Page 7 of Taming the Wild Mountain Man

I chuckle. "This is my second. I'm fine."

I'm more than fine, actually.

Tenley has laid down the gauntlet, and I'm not going to take it lying down. I may have been mad as heck and only half awake, but every molecule in my body responded to her seductive,Let me see what you can do, babychallenge last weekend.

She wants to see what I can do? Well, I'm showing her, doing what any normal neighbor would do—retaliating in an equally juvenile manner.

In the week since we exchanged words at her petty zoo party, she's burrowed her way even deeper into my subconscious. I cannot stop thinking about her—at work, with my search and rescue buddies, whenever I see her car pulling up in her driveway at night.

No woman has ever affected me like this before. I'm like a high school kid suffering through his first crush. No, wait. Even my high school crush on Cindy Crawford wasn't this all-consuming, this constant, this…big.

At least the issue with my ears has eased off for the time being, leaving me clear-headed for the fight I suspect is coming my way. I've invited my buddies and their wives and kids around for an afternoon of grilling and pool games. My way of showing Tenley I can be just as noisy during the day as I am at night. It's called versatility, people.

"Cannonball!" Reece calls out again, letting out an equally loud holler before charging toward the pool and flinging himself into the air.

My eyes drift from his impressive jump to the figure torpedoing her way toward the fence line. Knew it. I grab a bottle of suntan lotion and head over for our showdown.

"Afternoon, sweetheart," I say, putting on as much of an arrogant twang as I can, seeing how that seems to annoy her, and I'm all about annoying her as much as humanly possible. "Would you mind rubbing some lotion on my back?"

To my surprise, she takes the bottle from me. Oh, I wasn't actually expecting to have her rub lotion on me, but heck yeah, I'll take it. This is my lucky day. She glares at me for a few seconds, her blue eyes blazing…and then throws the bottle onto the ground. Okay, that makes more sense.

She huffs, and if she's annoyed, it's not really working. She looks downright adorable, and, for the record, way hotter than Cindy. "What are you doing?" she demands.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I gesture over my shoulder. "I'm throwing a little party. I did invite you, but like always, you ignored it."

"You did not invite me," she retorts, as if the very thought of me doing something nice is abhorrent to her.

"Idid," I insist. "I left a note on your front porch just like I left youseveralnotes when you moved in, offering to help you with whatever work you might want to do around the place."

She glares at me the way I do at Chewy when she lets out one of her monstrous nighttime farts, then presses a finger to the bridge of her nose and exhales. "Whatever."

"We are in a war, right? Or was that petting zoo party something I can expect to be a regular occurrence around here?"

She opens her mouth to say something, decides against it, and starts walking away. Desperate for her to stay, er, I mean, engage, I blurt out, "The offer still stands, by the way. If you need help with your place. I know it's hard to find contractors at the moment. I'm flat-out busy myself, but I'm sure I could find some time."

She returns to the fence line slowly, her gaze probing into me. "And why would you want to do that? We're technically at war, as you pointed out."

"Sure, but we're also neighbors, so at some stage, we're going to have to find a truce. Unless we want to continue making each other's lives difficult?"

We're two grown adults, and since I am the older one, it makes sense for me to try and act like it. At least a little.

She blows out a breath, sending a loose strand of hair that had fallen on her face flying into the air. "I don't want that."

"Neither do I. And just so you know, I'm having a few of my guys over next week to soundproof my shed."

She perks up. "So no more night time banging?"

My brain breaks, like eggs splattering into an omelet bowl, when I hear the wordbangingcome out of her mouth. I clear my throat—as well as my mind from the X-rated rabbit hole I've fallen down—and reply, "Correct. No more…bangingat night."

Her long fingers tap against the top of the fence. Nope. Can't look at them without imagining what they might feel like scraping up my neck. She takes a deep breath, drawing attention to her chest, and nope, can't look there either without descending back into X-rated territory. My gaze flicks to her plush lips…Definitelycannot look there.

A low growl escapes my throat. Why does she have to be so darn gorgeous?

"Fine. I have actually been struggling to find contractors, so I appreciate the offer. I'm pretty sure walls are meant to be straight, right?"

"Yeah. They are." I grin, assuming she's joking. Then again, knowing the state of disrepair her house has fallen into over the years, maybe she's only half-joking. "I'll come over sometime after work next week."

Three days later, I'm at Tenely's house, going room to room with her, compiling a list of all the work that needs to be done. She may have been kidding about the walls, but not by much. Her front porch is sagging, likely caused by the roots of a nearby tree pushing against the foundation of the house. Over time, I suspect that could be the reason the walls have become crooked.

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