“Went to see his family for a couple of days. Should be back tomorrow. He’s quiet, though. You won’t even know he’s there.”
“Okay,” I reluctantly agree. “Just give me a few minutes to get us both ready.”
And to come up with more reasons why moving in with three men, as friendly as they seem to be, even temporarily, is a terrible idea.
Chapter 5
Murph
Someone parked in my spot.
I mutter a curse as I park on the quiet street outside the farmhouse I call home, just off Main Street. Hauling my dusty duffle from the trunk, I glare at the blue Honda taking up the driveway space that would have cut my walk to the front door to just five steps.
The car means company, and I don’t like company. Accepting Joel and Win’s offer to move in with them meant getting away from a busy motel with people constantly coming and going, banging doors, yelling.
Moving into a project house meant quiet. And free. I’d have all the silence I wanted, and I’d pay my way by helping to renovate this house that Win and Joel could flip for profit.
On my way to the front door, I scowl at the Honda with out-of-state tags. Win’s truck takes up the other space. Joel’s black Toyota is missing so he must have already left for work at the firehouse this morning.
I open the door. It’s unlocked, which isn’t unusual.
My eyes are gritty from driving nearly all night from Wyoming to get back to Rios early. I’m ready to crawl into bed for the next few hours, but I pause in the entryway.
My nose twitches.
Perfume.
Lavender and peach.
Nice. Like, really, really nice. A smell that’s hitting me in my balls and making my dick hard.
I dump my bag by the front door since everything is going straight into the washing machine when I can be bothered to deal with laundry. There’s no use hauling it up with me. Then I head up the stairs. “Win? If you have a girl up there, you need to get her to move her car. I want my space back.”
He shouts back, though not from upstairs. Downstairs. The kitchen. “It’s Rose. She’s going to be staying here for a few days.”
I pause on the staircase, then continue up, too tired to walk downstairs to argue with Win when I’ve been craving a hot shower and my cool cotton sheets for the last three hours. “You know I don’t like people. Work people are fine. Home people are not?—”
I grunt, rocking back as a petite, dark-haired woman slams into me at the top of the stairs. My hands automatically reach out, catching her as she stumbles back, nearly falling.
Big, beautiful chocolate-brown eyes widen in surprise.
Her nostrils flare, and a soft, stifled gasp slips out of her mouth. “You.”
A possessive growl rumbles from my chest as the scent of lavender and peach envelops me, so damned potent I ache to inject it into my veins. My hands tighten on her slim, bare arms, unwilling to let her go for a second now that I have her. “Scent match.”
Longing fills her gaze. This attraction is hitting her as hard as it is me.
I dip my head to claim a kiss.
“No!” she cries out. Wrenching herself free from my grasp, she sprints down the stairs, clutching the banister as she takes them two at a time. Long, chestnut-brown hair flows behind her.
I have never been so terrified in my life. She’s leaving. She can’t leave me when I just found her.
Every bit of my exhaustion evaporates, blown away by the white-hot adrenaline surging through me. “Wait!” I rush after her, desperate to stop her as she reaches the ground floor and I lose sight of her.
A door slams downstairs, and I leap the next six steps, my knees buckling as I barely stop myself from crashing face-first into the entryway’s hardwood floors.
It was a stupid thing to do, so I fully understand why I catch Win staring at me like I lost my mind from the kitchen doorway. Standing beside him is a cute kid with brown hair and green eyes, in blue shorts and a gray t-shirt. His mouth is also hanging open, though he looks less shocked and more thrilled by the idiocy that nearly left me with a broken neck.
