Chapter 4

4

VIOLET

T en minutes after Brodie left, my head was still spinning. I wasn’t surprised that Jeff was the kind of guy who took advantage of women, but I was stunned that his crimes had brought a sexy biker to my doorstep.

I wasn’t angry about that part, though.

It was hard to imagine different circumstances that would have resulted in us meeting. I was a book-loving introvert who mostly stayed home—and not just because of my creepy neighbor. Brodie struck me as the kind of guy with a more active lifestyle than me. One that probably involved stuff like going to bars, which I couldn’t even do if I wanted to since I was only twenty.

Or maybe I was making incorrect assumptions about Brodie because he was in a motorcycle club. For all I knew, he liked to stay in and read as much as I did.

My eyes widened as my gaze darted toward the bookshelf in my living room. It was full of spicy romance novels, something we probably didn’t have in common since I couldn’t picture a guy like him reading about heroines who don’t need to choose between three or four guys who all want to worship her. Or fictional motorcycle clubs that he’d probably cringe over because he belonged to a real one.

I couldn’t do much about the rows of paperbacks on my shelves before he came back. I didn’t have anywhere else to put them all, and the bookcase would look odd if it was empty. Which would only draw more attention to my reading preferences.

Instead, I decided to use my time wisely and focus on cleaning the spaces he hadn’t seen yet. Rushing into my bedroom, I grabbed the randomly strewn clothes from the floor and tossed them into the laundry basket in my closet. Then I stripped the bed before grabbing the spare set of sheets from the linen closet.

There wasn’t a bed in the other room, so Brodie would need to use my bed, and fresh sheets were a must since it’d been ten days since I’d changed them. Normally, I did them every week, but I’d skipped my most recent laundry day while racing toward a deadline for the book I finished this morning.

Thank goodness that was done…I couldn’t imagine recording sexy scenes like the ones my best client wrote while Brodie was in the apartment. Even with the soundproofing in my recording booth, I’d be way too aware of his presence not to stumble over my words.

Time literally was money for me. I had a long list of pending projects, so the faster I could record a book, the more I could take on. Luckily, the manuscript I was supposed to work on next was a slow burn, so I didn’t need to worry about recording a sex scene while he was in the next room.

I had managed to clean the bathroom and empty a dresser drawer and made some space in my closet when I heard Brodie’s knock. Running my fingers through my hair, I took a deep breath before pulling open the door with a smile. “Hey.” I glanced down at the single bag clutched in his fist. “You packed fast and light.”

“Don’t need much personal stuff.” He waited until he was inside the apartment with the door shut behind him to add, “But I have some surveillance equipment I’ll need to set up.”

“Hmm.” I pressed my lips together as I considered the best spot for him to put that kind of stuff. “Do you need to use the shared wall between our apartments?”

He shook his head. “Nah, you can put me wherever you want. My shit won’t take up a lot of space.”

I pointed toward the oversized chair in the corner of the room. “You can scoot that over by the couch if you want.”

He glanced over there, his lips curving into a grin. “I think my stuff will fit on that circular table next to it, and I can use the chair while I’m listening to what Jeff has going on while he’s home. With me in that corner, you’ll barely know I’m here.”

Shaking my head, I giggled. “I doubt that would ever be possible.”

His eyes held a glimmer of masculine satisfaction as he asked, “Should I take that as a compliment?”

“Definitely,” I whispered, fiddling with the hem of my shirt as I gestured toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms, hoping to direct his attention away from my heated cheeks. “Want a quick tour of the place before you grab that equipment? Just in case there’s somewhere that will work better.”

“Sure, baby. Whatever you want to do.”

Since climbing his body like a tree wasn’t possible, I led him around my apartment instead. “You’ve already seen the living room and kitchen. The groceries I bought today should last us a little while since I was planning to make an extra lasagna for the freezer. Unless there’s anything special you need?”

“I’m not picky,” he assured me, patting his flat stomach with his free hand. “Anything you want to feed me, I’ll eat.”

My cheeks grew even hotter as an image of me feeding him my rounded tit popped in my head. “Ahh, good to know.”

At his deep chuckle, I ducked my head and padded toward the hallway, pointing across the living room along the way. “The sliding glass door leads to the balcony. I have a couple of chairs and a small table out there, but I rarely use them since nothing is blocking Jeff’s view out there.”

“Won’t have to worry about him for much longer,” he growled, following me close.

