NFH 02 Perfection (14 page)

"No fucking way," Trevor said as he
stepped out of his apartment and caught sight of the
leash.

"This is just getting sad," she said,
sighing. "It's just a leash, a cute leash, but a leash all the
same."

"If it's just a leash then why aren't
you using the black one?" Trevor demanded, crossing his arms over
his chest as he continued to glare at the offending
leash.

"Because it's cute. Did I not just
cover that?" she asked, knowing she was taunting him and god help
her she loved it.

"Cute?" he asked, sounding
dumbfounded.

"Uh huh," she agreed absently,
walking, more like being dragged to the front door by Toby. As she
opened the door she decided to taunt him just a little more. Just
as she stepped through the door she added, "Cute just like my Red
Sox tee shirt," she said, squealing, whether it was from him
lunging for her or Toby taking off at a full run and dragging her
she wasn't sure. The only thing she knew was she couldn't stop
laughing as Trevor's hand missed her bottom by a mile and he
promised she wouldn't be able to sit for a week after he got his
hands on her.

She knew it probably wasn't the
smartest thing to taunt the man, but she just couldn't help
herself. He was so damn entertaining.

*********

"Are you done yet?" Trevor demanded,
again, as he paced the small confines of his bathroom.

"No, and go away this is getting kind
of creepy!" Zoe yelled over the sound of running water.

"If you moved your ass so I could take
a shower I wouldn't be bothering you, now would I?" he snapped,
feeling edgy.

"Jeez someone's bitchy," Zoe muttered
loud enough, no doubt on purpose, for him to hear.

"I'm not bitchy!" But he was. He
really was and it was all because he was torturing himself by
pacing the bathroom like an idiot while his body's odd little
obsession was only a few feet away naked, wet, and sudsy. Granted
there was a wall between them, but the way he was feeling right now
it didn't matter.

He didn't like the way she made him
feel or the way his body ached when she was near. He sure as hell
didn't want to feel this way about her. She wasn't his type and he
had absolutely no plans on changing his ways now, especially for
her.

When he took a woman out, he liked
showing her off, knowing that every man took one look at the woman
on his arm and envied him. If he ever took a woman like Zoe out
they'd wonder what the hell was wrong with him and he wouldn't be
able to blame them because there was nothing perfect about Zoe and
he couldn't accept anything less. He would never be looked down on
with pity ever again or have anyone think that he couldn't do
better.

"Go away!" Zoe said.

"Hurry the hell up!" he snapped. "I
have plans tonight."

"So do I!" she shot back, making him
wonder what plans she had. As far as he knew she never went out at
night unless she was running an errand or hitting the pool at the
gym. She was a bit of a homebody, but he didn't think she was going
to the gym tonight since she didn't usually shower
beforehand.

"Where the hell are you going?" he
demanded, giving up his pacing to lean back against the sink
counter.

"Out."

He snorted. "Out where?"

"Just out," she answered hesitantly a
moment later.

"Are we still on for the book
tonight?" he asked even though he knew there was a good chance, god
willing, that he wouldn't be around for that tonight. Then again if
it was a quick lay he might be able to get back here in
time.

"I, uh," he could just make out the
sound of her clearing her throat, "might not be alone tonight," she
said, stunning the shit out of him.

"You have a date?" he asked in a
disbelieving tone that probably sounded a bit insulting.

"I could have a date!" she
argued.

"But do you?" he asked, noting that
she hadn't really answered.

"The shower's all yours," she said
brightly, obviously trying to change the subject, which at the
moment was fine with him. She could go out with whomever she
wanted. He didn't care. They weren't really friends. She was his
employee and tenant and nothing more.

Okay, so she also read to him at night
and put a smile on his face first thing in the morning and the last
thing at night, but she could still do that if she was seeing
someone else. It would probably also help get his head straight if
he knew she was off limits since he didn't poach. Well, he did, but
he wouldn't try to steal her since she really wasn't his type and
sooner or later his body would remember that.

Of course if she started to date he
would really have to look into having the walls reinsulated. There
was no way he wanted to hear her fucking some other guy. Again, not
that he cared, but that didn't mean he wanted to wake up in the
middle of the night to hear her scream some other guy's name. He
wasn't a masochist after all.

This could work, he thought as he
tugged off his tee shirt and tossed it into the hamper Zoe picked
up and demanded that he use. That woman could be so damn pushy
sometimes. He still didn't understand why he had to dish out twenty
bucks for a hamper when the bathroom floor did the same job for
free. She was just making more work for herself by having to pull
all his clothes out of the hamper instead of just picking it up off
the floor and when he explained that to her she just rolled her
eyes and told him to use the damn hamper.

Thinking on it now he really couldn't
understand why he wanted her. She was so damn bos-

A high pitched scream broke off his
thoughts.

"Trevor!"
Zoe screamed.

His name was barely out of her mouth
before he found himself running out of his room and taking the
stairs two at time. He flew out of his apartment and into hers,
glad that they didn't lock the doors, but worried that someone had
managed to break into the front door and go straight into her
apartment. He didn't stop to check the front door, but ran up the
stairs, following the high pitched screams and dog's furious barks
and growls that wouldn't stop, to her room.

He only paused in her room long enough
to see that she wasn't in it and headed for the open bathroom door
and nearly tripped over Toby in the process. As he stumbled over
the dog and tried to right himself he felt the breath in his lungs
freeze and his mouth drop open.

There could have been an ax murderer
in the room for all he knew and he wouldn't have been able to look
away from the sight of Zoe standing in the corner of the bathtub
with her back to him as her baby pink towel threatened to drop even
further, revealing more of that generous bottom that had him
licking his lips and groaning. Thankfully her high pitched
screaming covered the betraying sound.

