Sweet Spot by Stella Rhys
1
LIA
On any other night, I loved living alone.
Fucking loved it.
Pants were optional and bras were such an afterthought they might as well not exist. On some days, they were shed at the door and flung onto the couch where they’d hang out for a couple hours while I showered with the door open and walked around naked for no reason. Ninety percent of the time, in my little 18th Street apartment, I was in some state of undress – in a T-shirt and panties or just panties. Sometimes a robe left untied. Sweats and a bra, perhaps?
Or maybe nothing at all.
It was my personal retaliation for having gone my first twenty-five years without my own bedroom – without my own voice or taste or tiny lick of independence. Thanks to that late start, I loved the freedom of living alone like a normal person loved their mother or spouse.
But tonight was one of those nights that made me kind of itch for a roommate.
Mostly because I didn’t want to be the one to get up and investigate the bumping and thumping outside in the hall. It was almost 10:30PM – all I wanted at this hour was to play some Sia, pour some wine and risk the safety of my iPad as I read it in the bath. I wanted to paint my toes in Essie’s Chinchilly, sleep by midnight and wake up early to start the custom order of truffles that had to be shipped to a Long Island wedding by Tuesday.
So while it was selfish and vaguely bitchy, I pretended not to hear my neighbor struggling out in the hall. More often than not, it was her finicky lock giving her trouble, and generally, I was the one who came to the rescue.
But not tonight.
“You’ll figure it out, Tess,” I whispered as I finally let myself close my eyes and breathe in the lavender steam. I sighed as I leaned slowly back in the hot water, soaking in the Epsom salts and feeling them start to buzz against my skin.
But the second my head touched my bath pillow, a loud noise sounded outside.
My eyes flew back open as I waited to hear it again. I breathed out when several seconds of silence passed – even waited another few to be safe. Once I ruled that the coast was clear, I grabbed my glass of wine and relaxed once more.
But my back had barely hit the tub before the sound came back louder.
Thump!
“Tess!” I groaned to myself, sitting up and staring out my bathroom door. I waited to hear a strike three but instead of a thump this time, it was a splintering crash. “Shit!” Water sloshed onto the floor as I immediately jumped up and grabbed my robe, my heart beating fast as I imagined Tess bleeding on the floor in the hall, surrounded by a million shards of glass all because I wouldn’t get out of my bath.
Shit, shit, shit. I cursed myself as my feet tracked water all throughout the house till I breathlessly reached the door, my fingers unlatching all three locks at lightning speed before gripping the knob and swinging it wide open.
And once the door was open, I stared. Then I stared some more.
Holy… what.
It wasn’t Tess. I knew that because my eyes hit chest first – wide, hard chest stretching the soft cotton of a heather grey V-neck. I could practically hear my jaw creaking open as my gaze then traveled north to broad shoulders, sculpted collarbones, and a square jaw boasting the kind of dark, trimmed stubble that made my fingers twitch with the need to touch.
Shit.I had to catch my breath when our eyes finally locked, feeling legitimately smacked in the face with this stranger’s gorgeousness. He was an absolute wall of muscle and beauty with thick, dark hair and light green eyes and for a moment I forgot where I was, because in what world did a man who looked like this end up at my door?
“Hi,” he said with a faint smile. “Lia, right?”
My head tilted. And in what world did he somehow know my name?
“I…” I failed to sort through all the questions at the tip of my tongue. “Hi,” I finally said, letting go of my mission to magically figure out what was happening. Instead, I waited for him to introduce himself and tell me who he was – whether he had in fact been plucked from the cover of Men’s Health or maybe some steamy billboard for Calvin Klein. But instead he stood there a moment, brows up as his gaze dipped down to my body – and only then did I realize what I barely had on.
“Shit,” I hissed, grabbing my robe and wondering how much of me he’d seen before I remembered to actually tie the thing shut.
“I should probably be looking away, right?” the stranger asked. With a laugh. I shot daggers at him as I struggled to fix my indecency.
“Yes?” I answered brusquely, my cheeks burning as I cinched the sash around my waist. I stared at the stranger as he faced away from me now, chewing a wicked grin back as he palmed that ridiculously square jaw. “What did you see?” I demanded hotly. “Did you see anything?”
“I saw a lot. It depends on what your definition of anything is.”
“It’s – ” My lips parted but snapped shut. I meant nipple but I wasn’t about to say it. He laughed.
“If you mean nipple, my answer is no.”
My mouth fell open.
“Unless you count what I can see through that wet thing you’re wearing.”
