Page 11 of Crave Thy Neighbor

“I’m not trying to get you to go home with me…yet.” I smirk. “Just being a gentleman.”And trying to ease my guilt…

She nods, accepting that. “I’ll have one more, please,” she says to Donny.

“Coming right up.” He scurries off to grab her drink.

She rests an elbow on the bar, pinning me with those mysterious gray eyes of hers. “Whyareyou buying me drinks then?”

Straightforward.

I like that too.

I decide to give her the same treatment.

“Well, the first was because I felt bad for you given your situation. Plus”—I drag my eyes down her body, then back to her face—“have you seen your legs in those jeans?”

She smiles at the compliment, and I like that she takes it at face value. Too many times have I tried to compliment a woman and had her try to talk me out of it. I like a confident woman.

“No other motives?”

“Well…” I exhale slowly, then grimace. “My boss is the one who bought your building.”

She inhales a sharp breath, eyes widening at the confession.

I don’t know her well enough to be able to tell if she’s mad or just shocked, but she’s quiet as she stares at me with a look I’m unfamiliar with.

Donny breaks her concentration as he sets the replenished drink in front of her.

Her eyes narrow to slits. “Guess that makes us enemies, then.”

“Afraid so.”

“So these are guilt drinks?”

“Yes and no. I’m hoping they’d help my chances if I were to ask you if you want to go out sometime.”

“Sometime?”

“Sometime.” I shrug, deciding to show all my cards. “Or tonight. Your call.”

A grin curls the corners of her lips upward, and I can tell that, despite her earlier claims, she likes the idea. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Then ask me.”

My eyes are drawn to her exposed shoulder as she sets her chin in her hand, leaning onto the bar, waiting.

I have the strangest urge to lean down and kiss it.

Since when did shoulders become sexy?

Her gray eyes are lit with anticipation, and I hear the hitch in her breath when I bend toward her.

Despite her insistence on not going home with me, I have no doubt if I were to ask, she’d say yes.

“Tell me your name and I’ll ask you anything you want.”

She expels the breath she was holding on a short laugh, giving me a flirty smile. “I thought we’d settled on Juliet.”

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