Somehow he managed to tear his eyes
away from the beautiful sight before him to look around for the
serial killer that had to be waiting to attack them, judging by her
screams. When he didn't find anything but Toby, he really hoped his
new owners would take pity on the damn dog and change his name,
looking in the open cabinet beneath the sink, growling and barking
he couldn't help but feel confused and a headache coming on from
all the noise.

"What the hell is going on in here?"
he demanded loudly enough to thankfully cut through Zoe's screams
and get her to shut the hell up along with the dog.

Without looking back she reached
behind her and pointed frantically in the direction of the growling
dog. "It's in there!" she screeched as if that said it
all.

Sadly enough it really didn't.
Although he did appreciate the fact that her towel had managed to
drop another two inches, revealing the top halves of two perfectly
rounded cheeks. It was the least she could do for scaring the shit
out of him, he decided as he crouched down and gently pushed the
growling dog aside so he could take a look.

He carefully pushed aside extra rolls
of toilet paper, a first aid kit, a can of shaving gel, pre-treater
and an unopened box of a twelve pack of condoms that earned a
frown, but didn't find anything even remotely scream
worthy.

"What exactly am I looking for?" he
asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder at his shivering tenant
who was still hiding in the corner, which was probably a good thing
since she'd probably rip him a new one for staring at her
ass.

"A spider," she said, sounding so
horrified that he couldn't help but laugh.

"That's why you were screaming bloody
murder? Over a spider?" he asked, knowing for any other woman and
he would be yelling at her for scaring the hell out of him, but for
his little tough as nails tenant he couldn't help but laugh. She
was always so strong, always spoke her mind and loved to piss him
off for fun. So to see Zoe freaking out over something as
ridiculous as a spider was too much to believe. Other than keeping
her mouth shut when she thought he was just the landlord's asshole
nephew and from what he knew about her last job he couldn't imagine
Zoe being intimidated or afraid of anything.

"It's huge!" she clarified, not moving
one iota away from the corner of the tub.

"Uh huh," he said, not bothering to
hide his disbelief. No doubt it was some tiny little thing that she
saw out of the corner of her eye and had overreacted.

"Well, I'm not seeing it now," he
murmured, taking another look for this "huge" spider and
chuckling.

He felt more than heard Zoe rush past
him and wasn't all too surprised to find her standing in the middle
of her bed with the towel now snuggly wrapped around her body much
to his disappointment a few seconds later.

"I tell you what,
Ms. Scaredy Pants
," he
said, grinning hugely when she shot him a venomous look, "after I
get ready to go out I'll come back and take another look for the
killer spider. Maybe by then it will feel comfortable enough to
come out."

She licked her lips nervously as her
eyes darted back to the bathroom where Toby, how he hated that
name, now obviously bored since Zoe stopped screaming, now lay
across the bathroom floor dozing off.

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise," he said, resisting
the urge to roll his eyes. No doubt he was going to have to hunt
down a small spider outside and throw it into a glass jar to
convince her that he found it otherwise she'd probably be screaming
for help all night over "spiders."

"O-okay," she said, shifting on the
bed.

Trevor bit back a smile as he paused
near the bed, knowing she'd probably kill him later, but simply
couldn't resist. "There's just one thing. I need a
towel."

Zoe yanked her eyes away from the
bathroom to frown down at him in confusion. "Your closet is full of
towels."

"Uh huh, but I need
a
pink
towel," he
explained as he reached out and ripped her towel away from her. He
was already halfway down the stairs when he heard her gasp of
surprise and heading out her door when she started threatening the
poor confused appendage in his pants that hadn't been able to go
down since he spotted Zoe cowering in the bathtub.

Chapter 13

"Zoe?" Trevor called out as he walked
up the stairs. "Are you still here quivering in fear?" he asked,
chuckling when he remembered the expression on her face when he
ripped the towel away.

Too bad he hadn't been able to stick
around and steal a peek at what he'd uncovered, he thought with a
heavy sigh. It was just as well that he didn't know what lay
beneath all her baggy clothes.

He walked into the bedroom to find
Toby cuddled on the bed with the ratty old teddy bear that Zoe
seemed to love so much. The playful pup raised his head, wagging
his tail and panting happily as he watched Trevor approach the
bed.

"Hey, buddy, you want to help me slay
the monster?" he asked, giving the dog a playful scratch behind the
ears that earned a groan of delight. After a minute Toby rolled
over onto his back in silent demand that Trevor gave into with a
little sigh. Damn demanding dog, Trevor thought with a
smile.

If he wasn't afraid that Zoe would
think he was a pushover he'd be tempted to forget his rule and let
her keep the dog. Hell, he was half thinking of stealing the dog
for himself. He always loved having dogs as a kid and promised
himself that he'd get another one when he was older, but he never
seemed to have the time for one.

He gave the dog one last rub, careful
not to get any dog hair on his navy blue dress shirt or black
slacks. Normally if he was going to work on something in one of his
tenant's apartments he'd don his work clothes, but this was only a
small spider in Zoe's freakishly neat home so he wasn't too worried
about getting dirty. He started to head towards the bathroom only
to come to an abrupt halt when something caught his eye.

For the first time since he walked
into the room he noticed a large pile of department store shopping
bags near the wall. The amount of bags kind of surprised him since
he'd never thought of Zoe as much of a spender. She actually came
across as pretty frugal, never spending much money on herself and
getting by with the basics. He often wondered about that, thinking
that maybe she grew up in an extremely thrifty family.