Page 51 of RomeAntically Challenged
“I’ll grab a bowl.” She went up on her tiptoes, causing her skirt to slide up, up, and even farther up. And he found himself thinking that sharing quarters with her for even a few weeks was going to be a hell of a long time to keep his hands to himself. Especially if she preferred skirts.
“Let me help,” he said, knowing damn well she could reach the bowl on her own but,come on, he’d have to hand in his man card if he didn’t take this opportunity.
Ignoring her protest, Emmitt slowly made his way toward her, sliding up right behind her and taking the bowl from her fingertips. She turned her head and,again with the voilà, her gaze went right to his lips.
“Did you know that’s incredibly offensive to petite people?” she said, but he noticed her breath catch.
Interesting. She was as aware of the sexual heat that was blazing between them as he was.
His gaze slid down to the base of her neck, watching her pulse pound. It also afforded him a generous view of the black lace she had on beneath that tank.
“I didn’t mean to offend you. I was just being helpful.”
Not believing a bit of his BS—smart girl—Annie snuck under his arm and headed back to her perch, placing the counter between them, but it didn’t matter. It was clear Goldilocks thought he was just the right size.
And suddenly Emmitt knew that their living situation wasn’t the problem. As long as they resided in the same town, this thing, whatever it was, wasn’t going away anytime soon.
They both had a lot to prove, him even more so. And doing something as stupid as acting on this attraction would be crazy. But Emmitt also had a thing for crazy.
And Annie was proving to be just his kind of crazy.
Chapter 14
The only thing that pissed Annie off more than someone stealing her leftovers was if those leftovers were pizza.
She didn’t have to look far to find the guilty party. And she had nobody to blame but herself.
After Emmitt cooked her a delicious dinner the other night, she’d decided to return the favor and order an extra-large pizza, which normally would have survived three days. But when feeding a man who ate like a bear after hibernation, the slices disappeared faster than she could say “Hands off my pizza.”
Afraid it would be inhaled in one sitting, Annie had snatched up the last two pieces and tucked them safely away in her neon green PANGRY:ACRANKY STATE RESULTING FROM A LACK OF PIZZAlunch sack.
Only lunch break was here and instead of finding her pepperoni and green olive pizza, she found a sticky note.
Annie wasn’t sure what bothered her more: that he’d eaten her lunch—aftercomplaining that green things didn’t belong on a pizza—or that she was starting to look forward to these little blips of Emmitt in her everyday life.
Annie had uprooted her world in Hartford because it was easier than daily reminders of her past failures with men. So starting today, she was going to pick up as many shifts as she could: ER, pediatrics, urology—she wasn’t choosy. The less time she was around Emmitt, engaging Emmitt, or whatever the blip was happening between them, the better it would be for her goal.
And her sanity.
Being forced to move would have been an easy solution. Only he hadn’t threatened to enact the seven-day eviction clause yet, which was good, since the other place had fallen through and she hadn’t located a single rental in her price range that wasn’t a room-for-rent. If she wanted to stick to her man-free plan, then she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to stay.
But if she were being honest, she didn’t want to move. She’d come to think of that cabin as her sanctuary and sparring with Emmitt as entertainment. Moving in with another roommate had all the appeal of steamed cabbage. Plus, it would feel like starting over again.
Been there, done that, had the Dolly Parton wedding dress to show for it.
Moving wasn’t high on her list of how she wanted to spend her days. She’d come to Rome to move on, not move around from room to room. She had more entertaining ways to use her data plan than searching Craigslist.
With a grin, she picked up her phone and typed
She stood there waiting for the reply and groaning over how ridiculous she was being. Dr. Tanner’s office had been a drive-through for strep throat and bronchitis patients today. There were enough cultures to label and paperwork to input that this would likely be her only downtime until she signed out. She shouldn’t be wasting her break texting—especially with her pizza-thief of a roommate-not-roommate.
She set the phone on the table and pulled out the lone cup of applesauce that would make up her entire lunch while she stared at the phone.
The three little dots appeared on the screen, and anticipation danced in her chest.
Lunch forgotten, her fingers glued themselves to the screen, and did a little click-a-dee-click dance of their own.
Statements like that made it hard for her to dislike him. She’d been told when she rented the cabin that the locked room was off-limits, so she’d never looked inside. She hadn’t thought that rule applied to the owner, but now she knew it did.
