Page 10 of Wicked Flirt
Lexi covered her face with both hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed in my life.”
Someone rubbed her back soothingly. Ally. “Be glad if that’s the worst of your embarrassment. I’ve done much more embarrassing things.”
Lexi dropped her hands and scowled. “I doubt that.”
Ally smiled. “Guess where I was when Ethan and I first connected.”
“Your college reunion, right?” Lexi said.
“Yes, but much worse,” Ally replied. “It was the men’s room at the hotel where they had the reunion. I was hiding in a stall, bawling my eyes out over my ex, and he walked in. I’m standing there hoping he doesn’t notice me, and then he comes right up to the stall, identifies himself as a police officer, and asks if I need any help.”
That did sound bad. Super embarrassing. She could just imagine tough Ethan ready to come to the rescue in cop mode while Ally was sobbing in the men’s room. Tears were private.
“Why—” Lexi started to ask.
“The ladies’ room had a line,” Ally said, anticipating her question.
Lexi actually did feel a little better hearing that. Embarrassing misery loves company, she supposed. And it had turned out just fine for Ally and Ethan, so she didn’t feel bad about enjoying the story.
Sabrina grimaced. “Lex, the reason I warned you off Marcus earlier is because we worked it out this morning for him to stay here for a few months while my lease is still active. Just part-time, Sunday through Wednesday, so he can look in on his mom more. My lease isn’t up until June. He was nice enough to offer to pay part of the rent, but Logan already covered it for me.”
Lexi’s brain froze on “stay here for a few months.” She gaped at Sabrina in complete and total shock. “Here? He’s living here? In your old apartment? Right down the hall from me?”
“Oh boy, we’d better get her some water,” Ally said, looking around for a glass.
“Here, take a seat,” Sabrina said, patting a kitchen chair.
Lexi was too shocked to move. Ally and Sabrina pushed her to a kitchen chair, and she flopped down heavily. Her friends were talking to her in soothing tones, but she couldn’t focus on them, her brain homing in on the alarming fact of Marcus living down the hall. Her newmagnificent stud, panty-melting man-candy, orgasm-inducing eye-fuck man who’s got his shit togetherneighbor. The man she knew better than to get involved with yet some part of her was still drawn to him. Resisting Marcus when she lived here and he lived in the city was easy, but right down the hall?
The men returned.
She felt Marcus’s eyes on her and caught his concerned look. “Why’re you living here?” she asked, her voice loud and embarrassingly high.
“So I can look in on my mom,” he replied. “Problem?”
His mom. He’d uprooted and rearranged his entire schedule to look after her. Major good-guy points. She was in trouble.
She kept her voice calm and composed. “No, I don’t have a problem.”
“Good.”
She couldn’t seem to stop talking, even though everyone was watching them curiously. “It’s just that I live down the hall, so, uh, I guess we’ll be neighbors.”Just shut up.
He raised a brow and lifted the bottom of his tank top to wipe the sweat from his face. Her gaze dropped to six-pack abs, muscular ridges down his sides, and a dark happy trail leading to a sizable bulge. Her stomach dipped, a low ache and throbbing between her legs alarming her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why couldn’t she be immune?
“Ethan has those ridges along the sides of his abs too,” Ally told Sabrina.
“Logan just has the abs,” Sabrina replied.
Marcus dropped his tank top back in place and turned to the guys. “Ever feel like a piece of meat?”
“In all the right ways,” Ethan said. “C’mere, baby.”
Ally practically flew to him.
Logan crooked his finger and Sabrina floated over to him, smiling.
“Bedroom furniture next,” Logan announced, his arm around Sabrina. “Then the boxes and that’s everything. I’ve got a cooler of beer and we’ll order some pizza as a thank-you for all your help. Sound good?”
