The Promise (Neighbor from Hell #10)(12)

More.

When she came over and introduced herself after she moved in he’d decided to ask her out and see what happened. Nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. During the entire date he’d told himself that he was just tired, but by the end of the date, it was more than obvious that this wasn’t going anywhere. That should have been the end of it, but then Matt, the little prick that he was going to beat the shit out of, decided to tell her that bullshit tale about the men in his family marrying their neighbors. After that things became awkward…

He wasn’t interested in her, never pretended that he was, and as far as he knew, she realized that, but that didn’t stop her from getting a hopeful look in her eye every time-

“Oh, my god! That looks amazing!” Julie said, drawing his attention to the fact that they’d walked into the kitchen and that the old kitchen island was covered with food, but that wasn’t what had him biting back a groan.

No, that would be the small woman sitting at the kitchen island wearing his old Bradford Furniture tee shirt and a pair of his boxers, reading a book and looking absolutely fucking adorable doing it. With all the mud washed off, he could see just how much she’d changed in the last twelve years. Her long brown hair, which he used to think of a mousy brown was lighter with a few dark stands mixed in and looked like silk, making him wonder how it would feel sliding between his fingers. Her blue eyes still held a hint of mischief while her lips were plumper, he absently noted as his gaze shifted south, moving over large breasts that filled out his old shirt better than he ever could, wide hips that were made for sex, short, lightly tanned legs ending with cute little toes before moving back up again, and noting the way she worried that plump bottom lip, making him wonder how it would feel to have those plump lips wrapped around the tip of his cock and—

Made him realize that he was in serious fucking trouble here.





Chapter 7

“I’m Julie,” the tall pretty blonde said with a smile even as she sent a questioning look toward Reed, whom she’d like to point out hadn’t said a single word since he’d walked into the kitchen a few minutes ago.

Not that she could blame him since she’d given him enough reasons to hate her over the years, but she was actually starting to become somewhat concerned by the fact that he hadn’t stopped glaring at her. By now he should have shifted that glare to all the food that she’d made given his family’s disturbing obsession with it, but he was still glaring at her. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem except that it was starting to make her nervous and when she was nervous she tended to do things that would later require an apology.

“Joey,” she said, wondering if this was his girlfriend and the murderous glare was his subtle way of telling her to get the hell out.

“It’s nice to meet you, Joey,” Julie said, mostly because she didn’t know her yet, as she threw Reed another questioning look. “This looks amazing, did you make this?” she asked, trying to shift the focus back on the food, which should have drawn Reed’s attention, but for some strange reason, the reminder that she’d cooked only seemed to piss him off more.

Okay then…

“I had to earn my keep,” Joey mumbled with a small sniffle because that’s what she did when she was nervous. She screwed with people for her own entertainment, which she knew was wrong, so very wrong, yet, she just couldn’t help herself.

“Have you already eaten?” Julie asked, throwing another questioning look at Reed, whom she’d like to point out was still glaring.

“Yes, Reed was kind enough to let me have this delicious glass of water,” she said, picking up her glass. “It’s ever so delicious,” she murmured as she took a sip. which resulted in Reed narrowing his eyes on her and she decided to take as progress.

“I see,” Julie murmured as her lips twitched. “That does look delicious.”

“It is,” Joey mumbled as she took another sip, “It really is.”

“For Christ’s sakes,” Reed said, snapping out of his glare-obsessed state. He stormed past her, shooting her one last glare because apparently, he couldn’t be in the same room with her without glaring at her. He grabbed plates and silverware while she decided that it would probably be for the best if she returned her attention to the book that she’d helped herself to and left him alone.

She’d just found the spot where she’d left off when she was plucked out of her chair and found herself sitting at the large kitchen table. She considered complaining about the manhandling, but decided against it, mostly because he hadn’t done anything to make her lose her spot again. So, while Reed and Julie made quick work of transferring all the food that she’d made to the table, she’d continued reading about the bubonic plague and quickly forgot about the world around her.

---

“How was your day, Reed?”

“Good,” he said absently as he found himself watching the little demon and trying to figure out why he couldn’t take his eyes off her. If anyone should hold his attention, it was the incredibly beautiful woman giving him a weird look.

“I heard what happened with Miss Dawson,” Julie said while he sat there wondering how he could go from wanting to throttle the little brat to wanting to-

“Reed?” someone said.

“Hmmm?” he murmured absently as he grabbed the basket of buttermilk biscuits and handed them to her with a mumbled, “Here,” as he helped himself to a warm biscuit and placed it on his plate all while he glared at the small woman screwing with his head.