nothing to hide the hard slabs of muscle I know are underneath. He looks like a ridiculous dickhead. A hot, ridiculous dickhead.
Who wears leather to a goddamn barbeque?
He’s actually quite handsome, when he isn’t glowering or shooting a glare your way. The smile that’s spreading across his face, showing his straight teeth, brings out a slight dimple in one of his cheeks. Hell, it even seems his eyes are sparkling. A different air surrounds him right now, but when our eyes collide, it all evaporates. His gaze sparks embers of hate between us. It’s like a match has been strategically sparked to life.
When Mona’s husband waves her over, she pats me on my hand, giving me a sympathetic smile, and leaves me to my own devices. I shift awkwardly on my feet, off to the side of the party for a while longer, feeling like the odd one out. I have a few stagnant conversations with people, but they don’t last very long.
I thought being new to the neighborhood would mean more of the community would be a lot more welcoming and inviting at this thing, but I couldn’t be more wrong. The reception has been cold. I guess if you haven’t been living in the neighborhood longer than a year, it’s easy to be skipped over and ignored.
After standing around for another fifteen minutes like a loner, I decide to cut and run. I’m on my way out of Allison’s backyard, when I crash into something warm and solid. By the delicious clean and woody scent, it’s obvious it’s a man, one you’d expect to reach out and catch me. That isn’t what happens.
At all.
Instead, I crash into a solid wall of muscle and stumble back onto the grass. My backside slams against the ground, sending a pang from my tailbone up my spine.
I hiss in pain and slowly drag my gaze up. The first things I spot are biker books, frayed jeans that hug powerful thighs, and finally, a face I could go without seeing for the rest of my life. I mean, sure, it would suck not to admire the handsomeness, but the glare that’s being sent my way? I wouldn’t miss that one bit.
It’s obvious the guy hates me, but I’ll never understand why. The glare he shoots my way is eviscerating, and I feel it slicing into me. Damn near flaying my skin open. Flames lick at my heart, burning me up from the inside out. I can’t fathom why it bothers me as much as it does—the fact that he doesn’t like me—but somehow, just from a few horrible conversations, he’s gotten under my skin. He continues to get under my skin and drive me crazy, every time I see him.
A scowl ripples across my features. “It’s you.”
I can’t tell if it’s just from the angle I’m in, but I swear there’s stirrings of a smirk on his face. But I know I must be imagining it, when the cold glower he’s shooting my way somehow intensifies.
“It’s you,” he parrots back, his upper lip curling in disdain.
When he doesn’t offer his hand to help me up, I stumble up from the ground, much more ungracefully than I’d like, wiping off my backside with a huff.
“You know, an apology would be nice.”
His brow quirks. “And what the hell would I be apologizing for?”
Indignation burns in my gut. “You bumped into me, and I fell on the ground,” I reply dryly. “Or do you think I enjoy spending my time at your feet?’
“I couldn’t care less what you do on your knees, or rather, what you do at my feet.”
Heat rises to my cheeks. My gaze narrows into thin slits.
“Are you always such a dick?”
“Never had any complaints before,” he counters, infuriating me to no end.
With a frustrated growl, I storm past Roman, leaving Allison’s backyard and the barbecue filled with all my asshole neighbors.
This has been fucking peachy.
With my shopping cart semi-stocked with groceries, I turn down the aisle, searching for bleach. There’s a faint smell coming from the bathroom in the hallway, and I want to give it another deep clean. I’m not sure who lived there previously, but it’s obvious, they didn’t clean as often as they should’ve, if the mold gunk along the windows is any indication.
There’s a handful of shoppers down the aisle, making it impossible to get through with my cart, so I park it off to the side and weave through the other shoppers toward the bleach. I push