I pointed out the guest bathroom before pulling the soundproofing blanket hiding the second bedroom door to the side. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a bed in here for you to use. I’m an audiobook narrator, and I set this room up as my recording booth. I had to limit the furniture because of how sound echoes off hard surfaces.”

Brodie moved the blanket on the other side of the door to look inside. “This is cool as fuck.”

“Really?” I beamed a smile at him as he turned toward me. “It isn’t super fancy because I did it all myself.”

“I know more than a fair bit about audio equipment, and from what I can see, you did a kick-ass job.”

Brodie was the first person who’d seen the booth I had created, and his compliment meant a lot to me. “Thanks.”

“Just called it like I saw it.”

He was careful with the blankets as he put them back into position, then we walked through the door at the end of the hallway. “Since you’re so much bigger than me, you should take the bed. It’s only a queen, but it’s got to be more than twice the size of my couch. So I’ll take that.”

“Not gonna happen, baby.” He dropped his black duffel near the closet door and turned toward me, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “No way in hell am I gonna kick you out of your bed.”

My nose scrunched. “You won’t get much sleep on my couch, though.”

He looked at my bed. “With how tiny you are, a queen-sized mattress is plenty of space for both of us.”

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “I’m the furthest thing from tiny.”

“Only in the places where a man wants his woman to have curves.” His eyes heated as his gaze raked down my body. “It’ll be hell keeping my hands off you, but I swear you have nothing to fear from me. I’d never touch you unless I knew damn well that you wanted it. But if you’re not comfortable sharing a bed with me, I’ll be fine in the living room. I slept in lots of worse places during my time in the Marines.”

There was no doubting the sincerity shining from his eyes. My gut told me that I could trust Brodie…it was my own self-control that I was worried about. “We can share.”

“Good.” He gestured toward his bag. “I’ll take care of that after I bring in my equipment. Gotta get that done while Jeff is out so he doesn’t know I’m listening in.”

“Sounds like we have a plan.” I followed him down the hall, detouring to the kitchen when he headed for the door. “While you’re taking care of all that, I’ll get to work on that lasagna. And those brownies I owe you.”

Pausing with his hand on the knob, he looked at me over his shoulder. “I’m not gonna turn down anything you want to bake, but you’ve more than paid me back for steppin’ in with Jeff by letting me stay with you.”

“Then maybe I’ll make them just because.”

“Works for me,” he grunted.

I fanned myself with my hand after he walked out, whispering, “Holy heck, that man is too hot for my own good.”

By the time he was settled into my place with his equipment set up, the lasagnas were in the oven, and a pan of brownies was ready to pop in once dinner was done.

“Do you mind if we eat at the island?” I pointed at the small, rectangular table that was pushed against the wall, with two chairs tucked underneath. “I hardly ever use that.”

“You’ll never get a complaint from me when you’re serving a home-cooked meal.” He stalked over to the sink and gently nudged me out of the way. “Except for when it comes to cleaning up. You cooked, so I’ll take care of this.”

I lifted my hands in a gesture of surrender. “You won’t get any arguments from me. I hate doing dishes.”

“Good thing you don’t need to worry about them from now on, then.”

It was going to be rough to go back to doing them myself when he was gone, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the only thing I would miss about him. Including having someone to share meals with.

I enjoyed watching him devour the plate of lasagna and bowl of salad that I served him less than an hour later. And the second helping.

When we were done, I put away the leftovers while he cleaned our dishes. Then we moved to the living room to eat our dessert and get to know each other a little better.

I was blown away when he said, “Gotta admit, I already knew you were an audiobook narrator.”

“You did?” I tilted my head to the side and asked, “How?”

He jerked his chin toward the equipment he’d stacked near my oversized chair. “Picked up audio of you recording a scene. Confused the fuck outta me at first. I thought you were in here with someone until you did the guy’s lines.”

“Oh my gosh,” I whispered when I realized what he might’ve heard,

“Never read a romance book before, but I can see how you can afford this place. It was hot as fuck.”

“And on that note, I should probably get ready for bed.” I stood and gave an exaggerated yawn. “It’s been quite the day.”

“Go ahead, baby. I’ll wait until you’re done.”

Going to sleep with Brodie only inches away from me ended up being easier than I expected. For the first time since Jeff’s interest in me became obvious, I felt safe in my own home. And that allowed me to drift off to sleep within minutes…where I dreamed about the man who’d somehow already made a place for himself in my life.