Loving Jared - Nikita Slater Page 0,1

from the back.

“Huh?” Never mind what?

“I’ll get sugar from the other neighbor,” she said breezily, waving at him as she walked away.

Jared leapt after her, wrapping his hand around her arm and stopping her. Her skin felt like warm silk and he had to stop himself from rubbing his thumb over her. She tipped her head up to look at him with mild curiosity. His heart pounded in his chest as the delicate scent of strawberry shampoo wrapped him in a lust-filled haze.

“I’ll get the sugar.” His voice came out harsher than he’d intended, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Thanks,” she said.

He was forced to drop his hand so he could stride into the house and grab some sugar for her. He frowned at the inside of his cupboard as his entire focus was still on the woman standing in his driveway. She was like a punch to the gut. Unexpected, off-putting and painful in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

He grabbed the plastic container where he kept his sugar, peeled the lid off and sniffed. It smelled like plastic. Did sugar go bad? He wasn’t sure how long it’d been in his cupboard. Jared baked exactly never and had bought the package in case he ever had a guest that wanted sugar in their coffee. Since he never had guests, the sugar thing hadn’t come up.

“Here,” Jared said, walking rapidly toward Amy and thrusting the sugar container at her.

She looked startled at first, then amused. “Thanks, I’ll bring back the container when I’m finished.”

When he didn’t say anything, she gave him a small wave and turned to leave, showing him the perfectly rounded globes of the bottom half of her plump rear end. She was nearly at her own front door when he finally managed to find his tongue.

He called out, “Don’t worry about the sugar, just bring me a slice of pie and we’ll call it even.”

Amy looked at him over her shoulder, her beautiful hazel eyes sparkling and a semi-smile curving her lips. She winked at him and disappeared through the door.

Two

Try as he might, Jared could no longer concentrate on his bike. He cleaned his tools and put them away, then moved his bike back to its spot inside the garage.

He strode back into the house, grabbed a beer and his laptop and sat in his favourite reclining chair. He crossed his ankle over his knee and opened the laptop, entering his password.

He opened a search engine and typed in the words "Funk family." He wasn't sure exactly what to search. Funk drowning? Funk dad goes to prison? Hell, he couldn't even remember the dad's name. He didn't remember anyone's names except for Amy. Which was weird to contemplate now. Why had he bothered to memorize the name of a teenage girl who’d barely made an impression on him?

He didn't need to worry though, just the words “Funk family” brought up a plethora of links. He spent the next few hours poring through news articles, blogs, and Facebook posts. The tragedy was even worse than Amy had hinted at. It seemed, according to the news outlets, that Amy's mother hadn’t cheated. Her husband had spent most of their relationship in a jealous rage. She’d tried to leave him several times and had gone back every time. Until, eventually, he killed her.

Thankfully, there was nothing about the children having had to endure abuse at the hands of their father. That didn't mean it hadn't happened, just that it hadn't been public. Jared wanted to find out. He didn't know why he was suddenly so invested in the Funk family, but something was driving him to discover what he could about Amy and her siblings.

Jared was a sucker for women and children. Especially the damsels-in-distress. He couldn't rest until he knew for sure that his curvy little neighbour was well taken care of. He didn't know what exactly he was going to do if he found her in trouble, but he’d think of something. Nobody should live through what the Funk children lived through and spend the rest of their lives struggling.

Jared sent Amy a Facebook friend request. He wasn’t expecting much, especially since his profile only had a few pictures of cars and bikes. It was probably creepy as hell for a 34-year-old man to send a friend request over social media to a 20-year-old woman, but he felt compelled. He needed to make sure that she was okay.

He grinned when she immediately accepted. He