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CHAPTERONE
“Honey! Honey, please,please, don’t go into that elevator!”
Darius had just done exactly that. He had no idea why a woman whose voice he didn’t recognize should be shouting at him across the lobby of his apartment building, let alone addressing him with the familiarity of a sickeningly sweet endearment likehoney.
Because he really wasn’t anyone’s honey.
Nor did he have a woman in his life. Not just currently, but not for years. Which left family, and they called him “a moody bugger” at best and “a grumpy bastard” at worst.
“Nooo!” The woman’s wail was accompanied by the ominous sound of clanking of metal on metal, which instantly put Darius on the defensive.
He turned quickly in the elevator, only to realize the metal sound was being caused by the metal tube containing the dog’s name, owner, address and telephone number hitting the buckle attached to the brown leather collar about the neck of a yellow Labrador as it hurtled straight toward him.
Unfortunately, he didn’t raise his hands quickly enough to stop himself feeling the full force of having a seventy-pound dog jumping up at him.
Darius doubled over, his breath leaving him in a whoosh, as the dog’s front paws made a direct—and hard!—hit, straight on his balls.
“I am so sorry,” the young woman hastened to apologize when Darius groaned at the unexpected pain—he dared any man not to do the same when his balls were under attack—and remained half doubled over. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” she continued as she reached the open elevator doors. “I took her off the lead when we entered the building, as I usually do, and she just ran straight for you. She’s usually so obedient,” she lamented.
Darius’s grimace began to fade as the worst of the pain stopped reverberating through his body. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it, I’m sure my balls will have descended again by tomorrow.”
“Ouch.” The woman—girl, because Darius had realized from her voice that she was young; he just hadn’t realized she would be in her late teens or early twenties—winced in sympathy.
He took the time to note her appearance now that he wasn’t taken by surprise at being called honey or bent over in agony.
She was maybe an inch over five feet tall, her slight build revealed in the fitted short-sleeved red T-shirt and low-rider jeans that fitted snugly to her slender legs. Her face was heart-shaped, with high cheekbones, and full and pouting lips. Her eyes were a vibrant green, with an outer ring of turquoise. Her jet-black hair was styled in short bangs above her eyes and cut at jaw length. The color seemed at odds with her peaches-and-cream complexion and the smattering of freckles across her slightly upturned nose.
Darius’s guess would be that the freckles didn’t go with the hair color because it was dyed rather than a natural black. But there was no denying that the color and gamine style made her bright and beautiful turquoise-green eyes pop.
Made her bright and beautiful turquoise-green eyespop?
What the hell…! Damn it, he couldn’t remember ever waxing lyrical about a woman’s eyes before, whether they were a beautiful green and turquoise or otherwise.
He shouldn’t be doing it now either. Not just because she looked so much younger than his own age of thirty-six, but because he didn’t allow himself to get too close to anyone. For their sake, not his.
Spending eight years in the military as a sniper in Special Ops had affected him in ways he still couldn’t talk about. Ten years later and he was still too messed up in the head to dare let himself be with any woman.
Especially someone like this bright-eyed pixie.
Bright-eyed pixie?
What the fuck was he doing?
“How old are you?” He gave an inward wince at hearing the aggression in his tone.
If she was surprised by the question, or the tone, she didn’t show it. “Twenty.”
Too young for him. But at least she was legal by a couple of years.
Legal for what?
Damn it, this had to stop.
Now.
“Who are you?” he demanded impatiently.
Those gorgeous eyes widened slightly at his continued rudeness. “Mia Smith.” She thrust her hand toward him. “And you are?”
