Chapter 3

"Who the hell are you?" I shout out, my ball bat in hand ready to swing.

The woman standing in my kitchen in the middle of the night appears shocked. Like I'm inconveniencing her. "Me?" she asks, pointing a finger at her chest. She sets down a glass of wine, and I notice my bottle of Pinot Grigio on the granite counter.

"Why are you drinking my wine at one in the morning?" I've heard of women going crazy, entering other people's homes and thinking they're in their own. The woman appears harmless, so I lower my bat, but I don't put it away completely.

"Ah," she presses her fingers to the bridge of her nose like she's got a headache. "I know what this is. We were double booked. That's the only explanation."

I stare at her, assessing her level of crazy, and I notice how incredibly striking she is. Long auburn hair with intense green eyes, and a set of kissable lips that pout as she stares up at me. It's been a long time since I've been around a woman, and an even longer time since I've been around one this beautiful.

She's a downright babe, and I forget the words she's just said to me. I shake my head. Double booked? What the hell does that mean?

"You're in my home," I say in a soothing voice. I've always heard when talking to a mentally unstable person to talk in even tones. I don't want to send her over the edge, but I'm sure tonight will end in me calling the police so they can get this woman back to wherever she came from.

By the looks of her, she comes from money. She's not some strung-out druggie who stumbled into the wrong house looking for her next fix. No, she's very well taken care of. She's most likely from the city. She's probably some finance guy's wife, and she got into a fight with him and drove out here to get away. She's probably so distraught that she thought she was walking into their house and walked into mine by mistake. There are a few other houses down by the lake that other people own. I'm guessing she's from one of them.

She laughs, and the sound flutters around the kitchen, causing me to soften slightly. It's a pretty laugh, if you could ever call a laugh pretty. "Your home?" She glances around my kitchen, looking for any clues that would validate my story.

I set my bat down on the counter and lean against it. "Yes," I cross my arms, "my home. You're trespassing. I should call the cops on you."

Her eyes widen with clarity, and I can see she's, in fact, not mentally unstable. "Call the cops. No, I booked this AirBnB, well my mother did." She grabs her phone from her pocket and starts scrolling through it. "See, my mother set everything up with a Paula Fields." She shoves her phone into my face.

However, I don't need to look at the words written on the screen. Paula. My mother. This is insane. Maybe I'm the mentally unstable one.

Or my mother is.

"That's my mother." Everything's clicking together in my mind, but it still doesn't stop the woman from acting like she can boot me out of my house.

"So, you see, I've booked this place for the week. You're going to have to find somewhere else to stay." Her voice rings with a finality tone, and I can't help but laugh at her.

Hard.

"Find somewhere else? What are you talking about, sweetheart? This is my home." What can she possibly not get? I pull out my own phone, scrolling until I see my mother's information on the screen. I don't care if it's one in the morning. I push the button and press the phone to my ear. "I'm not leaving. You are," I say right as my mother picks up.

"Ry, is everything okay?" her voice is groggy with sleep. I know I've woken her up, but at this point, I don't care.

"Mom, did you rent out my place?"

"Well…" she starts, but I'm no longer listening.

"Mom," I cut in. "How could you rent out my place? I'm not looking for a roommate."

My mother's tripping over her words as she tries to explain something about needing somebody around to look after me. What the hell is she talking about? I'm not doing this in the middle of the night.

"Mother," I say with my most stern voice. "We're not done talking about this. Go back to bed. I'll talk to you in the morning."

She sighs into the phone. "At least she's pretty, right?"

I don't answer.

I hang up the phone.

Has my mother even fully vetted this woman standing in the middle of my kitchen?

"So…" her word draws out. "I'm Julia, and it appears your mother rented your place out. I guess she didn't know you'd be in town."

"In town? I live here." I don't know how much more clear I can make this. "I never leave. I don't rent this place out."

"Well, your mother does."

Is she for real? "Okay, it's time for you to go."

She balks at me. "Are you kidding?"

I cross my arms over my broad chest. "I never joke past midnight."

She looks taken aback by my statement. "Joke or not, I'm not going anywhere."

"Um, well, you're not staying here, sweetheart."

"Will you stop calling me that?" She puts her hands on her hips. "Where am I supposed to go?" She twists her face in a pretty little way, and stands defiantly. "I'm not leaving."

"Yes, you are."

"My mother put a deposit down." She places a thumb to her bottom lip. "At least, I think she did. Is your mother in need of money? Did she rent out your place because she's desperate?"

I laugh at this. "My mother is fine. And I assure you she didn't take any money for this." Mom doesn't need to work. I've made sure of that. It still makes me wonder where she got this insane idea to rent my place, and how she found this woman. "You say your mother booked this place?"

She nods. "Yes, she booked it all this morning."

I shake my head. "This doesn't make sense."

She pulls out her phone, most likely putting a call into her mother to figure out this mistake. "I need to make a call." She holds her finger in front of my face. "Mother, what site did you use to book my accommodations?"

"Mmm hmm. I see." I watch her as she paces only a few steps back and forth as she listens to, I guess, her mom on the other end. "Well, we will be discussing this as soon as I get back." She brings the phone down from her ear and turns towards me. Those brilliant emerald eyes connect with mine, and I have a hard time pulling my attention away.

I clear my throat to break the thought of taking her immediately to my bed rather than giving directions to the guest room down the hall from mine. "Look, this must be a huge mistake or something going on between our mothers. I'm an asshole, but since my mother does have something to do with this misunderstanding, she'd kick my ass if I left you on the porch all night. Let's sleep, and then we can find out what's going on in the morning. What do you say?"

Rusty chooses that very moment to come barreling into the living room to greet our new guest… intruder… I haven't decided yet, since my cock is doing way too much thinking at the moment.

"Eekk! What is that?" Julia yells, and Rusty jumps around her, trying to get her scent as his tail waggles like it's a windshield wiper on high.

"That is Rusty. A dog…" Yes, I could call him off, but I'm enjoying myself watching her squirm and trying to get away from him when all he wants to do is smell and lick her. Hell, I want to smell and lick her also, but in a very different way. Dammit, just stop thinking like that, you horny bastard.

"I know it's a dog. Why is it not on a leash?" she asks and ducks behind me, grabbing both of my shoulders to steady herself. I can't help but laugh. It's a full-on belly laugh; which has not happened in an extremely long time.

"Rusty, stop," I command, and he immediately obeys and comes to my side. "He's not on a leash because he's in his home. You woke him up, and now he wants to play."

"Well, I'll only stay here if you promise to keep him on a leash."

"Look, lady. I'm not going to beg you to stay. The option for you to leave is always there. If you're stayin', the guest room is that door right there." I point to the room just off of the living room. "My room is down this hall." This time, I point in the opposite direction, then I start walking to my room. "Come on, boy," I call to Rusty and let her make her choice.