The King Next Door. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ anyway,” he continued, “Katie was just looking out for you, I guess. And when she used the threat of a cookie cutoff, she got our attention. We do like our cookies.”

      As annoying as it might be to know that her best friend was running interference for her, Nicole couldn’t really be angry at Katie for having good intentions.

      “They are good cookies,” she admitted.

      “Exactly,” Griffin agreed and gave her a smile that made something inside her sizzle and spark like a short fuse on a skyrocket. Honestly, every last one of the King men was a temptation to women everywhere.

      But Griffin … he was danger, temptation and seduction on a whole new level. There was something about him—the smile, maybe, or the casual air he had—that made her feel things she hadn’t experienced in, oh … forever. Okay, not that long, but long enough.

      Nicole had spent the last few days surreptitiously watching him. After all, he was hard to miss, since he spent nearly every waking moment—practically naked—in that damn hot tub she could see from her backyard. Besides, she would have dared any living, breathing woman to avoid watching him—impossible really, since he looked amazing, with all that black hair and the blue eyes and a dimple—not to mention the sharply defined abs that practically begged a woman to stroke and caress his skin and …

      Okay, she was clearly getting off track here. But who wouldn’t be, she asked herself. With Griffin King standing not two feet from her, dripping wet, his board shorts dipping low enough on his hips to make her wonder what it might be like to give them a little tug and …

      God.

      “Are you going into a fugue state or something?” Griffin asked.

      “Huh? What?” Oh, perfect, Nicole. Get caught mentally slavering over him. Nice. “No, I’m fine. Just busy.”

      “Yeah, I’ve noticed.” He rubbed one palm across his chest and her gaze followed the motion.

      Damn it. It was like being hypnotized by testosterone.

      “Don’t you ever just sit down in the shade?” he asked, then stretched lazily. His chest muscles shifted; his board shorts dipped a little lower.

      Nicole swallowed hard, closed her eyes briefly, then said, “No time.” Just saying it reminded her how busy she really was.

      Running her own business meant she could work most mornings and spend afternoons doing the million and one things that constantly needed doing around the house. But somehow weekends were still jam-packed. Amazing how chores stacked up. Plus, there was Connor. She glanced at her beautiful boy and smiled. It wasn’t just the house she had to concentrate on. It was spending time with Connor. Making sure her son knew that he was the most important person in the world to her.

      So yeah, her days were really crowded, unlike some Kings-who-reclined-in-hot-tubs.

      “Connor’s digging.”

      She didn’t even look. “Of course he is. A little boy. A shovel. Dirt.”

      “You’re a good mom.”

      Surprised, she looked up into Griffin’s eyes. “Thanks. I try.”

      “It shows.”

      Gazes locked, a couple of humming seconds passed as they stared at each other. Nicole broke first.

      “Well, I’d better get back to it.”

      “Planting,” he said.

      “Yes, but first, changing the lightbulb in the kitchen.” She checked on Connor, then looked back at the man standing way too close to her. “Would you mind keeping an eye on him while I get the ladder from the garage?”

      “Ladder?” He frowned.

      “Kitchen light? Ceiling?”

      He nodded. “You watch Connor. I’ll get the ladder.”

      He was already headed for the garage when she called out, “You don’t have to do that, I can—”

      Lifting one hand to acknowledge her, he shouted back, “We’ve already had that conversation, remember? It’s no problem.”

      “No problem,” she muttered. Nicole shot a look at her son, happily digging holes.

      It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the help. But Nicole had been on her own for a while now. She wasn’t a delicate blossom. She knew how to fix plugged toilets and dripping sinks, and she took out her own garbage and killed her own spiders.

      She didn’t need a man’s help.

      But, a small voice in her mind whispered, was it really so bad to have it once in a while?

      “Fine.” She watched Griffin stride from the garage to the back door. The old wooden ladder was balanced on one shoulder and those darn board shorts of his looked to have dipped another inch or so. “He’ll help, then he’ll go home,” she assured herself.

      Then she could go back to watching him. From a safe distance.

      “Where’s the new lightbulb?”

      “It’s on the counter. Griffin—”

      He shot her that fast, amazing grin again. “Be done in a minute.”

      No, he wouldn’t. Her kitchen, like the rest of the small house her grandmother had left her, was old and out of date. The fluorescent lightbulb in the ancient fixture was three feet long and almost impossible to coax out of its fasteners, if you didn’t know the little tricks to manage it. She’d have to help.

      She glanced at her son. He was busy with his shovel. Just like the pirates in his favorite book, he was probably looking for buried treasure. She’d be able to see him from the kitchen window. “Connor, honey, you stay right there, okay?”

      “’Kay!”

      Hurrying into the kitchen after Griffin, Nicole saw that he already had the ladder positioned under the burned-out bulb. As he took one step up, the whole thing swayed and he looked down at her in amazement.

      “You actually stand on this thing? Got a death wish?”

      “It works fine,” Nicole argued, somehow feeling as if she had to defend her late grandfather’s ladder. She was pretty sure it was as old as the house, but it was perfectly serviceable. “You just weigh more than I do.”

      “If you say so,” he muttered, and climbed up another couple of steps, still swaying like he was standing on the prow of a boat. “I’ll have the old bulb out in a second.”

      “It’s not easy,” she said. “You have to wiggle to the left twice, then back to the right and once more to the left.”

      “It’s a lightbulb, not a combination lock.”

      “That’s what you think,” Nicole told him, trying to keep from staring at his flat abdomen—which just happened to be at eye level. It had been way too long, Nicole СКАЧАТЬ