It was ten o’clock, an hour he deemed socially acceptable to show up at someone’s home. He knew from the grapevine that Shayla was off today and Raeann was not.
He gave the door a firm knock and stepped back, waiting, hands on his hips, legs planted, brow furrowed, though he was trying hard to smooth out his forehead.
It didn’t take long for the door to open. In fact, it was far too quick.
Shayla stood before him, eyes wide, clearly not yet dressed for the day. Her hair was in a messy bun, her T-shirt was white and hid nothing, her shorts were loose and meant for sleeping. “Jake. What are you doing here?”
He narrowed his gaze without thinking. “Did you even look through the peephole before you opened the door?”
Shayla’s eyes widened again. She glanced at the door and back at him. “Well, no.”
“That’s so unsafe. What if I were a madman?”
She cocked out a hip and narrowed her gaze right back at him. “I’m starting to think you are. I assume my friends told their men about my stupid problems and you were elected to come save the day.”
Jake sucked in a breath. He hadn’t expected her to be so blunt. “No one elected me. They don’t even know I’m here.”
She tipped her head to one side. “But I’m not wrong? You think you can fix things, don’t you?” She stepped closer. “Look, you’re a big guy. Huge I’d say. I’m sure that’s how you ended up with the nickname Tank. Your arms are bigger around than my waist. I’m betting every inch of you is rock solid. It’s almost comical that you work with computers all day instead of as someone’s personal bodyguard. The problem is that muscle isn’t going to get me out of this problem. Only time will work.”
He liked that she was standing tall, trying to look tough. She was barely over a hundred pounds though and lacked four inches on him, especially in her bare feet. Still, she had his card, and he’d played it poorly.
He forced himself to relax his stance. “Can I come in?”
She sighed and considered his question for a moment before stepping back and letting him enter.
Progress.
He was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to demand that she tell him every detail of what the hell was happening with the fucking pilot she’d been dating. On the other hand, he wanted to pull her into his arms and feel her lithe body against his. That was unreasonable of course.
On top of that, it was incredibly distracting seeing her in so few clothes. Did she not realize he could see the outline of her breasts and the points of her nipples? Jesus. His dick was hard.
“You want coffee?” she asked over her shoulder as she headed across the living room toward the attached kitchen.
“No. I’m good.” He watched her fantastic ass as she walked away. The shorts were loose but still showed off her body. Not much was left to the imagination. He followed her like a magnet into the kitchen and leaned a hip against the counter as she fiddled with the Keurig.
“You’ve probably been up for hours, run ten miles, eaten some sort of green smoothie, and solved the world’s computer problems,” she joked. “But some of us are just now coming up for air.”
He chuckled. This was more like the Shayla he knew. Witty. “I only ran six miles this morning, and the computer problem I solved was my own, but the rest is pretty accurate.”
She rolled her eyes as she grabbed some kind of flavored creamer from the fridge and added it to her coffee. Salted caramel, he noted. After taking a long sip, she sighed. “I’ll be more human in about ten minutes, but…” She shot him a glare. “If you’ve come here to lecture me, I’m not interested.”
Jake drew in a breath and followed her as she wandered back to the living room. When she plopped down into an armchair, tucking her feet up under her, he lowered himself onto the sofa. “I’m worried about you,” he began.
“Don’t be. It will all blow ever eventually. I’m tough. I’ll live.”
Would she though? He wasn’t sure how bad the situation was, but he didn’t like a single word he’d heard from her friends about the fucking rumors being spread about her. Shit ranged from her being verbally abusive to a cock tease. He wasn’t buying either, and neither were her friends.
“Tell me what happened, Shayla.” He tried to keep his voice soft and calm instead of accusatory.
She took another sip of coffee. “I don’t really want to talk about it, Jake. I went out with a man I should have steered clear of, learned a lesson, and broke up with him. That’s all that matters. It’s over. If he wants to be a baby about it, let him. I’m strong. I’ll ignore the gossip.”
Jake leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. He watched her closely as she fiddled with her mug and kept her gaze lowered. Anywhere but on him. She wasn’t being fully honest. “You want to try that again, sweetheart?”
She flinched and glanced at him.
He decided to be blunt. “Look, I don’t know you as well as everyone else in our friend circle, but I’m sure you’re aware I’ve paid attention to you. If you hadn’t been dating someone else, I would have asked you out a long time ago. However, even though we’ve had only limited interaction, I noticed you aren’t yourself. The bubbly woman I’ve met several times was not at Kraft and Christa’s party the other night. You’re more reserved. You looked nervous and sad and pissed.”
She swallowed and looked away. He was hitting close to home.
“Maybe your posse bought your story last night,
