Balancing the drinks in one hand, I rapped on the door and waited patiently for the bane of my life to open it. It took asolid minute before the door was flung open by the man whom I wanted to detest, but had paid a visit to me in my dreams, resulting in me waking with the biggest boner I’d had in a while.
“You’re early,” he grumbled, his dark eyes narrowing on me even though he was dressed in a suit and clearly ready to go to work.
I let an enormous smile lift my lips. “I know. Thought I’d get a start on the day. Good morning, by the way,” I paused, seeing if he would acknowledge my greeting. Of course, he didn’t. I held a cup out to him. “I got you a coffee. Figured you weren’t an eggnog latte kinda guy like me, so I got you a black coffee with no sugar.”
His gaze dropped to the cup, brows pulling together, before whipping back up to meet my amused stare. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you bring me coffee?”
For what seemed like an eternity, I was lost for words. Seriously, it hadn’t even crossed my mind when I pulled up at the drive-thru and ordered the two drinks that he’d think I had an ulterior motive.
My eyes fell to the coffee cup I was holding out to him. “Uh…‘cos I came here via the drive-thru and thought it would be rude to turn up without a drink for you.” Several times, his eyes darted to the cup and back to me again, and I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone hadeverdone something nice for this guy. “It’s not poisoned, you know,” I added. “You just have to add sugar and creamer if that’s what you want. But, hey, let me know if you’d prefer something else. I have an addiction to caffeine,so I tend to go most days. I can grab you something different tomorrow.”
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Ben McScroodge’s features relaxed as he reached out to take the drink from me. His fingers wrapped around the cup, brushing against mine. Tinglessparked between us and traveled through my body before settling low in my stomach, and for a second, the two of us were caught in each other’s gaze.
He cleared his throat, tearing his eyes from mine. “Black coffee is fine.” He started to turn, giving me his back, but paused to look over his shoulder. “Thank you.”
I couldn’t stop the triumphant smirk from tugging at my lips. “You’re welcome.”
Ben
For reasons unbeknownst to me, I decided to work from home for the day,eventhough I’d made the effort to get dressed as if I were going to the office. I told myselfthatit was because I had too much work to get through and wanted the peacethatmy home office could bring, and not because ofa certain irritating bugthatwas invading my thoughts far too often.
Deep down, I knew I was lying to myself.
When I’d arrived home from work the day before, I found Tristan in my bedroom again. He didn’t have his speaker blasting, but instead wore headphones, meaning he didn’t hear me come in.
He danced around again, singing along to music I couldn’t hear as he painted the wall while thrusting his ass and gyrating his hips, and like the day before, the sight had my cock twitching.
Before he could catch me ogling him, I disappeared, hiding in my office until I heard his van pull out of the driveway long after 7 pm.
I thought I would be able to breathe freely after he’d left, but when I went to bed, his scent lingered in the room, making it impossible for my cock to deflate. I couldn’t distinguish the smell, other than knowing it belonged to Tristan. Cue me sleeping in a different roomthatwasn’t tainted by his addictive scent.
So why I thought it would be a good idea to work from home for the entire day, torturing myself with his presence, was beyond me. Yet there I was, stuck in my office, trying to avoid him while he banged about in the kitchen fixing the broken back door.
The winter sun lit up my office as I read through a surveyor’s report for the umpteenth time on a building I owned. The insurance policy was due for renewal, but the company had insistedthatthey wanted proof the building was in good condition before they renewed the policy.
It wasn’t, and scanning through the report, a heavy weight settled on my shoulders at realizing how much it was going to cost to fix all the issues the surveyor had identified. I droppedthe report onto my desk when a loud bang echoed from the direction of the kitchen, followed by a muffled curse.
Concern shot through me, and I bolted to the kitchen, telling myselfthatmy concern was simply out of worrythatTristan had caused more damage to my property, and not for the man himself.
Another lie.
I strolled into the kitchen, pausing at finding Tristan lifting a door, the muscles in his arms bulging as he repositioned it to fit in the doorframe. Sweat glistened across his forehead, and a flush coated his cheeks.
The strangest thought popped into my head.What would he taste like if I were to run my tongue over his body?I shoved the thought into the deepest recess of my brain, never to be discovered by anyone.
“Having trouble?”I asked, noting he wasn’t wearing his headphones.
His head whipped to me as he put the door down, but clung onto it so it didn’t fall.“Shit, sorry, man. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I underestimated how difficult trying to hang this door on my own would be.”
His custom grin spread over his lips, and I’d come to realizethatit wasn’t an arrogant smirk; it wasjusthow he smiled, like everything in his life was amusing.
“How do you normally hang doors when you work alone?”
“Well, for a start, I don’t usually hang these types of doors. I got this one specifically for your kitchen door as it has an excellent locking system on it. Wouldn’t want people breaking in now, would we?”He winked, and I couldn’t stop my lips from curling into a snarl. But before I could reprimand him, he continued.“And secondly, if I need help, I’ve got a list of buddies in the industry I can call who swing by when they are betweenjobs or on their lunch break to give me a hand. I’ll give one of them a shout and see if they’re free.”
