Page 9 of The Woman By the Lake

And I knew with no doubt I couldn’t outrun him, and I definitely couldn’t overpower him.

That muscle.

Lord.

And this was Doc, my helpful neighbor who was going to teach me how to use the generator.

Fabulous.

“The next part is you telling me who you are,” he prompted when I made no reply.

“I’m a woman who functions a lot better after she’s enjoyed two solitary cups of coffee.” I lifted my cup. “This is cup number one, and I’m not halfway done.”

This amused him, greatly, and I knew that because the smile he gave me was bigger, wider and whiter than the last one.

That stirring came back.

Terrific.

“I’ll be quiet when I do it,” he assured. “And I won’t bother you.”

“You won’t run through my yard,” I returned.

“You won’t even know I’ve come and gone,” he told me.

I had a feeling every heterosexual woman in a hundred-mile radius knew when he’d come and gone, certainly if he ran in cutoff shorts through her yard, so I wasn’t buying it.

“I won’t because you won’t be running through my yard,” I retorted.

“It isn’t a big deal,” he said, and he still sounded amused, not like he was getting annoyed, which made this whole conversation worse than if he’d stop being a man, listen to me and do as I requested without an irritating conversation.

“Is there a reason I’m repeating myself?” I demanded.

He dropped his head and lifted his hand to me. A hand, not incidentally, that was big, had long fingers, looked strong, and I could see even at this distance, was calloused from work. But he didn’t do this to hide him losing his temper.

It was to hide his laughter, something he failed at doing, since those powerful shoulders were shaking with it.

Who was this guy?

No.

Nope.

I didn’t want to know.

I arranged my face in another scowl, which only made him bite back a bark of laughter when he lifted his head and saw it.

Obviously, this made my scowl scowlier.

“You don’t want me running through your yard, you got it,” he acquiesced (finally!). “I won’t run through your yard.”

I nearly said thank you, but decided against it, because I shouldn’t have to thank him for not doing something he shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

I didn’t run.

But I did know, if you did, you ran on roads.

You ran on sidewalks.

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