Sniffing, I shook my head. “At the rate you inhale food, good thing I don’t have to pay Mrs. Renner the kind of rent this place goes for, or we’d be living on the street.”
“Good thing I’m here, or everything in this kitchen would gather fungus,” she shot back. “We’d probably discover a new species of spores living inside our fridge and cause the next big disaster worse than the Ebola virus. Scientists would call it the Ila—”
“Shut up, Ray.” Amusement tugging my lips, I freed my hair from its ponytail and headed for the stairs. Shower, then work.
“Ila, wait—”
I sprinted up, ignoring her frantic cry. She must have discovered something else that needed expounding upon. Mold? Grimacing, I pulled off my clammy tank top and dashed into the—steam-filled?—bathroom, nearly tripping on a pile of clothes strewn on the floor. “Dammit! What the…?”
My mouth fell open. My gaze locked on the vision in front of me.
A naked, golden Adonis stood just a touch away, towel-drying his dark blond hair. A light scruff shadowed his jaw. With his lean face and chiseled jaw and chin, he was utterly gorgeous. Built like a swimmer, he sported black and gray tattoos on his biceps, snaking to his forearms. More ink ran to his back and parts of his chest, a striking contrast against his golden skin—
Holy mother!He had both nipples pierced!
He was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
Jeez, but he was tall. I probably stood waist-high or something. As if my eyes had a will of their own, they traveled down his well-defined abs, past his navel—
Whoa—ugh, dammit! Tearing my gaze back up, I clashed with eyes the color of a lake hidden deep in a verdant jungle. And stilled. What secrets did they conceal? God knew my own smiles hid an abyss of hurt and pain. My ex filled my mind, and just as quickly, I shut him out when despair threatened to resurface.
He, however, didn’t seem to care about my staring. His cool indifference took on a spark of interest. His left brow, bisected by a scar, rose, and a smirk lit his handsome face.
Reality smacked me upside the head. Here I stood, half-naked, and ogling him. Heat scorching my face, I pulled on my tank top again.
“That’s a shame.” At his teasing words, I cut him a cold glare.
Instead of yelling, “who the hell are you?” I barked, “Raaaaay!”
Shaking his head and pressing his lips together as if trying not to smile, he wrapped a towel around his lean waist just as Ray made a winded, laughing appearance.
“Sorry, sis! But Max is hanging with me for a few days.”
Hanging? I sincerely hoped she meant ‘just friends watching movies’ type of hanging and not that they’d been doing the horizontal tango while I’d been at the laundromat, because…because…I had no idea why I’d even think there was a because.
Heck, who was I to preach after the mess I had made of my life? I’d chosen to live like a virtual recluse at nearly twenty-five, sheltered within the walls of my home and buried in my work, much to the dismay of my family. But that didn’t mean Ray could break my rules by bringing random hookups into our home.
I glared at my sister. Didn’t trust the mischievous sparkle in her eyes, whilehecrossed his arms over his bare chest and listened, no doubt highly amused by our exchange. “You couldn’t tell me this downstairs? Or yell it?”
“I tried to warn you,” Ray grumbled. “But, jeez, you’re damn fast when you don’t want to be caught.”
“Explain.” I pinned Ray with a gimlet glare, more out of embarrassment that I’d been caught staring at her guest than anything else.
“Max needs a place to crash for a few days. I said it was okay.”
Aware thathestill hadn’t uttered a word except for the provocative comment moments ago, I remained silent. Ray’s mouth had a tendency to run at full steam sometimes. Worse, we were having a conversation in the bathroom with a nearly naked guy who was standing far too close. Or maybe our bathroom was shrinking because I could literally feel his body heat, or, maybe menopause had hit early. Ugh. Clearly, I’d lost my mind.
I walked out, then ran downstairs to the living room, rubbing my heated face. I picked up my laundry and carried it back to my room.
Ray appeared and hesitated in the doorway. “I’m sorry, sis. I tried to warn you I had a friend over. It’s okay, right?” Worried hazel eyes searched mine. “Max is really nice. He needs a quiet place to stay for a while, andhesaved me from those drunken assholes last year after I left work. He got hurt in the fight, too.”
Instantly, all my protective instincts raced to the forefront. Ray had told me about the incident, but the pissed-off fighter named Max didn’t line up with the sexy, beautiful man in my home.
Just because I had no interest in men at this point in my life didn’t mean I wasn’t aware that he was good-looking.
He had saved Ray. The least I could do was let him stay. More, it was the first time Ray had shown interest in any guy or had one stay over. But she was still my little sister. “Fine, but he takes the couch.”
“Gotcha.” A cheeky grin appeared. “Hey, he could totally share my bed, and it would mean nothing.”
