Page 8 of Teasing

My God... An ankle-length white sundress catches in the breeze and dances around her long legs, nearly glowing against her tanned skin. Her hair is up in another one of those soft-looking bun things with thin braids intertwined that’s supposed to look easy but take my cousins forever to do. One gold chain sits tight around her throat, and another hangs lower, bringing my eyes to the swell of her breast, and I bite back a curse.

She looks like a sexy fucking fairy goddess, as the twinkling lights framing the patio glint off her skin like magic.

And the second she crosses into my yard, Rosie changes direction and runs right to her. “Emmie... what’s that?”

She points to the flowers in Emmie’s hand before the woman holds them out for my daughter. “They’re for you, sweet girl. A rose for a rose.” She lifts her eyes and finds mine, and something tugs deep down in a place I prefer to ignore. “If your dad says it’s okay, that is.”

I nod, and Ryker laughs, then turns back to me with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Dibs.”

“Like fuck you do, little brother,” I groan and push him back to the grill.“Nobody is calling dibs on our new neighbor.”

This complete stranger lets my daughter take her hand and walk her over to where Ryker and I are standing on the patio without hesitation. And just seeing a stranger holding Rosie’s hand has me on edge. “Daddy, look at my roses. Aren’t they pretty?”

“Very pretty.” I force the words out, but what I want to really say is get the hell away from my kid. “How about you put them in the kitchen and wash your hands for dinner, okay?” I tell her as she vibrates with the kind of pure joy only Rosie is capable of, while beaming up at this woman, who seems to fascinate my daughter.

Rosie dashes off without another word, and I let myself focus on Emmie.

Mistake.

Big fucking mistake.

This woman is a goddamned smoke show, wrapped in a big red ribbon withtroublewritten in giant black block letters.

“Thanks for inviting me for dinner,” she says sweetly, and even her voice is pretty.

“Thank my brother, Ryker. It was his idea.” I say and sign, watching her eyes get big for a moment before she smiles and shocks me.

“Thanks for the invite,”she says and signs, and I just about swallow my fucking tongue.

“You know ASL?”Jamie asks as he joins us on the porch and offers our guest a beer.

She scrunches her nose.“No, thank you. I’m not really a beer girl,”Emmie continues to sign and angles herself so Ryker can see her lips. She knows what she’s doing.“And yes, I know ASL. I took it as my language elective all four years of high school.”

“Are you even old enough to drink?”I push, looking for a flaw in the pristine image she’s presenting because flaws are easier to handle.

When her eyes lock with mine, something uncomfortable passes between us.

But if you held a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it was.

The fuck?

“According to my license, I am. Would you like to see it?” She looks up at me through her lashes, and I get a flash of her looking at me like that from her damn knees. “I just don’t like beer.”

“We’ve got wine,” Jamie offers.“A whole wine cellar, to be exact.”

Fucking Jamie.

“Maybe another night. But thank you.”

“So, Emmie... You live alone in that big house?” Jamie asks her, and I look over at her house. It’s an older farmhouse, but it’s well-kept with white siding and black shutters. A porch wraps around the entire first floor of the three-story house, and colorful flowers line the bed beneath it. It’s a big house. Not as big as mine but big for just one person.

“I do. I’ve lived here for a while.”She accepts the bottle of water Ryker offers her with a pretty blush on her cheeks, and I kinda want to kick his ass.

Not a fucking clue why. But I do.

Not looking too hard into it either.

“What do you do?” I know the words sound almost accusatory, but I don’t know this woman, and I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t prove themselves trustworthy first. When everyone looks at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind, I grind my teeth.“For work, I mean...”

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