Текст книги "Perfection"

Автор книги: R. L. Mathewson

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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Chapter 11

"But that one's pretty!" Zoe pointed out as Trevor simply sighed as he grabbed the pretty pink princess dog toy out of the carriage and returned it to the shelf.

"He's a male, Zoe. He needs man toys," he stressed, picking up a dull brown rope and tossing it into the carriage along with a few, in her opinion at least, boring looking chew toys.

She gestured to the pink princess chew toy. "Couldn't we just get that and see if he likes-"

"No way in hell," he said, giving her a quick swat on the ass to get her moving.

"Stop doing that," she hissed at him even as she started moving before he could do it again, and she knew he would. He simply shrugged as if it was no big deal and it probably wasn't for him, but it was seriously screwing with her hormones.

It was just another reason for her to get her butt in gear and do something about it and she would. Right after she bought that really cute flowery pink bowl set for Toby.

"Don't even think about it," Trevor warned before she even got into grabbing distance. He reached past her and grabbed two large metal dog bowls and placed them in the carriage with the rest of the stuff that he picked out since every one of her suggestions was met with an exasperated sigh and a few muttered choice words.

"Fine," she said, making a mental note to swing back this way after she finished with her other shopping. The same shopping she was actually pretty nervous about. She'd put it off as long as possible, but if she wanted to make some changes in her life and meet a guy and hopefully have sex again before she was eighty then she'd have to suck it up and do it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why?" she asked, stepping past him and that gaze of his that made her feel like he knew what she was thinking. What she had planned tonight was bad enough. She didn't need him finding out about it and embarrassing her about it.

Jumping back into sex by having a one night stand wasn't exactly something she wanted to share, especially with Trevor, who would never understand. It wasn't as if she'd ever done it before or even planned to make it a habit, but it was something that she needed to do. Not just because she really missed and needed sex again or that she was sure she would die if she didn't have any soon, which she was, but because she didn't think her self-esteem could take the hit if she ended up dating a guy only to have him run the hell the other way when he saw her naked for the first time.

Her self esteem wouldn't be able to handle a rejection of that level. Tonight was the tester. She was going to find a man that she was relatively attracted to and take a chance. If he took one look at her naked body and made a run for it then she'd know that she had some more work to do before she pursued any relationship. If on the other hand the man wasn't repulsed and they had sex then she'd feel more confident about moving forward with her life and her plans.

"Hey," Trevor said, lightly tapping her on the nose.

"What?" she asked, slightly startled.

"I asked if you saw the dog treats anywhere. I think we went past the aisle," he said, craning his neck to look around.

"They're probably back near the food," she said, already pushing the carriage that way. As she moved down the aisle her eyes landed on a bottle of strawberry scented dog shampoo.

Trevor muttered something as he reached past her and grabbed a bottle of unscented green dog shampoo and Zoe added another item to her ever growing list of items to pick up later. She didn't know how long she'd have Toby for, but she planned on making him feel special and loved until he went to live with his new family.

She knew how it felt not to have a real home and didn't want that for Toby. For as long as he was with her she would make damn sure that he felt welcome.

***********

"Can I help you find something?" a purely feminine voice asked.

He was barely able to draw his attention away from Zoe's baggy jean covered ass as it wiggled enticingly as she leaned over to search for the "perfect biscuits for the little sweetie pie", her words, not his. Instead of telling her to just grab the cheapest bag she could find the words caught in his throat when she bent over. Hell, he couldn't even make out the exact shape of her ass, but that hadn't stopped him from licking his lips or imagining his hands and mouth exploring her curves.

Holy shit he needed to get laid.

"Sir?" that damn voice said again, sounding almost hesitant this time.

He barely stopped himself from cringing as it dawned on him that he'd just been caught ogling Zoe's ass. At least he hadn't been caught by the guys at work, he reassured himself as he turned his attention to the woman trying to get his attention and nearly groaned.

Of course he'd been caught ogling a woman like Zoe by an incredibly hot woman, he thought dryly. No doubt the woman thought he was a desperate asshole.

"Can I help you find something?" she asked again, running the tip of her tongue over her pale pink lip as she ran her eyes over him. She was incredibly beautiful, tall with just the right amount of curves and the perfect amount of makeup applied to her face making it look natural, but highlighting her best features.

She was absolutely stunning and he should be working on getting her number, however...........

Her nose wasn't cute enough. It was nice, but he would have liked it more if it was smaller, almost button-like. She had pretty blue eyes, but a little too pale. Until that moment he hadn't realized he actually preferred a vibrant blue over a pale blue.

