Page 3 of Breaking the Rules of Love

Thank God.

He takes it and thanks her, and I watch as she gets back in her cherry red Benz and pulls away. It’s only then that I realize how tense I was during the entire exchange. Or how hot my cheeks have become.

In fact, my entire body is basically burning up. And one thing is for sure: I need to know who this gruff, sexy man who just moved in beside me is, and I need to know itnow.

2

Sadie

He doesn’t even have a movingservice. He’s doing it all himself. God, how hot is that?

I’m not a weirdo stalker, but I’ve been watching out the windows for the past two hours as my new neighbor, whose name I don’t even know, carries boxes from a moving truck into the house next door, using nothing but his big bulging biceps.

Most men around here are lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers and white collar types. They definitely would have hired someone to do this all for them. But not my new neighbor. He’s been handling it on his own, and that says a lot about him.

Of course I haven’tjustbeen watching him. I’ve also been cooking up this lemon tart I plan on taking over in a few minutes to welcome him to the neighborhood. It’s just one of the items on the list of things that allows my mom to refer to me as having good domestic skills.

The tart is chilling now, the opposite of what I’m doing. I’m still hot all over, and knowing how unfulfilled many of the women here are in their marriages, I’d bet many of them are too, looking out their windows at the hot new neighbor with his raw strength on display for all of them to see.

It should be ready now, I think.

I go to the fridge and take out the lemon tart. I still have a nice pastry box from some cupcakes I bought last week, so I put it in that and go check my hair and makeup in the mirror for what must be the twentieth time since Mr. Biceps pulled up in his truck.

I look…okay, but I know I’m never going to be completely happy with myself, so I just take a deep breath and step out the front door.

The sun is shining, and truthfully, I wish there was a bit of cloud cover in the sky so I didn’t have bright rays of light blasting me in the face to highlight every one of my imperfections.

Where did my eighteen-year-old skin go? Where!?

As I get closer to my mysterious new neighbor, I see he’s even hotter than I thought he was. There’s something classically handsome about him but also something raw and sexy at the same time. Like he could wear a suit and take you to a professional meeting or a ballroom dance but also survive for two weeks in the woods with you while banging your brains out every morning.

I come up behind him just as he’s setting a box down by the steps.

“Hello! Hi!” I stammer like an idiot. “Are you my new neighbor?”

He turns, and our eyes meet, dealing a massive blow to my self-confidence. He isfucking gorgeous. He’s also incredibly tall. I could wear my tallest pair of heels and still be nowhere near his lips.

Keep it together, Sadie, I tell myself, gulping a deep breath and swallowing hard.Don’t lose it!

“Do you live right there?” he asks, a playful smile on his lips as he points over my shoulder to my house. They’re bigger than the lips on most men and instantly have me wondering what they’d be like to kiss.

“I sure do.” I smile back.

“Then I guess I am.” He extends a hand. “Jake. Jake Masters.”

You can be my master, I think.Oh my God, Sadie…

Awkwardly shifting the tart box to one arm, I take his hand and shake it, instantly astonished by the strength I can feel in his grip. He’s holding back, of course, so as not to crush my fingers.

His skin is rough and callused. His eyes are cool, ice-blue like the kind of water you see on those videos of glacial runoff water.

“Sadie,” I reply. “Sadie Chamb-Reynolds.”

“Good to meet you, Sadie Chamb-Reynolds,” he teases. I sigh. First contact and I’m already making a fool of myself.

“Sorry, it’s just…don’t worry about it.” Better not to get into things like my ex-husband and divorce and maiden names right now. That conversation can come later. I thrust the tart box into his hands. “I brought you a little something sweet to eat.”

“You?” he asks.

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