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Chapter 2
♥?♥?♥
Bastian
THIS WASN’T WISE. HE KNEW IT, even as his cute little neighbor hesitated and turned to look at him. Then the doors opened and she stepped out. Hurriedly he followed her. “Wait,” he said again.
This time she stopped. He’d clearly caught her at a bad time. She was quite disheveled, starting with the tattered black jeans and ending with the well-loved, bleach-splattered tee shirt sporting a faded mistletoe applique. The mistletoe was right over her chest. The chest was without a bra.
The face above the chest-without-a-bra looked sleepy, with makeup-free, heavy-lidded eyes. And her hair...wow, it was a glorious riot, sticking out in spiky twists. Usually when he saw her, that hair was a fluffy mass of tight black curls.
She wasn’t wearing her big, geeky glasses this morning, but she seemed to see him just fine. She was clinging to her paper coffee cup like it was a magic talisman. There was nothing mellow about her expression; she was glowering at him.
Today, unlike the previous times he’d crossed paths with her, she wasn’t sending out alluring, come-hither, check-out-adorable-me signals. In fact, come to think of it, she hadn’t been sending out those kinds of signals for a while.
Not since the last time he’d shut the door in her face, certainly.
What was her name again? Laura… Barbara… something like that.
“I don’t recall your name,” he hinted.
Her mouth opened. She appeared speechless. Not for the first time, he noticed that she had a beautiful mouth. Beautiful eyes, too, beneath those polycarbonate lenses. Extremely beautiful breasts. The tips pointed distinctly, almost accusingly, at his face. Their beautiful outline made him want to pay them proper attention, bend down and tug them with his teeth into his mouth, right through the cloth.
Still, the rest of her…her clothes, her hair...there was something important missing.
Polish. That was it. The other times he’d seen her, she’d been, not sleek perhaps, but at least wearing day clothes. This morning, there was a strong suggestion of just-got-out-of-bed.
It was the curly-toed elf slippers that ultimately gave it away.
Not a problem. It wasn’t even dawn yet. There was plenty of time to get her ready.
“I’ve introduced myself to you at least three times,” she finally managed.
He stuck out his hand. “I’m Bastian Spencer.”
“I know. We’ve met.” She stared at his hand as if it had bugs crawling all over it.
His mouth tightened. Letting his hand fall back down to his side, he gazed around. They were standing in the hallway, where anybody could interrupt them.
She started to turn away, apparently done with him. He tried again, with a note of desperation, “Wait. Please, Laura.” Her eyes told him he’d messed up. “I mean Barbara—no—Janet?”
“Paula.” She raised the cup to her lips again and a trail of steam rose past her severely scowling eyebrows. “Raymond. Paula Raymond. And that is the last time I’m going to tell you. You know, you are unbelievable.”
“I apologize,” he said stiffly. “Look, can I talk with you for a minute?”
She glanced at her nonexistent watch. “You just have.”
He blinked in amusement. From out of the blue, a random fact popped into his head. He didn’t know if he’d heard it rumored somewhere in the building or just deduced it from her linear-thinker-type response, but he was suddenly inspired. “You’re a coder,” he guessed.
Her frown deepened. She flounced off and he was left in the unprecedented position of chasing after her.
“I was a developer. I did remote work for TineeSoft and then I took a job with a smaller outfit. Now I code on a freelance basis. Why, are you hiring?”
“No. Listen, can I come in?”
“You want. To come in. To my place.” Her eyes called him crazy.
“Please, Paula.” He stared deeply into her eyes, using all the tools at his disposal as a good-looking Spencer to influence her.
