I pop the door, climb out into the warm late summer evening, and inhale deeply. We’re in a busy part of the city, high rise residential buildings mingling with tech company campuses. There’s an eclectic mix of restaurants and shops and chain stores, along with a wide lake encircled by a walking path. Tonight it’ll be mostly empty, aside from the odd after-date couple taking a stroll. In the morning, though, it’ll be full of parents pushing strollers and people walking dogs and joggers getting their run in before work.
It’s a nice place to grow up.
Far nicer than anywhere I grew up, that’s for damned sure.
Marie and her pretty emerald silk dress, her strappy high-heeled sandals, her shining brown curls have paused by the keypad. Her head is bent, hands searching through her purse.
“Where’s the doorman?” I ask, once I’ve made it so close to her that I can smell the soft floral notes of her perfume.
She jumps a full foot in the air, elbow hitting me in the gut when she spins my way.
I bite back my grunt, peer beyond her into the lobby, seeing the security desk is empty too.
What the fuck?
Making a mental note, I start to reach for my wallet.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Marie snaps, glaring up at me.
I extract my wallet from my pocket, stare down into those gorgeous green eyes of hers.
Not pure green, but there are also threads of gold and brown mixing with the shades of emerald, ivy, and sea foam.
Pretty, pretty eyes…
That are sparking in anger at me.
“What do you mean?” I ask innocently.
“You’re following me,” she grits out. “That’s creepy as hell. I’m not interested. Willneverbe interested. Now get the fuck out of here.”
“Stop and think for a minute, cookie.” It takes everything in me to not tug at one of those bouncy brown curls and release it, watch it spring back into shape. “You tookmycar.” I lean down. “A car that brought you to this particular building.”
Her eyes flare.
But I don’t stop, just bend a little closer, the scent of her surrounding me,intoxicatingme. “Want to take a stab at deducing the reason why that is?”
Her mouth drops open.
Then closes.
Then opens again.
And I decide to take advantage of the fact that I’ve clearly gotten her discombobulated.
I open my wallet, pull out my keycard, and swipe.
Then get to watch those pretty eyes spark with annoyance all over again when the door unlocks.
Three
Marie
What is happening right now?
Like…what in theactualfuck is happening right now?
But I don’t have time to truly process that question because he’s swiping his card over the after-hours keypad—and I feel it’s important to point out that it’s not after-hours and our doorman should be here to let me into the fucking building.