I stared down at myself and hastily fanned my hair over my breasts. I wanted to call him out but I couldn’t find my words so glaring back up, I simply snapped, “Who are you?”
“Lukas Hendricks. I’m Tess’s brother.”
I gaped at him as he turned back to me. “Really?” It was hard to imagine. He looked about a foot taller and wider than her, and I could already tell he shared none of her manners or humility. Fuming, I craned my neck to see past his broad frame, finally spotting the shattered remains of the floor vase that once sat at the end of the hall between our doors. “What just happened?”
He peered over his shoulder, letting out a short breath of annoyance. “Right. I was having some trouble with the key. Might’ve swung my bag into the vase and knocked it over.”
I stared at the tiny shards of ceramic all over the floor, sobered quickly by the sight of Tess’s prized possession. “That was her favorite vase.”
“She’ll forgive me.”
I flicked my eyes back to him, doing little to mask my distaste for his nonchalance. “Right. Well, what can I help you with right now?” I asked. His crooked smile acknowledged my irritation.
“She said if I had trouble with the lock, I could ask her neighbor.”
“Fine,” I said, eager to get on with my night. I thought briefly about getting changed before I helped with the door, but that meant that my bath was over and that my night had gone officially off-course, and I stubbornly refused to entertain that notion. So grabbing my phone off the kitchen counter, I stepped back out in the hall and closed the door, saying nothing to Lukas as I shot Tess a quick message.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I took my time to reply. “Confirming with Tess that you’re her brother,” I said. “And not some guy who wants to loot her apartment.”
Lukas’s smile was slight, but it teased me something fierce. “Do I look like a robber to you?”
No. But I still took the opportunity to check him out. On second glance, he was built much more like an athlete than a model. Maybe a football player or some kind of fighter. The knots of muscle in his arms and shoulders were visible under his shirt, and his dark-wash jeans fit well enough to give me an idea of rock-like thighs under there. My eyes were still on him when I heard him laugh.
“It was a rhetorical question but by all means, keep looking.”
My cheeks burned but I still managed to shoot him a look. “Are you usually this unpleasant with people you’ve just met?”
“How was I being unpleasant?” he challenged. “I just figured if you mentally undressed me, we could call it even for what I saw when you opened the door.”
I flashed him another look. “I thought you said you didn’t see any – ” Nope. I cut myself off, refusing to give him the chance to say the world nipple again since clearly, he enjoyed the hell out of making me blush. So clenching my jaw, I muttered, “Never mind,” and faced away again, avoiding his eye even as he tilted his head to try and catch mine.
“Hey.” His voice was gentler now but I didn’t look up. “I’m sorry if we got off on the wrong foot.”
“It’s fine.”
“I know it’s late.”
“It is. And I have an early meeting tomorrow.” Petty detail to add but whatever.
“I promise I’ll be out of your hair soon,” Lukas murmured. A beat of silence passed as he continued watching me. “And at some point, you’ll let me know how to make this night up to you.”
I sucked in my bottom lip while pretending to text. Maybe it was the pause or the way he dropped his voice, but his offer somehow sent my mind straight into the gutter. My dormant libido rarely pictured anything racier than a kiss, but tonight it was giving me the image of Lukas making it up to me shirtless, doing things to me in bed I was always too scared to ask for.
Ohhh-kay, wow, Lia. No more of that, I scolded myself, touching the hot back of my neck while hastily muttering, “Don’t worry about it.”
“Then at least let me buy you a drink.”
“Thanks, but I don’t really drink.”
“Hence the wine key I saw on your counter.”
“That wasn’t mine.”
“Are we really playing this game?”
“We might be.”
“Coffee then?”
“I make my own.”
“Christ,” he laughed under his breath. “Fine. Nothing I can do then?” When I shook my head, he breathed out in surrender. “Alright. I’d just rather not have you angry with me if I’m going to be your new neighbor.”
I paused in the midst of typing and looked up. “Come again?”
He smirked at my reaction. “Tess didn’t tell you about France?”
“She said something about a trip, but I thought it’d be brief.”
“We all thought that, but seems she decided to extend her leave,” Lukas said. “By at least a couple weeks. And I happen to be renovating my apartment for the next month, so I’ll be staying here in the meantime.”
I raised my eyebrows. I wanted to ask more about Tess but there was a much more pressing matter. “So you’re saying… you’ll be living across the hall from me. Instead of Tess. For the next month.”
“Give or take,” he replied, looking amused with whatever expression I had on my face. “Problem?”