Her chin had a little tiny cleft that was barely noticeable, but he noticed it. Her eyebrows were a little too thin, her hair a little too light, and hell, he might as well admit that she was just a little too thin for what he was looking for. Not that he usually had a problem with too thin, but he had been wondering lately what it would be like to run his hands over a woman and not feel her hip bones or be able to count her ribs by touch or how a fuller woman would cradle his body.

His eyes as if they had a mind of their own shot from the woman, who a few months ago would have met all of his physical requirements to the woman who was seriously fucking with his head. Her shoulder length hair was pulled up into a messy bun, she wore no makeup and her clothes were increasingly baggy on her, hiding whatever figure she might have and his damn cock twitched with happiness just from looking at her.

He looked at the beautiful woman frowning up at him and his cock did nothing. His eyes shot back to Zoe and damn if his cock didn't twitch happily. Trevor swallowed hard as realization hit.

There was something wrong with his dick.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked, drawing back his attention. She met his eyes and gave him a sexy little smile that should have piqued his interest, but did nothing.

"Excuse me?" Zoe suddenly said, once again drawing his attention back to her. She stood in front of them, holding a small bag of what appeared to be tiny dog biscuits and not doing anything particularly sexy, but he found himself appreciating her adorable little smile, her beautiful bright blue eyes, and how she cared more about comfort than fashion.

He liked looking at her, talking to her and just being with her, he realized suddenly much to his shock. At some point he'd become attracted to his little tenant and he hadn't even realized it. She was turning his life upside down and screwing with his head and he couldn't understand it.

Women like Zoe shouldn't catch his attention for so many reasons he didn't even know where to start. He liked women like the one next to him and should be putting in a little effort to talk her out of her panties and see if she met any of his criteria for a wife, but instead of doing that he was checking out his frumpy little tenant and wondering how loud he could make her scream his name.

This wasn't fucking happening. He didn't like women like Zoe and refused to start now. He had a game plan and he was going to stick with it. The problem was he hadn't gotten laid in too damn long and the only woman he'd spent any real time with in the last couple of months was Zoe so that's why his poor neglected dick was so confused.

Tonight he would take care of this little problem by hitting a bar and picking up the hottest woman he could find and fucking her until his dick was back on board with his game plan and gave up its rather disturbing demands that he get to know Zoe a little better.

"Do you have these in a larger bag?" Zoe asked the woman next to him, making him roll his eyes. Seriously, did the woman really not know anything about dogs?

"Zoe," he said, sounding exasperated as he took the small bag away from her so he could look at the tiny biscuits through the clear plastic window on the front of the package, "these are for small dogs. Toby," and god how he hated having to call that poor dog that name, "is pretty big and needs larger biscuits," he pointed out.

She shrugged. "I know, but those are really cute," she said with that damn adorable smile that had his damn cock taking notice.

Dumb bastard, he mentally cursed the rebellious appendage.

"Your brother's right," the woman next to him said with a knowing smile, expression, and tone that flat out let Zoe know the woman dismissed her as any real competition in case her words hadn't.

His eyes once again darted to Zoe, wondering if he had any time to get her out of the store before she started crying. Christ, why did women have to be so fucking vicious? Zoe didn't do anything to deserve her attitude. He'd admit that in the past this little scene would have amused him and probably entertained him to no end to have women fighting over him, but for some reason he couldn't stand the idea of Zoe being hurt. She was-

"Oh, he's not my brother," Zoe said brightly as if she didn't realize the woman had just insulted her. She squished up her face adorably in thought. "At least not until he makes it legal with Jonathan," she said, her eyes flashing with amusement as she watched the woman take it all in.

Who the hell was Jonathan? he wondered as the rest of what she said set in and when it did he glared at her as he fought back the urge to pull her over his knee and spank the hell out of her ass.

"You know damn well-" he bit out tightly before she had the nerve to interrupt him with a teasing smile.

"They really are the cutest couple I've ever seen," she said dreamily, leaving him on the verge of committing murder.

"Y-your brother?" the woman next to him choked out, clearly not believing that he could be gay. At least one person realized how foolish Zoe's claims were and-

"I should have known," the woman said, sighing as she gestured to the end of the aisle. "There's a larger bag on the top shelf," she mumbled before walking away, clearly not willing to waste another minute of her time on him.

"Thank you," Zoe said brightly, clearly fighting back a laugh as she threw him a wink and headed off, leaving him confused, pissed, stunned and admittedly impressed. Any other woman would have either freaked out over the insult or started crying, but Zoe not only ignored the woman's intended insult, but had come out on top, laughing and knocking him on his ass for shits and giggles.

