Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(23)

LOUIS KNOCKED ON Roxy’s apartment door and waited. The light filtering through the peephole darkened, then brightened again a second later. He heard a shuffling sound from inside the apartment, but still the door remained closed. Whoever had buzzed him into the building knew he would eventually make it up the stairs, right? Getting into the apartment was a two-step process.

“He’s hot,” a muffled female voice said from the other side. Not Roxy. Maybe a roommate? “He’s at least a nine.”

Nine? He fought the urge to look himself over and figure out where a point had been deducted. Maybe he should have brought flowers. It would have at least bumped him to a nine point five. “Hey, I can hear you in there. You want to open the door?”

“Yes, but I’m wearing a kimono.”

Too bad it wasn’t Roxy wearing it. He wouldn’t have minded seeing her in a short silk robe. Although at this point, he wouldn’t mind seeing her in a burlap sack. “Do you want to go change?”

“Yes, but I’m afraid if I go change, I’ll miss the date pickup.”

At times like these, he was grateful he’d grown up with two sisters. He spoke fluent female. In most cases, anyway. Apparently Roxy spoke a completely different dialect. “How about you let me in and I’ll close my eyes? I promise not to leave with Roxy until you come back from changing.”

“Yes. That.” The peephole darkened again. “Close your eyes.”

Louis obeyed, wondering when exactly weird doorstep introductions had become the norm in his life. He heard two dead bolts being turned before the door creaked open. A hand curled around his elbow and tugged him through the doorway. “Is she here?”

“We’re all here,” another voice said to his right. Still not the girl he was looking for. “For each other. When things go bad.” Something that sounded like an oven door slammed. “You catch my drift, lawyer?”

“I’m starting to feel at a major disadvantage without my eyes open.”

“Honey, don’t scare him off,” Kimono Girl said. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”

He wanted to open his eyes and take in his surroundings or any potential threats from the evil disembodied voices, but he kept his promise and waited until Kimono Girl’s footsteps disappeared before doing so. Wow. Louis turned in a circle. Knowing what he did about Roxy’s money troubles, he hadn’t expected a place this nice. It was bigger than his own apartment. To be fair, it needed to accommodate at least three crazy girls, while his only needed to fit one sexually frustrated lawyer. Still, it relaxed something inside of him, seeing that she lived in a safe building with people who apparently cared enough about her to threaten well-meaning strangers. Speaking of which . . .

A blonde chopped carrots in the kitchen. With a gleaming butcher knife.

“Hey.” He grinned. “I’m Louis.”

“I know who you are.” Chop. Chop. “I’m Honey. And this is my knife, Bubba.”

Louis nodded once. “Rox?” he called into the giant apartment. “You about ready?”

“Behind you.”

Every muscle in his body tightened at the sound of her smoky voice behind him. Finally. He wanted to whirl on her and catch her off guard. Kiss her hard to make up for the last few days of not kissing her. But he needed to be careful how fast he moved with this girl, needed to feel her out first. Slowly, he turned to face Roxy. The amusement in her green eyes told him she’d overheard his exchanges with her roommates. Maybe even had a little appreciation for his efforts to meet the crazy halfway. That’s all he had time to read on her face before she sauntered toward him and he became aware of her legs. Her breasts. Her hips.

Russell had a theory that every girl owned one perfect dress that could make men do anything they wanted. Louis had always laughed at his friend, smug in his ability to dictate his own actions. Make his own decisions. Especially where girls were concerned. Yet if Roxy told him to leap out the window just then, he’d be a pancake on Ninth Avenue before she finished voicing her request.

More disturbingly, his first coherent thought was not about how the tight material hugged her breasts or how the hem flirted with the middle of her thighs when she walked. Not even how simple it would be to tug the floaty material up around her waist and get at the panties beneath. Nope, it was, Who the f*ck else has seen her in this dress so I can hunt them down like dogs?

It worried him how intense the thought hurled itself through his head, like it had been fired from a cannon, wrecking everything in its path. He wanted to back her into the bedroom visible behind her and lock them both inside it. Fuck the date he had planned. Why couldn’t he be the only one who looked at her? Was that so much to ask?

She stopped in front of him, and her cherry blossom scent went to his head like back-to-back shots of J?germeister. Oh, Jesus. Fuck. She was so pretty up close. He’d forgotten how much.

“Uh-oh. What’s going on in that head of yours, Louis McNally the Second?”

No way could he tell her the truth. She’d lock herself in that room. Without him. If that happened, he just might break down and cry. Casual. Be casual. “Your roommate brandished a weapon at me.”

“She’s Southern.”

“I want to rip that stupid dress off your body,” he murmured for her ears alone. So much for casual.