“No,” I said, though I could already think of a dozen problems off the top of my head, starting with the noise that came with the personal life of a guy who looked like that. Lukas laughed.
“You’re lying. And assuming things about me.”
I meant to deny it, but my tongue betrayed me. “Fine, I am.”
“Figured.” He folded his arms, treating me to the view of biceps that bulged against the sleeves of his shirt. “Why?”
“Because.” I mirrored him with my arms crossed over my chest. “Your sister deliberately rented the two other units in her building to single women who prefer quiet and privacy. We don’t bring parties home at the end of the night and we’re respectful of the fact that this townhouse was built in 1901. The floors creak, the walls are thin and we can easily hear each other if the volume goes above a certain level. That’s why we don’t wear shoes in the house, we don’t slam doors, we don’t have guests past a certain hour and we make sure to be quiet after 10PM.”
“Christ.” Lukas’s brows ascended. “Is this a dorm?”
“It’s a private home in a quiet neighborhood, and I guess it’s a lifestyle you’ll have to adapt to if you’re staying here.”
“Right.” His smooth lips twisted slowly up in a wry smile. “Thing is, this building was actually erected in 1910, and it’s gone through four renovations since, so the floors will probably survive multiple guests and shoes worn in the house. I know that because I own this place. I bought it five years ago, I paid for two of the renovations and I intend to live in it however I see fit, whether or not that includes a certain volume past whatever hour I please.” His wolfish gaze bore into me, dipping only to stare with satisfaction at my parting lips. “I hope that’s alright with you,” he said. “Because it’s going to have to be.”
I stared at him.
Well, fuck.
The force with which I thought the word made it echo in my head as I blinked vacantly at Lukas, paralyzed in shock.
This isn’t happening.This isn’t actually happening.
I couldn’t process it and I had no response for him. My only move was to stand there in the hall, jaw slack and dripping wet as I gaped at the man who’d waltzed into my life five minutes ago, who’d taken less than that amount of time to threaten the perfect routine I’d carved out and lived blissfully for the past two-and-a-half years. Blood roared in my ears as he gazed with infuriating leisure at me. He was relaxed. I was enraged. He had a smile on his lips.
And I had nothing.
The silence stretched on till three loud pings sounded from my phone.
TESS: Ahh shoot Lia yes that’s my brother. I’m sorry I didn’t let u know
TESS: I’ll be staying in Lyon longer than I thought… Not sure till when but will keep u posted
TESS: Luke’s the best though so don’t worry about him at all. He shouldn’t be any trouble.
I read the texts with a mounting fury and a feeling of total helplessness. I didn’t realize how hard my jaw had clenched till I heard my molars squeak against each other.
“Got your little confirmation?”
Four words and I could hear how thoroughly entertained Lukas was by all of this. God, he was such a prick. Just for sticking that condescending “little” in there, I hated him. Quite possibly despised him.
And because of that, I hurried my ass up to help him.
I wanted Lukas gone ASAP – out of my sight and out of mind. So with some kind of grunt of a noise, I paced past him, hand out and going to work the second he slapped his key in my palm. Shoving it into the door, I used my other hand to grip the knob, wiggling and jiggling both at once the way I’d learned over the years, as hard as I possibly could till the door finally popped open. Then snatching my robe shut again, I glared up at my new neighbor and despite wanting badly to just flush it down the toilet, I returned his key in his hand.
“All good then?”
He peeled his eyes off my chest. “Just about.”
“Well, I can’t help you with anything beyond your lock.” I stalked past him and reached for my door.
“Come in for a minute.”
I turned to flash him an incredulous look. “What?”
“For a drink,” he laughed. “Just one so I can smooth things over. The way we started doesn’t have to be the way we end, right?”
“Sorry,” I answered curtly. “It’s late and I should get back to sleep.”
“You were sleeping just now?”
“Yes,” I lied. “Soundly till you came along.”
He nodded and smirked for a moment, his gaze dipping again. “Pretty wet for someone who was just sleeping.”
My cheeks burned.
Goddamnit.
I had no comeback but at this point, I also had no interest in further conversation with Lukas Hendricks aside from perhaps calling him out for the arrogant asshole he was, especially as he leaned back all relaxed, head tilted up to show off that perfect jaw. God, he so deserved to be cursed out. But that reaction would only serve to amuse him and I refused to let him win again so breathing deep, I kept it as classy as I could.
“Goodnight, Lukas,” I bit out as I turned and pushed open my door – rather, I tried.
But the knob refused to turn.
I was locked out.
