2. Sausage Fest

Chapter 2

Sausage Fest

Libby

I t had to be a bad omen that I was about to embark on a new chapter in my life but stood outside the condo looking and feeling like a drowned rat.

I hated rats.

Do you know what else I hated? Freak summer downpours right in the middle of a short walk from the train station when it was past midnight and there wasn’t a taxi or Uber in sight. Walking a few blocks wasn’t a big deal until the sky opened up. By the time I found somewhere to duck, the damage was done.

I shivered as the cool air from the hallway vent hit my dripping wet body, and I quickly keyed in the code to the door. In a week, it would be my door, and I inhaled sharply at the thought. I never thought I’d be moving back to the city I had a love-hate relationship with, but there I was.

My shoes squeaked in the entryway as I stepped inside and turned on the light. The small area lit up, and I shut the door behind me before catching sight of myself in the mirror on the wall. My blonde hair was plastered against my head and my face was splotchy.

“Lovely.” I toed off my shoes and peeled off my soaked socks just as the light flickered and then went completely out. “For fuck’s sake. Really?”

It was like the universe was trying to tell me not to move back to New York.

I could always get my teaching job back since there were always last-minute teacher openings and not enough credentialed teachers to fill them. I’d just tell my brother I couldn’t handle the stress of the city or the pressure of helping to run a foundation and new community center.

A pang of guilt hit me thinking about leaving teaching behind, but I shook it off. It wasn’t like I hadn’t finished out the school year, but it still felt like I was somehow abandoning the people who needed me the most. Which was ridiculous since I had quit to help develop a community center that would help even more people.

Shaking my head at my ridiculousness, I dug through my purse for my phone which I’d dropped into the depths for safekeeping as soon as I’d left the train. I always held my purse close, but people were sneaky.

When I was finally able to find it and pull it out, I wanted to cry. Ten percent battery was not going to help during a power outage, and I hated the dark.

With a shaky hand, I slipped my phone back in my purse. The power would come back on soon. The building was state of the art, and with so many wealthy people living in it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were generators that would click on any minute.

I shivered violently, the cold air from the air conditioner that had been on finally registering with my body. Ryker had money, but leaving it on full blast when no one lived there was so wasteful. It felt like I’d stepped inside Mr. Freeze’s lair.

Not wanting to leave a trail of water everywhere and create a hockey rink, I peeled off my jeans and shirt, letting them fall with a plop next to the door. I might as well have jumped into a swimming pool. Even my bra was soaked through, the cups absorbing water like sponges.

I unclasped it and let it slide down my arms, catching it by one of the straps. It felt like it weighed three times as much from the water it had absorbed. It was going to take forever to dry if the power didn’t come back on so I could throw it in the dryer.

As if to remind me of how sensitive they were, my nipples hardened. Small handfuls as they were, they were not the kind of boobs that could go braless; they’d poke an eye out.

A sound came from down the hall, and I froze, my arm outstretched and ready to deposit my bra on my heap of clothing.

What the hell was that?

I heard it again, and my heart leapt into my throat. I was either hallucinating or someone was walking toward me. My mind was telling me to run and scream, but my body wouldn’t listen. I was frozen, listening to the soft thwacking sound coming closer and closer.

The lights flickered back on, and a scream echoed through the empty space.

But it wasn’t mine, at least not at first.

A man, who I was all too familiar with, was standing right across the entryway from me, his eyes wide in terror at finding a half-naked woman standing before him. I screamed right along with him and threw my bra at his head on instinct, my feet finally deciding to work.

Unfortunately, my bag was right in my path, and I tripped over it, falling hard onto the floor.

“Shit. Elizabeth? Are you okay? Why the hell are you naked?”

Damn. For a moment, I’d hoped I’d only imagined things, but I knew the owner of that voice. I’d had to listen to it for hours on end over the last several months at planning meetings I was required to attend.

My cheeks burned to the point where I was certain they were redder than a baboon’s ass. If my undressed state wasn’t bad enough, he was wearing only his briefs that left nothing to the imagination. What was the point of wearing any at all when I could practically see all his goods right through the white fabric?

My God. He was barely contained.

“What are you doing here?” My heart showed no signs of settling down as I quickly rolled so that my back was to him, covering my chest with my arm. Maybe he had been so surprised and scared he hadn’t had time to sneak a peek at the goods.

Sure, Libby. Just like you haven’t checked out his junk.