Self-confidence like that was fucking hot.

It was too bad she wasn't his type, he thought as he walked past her, only pausing long enough to grab the bag out of her hand and give her luscious little ass a swat for good measure, grinning when he heard that little growl of hers that he liked so damn much.

It really was too bad that she wasn't his type.

Chapter 12

"I just took you out twenty minutes ago," Zoe complained even as she reached for the new black leash with the small baby blue teddy bear pattern that she'd bought during her second trip to the pet store and headed for the front door.

Sure she could have used the black leather leash that Trevor bought, but she liked this one. It was manly no matter what he said. The teddy bears were blue not pink, she'd pointed out when he spotted it during their last walk. That was immediately followed by a one minute glare that she found kind of cute.

She wasn't sure if he'd been pissed about the so-called "girly leash" or the fun she'd had at his expense at the pet store, but it hadn't mattered because both put a smile on her face. Several times today she found herself laughing at the memory of the little scene from the pet store. She really wasn't sure what she found more entertaining, the disappointed expression on the woman's face who thought just because Zoe looked a certain way that she was a pushover or the horrified almost comical expression on Trevor's face when her words hit home.

He really was an entertaining guy. Haley was right. Screwing over a man just for the hell of it was a lot of fun. It was also nice having someone in her life that she could joke with and just be herself. Over the past three years she'd learned to keep her mouth shut and accept all the crap life handed her as she tried to make something out of her life.

She'd never been a pushover a single day in her life, her big mouth guaranteed that, but working in that office had slowly sucked the life out of her, leaving her gritting her teeth and accepting whatever bullshit her bosses dealt her all while fighting the urge to open her mouth and land her ass in trouble. Turning into a meek little worker had been one of the hardest things for her to do, especially when she was used to speaking up for herself.

Growing up the way she had there hadn't been much of a choice in the matter since there was no one else to speak for her. Even though she'd had about a half dozen different social workers from the age of two until fifteen when she finally ran away, none of them cared about what happened to her. To them she was just a case they'd gotten stuck with and she only saw them about once a year when they had their mandatory meeting to make sure she was actually alive.

Her foster parents, all one hundred and fifty-three of them, had been a different story completely. Some had been nice, some not so nice and some had acted like she wasn't there, but in each and every home she'd been a paycheck and a charity case, nothing more. Not in one single home had she been treated or expected to act like one of the family.

There were always separate rules for her and the other foster kids in each home and different expectations. She was expected to do as she was told and keep her mouth shut when something happened that she didn't like. They learned quickly that they couldn't push her around just because no one cared about her.

She knew other kids kept their mouths shut, too afraid to upset their foster parents and be shipped off to a new home, but that wasn't her. The inconvenience of packing up her small duffle bag and going to a new home, dealing with new foster parents, and learning new rules hadn't been enough for her to keep her mouth shut. If they treated her like crap she spoke up, plain and simple. She never acted like a spoiled little brat who liked to bitch and whine about everything, but when she had foster parents who wouldn't feed her unless she worked for it or liked to hit her or some of the smaller kids, she spoke up, loudly.

Instead of coming to her aide and reassuring her that it would never happen again a few of her social workers actually told her to learn to shut her mouth, telling her it wasn't so bad and that if she wanted a roof over her head and food in her stomach that she needed to learn keep her mouth closed. Sometimes she followed that little tidbit of crappy advice and kept her mouth shut. She might have been a kid, but she hadn't been stupid. She knew no one was ever going to rescue her and love her and that she was damn lucky not to have to live on the street, but sometimes the way her foster parents treated her was too much and she couldn't keep her mouth shut no matter how much she wanted to.

It wasn't until she was fifteen and found herself living in an abandoned car that she realized that sometimes it was better to keep her big mouth shut, especially if she was going to make a life for herself. Although she did her best to curb her big mouth sometimes it still got her in trouble and she found herself in a sticky situation a time or two.

When she landed an entry level job with The N.W. Corporation a few years ago she'd forced herself to keep her mouth shut, knowing she didn't want to mess up the opportunity to make something out of her life. As difficult as it had been she learned to keep her mouth shut, mostly, until she barely recognized the person she'd become where being screwed over didn't bother her because she truly believed she'd move up in the company and all the nonsense they put her through would be worth it.

Had she really been that delusional?

Apparently she had, because she allowed them to push her around until she simply hadn't cared anymore. Even though it had only been a few months since she worked in that hell hole she still couldn't believe she let them treat her that way or worse that she let the job become her life. She'd lost touch with the few friends she had and stopped dating, not that she'd done much of that in the past, but at least a decent amount of sex might have made her life more tolerable.

