Blaze: (Naughty Neighbors 1) Read Online Free Page A

him.
    Oh flip, did she ever want to go there with him.
    “Come on. Take a cold shower. Hang out on my couch under the ceiling fan. I’ll even crank down the air to seventy just for you. You won’t bother me.”
    Oh, but he’d bother her. There was no way she could get naked and wet in his apartment.
    Though getting naked and wet in his apartment sounded like the best idea she’d ever had. The stupidest idea she’d ever had. But the best stupid idea.
    He seemed to sense her reluctance, and she watched, fascinated, as his mind seemed to scroll through and discard a series of arguments that would convince her.
    “Actually, you’d be doing me a favor. You’re Bess’s favorite person at the moment and she’s driving me crazy today.”
    Ah, damn him, he’d hit on her one weakness. She’d be hard pressed to turn down the opportunity to snuggle with an animal who actually cared she was alive. “I don’t know…”
    “I’ve got an ass, um, boatload of case files to review today, and she just won’t leave me alone with you out here on the porch.”
    Finally, insanity won out and Laurie agreed. Though she tried to convince herself it was because he was a lawyer and would badger her with arguments until she capitulated. Her sense of self-sufficiency demanded it. It had nothing to do with wanting to get up close and personal to that sizable bulge in his shorts. Nothing to do at all with fantasizing that he’d ask to join her under the shower’s spray.
    Nope. Nothing.
    She waited until he sauntered back inside. Jackass hadn’t even broken a sweat while sitting on the porch while she—oh, sick—she had sweat spots in places she didn’t know it was possible to sweat. Laurie arranged a throw pillow to cover up the worst of it.
    It felt like she squished all the way up the stairs into her place.
    She fought the urge to take a quick shower before she went down to his blessedly air-conditioned place to shower again. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her at her absolute worst. Twice.
    And, heck, why did it even matter? She was his landlady, and though he could probably recite all the specific county, state, and federal housing codes that said there was no law against neighbors fucking, she was pretty sure fraternization was frowned upon.
    It felt weird to gather up not only clothes and toiletries but a set of towels, but she’d be double damned if she’d use his towels. Being in his shower was going to be enough to fuel a thousand nights’ worth of dirty fantasies. She wouldn’t compound matters by rubbing his towels all over her, transferring his clean laundry and spice scent to her own skin.
    Laurie had picked out every blessed tile in the reno, had insisted Max go with a dual-overhead spray and pony up for the steam features. Never once had it crossed her mind she’d designed the world’s sexiest shower.
    Until Grant Everton had moved in.
    Shaking her head, Laurie gave her cat a gentle nudge off her small carryon, filled it with her shower stuff, and zipped it shut. She worried about leaving Rochester upstairs, but he’d probably flip out if she tried to move him. No, he definitely would. And he seemed okay with the tower fan in the living room. Plus, she wasn’t abandoning him forever. It was only temporary. Laurie absolutely drew the line at sleeping over.
    She would be back at sunset.

Chapter 4
    “ W hoa , are you moving in?”
    He’d meant it as a joke when she appeared on his doorstep with a small rolling suitcase and a makeup bag. But as he lead her through the apartment on the way to his master bath, he thought he could get used to seeing a face like hers over the breakfast table.
    And an ass like that bent over the breakfast table.
    Over the arm of the couch. Up against the wall in the hallway. Spread out on his sheets while he—
    Fuck . Basically every piece of furniture they passed on the way to his bedroom inspired a series of increasingly lustful imaginings.
    Her voice interrupted the latest