Playing for Keeps (Neighbor from Hell #1)(3)

He never in his entire adult life shared a bed with a woman. That was too much intimacy and sent the wrong message. The few times he made the mistake of relaxing in a woman’s bed after a quick lay proved to be serious mistakes. They wanted to coddle and always asked the questions that made him cringe, “What are you thinking?”, “Do you love me?”, “Where do you see this going?”, “Are you as happy as I am?’, "Why do you keep calling me by my sister's name?", or his personal favorite “I wonder what our babies will look like.” No, sex was best kept at a woman’s house, hotel room or better yet in the backseat of a car.

Thank god his neighbor seemed to share the same attitude. He hated the idea of waking up to the sounds of another man grunting and moaning. With his luck the sounds would filter into his dream and he would end up having a g*y dream. Thankfully that never happened otherwise he’d be sleeping on his couch.

It wasn’t as if his beautiful neighbor was without male attention. He’d seen several losers sniffing around her in the last five years. She was easily out of their league, at least physically. Personality wise, well even from afar he could tell they were all pricks. He wasn’t a prince, not by any measure, but he found himself eager to deck a few of them over the years with the way they treated her. They never hit her, otherwise he would have killed the bastards. He didn’t go for hitting a woman no matter what. Sometimes he felt like they were using her, or not treating her right. He didn’t know why he cared, he just did.

Haley eyed the fence and then the remaining length of the flower bed. She sighed heavily. “Fine. If I made a mistake I’m sorry. I replaced the last flower bed with the tulips.”

He nodded in relief, glad that it was settled. The damn flowers were out of here and not a moment too soon. He couldn’t take another night like last night. Besides he was running out of cornstarch.

“I’ll just move the flowers over into my five inches of space,” she announced.

His eyes widened with that announcement. “The hell you will!”

Chapter 2

Haley’s eyes widened in total disbelief as Jason threw himself back onto the plants, tearing them up like a man possessed.

“Stop!” she shrieked. He ignored her and continued to rip the tulips from the ground, making sure those damn bulbs came with them. He tossed them far onto his property so she couldn’t get her hands on them to re-plant them.

She squeezed the nozzle, sending a full blast of cold water on him. Still he continued to tear up the flowerbed.

“Stop! Please stop!” she cried. He only slowed down when he reached the tight space between their houses.

Jason had to shift his shoulders so he could lodge himself into the tight space. Thankfully she gave up on squirting him. It might be April, but they were in New England and that meant a bright sun with a cold breeze. His body shivered violently as he reached forward to grab handfuls of tulips. Suddenly something clamped around his ankles.

“What the hell-omph!” He was pulled off balance, landing face first into the thick mud she created with her little water meltdown. Before he could push himself up she was crawling over his back to get to those damn flowers.

Haley used her small frame to her advantage. After quickly crawling over Jason she began digging up as many tulips with her hands as she could and setting them gently, yet quickly, against the side of her house.

“Hey! Stop that!” he demanded as he leaned over her to grab her hands.

“Get off of me!” she snapped, digging faster.

“I wouldn’t be on you if you weren’t on my damn property!”

She threw back an elbow to dislodge him. He cursed under his breath as he pushed himself in further until her entire body was snuggled tightly beneath his. She instantly froze beneath him. He took advantage of her stunned reaction and grabbed as many flowers as he could.

“I said get off me, not crush me!” she clarified. It was all she could do to control her breathing. She was going to hyperventilate and pass out. No doubt about it. A large muscular man was on top of her!

Her senses went into overload as she tried to focus. But all she could think about was how the feel of his strong hard stomach felt pressed against her back. Suddenly a shiver shot through her body that had nothing to do with the cold water seeping through her clothes.

Then realization sank in. A very large man was on top of her! “That better not be what I think it is,” she hissed between clenched teeth.

“It’s not.” It was. “Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart,” he snapped, trying not to groan or grind into her. He was a little shocked himself. Not that he ever had a problem getting it up. He didn’t. Of course these days his interest in sex had waned a bit. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he had sex, which in itself was pathetic.

He made a half ass attempt to pull out more flowers. That seemed to distract her enough from her pert little ass being snuggled against his lap. His eyes closed as he nuzzled his face against her neck and inhaled slowly. She didn’t seem to notice so he did it again. He would swear on his life that she smelled like blackberries and cream. It was damn enticing.

She groaned her irritation. “I don’t know what your problem is. I made a mistake planting them on your property. Just let me move them over a few inches and everything will be settled.”

That snapped him out of his daze. “No!” He reached past her and began ripping flowers out. She swore under her breath as she crawled out from under him to save whatever flowers she could. He simply followed her, assuming the same position each time and frustrating the hell out of her.