Page 4 of The Billionaire's Temptation

Nora laughed, her bony fingers covering her mouth as if laughing in a place like this was in bad form. “Oh, you go ahead.”

Clarissa smiled at the elderly woman, pulled the door closed so that it locked this time, then climbed the rickety stairs to the second level. Knocking on the door next to her own, she waited. Mr. Havershire took his time answering. And he was the exact opposite of Ms. Fried.

“You get it?” he snarled.

Clarissa lifted the frozen pizza and handed it over.

“Thanks,” he grumbled, extending his hand with a five dollar bill.

“You’re very welcome. Enjoy!”

His mouth twisted slightly and he nodded, his rheumy eyes assessing Clarissa for a brief moment. “You too.” Then he closed his door firmly in her face.

Clarissa chuckled. He was a good man, but he refused to admit how much pain he was in. His knees had forced him off the police force. He had a pension plus his social security income, which made him one of the “richer” members of the neighborhood. But he still couldn’t afford to see a doctor. He was eligible for the state’s lower cost health care premiums, but he refused to sign up. He couldn’t afford to visit the doctor, so what was the point of having health insurance? And even if he could pay for a doctor’s visit, the medicines and surgery he needed for his knees were well out of his price range. Once he turned sixty-five, he could get on Medicare and then he could get the surgeries and medicines. But that was still three years away. So until then, he skulked in his apartment, pain shooting up his knees whenever he moved.

Chapter 2

Friday! Oh, glorious weekend! She had two whole days off and Clarissa was going to do…not a darn thing! She promised herself that she would sleep in tomorrow. Then sip her coffee while reading a delicious romance novel! She had one cozy chair in her tiny apartment that she’d found on the side of the road. Someone had been throwing such a precious item away! Clarissa had hauled the treasure here to her apartment and thrown an old sheet over it. Perfect!

The goal for the weekend was to move as little as possible.

Maybe she’d even splurge and get a pizza! Delivery? No, that would mean a tip and an extra charge for the delivery. However, the thought of stopping by the grocery store required too much energy.

Okay, no pizza. Normally, Clarissa picked up an extra frozen pizza when she went grocery shopping for her neighbor. But last weekend, she’d had to pay her electric bill. She’d treated herself by sleeping with the air conditioning unit blasting a couple of times last month. So last week, her pizza money had been consumed by the additional electric costs.

In a few more weeks, the summer heat would dissipate. September would arrive soon and that was a good month for weather, she thought. The heat was still around, but the nights were cool enough to sleep with the windows open. Plus, the humidity eased up and the drier air was much more comfortable.

However, for now, it was still August in Pennsylvania. And August wasn’t a good month weather-wise. In fact, it sucked!

Stepping under the cool shower, she closed her eyes and, just as her mind had done over the past several days, the image of Levi Harris popped up. Her fingers actually tingled at the thought of that rough beard under her fingertips.

“Stupid!” she muttered and turned off the water. Stepping out of the miniscule shower stall, she grabbed her only towel, wrapping it firmly around her body. Clarissa was on the slim side, but her towel was so threadbare and scraggly, it still didn’t completely reach all the way around. Perhaps it was time to buy a new one. Yes, maybe she’d give up her pizza money next month and splurge on a fluffy new towel.

Pulling on a pair of shorts and a tank top, she didn’t bother with a bra, enjoying the freedom of being unrestricted.

She peered into the fridge and contemplated a dinner of cold cereal or…nope. Cereal was her only option until she went shopping tomorrow.

The doorbell rang but she ignored it. The only person who ever rang her doorbell was her obnoxious neighbor and Clarissa just didn’t have the energy right now to handle his persistent pleas for companionship tonight.

Tip toeing over to the door, she peered through the peep hole, smiling in anticipation of being very quiet until her neighbor got bored and went away.

But the man standing on the other side of the door wasn’t her slovenly neighbor. It was him! Levi Harris stood on her stoop and he was staring right back at her!

Jerking away, she leaned back, hugging the box of cereal to her chest.

He couldn’t see her! Right? No. Impossible! No way!

But a knock startled her, indicating that he knew she was there.

“Clarissa, let me in. We need to talk.”

NO! No, they absolutely didnotneed to talk! They’d talked three days ago and she hadn’t been able to get the man out of her head! Talking again would only intensify this ridiculous attraction, which was the last thing she needed. He was off-limits. Out of her league. The guy was obviously rich! She was dirt poor! Hell, she had one chair in her apartment and she was eating cereal!

Another knock sounded and she turned, glaring at the door. “Clarissa, we need to talk. It’s becoming urgent now.”

Darn it! He had to use that word! It was sort of a trigger for her. In high school, she’d always waited until the last minute to get her assignments done. Her mother would claim that it was now “urgent” to finish and Clarissa would knuckle down and get the assignment done.

“Clarissa?”

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