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I hated being a blonde sometimes. My peaches and cream complexion, besides being sun-sensitive, was prone to burning crimson blushes. I could tell my face was flaming. If it got much hotter, there would be no need to turn the pool heater on. I could just dunk my head under.
“Not that full service,” I snapped, and pulled my eyes off him. Easy, girl. I exhaled and locked down the naughty thoughts lingering in my head like a bar patron after last call.
“A shame.” He swiped my towel from the lounge chair and dangled it from one finger above me. His expression radiated pure challenge.
Should I rise to it?
I was a mom. A respected member of the Elmer community. A professional and member of the Texas Real Estate Association. I shouldn’t even think of taking the bait.
“A gentleman would turn his back.” The pouty tone I used was pure sex kitten when I should have used my angry mom’s voice.
He shrugged and shook my towel, taunting me to come and get it. My jaw hung open at his audacity. Asshole. Hot asshole. No wonder he was single at his age—our age.
My heart pounded against my rib cage as I gathered my nerve. He’d already seen what I had, and I would be damned if I begged for that towel. I wanted him to grovel at my feet.
Shoulders squared, boobs out, wet hair streaming down my back, and my belly sucked in tight, I plunged up the steps. In my head, I was Gisele on the Paris runway!
Let him look.
He was nothing but a peon, a gnat. No, wait! He was the cow shit on the bottom of my boots.
Our eyes met for about one and a half seconds as I came up the stairs, naked as the day I was born. When his gaze slipped down my body, it took every ounce of my nerve to keep walking like the former beauty queen I was. Slow and steady. Each step made me feel sexier and more powerful. His eyes darkened as he devoured my every curve with a look I could feel like the heat of a blowtorch.
“Thank you.” I stopped in front of him and jerked the towel from his hand with a scowl. His eyes darted back to my face, and the lust I had seen earlier smoldered from their depths, hotter than before. My bones threatened to turn to ash as desire ripped through my veins. Damn, he was delicious up close.
I whipped the towel around me, tucking a corner securely between my boobs. Thankfully, Beautiful Hills bought decent-sized bath towels for our rentals. Something skimpy wouldn’t have covered my generous assets. Water dripped down my legs and pooled at my feet on the warm stone.
“You are very welcome.” He smiled like the cat that got the cream, and I itched to slap his handsome face almost as much as I wanted to rip open his wet shirt and get a better look at what hid underneath.
I grabbed my clothes and purse from the lounge chair and walked past him. I heard his loafers scrape on the flagstones as he turned to follow my progress. He was totally checking out my ass. A smile twisted my lips, and I added a little swing to my back porch. I might as well make it a view worth appreciating.
I stopped.
The rat in the bag lay at my feet. I slowly bent at the waist to retrieve it from the ground, giving him a front-row view of the barest hint of my cheeks—and not the ones that glowed red with embarrassment. I lingered, letting the power of being a beautiful, sexy woman emanate from my every pore, then took my time straightening up. Slow and sexy.
I thought I heard a low, aching groan from his direction but ignored it and the way it made my legs feel like jelly. Eat your heart out, Mr. Bio-ID, because that was your last look at me and my ass.
“If you need anything, the number for the rental office is on the fridge,” I called out in an extra cheery voice laced with Texas twang. I didn’t look back, but I raised my hand with the rat bag over my head and flipped him my middle finger.
Why? Because I may have been a mom and a pillar of the community, but I was a small-town Texas girl descended from a long line of women that didn’t take bull from any man. In honor of those women, I proudly flew that bird.
My wet feet left a trail of chlorinated water on the floor as I passed through the house. That was his problem. In my towel, I marched all the way to my car and got in, only stopping to toss the rat bag into the Elmer city garbage can at the curb.
I squirmed uncomfortably, my damp ass cheeks sticking to the leather seats, and shoved the key into the ignition. I couldn’t stop the unexpected giggle that burst from me. By the time I backed out of the driveway, my eyes were watering, and I was laughing so hard I could barely see.
I turned left and parked in the cul-de-sac at the end of the road to dress in private and get my giggles under control. My antics were over the top. Insane. And to be honest, the most fun I’d had in way too long.
I slicked my wet hair into a bun and looked in the rear-view mirror. My cheeks were still pink. And the salacious memory of his eyes raking over my wet body had me going hot and tingling from my belly to my toes.
I dropped my forehead to the steering wheel and cranked up my car’s air conditioning. Is this what menopause felt like?
Chapter 2
Wilson
“Greattomeetyouin person. I’m Kate Chandler.” Kate held out a hand for me to shake as she stood next to the open door of the huge chauffeur-driven black SUV that idled in my rental house’s driveway.
“Yes, always good to put a person to the email signature. I’m Wilson Phillips.” I expected a quirk of the lips at my name, but there was no recognition in her eyes. A decade too young, she didn’t get the joke. Thank God.
