Page 2 of Loving Jared

“Huh?” Never mind what?

“I’ll get sugar from the other neighbor,” she said breezily, waving at him as she walked away.

Jared leapt after her, wrapping his hand around her arm and stopping her. Her skin felt like warm silk and he had to stop himself from rubbing his thumb over her. She tipped her head up to look at him with mild curiosity. His heart pounded in his chest as the delicate scent of strawberry shampoo wrapped him in a lust-filled haze.

“I’ll get the sugar.” His voice came out harsher than he’d intended, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Thanks,” she said.

He was forced to drop his hand so he could stride into the house and grab some sugar for her. He frowned at the inside of his cupboard as his entire focus was still on the woman standing in his driveway. She was like a punch to the gut. Unexpected, off-putting and painful in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

He grabbed the plastic container where he kept his sugar, peeled the lid off and sniffed. It smelled like plastic. Did sugar go bad? He wasn’t sure how long it’d been in his cupboard. Jared baked exactly never and had bought the package in case he ever had a guest that wanted sugar in their coffee. Since he never had guests, the sugar thing hadn’t come up.

“Here,” Jared said, walking rapidly toward Amy and thrusting the sugar container at her.

She looked startled at first, then amused. “Thanks, I’ll bring back the container when I’m finished.”

When he didn’t say anything, she gave him a small wave and turned to leave, showing him the perfectly rounded globes of the bottom half of her plump rear end. She was nearly at her own front door when he finally managed to find his tongue.

He called out, “Don’t worry about the sugar, just bring me a slice of pie and we’ll call it even.”

Amy looked at him over her shoulder, her beautiful hazel eyes sparkling and a semi-smile curving her lips. She winked at him and disappeared through the door.

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