Don't Tempt Me
by Lori Foster
HONOR BROWN WASN’T USED to eating with three men. It astounded her how fast the pizza got devoured. But then, she’d pretty much inhaled her own slice, too. Working up a hunger through unpacking all her belongings, it seemed, overshadowed other concerns—like feeling self-conscious and knowing she was an intruder despite her new neighbors’ efforts to put her at ease.
They all chatted easily, except for Jason who seemed introspective. He’d gone from staring to teasing, to warning, and now quiet.
At first she’d worried that she might have offended him. But how? Not by asking that he wear a shirt, because that was a request he’d ignored.
The man was still half naked.
And it couldn’t have been from accepting his help unloading her furniture, because he was the one who’d bullied his way in and insisted on...being wonderful.
She rubbed at her temples. When she’d imagined neighbors, she’d never imagined any like these.
“You okay?” Jason’s nephew Colt asked.
A fast smile, meant to reassure the teen, only amplified the headache. “Yes. Just a little tired.”
“She works too much.” Lexie shoulder-bumped her. “I’ve tried to get her to play a little, too, but she’s the original party pooper.”
Lexie, at least, seemed right at home. But then she always did. Confident, beautiful and fun—that described her best friend.
They were polar opposites.
As if she’d known the guys forever, Lexie had heckled Hogan, teased Colt and praised Jason. Repeatedly she put her head back and drew in deep breaths, closing her eyes as she did so. Honor understood that. It was like being in a park with the scents of freshly mowed lawn, earth, flowers and trees all around them. Jason’s backyard was a half acre, same as hers. But while hers was nearly impassable with weeds, his was park perfect.
A gigantic elm kept them shaded, and with the help of an occasional gentle breeze, the summer day became more comfortable. Honor glanced around at the neatly mulched flower beds, the velvet green grass and the well-maintained outdoor furniture. His garage was spectacular, matching his house. Every so often she caught the faint scent of oil, gasoline and sawdust.
She also smelled sun-warmed, hard-working male. Not at all unpleasant.
“Where do you work?” Colt asked.
“She’s a stylist,” Lexie offered. With a nod at Jason, she said, “Honor could do all sorts of amazing things with your hair.”
Honor choked on her last sip of Coke.
Unaffected, Jason ran a hand through the dark waves. “I have a barber, but don’t make it there as often as I should.”
“He’s always working,” Colt said. “He’s usually out there in the garage before Dad and I even get out of bed.”
“Good thing messy looks so sexy on him, then, huh?”
Colt laughed. “If you say so.”
“I do.” Lexie half turned to face the garage. “You guys have a lot of vehicles.”
“The blue truck is mine,” Colt told her. “Dad drives the motorcycle. Or when it rains, he takes the Escort. Uncle Jason has his own truck, the red newer one, and the gray SUV. The flatbed truck he uses for deliveries.”
Wow, so many vehicles. Honor glanced over and saw that the two-story garage also housed a fishing boat on a trailer, and another, older truck parked front and center.
“Who drives that one?” Lexie asked.
With something close to hero-worship, Colt said, “Uncle Jason was hired to work on it.”
“Hired?”
“Yeah, that’s what he does. He fixes things. He’s really good, too. All these old houses? They’re always needing something repaired and usually Uncle Jason can do it. Everyone around Clearbrook hires him for stuff.”
“Sounds like it keeps him busy.”
Colt snorted. “Yeah, sometimes too busy.”
“I don’t mind.” Jason’s gaze cut to Honor and his voice deepened. “I enjoy working with my hands.”
Honor felt like he’d just stroked her. She caught her breath, shifted in her seat and tried to think of something to say.
Clearly tickled, Lexie looked back and forth between them. “So you’re a handyman?”
Again, Colt bragged. “More like a contractor. He can build things from the ground up, including the plumbing and electrical. Or make stuff like custom gates or unique shutters, or repair just about anything.”
“Nice,” Lexie praised.
“He’s a jack-of-all-trades.” Hogan toasted Jason with his Coke. “Whatever’s broke, Jason can fix it.”
Jason gave him a long look. “Maybe not everything.”
“Right. Can’t fix big brothers, can you?”
Tipping his head slightly back, as if he’d taken that on the chin, Jason replied, “I only have one older brother, and far as I’m concerned, he’s not broken.”