She really missed sex, she thought with a sigh.

But if all went well tonight she wouldn't be missing it for much longer. Not that she'd ever been a tramp. She hadn't. She just had a healthy appetite for sex for a twenty-nine year old woman who hadn't had sex in five years.

She also missed the intimacy of being close to another human being. She missed lazy Sundays in bed, fighting over the remote, snuggling to stay warm and the way she felt when a man made love to her, not alone.

"No fucking way," Trevor said as he stepped out of his apartment and caught sight of the leash.

"This is just getting sad," she said, sighing. "It's just a leash, a cute leash, but a leash all the same."

"If it's just a leash then why aren't you using the black one?" Trevor demanded, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at the offending leash.

"Because it's cute. Did I not just cover that?" she asked, knowing she was taunting him and god help her she loved it.

"Cute?" he asked, sounding dumbfounded.

"Uh huh," she agreed absently, walking, more like being dragged to the front door by Toby. As she opened the door she decided to taunt him just a little more. Just as she stepped through the door she added, "Cute just like my Red Sox tee shirt," she said, squealing, whether it was from him lunging for her or Toby taking off at a full run and dragging her she wasn't sure. The only thing she knew was she couldn't stop laughing as Trevor's hand missed her bottom by a mile and he promised she wouldn't be able to sit for a week after he got his hands on her.

She knew it probably wasn't the smartest thing to taunt the man, but she just couldn't help herself. He was so damn entertaining.

*********

"Are you done yet?" Trevor demanded, again, as he paced the small confines of his bathroom.

"No, and go away this is getting kind of creepy!" Zoe yelled over the sound of running water.

"If you moved your ass so I could take a shower I wouldn't be bothering you, now would I?" he snapped, feeling edgy.

"Jeez someone's bitchy," Zoe muttered loud enough, no doubt on purpose, for him to hear.

"I'm not bitchy!" But he was. He really was and it was all because he was torturing himself by pacing the bathroom like an idiot while his body's odd little obsession was only a few feet away naked, wet, and sudsy. Granted there was a wall between them, but the way he was feeling right now it didn't matter.

He didn't like the way she made him feel or the way his body ached when she was near. He sure as hell didn't want to feel this way about her. She wasn't his type and he had absolutely no plans on changing his ways now, especially for her.

When he took a woman out, he liked showing her off, knowing that every man took one look at the woman on his arm and envied him. If he ever took a woman like Zoe out they'd wonder what the hell was wrong with him and he wouldn't be able to blame them because there was nothing perfect about Zoe and he couldn't accept anything less. He would never be looked down on with pity ever again or have anyone think that he couldn't do better.

"Go away!" Zoe said.

"Hurry the hell up!" he snapped. "I have plans tonight."

"So do I!" she shot back, making him wonder what plans she had. As far as he knew she never went out at night unless she was running an errand or hitting the pool at the gym. She was a bit of a homebody, but he didn't think she was going to the gym tonight since she didn't usually shower beforehand.

"Where the hell are you going?" he demanded, giving up his pacing to lean back against the sink counter.

"Out."

He snorted. "Out where?"

"Just out," she answered hesitantly a moment later.

"Are we still on for the book tonight?" he asked even though he knew there was a good chance, god willing, that he wouldn't be around for that tonight. Then again if it was a quick lay he might be able to get back here in time.

"I, uh," he could just make out the sound of her clearing her throat, "might not be alone tonight," she said, stunning the shit out of him.

"You have a date?" he asked in a disbelieving tone that probably sounded a bit insulting.

"I could have a date!" she argued.

"But do you?" he asked, noting that she hadn't really answered.

"The shower's all yours," she said brightly, obviously trying to change the subject, which at the moment was fine with him. She could go out with whomever she wanted. He didn't care. They weren't really friends. She was his employee and tenant and nothing more.

Okay, so she also read to him at night and put a smile on his face first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, but she could still do that if she was seeing someone else. It would probably also help get his head straight if he knew she was off limits since he didn't poach. Well, he did, but he wouldn't try to steal her since she really wasn't his type and sooner or later his body would remember that.

Of course if she started to date he would really have to look into having the walls reinsulated. There was no way he wanted to hear her fucking some other guy. Again, not that he cared, but that didn't mean he wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to hear her scream some other guy's name. He wasn't a masochist after all.

This could work, he thought as he tugged off his tee shirt and tossed it into the hamper Zoe picked up and demanded that he use. That woman could be so damn pushy sometimes. He still didn't understand why he had to dish out twenty bucks for a hamper when the bathroom floor did the same job for free. She was just making more work for herself by having to pull all his clothes out of the hamper instead of just picking it up off the floor and when he explained that to her she just rolled her eyes and told him to use the damn hamper.