“I live here,” he said slowly as if he was confused. “At least until next week. You aren’t supposed to move in until next weekend.”

“Yeah, well, I needed somewhere to stay tonight. Last minute change of plans thanks to my train being delayed.” With my shaking free hand, I unzipped my bag to find a dry shirt, only to find nothing was dry. “What do you mean you live here? This is my brother’s condo. Don’t you have a penthouse and an entire hotel?”

“My penthouse is being renovated. Ry offered to let me stay here until it’s done since it’s in the same building and more convenient.” His voice was tired with sleep, and I wondered briefly—very briefly—if this was what he sounded like in the morning.

“He what?” I practically shrieked, looking over my shoulder at the man towering over me. His dark hair was disheveled, and his body looked like something I’d like pressed against me.

No. Absolutely not. I would not lust after one of New York City’s most notorious playboys, my soon-to-be boss, and one of my brother’s best friends. This was the man who annoyed me to no end every time he opened his mouth.

Because you feel guilty about wanting him.

Telling myself no was one thing, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the way a dark trail of hair traveled down into the waistband of his underwear or how the V cuts of muscle seemed to point right to his very impressive bulge.

Nope. There was no way I was attracted to Leo Caponetti.

Only I was, and I had been since the moment I laid eyes on him. I’d been able to suppress my attraction because I’d had a boyfriend, but now that I was single? All bets were off, but I at least had to try to keep him in the no-box I’d placed around him.

“Don’t get your panties in a knot, princess. I’ll be gone by Friday.” Princess? That was a good reason to stir up enough animosity to keep my distance.

He held out his hand to help me up, and I begrudgingly took it, keeping my other arm firmly plastered across my chest.

“Let’s forget this ever happened, okay?” I looked past him toward the hallway. “I should um… get my stuff in the dryer and get to bed.”

He winced and sucked in a breath through his teeth. “About that...”

“Shit. Ryker said he left the washer and dryer. He took them, didn’t he?” My brother wasn’t always the best at communicating, and with him being so busy running his marketing company and getting the foundation up and running, he forgot to tell me important details.

Like the fact that Leo was staying in the condo.

“I wasn’t talking about the washer and dryer; he didn’t take them.” Leo’s eyes dropped to my arm over my chest and then farther down before he stared down at my bag. “Why are you wet?”

It took me longer than I would have liked to realize what he was talking about. Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t brought a book to read on the train since, clearly, my brain was already in Smut City. “Because it rained? I didn’t just find a pool to fall into on the way here.” I almost added or lube , but Leo and I weren’t on that level of joking yet and probably never would be.

He ran a hand through his hair. “I’ll get you a shirt and shorts.”

Before I could protest that I would not be wearing his clothes, he was headed down the hall, his toned ass looking bitable in his tighty-whities. I decided to blame my lapse in judgment on my tiredness.

I rolled my eyes and busied myself getting the damp clothes out of my bag. Not all of them were wet, but I had packed them by what order I’d wear them, so my sleepwear and clothes for tomorrow were damp.

Glancing back down the hall, I bit my lip. Not once since Ryker announced that Leo would be the executive director of the foundation had I looked at Leo like I wanted to pounce. Yes, he was attractive, but now that I had nothing stopping me from acting, it was like trying to keep a cat away from a can of tuna.

Maybe I needed to get a cat and embrace my inner cat lady to help the situation that was barreling toward me. I was going to have to work with this man every day for the foreseeable future.

If I focused on his flaws, that would help. He’d always rubbed me the wrong way when it came to the foundation and there hadn’t been much we’d agreed on so far. He was also a billionaire who had no clue what it was like to struggle financially. He was so far out of touch with reality that I didn’t know what my brother was thinking when he brought him on to run everything. I mean, the man had a yacht. Enough said.

Leo came out of the guest room, his bottom half now covered in pajama pants. There was no hope of containing my giggle when I saw what was printed on them as he got closer. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Leo held out a shirt and shorts to me. “I know they’re going to swallow you whole, but all of my spare women’s clothes are in my penthouse.”

That abruptly ended my giggle. Was he that much of a man whore that he had a lost and found for clothing his conquests left behind?

I snatched the clothes away and held them against my chest. “I was laughing at your Ninja Turtle pajamas.”

He looked down, smoothing his hands over his thighs. “Paige got them for me. She thinks it’s hilarious my name is Leonardo.”

