Page 7 of Echo

VIOLET

Ten minutes after Brodie left, my head was still spinning. I wasn’t surprised that Jeff was the kind of guy who took advantage of women, but I was stunned that his crimes had brought a sexy biker to my doorstep.

I wasn’t angry about that part, though.

It was hard to imagine different circumstances that would have resulted in us meeting. I was a book-loving introvert who mostly stayed home—and not just because of my creepy neighbor. Brodie struck me as the kind of guy with a more active lifestyle than me. One that probably involved stuff like going to bars, which I couldn’t even do if I wanted to since I was only twenty.

Or maybe I was making incorrect assumptions about Brodie because he was in a motorcycle club. For all I knew, he liked to stay in and read as much as I did.

My eyes widened as my gaze darted toward the bookshelf in my living room. It was full of spicy romance novels, something we probably didn’t have in common since I couldn’t picture a guy like him reading about heroines who don’t need to choose between three or four guys who all want to worship her. Orfictional motorcycle clubs that he’d probably cringe over because he belonged to a real one.

I couldn’t do much about the rows of paperbacks on my shelves before he came back. I didn’t have anywhere else to put them all, and the bookcase would look odd if it was empty. Which would only draw more attention to my reading preferences.

Instead, I decided to use my time wisely and focus on cleaning the spaces he hadn’t seen yet. Rushing into my bedroom, I grabbed the randomly strewn clothes from the floor and tossed them into the laundry basket in my closet. Then I stripped the bed before grabbing the spare set of sheets from the linen closet.

There wasn’t a bed in the other room, so Brodie would need to use my bed, and fresh sheets were a must since it’d been ten days since I’d changed them. Normally, I did them every week, but I’d skipped my most recent laundry day while racing toward a deadline for the book I finished this morning.

Thank goodness that was done…I couldn’t imagine recording sexy scenes like the ones my best client wrote while Brodie was in the apartment. Even with the soundproofing in my recording booth, I’d be way too aware of his presence not to stumble over my words.

Time literally was money for me. I had a long list of pending projects, so the faster I could record a book, the more I could take on. Luckily, the manuscript I was supposed to work on next was a slow burn, so I didn’t need to worry about recording a sex scene while he was in the next room.

I had managed to clean the bathroom and empty a dresser drawer and made some space in my closet when I heard Brodie’s knock. Running my fingers through my hair, I took a deep breath before pulling open the door with a smile. “Hey.” Iglanced down at the single bag clutched in his fist. “You packed fast and light.”

“Don’t need much personal stuff.” He waited until he was inside the apartment with the door shut behind him to add, “But I have some surveillance equipment I’ll need to set up.”

“Hmm.” I pressed my lips together as I considered the best spot for him to put that kind of stuff. “Do you need to use the shared wall between our apartments?”

He shook his head. “Nah, you can put me wherever you want. My shit won’t take up a lot of space.”

I pointed toward the oversized chair in the corner of the room. “You can scoot that over by the couch if you want.”

He glanced over there, his lips curving into a grin. “I think my stuff will fit on that circular table next to it, and I can use the chair while I’m listening to what Jeff has going on while he’s home. With me in that corner, you’ll barely know I’m here.”

Shaking my head, I giggled. “I doubt that would ever be possible.”

His eyes held a glimmer of masculine satisfaction as he asked, “Should I take that as a compliment?”

“Definitely,” I whispered, fiddling with the hem of my shirt as I gestured toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms, hoping to direct his attention away from my heated cheeks. “Want a quick tour of the place before you grab that equipment? Just in case there’s somewhere that will work better.”

“Sure, baby. Whatever you want to do.”

Since climbing his body like a tree wasn’t possible, I led him around my apartment instead. “You’ve already seen the living room and kitchen. The groceries I bought today should last us a little while since I was planning to make an extra lasagna for the freezer. Unless there’s anything special you need?”

“I’m not picky,” he assured me, patting his flat stomach with his free hand. “Anything you want to feed me, I’ll eat.”

My cheeks grew even hotter as an image of me feeding him my rounded tit popped in my head. “Ahh, good to know.”

At his deep chuckle, I ducked my head and padded toward the hallway, pointing across the living room along the way. “The sliding glass door leads to the balcony. I have a couple of chairs and a small table out there, but I rarely use them since nothing is blocking Jeff’s view out there.”

“Won’t have to worry about him for much longer,” he growled, following me close.

I pointed out the guest bathroom before pulling the soundproofing blanket hiding the second bedroom door to the side. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a bed in here for you to use. I’m an audiobook narrator, and I set this room up as my recording booth. I had to limit the furniture because of how sound echoes off hard surfaces.”

Brodie moved the blanket on the other side of the door to look inside. “This is cool as fuck.”

“Really?” I beamed a smile at him as he turned toward me. “It isn’t super fancy because I did it all myself.”

“I know more than a fair bit about audio equipment, and from what I can see, you did a kick-ass job.”

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