AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yeah, and then when she turned out to be completely vanilla and possibly freaked out by his needs, then living here wouldn’t be awkward at all. Rick liked his new apartment. His motto had always been don’t piss where you eat—in other words, don’t get involved with your neighbors. It just never ended well, and the only solution was to move away.
Not an option.
Time to go. He could go visit Liam at his dojo and join into one of the classes or help with paperwork or something. Or hit up Adam’s office and visit with him and Justin. Or any other million things that didn’t involve sitting here and checking out his hot neighbor who was now flirting with the college guys.
“Haven’t seen you here before,” the dark-haired college hottie said to Maria, grinning at her as she laid out her towel.
After Asshole’s remarks last night, it was nice to have some male attention that was unequivocally positive, even if the two guys were definitely too young for her.
“I’m usually not here this early in the morning,” she said with a smile, not an overly friendly one but not entirely dismissive either. Still, she didn’t really want to get wrapped up in a conversation with them, she just wanted to lie down and bake in the sun for a little bit. Terrible for her skin, but she’d put sunscreen on and she wanted the warmth.
Swimming in the pool last night when it was empty had been calming, soothing. Today she needed warmth and background noise and guys checking her out. Validation at its finest.
Getting out her sunscreen, she slathered it over her arms and then her chest and stomach while the two guys watched. Hiding a smile, Maria pretended she didn’t notice them practically salivating while she smoothed the white cream over her breasts. The bathing suit she’d worn today was meant to draw attention. Her sisters liked to call her a tease. Maria preferred to think of it as appreciation awareness. Guys needed to know that plus size girls were hotties too.
These two definitely seemed to appreciate her efforts. Too young for her, but maybe they’d take the lesson back to school with them.
“Would you mind helping me with my back?” she asked, just a little bit coquettishly. Guys putting on sunscreen tended to turn the process into almost a massage—and she could definitely use one.
Okay, maybe she was a bit of a tease, but she wasn’t harming anyone.
The two hotties jumped up, the one with reddish hair grabbing the bottle of sunscreen before his friend could. “No problem, just turn around,” he said, grinning eagerly.
Maria smiled sweetly before turning, pretending she hadn’t noticed the male posturing. The best way to get continued male attention was to ignore it. Made them think their competitiveness had gone unnoticed and work harder to get the attention they wanted.
Dios mio!
There was a Greek god getting out of the pool.
She barely noticed the strong hand rubbing sunscreen into her shoulders as she stared across the blue expanse at the man getting out on the other side of the pool. Tall, blond hair darkened by the water, and the kind of body women drooled over in front of their own boyfriends and husbands. Hell, just looking at him Maria had the urge to fan herself.
When he turned to walk over to the chair his towel was draped over, red bathing suit clinging to the long, lean muscles of his legs, she could see his profile was just as attractive as his back. How had she not seen him before?
Then again, this really was way earlier than she was normally at the pool. Her dreams had been rather troubled, which was what had gotten her up this morning. Although if he was here in the mornings, even if it was only a couple of times a week, she might have to change that.
Not that a guy like him would ever talk to her. Maria might love her curves, but she was very aware that most guys who were into lots of exercise and having hard bodies liked skinny, muscular little girls who matched their physical perfection. She had the muscles, but it was under soft flesh and even if she starved herself, her bone structure was too big to ever be truly skinny. So why bother trying to force herself into a mold she’d never fit?
But she could certainly appreciate the eye candy, even knowing the appreciation would likely not be mutual.
She watched, fascinated, as he dried himself off, running the towel over his short hair and then down his body. Squeezing her thighs together, she grinned. Hello new fantasy fodder! Sure, she got tired of using her vibrator to get the big O sometimes, but having new imagery always helped to spice that up a bit.
The man looked over, directly at her it seemed, and Maria froze. College hottie behind her was saying something as he moved on to covering her lower back with sunscreen, but she didn’t register a single word he said. How could she when there was a man who looked like that actually looking at her?
And then he looked away, tossing his towel over his shoulder and heading toward the exit, and Maria remembered to breathe again. Talk about potent!
She turned away, reminding herself that it’s not like he would ever return her interest. In fact, he was going through the exit without a second glance back. There was no way he’d felt the same thing looking at her as she’d felt looking at him. Pasting a smile on her face, she turned back to thank the guy who had helped her with the sunscreen.
Still, she couldn’t help but glance after the Greek god. After all, he had a very nice ass... and it was headed straight into her building. Holy crap! He must be the new guy upstairs. Mrs. Pierce next door had mentioned he was a “good looking young man”—Holy Understatement, Batman!
He’d been living there for what, close to a month? Maybe she should do the neighborly thing and bring him some brownies later. Not that she thought he’d be interested in her, but if he wasn’t a total jerk then it might be fun to flirt... and if nothing else, she wouldn’t mind getting a closer look than the view afforded from across the pool.
2
Maria spent a frustrating morning at work dealing with suppliers and an irate Executive Chef at the restaurant she worked at. Murphy’s Meals was a wonderful, family owned restaurant that was considered a community staple, but since it wasn’t a chain, sometimes the suppliers could get a little sketchy about their shipments. One of the annoyances of being a small business.
She loved her job most days, not in the least because she loved the owners, James and Jeanne Murphy. She’d worked here as a hostess in high school, eventually becoming a server. Right after college she’d done some job hopping and she’d come in to have a comforting meal, a bit depressed and frustrated because she just couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do for her career, and Jeanne had sat with her and listened. And at the end of it, Jeanne had offered her a job as daytime manager until she could figure out what she wanted to do.
That had been three years ago. She’d taken over the position with enthusiasm, and although she occasionally had to cover evenings it wasn’t common enough to be a nuisance, and she made enough money to cover her expenses. It turned out she loved her job and it had become her career rather than a placeholder position. Plus, she got to interact with people all day, and at a place like Murphy’s, she didn’t have to pander to asshole customers when they came in. They were more likely to be banned than catered to.