Paige was my brother’s girlfriend and the woman I owed a whole hell of a lot to. If she hadn’t come into Ryker’s life, I don’t think he would have ever confronted what happened to us when we were younger and the impact it still had on him. It was why I was now moving to New York to help with the foundation and the community center being built where we’d grown up.

“Well, um...” I looked past Leo instead of at the turtle head right in the center of his bulge. “I should go put these on. I’m tired.”

“About that. That’s what I was trying to tell you.” He cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him. “There’s only one bed.”

“Excuse me?” Had I heard him correctly? “What do you mean there’s only one bed?”

I looked into the living room. No couch. I could have sworn Ryker said he left the couch, and it had been there the last time I stayed.

“There’s just the one in the guest bedroom. I didn’t bother moving my bed down here.” Leo shrugged as if a one-bed situation was a completely normal occurrence for him.

“What happened to the couch?” I’d really liked that couch too, damn it.

He shrugged and scratched his stomach as he looked down the hall before looking back at me. “Is this really that big of a deal?”

“We aren’t sharing a bed. This is my condo.” I didn’t want to argue with him practically naked, so with my back to him, I pulled his shirt on. It was soft and smelled like him. What had he done, rubbed it all over himself?

“Your condo? I didn’t know a teacher could afford a multi-million dollar-” His words died on his lips as I turned around. His jaw flexed as his eyes slowly moved down my body. He was looking at me like I was a juicy piece of steak and he was starving.

I threw his shorts at his head since they were way too big; the shirt covered mostly everything anyway. “This is exactly why you shouldn’t be executive director. I didn’t know a teacher could afford a multi-million-dollar condo, ” I mimicked in an annoying voice.

He gripped the shorts I’d thrown at him. “You’re mad because I was stating a fact? Teachers are underpaid and this condo costs millions.”

I didn’t want to have an argument with him about how pointing out the obvious was unnecessary. “I don’t know why you’re just standing there when you should be packing.” I picked up my bag, pushing past him to go down the hall to the laundry room.

He was hot on my heels. “I’m not leaving. You’re the one intruding. Did you even tell Ryker you were staying here?”

“That’s beside the point.” I shoved my clothes in the dryer before turning around, only to run right into him holding the wet clothes I’d removed, including my bra right on top. I snatched them and threw them in.

“Do you want me to call my driver to take you to my hotel, then?” His driver? His hotel? What different worlds we lived in. One where he owned massive buildings and an estate in the Hamptons.

“It’s almost one in the morning, Leonardo.” I pushed past him and went to the primary bedroom to see if he was joking about sharing a bed.

“Exactly. I suggest we go to bed. I’ll put a blanket sausage down the middle so we don’t touch.”

After confirming that he hadn’t been lying about the bed, I turned toward him. “A blanket sausage? Is that a euphemism for something?”

“No, it’s not. I shouldn’t even have to put one. It’s not like we’re strangers, and we’re both grown adults. Well, at least, I am.” He sure did sound like he was trying to convince himself of that. He turned and strode toward the guest bedroom, disappearing inside.

“Debatable,” I muttered, sighing in defeat as I followed him. “Do you snore?”

“I don’t.” He went into the closet and came out with a thick blanket. “Watch and learn.”

I set my bag on the floor next to the dresser and watched him in the mirror as he folded the gigantic blanket in half and rolled it before placing it in the middle. It was hardly a barrier. “One of us can just sleep under a sheet and the other on top of it. No need for sausages to be involved.”

He paused, looking up at me for a long moment before clearing his throat and sitting on the side of the bed closest to the door. The covers were turned back on the other side of the bed.

I would not overthink that action. Nope. My brain was too muddled by book boyfriends who did shit like sleeping closest to the door to protect their woman. I was not Leo’s woman, and I doubted he’d want to protect me.

Grabbing my toiletry bag and a pair of underwear that had been spared from moisture, I went into the attached bathroom and shut the door. I needed to get my shit together.

He was right. We were both grown adults and would be working closely together every day very soon. There was no reason for me to be confrontational or upset over him being here.

I put my hands on the cool countertop and shut my eyes. I didn’t do well with abrupt changes in my routine or plans. Too much had been unplanned tonight, and now that I felt safe, I could reassure myself that the world was still spinning in the same direction. My feet were still firmly on the ground. Nothing hurt besides my pride.

I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and looked in the mirror. My face was flushed from our bickering and the thought of sleeping next to him, but I could handle this. I could handle one night of sharing a bed with a frustratingly gorgeous man.