Thinking on it now he really couldn't understand why he wanted her. She was so damn bos-

A high pitched scream broke off his thoughts.

"Trevor!" Zoe screamed.

His name was barely out of her mouth before he found himself running out of his room and taking the stairs two at time. He flew out of his apartment and into hers, glad that they didn't lock the doors, but worried that someone had managed to break into the front door and go straight into her apartment. He didn't stop to check the front door, but ran up the stairs, following the high pitched screams and dog's furious barks and growls that wouldn't stop, to her room.

He only paused in her room long enough to see that she wasn't in it and headed for the open bathroom door and nearly tripped over Toby in the process. As he stumbled over the dog and tried to right himself he felt the breath in his lungs freeze and his mouth drop open.

There could have been an ax murderer in the room for all he knew and he wouldn't have been able to look away from the sight of Zoe standing in the corner of the bathtub with her back to him as her baby pink towel threatened to drop even further, revealing more of that generous bottom that had him licking his lips and groaning. Thankfully her high pitched screaming covered the betraying sound.

Somehow he managed to tear his eyes away from the beautiful sight before him to look around for the serial killer that had to be waiting to attack them, judging by her screams. When he didn't find anything but Toby, he really hoped his new owners would take pity on the damn dog and change his name, looking in the open cabinet beneath the sink, growling and barking he couldn't help but feel confused and a headache coming on from all the noise.

"What the hell is going on in here?" he demanded loudly enough to thankfully cut through Zoe's screams and get her to shut the hell up along with the dog.

Without looking back she reached behind her and pointed frantically in the direction of the growling dog. "It's in there!" she screeched as if that said it all.

Sadly enough it really didn't. Although he did appreciate the fact that her towel had managed to drop another two inches, revealing the top halves of two perfectly rounded cheeks. It was the least she could do for scaring the shit out of him, he decided as he crouched down and gently pushed the growling dog aside so he could take a look.

He carefully pushed aside extra rolls of toilet paper, a first aid kit, a can of shaving gel, pre-treater and an unopened box of a twelve pack of condoms that earned a frown, but didn't find anything even remotely scream worthy.

"What exactly am I looking for?" he asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder at his shivering tenant who was still hiding in the corner, which was probably a good thing since she'd probably rip him a new one for staring at her ass.

"A spider," she said, sounding so horrified that he couldn't help but laugh.

"That's why you were screaming bloody murder? Over a spider?" he asked, knowing for any other woman and he would be yelling at her for scaring the hell out of him, but for his little tough as nails tenant he couldn't help but laugh. She was always so strong, always spoke her mind and loved to piss him off for fun. So to see Zoe freaking out over something as ridiculous as a spider was too much to believe. Other than keeping her mouth shut when she thought he was just the landlord's asshole nephew and from what he knew about her last job he couldn't imagine Zoe being intimidated or afraid of anything.

"It's huge!" she clarified, not moving one iota away from the corner of the tub.

"Uh huh," he said, not bothering to hide his disbelief. No doubt it was some tiny little thing that she saw out of the corner of her eye and had overreacted.

"Well, I'm not seeing it now," he murmured, taking another look for this "huge" spider and chuckling.

He felt more than heard Zoe rush past him and wasn't all too surprised to find her standing in the middle of her bed with the towel now snuggly wrapped around her body much to his disappointment a few seconds later.

"I tell you what, Ms. Scaredy Pants," he said, grinning hugely when she shot him a venomous look, "after I get ready to go out I'll come back and take another look for the killer spider. Maybe by then it will feel comfortable enough to come out."

She licked her lips nervously as her eyes darted back to the bathroom where Toby, how he hated that name, now obviously bored since Zoe stopped screaming, now lay across the bathroom floor dozing off.

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise," he said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. No doubt he was going to have to hunt down a small spider outside and throw it into a glass jar to convince her that he found it otherwise she'd probably be screaming for help all night over "spiders."

"O-okay," she said, shifting on the bed.

Trevor bit back a smile as he paused near the bed, knowing she'd probably kill him later, but simply couldn't resist. "There's just one thing. I need a towel."

Zoe yanked her eyes away from the bathroom to frown down at him in confusion. "Your closet is full of towels."

"Uh huh, but I need a pink towel," he explained as he reached out and ripped her towel away from her. He was already halfway down the stairs when he heard her gasp of surprise and heading out her door when she started threatening the poor confused appendage in his pants that hadn't been able to go down since he spotted Zoe cowering in the bathtub.