.
“It’s not exactly a hardship to spend time helping a beautiful woman.”
Her eyes widened at the contact, then narrowed a split second later as she gave me an appraising look.
“Do you ever stop flirting?”
“With you? I doubt it,” I confessed, given her a wink and dropping my hand. I figured I’d pushed my luck enough. “I heard you’re coming to the cookout tomorrow.”
She nodded, and before I could open my mouth to offer to take her to dinner, the doorbell rang.
Lauren smiled as she said, “Excuse me while I get the door. My date is here.”
What the actual fuck did she just say?
Herdate???
Before I could react, she’d flung open the door and cheerfully greeted the blond asshole standing on the porch, who was eyeing her like a kid in a candy store. The motherfucker all but drooled and licked his lips as he stared at her like he’d never seen a gorgeous woman before in his life. He dipped his head to kiss her, and she offered her cheek as if they’d done it a thousand times before.
My hands clenched, and for a brief moment, I wished I had my trusty bat with me. Sure, I could use my fists to beat the living shit out of him, but thethwackof the bat hitting human flesh was so much more fucking satisfying. Saved me from busting my knuckles, too.
Herdateglanced up then, and his eyes widened when he caught sight of me. A second later, he spotted my cut, and his eyes almost bugged out of his head. He took an involuntary stepback, and if I hadn’t been so goddamned pissed off, I would have laughed.
“Dustin, this is, uh, Trick,” Lauren said. “My landlord sent him over to change the battery in my smoke detector.”
I had to give the guy credit. Once his initial shock wore off, he stepped up and offered his hand to me. I forced myself not to glare too much as I returned the handshake. I even managed not to squeeze too hard, because I wasn’t a petty asshat who would do a thing like that.
Maybe.
Probably.
“Well, thank you for taking care of that so quickly.” Lauren’s words were stilted, and I could tell she felt awkward as hell. I wasn’t inclined to make it easy on her, though, and made no move to leave.
“Um, we probably need to be going now if we’re going to make our reservation on time,” she prompted. I raised a brow, just daring her to kick me out.
She dared.
“It’s time for you to go, Trick,” she snapped, giving up all pretense of polite conversation.
“Sure thing, babe,” I drawled, then shot another glare at herdate.“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told her huskily, making a point to drop a kiss of my own on her cheek as I walked past her. She jumped, startled at the sudden contact. Before either one of them could say a word, I grabbed the ladder and left.
The ride back to the clubhouse was a blur as I stewed over the clusterfuck I’d just left behind. I’d spent weeks thinking about the damned woman, and there she was dating some other fucker without a care in the world.
I stormed into the common room and called out for a beer, letting my angry gaze roam over the usual Friday night crowd.
