Page 12 of Too Enchanting

Serena

What in the heck was going on over at Jed’s house?

All morning there had been a constant stream of women parading through his yard. The first woman I’d seen had been young, blonde, and beautiful, and I’d assume there was some sort of morning-after situation going on.

Which, for some reason, had my stomach tightening and my heart squeezing with something that felt like a combination of sorrow and anger … which was silly, because I didn’t even like Jed. There was no way I was jealous at the thought of him with some pretty young thing.

Except, that’s what it had felt like.

But then, there’d been more women, of all ages, and I decided maybe the pretty young thing hadn’t been his girlfriend, and there was something else going on.

But, what?

It was hard to tell from a few glances out my window, and I swear, Jed had almost caught me once, so I decided to do some weeding in my backyard. Sure, I kept my nice clothes on, and forgot my gloves, shovel, and whatever else you need to weed, so instead, I walked over to the privacy fence that stood between our yards and leaned against it.

I was just a woman enjoying the sunshine in her yard … nothing wrong with that, right?

“The hard lines and smooth surface is really exceptional,” a woman with a sultry voice was saying. “You must really work on it…”

My eyes widened as I imagined Jed next door, naked, or at least shirtless, while these women looked him over.

Was he a model? Did he have some sort of studio back there?

Or, was he into something more clandestine…

There was no denying he was attractive, if you were into tall, good-looking men who were too busy to shave and had eyes that seemed to see everything.

Maybe Jed was a gigolo, and all those women were his johns, or would it be janes, who were coming by for their weekly fix.

But, on a Sunday?

“I do,” Jed answered. “Every chance I get I’m back here, honing my craft, trying to sculpt perfection.”

I blinked. Wow, conceited much? I mean, sure, even with clothes on I could tell he had a nice body, but perfection? That was a little much.

“It shows,” the woman said. “I bet it gets pretty hot out here…”

Needing to see what was going on, I hurried over to my bench and started pulling it to the fence. Once I had it in position, I stood up on it, crouching at first, then slowly standing up until I could peek over the top.

I just wanted a glance, to see what was really happening over there. Not that I wanted to see Jed naked, of course, I only needed to see for myself what the appeal was…

I tiptoed up until I could just see over the top of the fence, then frowned when I saw Jed standing with a woman who looked to be in her sixties, and realized they were both fully clothed. I noticed she was holding a large, wooden slab that looked like a serving tray of some sort, and then my cousin stepped out of the building.

I ducked so fast that I lost my footing and fell back, yelping as my butt hit the ground with a thud.

“Serena?” I heard Reardon ask, swearing under my breath as my face reddened with embarrassment.

I was about to be caught.

“You okay?”

I looked up to see Reardon peering over the fence at me, the man so large that he didn’t have to stand on anything to see over the top.

“Mmmhmmm,” I murmured, standing slowly and dusting off the back of my pants.

That’s going to leave a mark.

“What were you doing?” he asked, too sweet to be suspicious.

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