Colt went silent, and God, Honor felt for him. Too many times she, too, had been caught up in the middle of squabbles.
“So with the truck,” Lexie said, interrupting the heavy tension, “are you doing engine or body work?”
Before Jason could answer, Hogan said, “Why are you so curious, anyway?”
Lexie leveled him with a direct stare. “I was making conversation.”
With a sound halfway between a laugh and a groan, Hogan sat forward. “We already covered that he can do anything.”
“Anything is a big word. I mean, can he get the stick out of your butt? Because seriously, you’re being a pill.”
“He does both,” Colt cut in, clearly anxious to keep things friendly. “Uncle Jason I mean. You asked about the truck?”
Lexie gave Colt a genuine smile. “So I did.”
“He does body and engine work. But this time Uncle Jason’s just tricking it out some.”
Honor watched the back and forth conversation, noting the indulgent way Jason looked at his nephew, while also feeling the growing tension from Hogan. But why?
The quiet smothered her, especially with the palpable acrimony now flowing between Hogan and Lexie. After clearing her throat, Honor asked, “Is that what we interrupted when we first got here? You were working on the truck?”
Jason shook his head. “Tractor.” He nodded toward the side of the garage. “The owner of the truck is making up his mind between two options I gave him. Today I was repairing the tractor, but it needs a part I won’t have until tomorrow. I’m at a standstill on both projects so you didn’t really interrupt. I was already done for the day.”
Hogan ran a hand over his face, popped his neck and finally worked up a smile. “He built the garage a few years back.”
“You helped,” Jason reminded him.
“By help, he means I followed directions. No idea where Jason got the knack because our dad wasn’t the handy sort. But if there’s an upside to us staying with him right now, it’s that he’s teaching Colt.”
“And Colt does appear to have the knack,” Jason added.
Both Honor and Lexie looked at the garage with new eyes. Wow. Just...wow.
“It’s unlike any garage I’ve ever seen.”
“You should see the shed he did for Sullivan,” Colt bragged. “And the gazebo for Nathan.”
“Sullivan and Nathan?” Lexie perked up with interest.
“Other neighbors,” Honor said before Lexie could get started. She pushed to her feet while saying, “This was really wonderful. Thank you again, all of you.”
When she started to pick up their paper plates, Colt took over. “I got it.”
Unbelievable. She’d never known such a polite young man. “Are you sure?”
He grinned, looking like a younger version of his uncle. “Positive. It all just goes to the can.” He gathered up everything and walked off.
Honor turned to Hogan. “You did an amazing job with him.”
“Thanks. He’s always been an easy kid. Smart, friendly and self-motivated.”
Again, Honor wondered about Colt’s mother. Had she taken a hand in molding such an impressive young man?
Hogan said, “I need to take off now, too.”
“Big date?” The way Lexie asked that, it was clear to one and all she didn’t expect it to be.
“Actually,” Hogan said, “yes.”
In an effort to stem new hostilities, Honor stepped in front of her friend. “I hope we didn’t hold you up.”
“Nope. I have a few minutes yet.” His frown moved past Honor to Lexie. “Guess I need to go change, though.”
Laughing, Lexie asked, “Need fashion advice?”
His dark expression softened. “I think I’ve got it covered.”
She nodded while yawning. “I need to get going, too.”
“Gotta catch up on your beauty sleep?”
Honor almost groaned...until Lexie laughed again.
“Good one,” she said, and then she held up her palm, leaving Hogan no choice but to high-five her. To Jason, she teased, “The differences aren’t just in looks, I take it.”
Jason lifted a brow. “No, they aren’t.”
Without comment, Hogan headed off for the house.
“Well.” Honor watched everyone depart. Hogan went into the house from the back door. Lexie headed off to the rental truck. And Colt hadn’t returned from taking away their trash.
She and Jason were alone and with every fiber of her being, she felt it. Hoping not to be too obvious, she took a step back, then another. “I should get going, too. I need to drop off the truck tonight so I can get my car back. After I run Lexie home, I need to stop at the grocery. It’s going to take me a few hours to get back here, and I still have to get things set up for the morning.”
“What kind of things?”
“Alarm clock, coffee, and I have to unpack enough clothes to get ready for work in the morning.”
He had been looking down at the ground as they walked, but now his head lifted and he stared at her. “You have to work tomorrow?”
