For a moment, and I mean a very small moment, I allow my gaze to travel over the well-defined contours of his chest and the delicious ripple of his abs. Good for him, being able to obtain such an impressive physique. Must be nice to have that amount of time on your hands.
Not that I want to pay him any sort of compliment.
“Rupert, I’m going to need a lemonade instead of tea this afternoon.”
“Uh…I’m unaware of when I became a butler?”
Theo lifts up and blocks the sun from his eyes as he says, “Mate, my fiancée just turned down my marriage proposal. I’m hurting. Lemonade is my only cure.”
“Oh my God,” I say with a giant eye roll. “Can you wallow somewhere else? Your limbs are creeping over onto myneighbor’s lawn and I don’t want them thinking that I have strange, half-naked British men just lazing about my yard.”
“Don’t worry, they won’t be mad.”
“Pretty sure they will be.”
“No, they won’t.” He casts his hands over his face again, blocking out the sun as he looks up at me. “I’m renting their place for the summer. I’m your new neighbor, love.”
Wait…what? He’s going to be here all summer?
I turned him down, he’s “hurting,” he should be finding a flight back home.
“And this fiancé is not quite finished with you yet,” he adds.
Ohhh, hold on a freaking second.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means by the end of the summer, mark my words, you’ll be wearing my ring. I’m incredibly persuasive.”
Rupert leans in and says, “He is. He once convinced me to run a half-marathon in my mum’s best Sunday dress…and heels.”
Jesus, these two.
I don’t care if he hypnotizes me, there is no way I’m going to marry this man.
No chance.
“Dream all you want, but it’s not going to happen. Now, if you’ll excuse me, unlike you, I have actual work to do.”
As I walk away, Theo calls out from the grass, “Gossy, the British are coming and you have no idea what’s about to hit you.”
I glance over my shoulder to see him smiling once again. “You’re delusional.” Then I slip into my house and shut the door, leaning against it as I take a few deep breaths.
Dear God in heaven, where is that tablet? I need to know as much about this man as possible…and I need to order Aunt Kitty a new one.
Chapter One
THEO
“Truth or dare?”
I sway on my wingback chair, my lager clutched firmly in my hand as the room slightly spins.
“Truth.” I tip back my bottle, gulping down the rest.
Rupert, my best friend, smirks from where he’s lying in front of the unlit fireplace, my father’s faux-fur bearskin draped across his bare chest while he sports the war pants of my great, great, great, great, great…uh, how many greats was that? Who fucking knows and who fucking cares. Just know, he’s wearing crusty-arse trousers from the 1700s that he snagged from the glass case in my father’s office.
Between you and me, I’m unsure they’re from the 1700s. I’ve spent my entire life with eyes glazed over as my father spoke of the battle triumphs of our late ancestors. Call me progressive but I haven’t really found the urge to care about all the blood my family has shed over the centuries.
