bathroom are really starting to scare me. I’m thinking I should maybe call an ambulance or something.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. I hope Matt gets to feeling better.”
“Serves him right, eating that fried shit before nine AM, and from a carnie, no less.” With that, she hung up, leaving me thankful I wasn’t in her shoes at the moment.
“All right, bud. Looks like you’re going to have to come with me today after all,” I spoke to Shady as I lifted him off the living room floor. He let out a pitiful groan and stayed limp in my arms. Once I got him settled in the crook of my elbow, he looked up at me with those sad eyes and whined. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not an ideal situation, but what else do you expect me to do, huh? I can’t just leave you here by yourself.”
With Shady in one arm, I slung my purse over the other shoulder and moved out, locking up the apartment behind me. I started down the hall toward the elevators, but the closer I got to Richard’s door the slower my steps became until I came to a complete stop right in front of his apartment.
Shady whined, drawing my attention down to the furry bundle in my arms. Jeez, he really looked pathetic with that cone on. “I can’t possibly ask him, right?” His puppy head cocked to the side. “I mean, he’s probably busy. And you two don’t even like each other.” Another whine. “Save the guilt trip. None of this would have happened if you weren’t determined to hump anything that crossed your path. Technically, this is all your fault.” He dropped his little head in shame, making me feel like an even bigger asshole for putting the blame solely on him.
I let out a defeated breath and took a step closer to the door, lifting my hand to knock as I mumbled, “Please don’t be home, please don’t be home, please don’t be home,” under my breath. I heard the sound of a lock disengaging a few seconds later. “Oh, fudgesicles.”
My walking, talking fantasy opened the door looking like a wet dream. The jerk-face. The wicked smile that spread across his lips at the sight of me rendered me temporarily speechless. His jet black hair was damp from a recent shower. He must have just been getting out when I knocked because beads of water clung to his shirtless chest. The jeans he wore hung low on his hips, the button undone and drawing attention to that yummy, sculpted V that disappeared beneath the denim.
He crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps pop out and my mouth water. “Well, look who it is. Should I take this house call to mean you’ve finally stopped avoiding me?”
My face scrunched up as I snorted. “Whaaa? You’re crazy! I haven’t been avoiding you.”
He leaned against the doorframe and narrowed those icy blue eyes. “Really? So it was just my imagination when you took off for those stairs like an Olympic sprinter?”
“Pfft. I didn’t do that. Why would I do that? That’s just silly. Totally silliness. You’re a silly man, Richard.” Oh sweet Mother Mary in a rocking chair. Stop talking. Stop it right now!
I reached up to push my glasses up my nose only to have Richard beat me to it. My eyes went wide as I stared at him in shock, his actions throwing me off kilter. It was such a simple move, but one that felt decidedly intimate, at least to me. In all the time I’d been with Brant, he’d never once touched my glasses for any reason than to move them out of his way if I’d taken them off and sat them somewhere. “You have beautiful eyes,” he stated in a tone that indicated he was speaking more to himself than to me.
“Uh…”
Something flashed in his gaze as he studied my face, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “Have you ever considered contacts? Not that you aren’t cute without them.” Richard Locklaine called me cute? He thinks I’m cute? He's seen me without my glasses and I looked so far beyond cute. I looked downright smokin’ freaking hot! Not that the ass remembered.
I hated that my brain refused to function normally at just the sight of him without his stupid shirt. I wanted to be mad, to scream even though he’d just paid me a really nice compliment, but I just