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I ignored him and stepped to my left just as he stepped to his right.
“Everyone seemed to dig it,” he said, his voice all throaty and rough and sexy. “Don’t know where the inspiration for a Sex Study Neighbor came from. Just hit me, I guess.”
I was about to dash around him and make a flying leap inside the elevator when the doors shut.
“Damn,” I grumbled. “Look what you made me do, you big oaf. Now I’ll need to wait five minutes for the stupid thing to come back up again.”
“Big night out?”
“One could say. I have a date.” I stuck my chin in the air. “Actually, I have five.”
“Five?”
“Is it so hard to believe I can get five dates in one night?” I sniffed.
Jamie’s face changed from surprised to cocky as he leaned a shoulder against the wall and crossed a leg over the other.
“Tina, maybe you can help me remember where I got the inspiration for Sex Study Neighbor from,” in his deep, sexy, Irish accented voice. “I just can’t for the life of me place it.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from engaging with him. I wanted to shove him in the chest, but it would be like trying to shove a Sequoia tree. Plus, I remembered what happened the last time I’d touched his chest, and while I shivered at the thought of him kissing me again, I refused to let him see how easily he wormed his way under my skin.
“Do you mind not bothering me, Jamie?”
“I don’t mind at all, Tallahassee.” He kept grinning.
I groaned. “Come on.” I threw my hands up in the air. “That one’s not even close.” Darn it. I’d fallen into his trap. Staring at his tattooed muscles, my mind betrayed me by wondering what it would feel like to fall into his arms. I was in trouble.
I was in serious trouble.
“Where you goin’ on your dates?” he asked, his eyes suddenly going dark.
“What’s it to you?”
He shrugged and crossed his arms over his massive chest. “Promised your bestie I’d look out for you. Wanna make sure you’ll be safe.”
I was shocked by that—Jamie and Ellis had arranged, behind my back, to look after me? I wasn’t sure if I was touched or annoyed. “You don’t need to worry. Ellis already knows I’m going to The Celtic Cave.” I realized my tone had come out snappish, so I softened and added primly, “But thank you for your concern.”
I nearly yelped in joy when the elevator doors finally, thankfully, mercifully opened. I raced inside but couldn’t resist looking at Jamie again as the elevator doors closed. He wasn’t grinning, but his expression was thoughtful. Just as the doors closed, he winked at me.
God, he was hot.
Five minutes later, I was seated at the bar, dirty martini in hand (the drink seemed apropos for the occasion), and waiting for Harry, aka Date #1.
When Harry walked in, my initial thought was not how attractive he looked in his trim blue suit, slicked back chestnut hair, and brown shoes shined and clean, but instead I thought about what Jamie would think of him. I could practically hear his disdain banging around in my head like those damn drums of his. “Lad looks like a fucking banker,” he would say. “You really wanna fuck a fuckingbanker, Teresa?”
“Hi, hey, hi,” I blurted out, nearly toppling off my bar stool to grab Harry’s hand. “I’m Tessa. You must be Harry.”
“How goes it, mate?” I heard a voice come from behind me—a deep, rough voice with a thick Irish accent.
I turned around to glare at Jamie. My Neanderthal Neighbor had followed me to my date? Who did he think he was?
I was about to lash out at him when I saw the confusion in Harry’s eyes.
“Hi,” Harry said to Jamie, sticking his hand out. “I’m—”
“I think a table opened up. Let’s go there,” I said, pointing to an empty two-top in the darkest corner of the pub and grabbing Harry’s hand. “Good to see you, neighbor,” I fake-cheerfully said to Jamie, roughly shoving my way past him, Harry in tow.
Pushing Harry to a table in the back, I clenched my fists and forced myself to breathe before I turned around to Harry with an equally forced smile.