“Yes.” But it wasn’t a matter of having to. “I’ll be taking all the hours I can get for a while. There are so many things I want to do to the house, but it all takes funds.” Funds she didn’t have. What money she’d saved would go to dire necessities, so overtime helped to pay for the extras she wanted.
“You have to be tired.”
“A little.” She rolled her aching shoulders, but resisted the long stretch. “I’m both excited and exhausted and I don’t know if I’d be able to sleep anyway.”
“Excited?”
There were a hundred different reasons for her excitement and one of those reasons was standing before her. Jason Guthrie was about the sexiest man she’d ever met. His careless hair, strong features, dark eyes and that body... Yup. The body definitely factored in.
But she also liked his intense focus, the way he smiled with pleasure at his nephew, and his up-front honesty. That honesty had stung a little, since he clearly felt she was out of her league. Then again, he’d pitched in and done what he could to make her move-in easier.
How could she not admire him?
Naturally she wouldn’t say any of that to him, so instead she shared other thoughts. “The move, the house—now that it’s officially mine and I’m here, there are a million things running through my mind. What to do first, how much money I’ll need, how to do it and when to do it.” She smiled up at him. “Tonight, I might just dance around and enjoy it all.”
“Yeah? Well, since you don’t have curtains yet, I might watch.”
She laughed at his teasing. “After I get the windows covered, then I’ll dance.”
His smile warmed. “Spoilsport.”
Their shoulders bumped, electrifying Honor. She took a step to the side, ensuring it wouldn’t happen again.
“I get it,” Jason told her. “First big night in your own place.” Lifting a brow, he added, “And yeah, curtains might not be a bad idea. Or at least tack up a sheet or something.”
Maybe, Honor thought, he didn’t dislike her as a neighbor as much as she’d assumed.
Stopping in the side yard, well out of range of everyone else, Honor looked up at him. Way up because he was so much taller than her.
He stopped, too, his expression attentive.
She shouldn’t ask, but she had to. “When we first met...when I hit your trash can?”
“I told you, no big deal.”
“I know, but...is that why you kept staring at me?”
Those gorgeous dark eyes caressed her face. He glanced toward Colt, then over to watch Lexie climb into the passenger seat of the truck.
Finally his gaze came back to hers, and the impact took her breath.
“For one thing,” he said in a low voice, “you’re attractive.”
Without thinking about it, Honor smoothed her ponytail and tucked a few loose tendrils behind her ears. “Um, thank you. But I’m such a mess today.”
His gaze warmed even more. “Messy and a mess are two very different things.”
That deep voice made her pulse race. She was such an inexperienced dweeb, she wasn’t sure how to respond, so she just nodded and said, “Okay.”
A fleeting smile teased his mouth before he grew somber. “I also recognize trouble when I see it.”
She tucked in her chin. “Trouble?”
“You.”
“Me?” The question emerged as a squeak.
“You don’t fit the mold, Honor Brown. Not even close.”
A rush of umbrage helped to steady her voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“A certain type of person moves here. Not just to the area, but to this particular block. Mostly single men who can handle themselves. Men with some contractor skills, with time and ability to do the repairs needed. Young women—”
“I’m twenty-nine!”
“—who are completely alone do not set up house here.”
It hurt to know he was right, that she was alone. She had Lexie, but it wasn’t the same as a significant other or family who cared. She huffed, then deflated. “Well, this sucks.”
He hesitated, but finally asked, “What does?”
Putting her nose in the air, Honor stared into his beautiful brown eyes. “I haven’t even finished moving in, and already I dislike my neighbor.”
On that parting remark, she turned and strode away. But her heart was thumping and her hands felt clammy and her stomach hurt.
She was never that rude. What in the world got into me?
Right before she reached the truck she glanced over her shoulder and saw Jason still standing there, hands on his hips, that laser-like gaze boring into her.
Damn it. She turned to fully face him. “Jason?”
His chin notched up in query.
“I apologize. I didn’t mean it.” Immediately she felt better—even with Lexie now laughing at her.
Jason’s hands fell to his sides and he dropped his head forward. She saw his shoulders moving.
Laughing? She wasn’t sure.
But she smiled and started to turn away again.
“Honor.”
She peeked at him and found his hands were back on his hips.
“You’re still trouble, no doubt about it. But if you need anything, let me know.”
Sure. When hell froze over. She smiled sweetly, waved and finally got in the truck.
Copyright © 2016 by Lori Foster