Chapter 12
"I just took you out twenty minutes ago," Zoe complained even as she reached for the new black leash with the small baby blue teddy bear pattern that she'd bought during her second trip to the pet store and headed for the front door.
Sure she could have used the black leather leash that Trevor bought, but she liked this one. It was manly no matter what he said. The teddy bears were blue not pink, she'd pointed out when he spotted it during their last walk. That was immediately followed by a one minute glare that she found kind of cute.
She wasn't sure if he'd been pissed about the so-called "girly leash" or the fun she'd had at his expense at the pet store, but it hadn't mattered because both put a smile on her face. Several times today she found herself laughing at the memory of the little scene from the pet store. She really wasn't sure what she found more entertaining, the disappointed expression on the woman's face who thought just because Zoe looked a certain way that she was a pushover or the horrified almost comical expression on Trevor's face when her words hit home.
He really was an entertaining guy. Haley was right. Screwing over a man just for the hell of it was a lot of fun. It was also nice having someone in her life that she could joke with and just be herself. Over the past three years she'd learned to keep her mouth shut and accept all the crap life handed her as she tried to make something out of her life.
She'd never been a pushover a single day in her life, her big mouth guaranteed that, but working in that office had slowly sucked the life out of her, leaving her gritting her teeth and accepting whatever bullshit her bosses dealt her all while fighting the urge to open her mouth and land her ass in trouble. Turning into a meek little worker had been one of the hardest things for her to do, especially when she was used to speaking up for herself.
Growing up the way she had there hadn't been much of a choice in the matter since there was no one else to speak for her. Even though she'd had about a half dozen different social workers from the age of two until fifteen when she finally ran away, none of them cared about what happened to her. To them she was just a case they'd gotten stuck with and she only saw them about once a year when they had their mandatory meeting to make sure she was actually alive.
Her foster parents, all one hundred and fifty-three of them, had been a different story completely. Some had been nice, some not so nice and some had acted like she wasn't there, but in each and every home she'd been a paycheck and a charity case, nothing more. Not in one single home had she been treated or expected to act like one of the family.
There were always separate rules for her and the other foster kids in each home and different expectations. She was expected to do as she was told and keep her mouth shut when something happened that she didn't like. They learned quickly that they couldn't push her around just because no one cared about her.
She knew other kids kept their mouths shut, too afraid to upset their foster parents and be shipped off to a new home, but that wasn't her. The inconvenience of packing up her small duffle bag and going to a new home, dealing with new foster parents, and learning new rules hadn't been enough for her to keep her mouth shut. If they treated her like crap she spoke up, plain and simple. She never acted like a spoiled little brat who liked to bitch and whine about everything, but when she had foster parents who wouldn't feed her unless she worked for it or liked to hit her or some of the smaller kids, she spoke up, loudly.
Instead of coming to her aide and reassuring her that it would never happen again a few of her social workers actually told her to learn to shut her mouth, telling her it wasn't so bad and that if she wanted a roof over her head and food in her stomach that she needed to learn keep her mouth closed. Sometimes she followed that little tidbit of crappy advice and kept her mouth shut. She might have been a kid, but she hadn't been stupid. She knew no one was ever going to rescue her and love her and that she was damn lucky not to have to live on the street, but sometimes the way her foster parents treated her was too much and she couldn't keep her mouth shut no matter how much she wanted to.
It wasn't until she was fifteen and found herself living in an abandoned car that she realized that sometimes it was better to keep her big mouth shut, especially if she was going to make a life for herself. Although she did her best to curb her big mouth sometimes it still got her in trouble and she found herself in a sticky situation a time or two.
When she landed an entry level job with The N.W. Corporation a few years ago she'd forced herself to keep her mouth shut, knowing she didn't want to mess up the opportunity to make something out of her life. As difficult as it had been she learned to keep her mouth shut, mostly, until she barely recognized the person she'd become where being screwed over didn't bother her because she truly believed she'd move up in the company and all the nonsense they put her through would be worth it.
Had she really been that delusional?
Apparently she had, because she allowed them to push her around until she simply hadn't cared anymore. Even though it had only been a few months since she worked in that hell hole she still couldn't believe she let them treat her that way or worse that she let the job become her life. She'd lost touch with the few friends she had and stopped dating, not that she'd done much of that in the past, but at least a decent amount of sex might have made her life more tolerable.
She really missed sex, she thought with a sigh.
But if all went well tonight she wouldn't be missing it for much longer. Not that she'd ever been a tramp. She hadn't. She just had a healthy appetite for sex for a twenty-nine year old woman who hadn't had sex in five years.
She also missed the intimacy of being close to another human being. She missed lazy Sundays in bed, fighting over the remote, snuggling to stay warm and the way she felt when a man made love to her, not alone.
"No f*cking way," Trevor said as he stepped out of his apartment and caught sight of the leash.
"This is just getting sad," she said, sighing. "It's just a leash, a cute leash, but a leash all the same."
"If it's just a leash then why aren't you using the black one?" Trevor demanded, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at the offending leash.
"Because it's cute. Did I not just cover that?" she asked, knowing she was taunting him and god help her she loved it.
"Cute?" he asked, sounding dumbfounded.
"Uh huh," she agreed absently, walking, more like being dragged to the front door by Toby. As she opened the door she decided to taunt him just a little more. Just as she stepped through the door she added, "Cute just like my Red Sox tee shirt," she said, squealing, whether it was from him lunging for her or Toby taking off at a full run and dragging her she wasn't sure. The only thing she knew was she couldn't stop laughing as Trevor's hand missed her bottom by a mile and he promised she wouldn't be able to sit for a week after he got his hands on her.
She knew it probably wasn't the smartest thing to taunt the man, but she just couldn't help herself. He was so damn entertaining.
*********
"Are you done yet?" Trevor demanded, again, as he paced the small confines of his bathroom.
"No, and go away this is getting kind of creepy!" Zoe yelled over the sound of running water.
"If you moved your ass so I could take a shower I wouldn't be bothering you, now would I?" he snapped, feeling edgy.
"Jeez someone's bitchy," Zoe muttered loud enough, no doubt on purpose, for him to hear.
"I'm not bitchy!" But he was. He really was and it was all because he was torturing himself by pacing the bathroom like an idiot while his body's odd little obsession was only a few feet away naked, wet, and sudsy. Granted there was a wall between them, but the way he was feeling right now it didn't matter.
He didn't like the way she made him feel or the way his body ached when she was near. He sure as hell didn't want to feel this way about her. She wasn't his type and he had absolutely no plans on changing his ways now, especially for her.
When he took a woman out, he liked showing her off, knowing that every man took one look at the woman on his arm and envied him. If he ever took a woman like Zoe out they'd wonder what the hell was wrong with him and he wouldn't be able to blame them because there was nothing perfect about Zoe and he couldn't accept anything less. He would never be looked down on with pity ever again or have anyone think that he couldn't do better.
"Go away!" Zoe said.
"Hurry the hell up!" he snapped. "I have plans tonight."
"So do I!" she shot back, making him wonder what plans she had. As far as he knew she never went out at night unless she was running an errand or hitting the pool at the gym. She was a bit of a homebody, but he didn't think she was going to the gym tonight since she didn't usually shower beforehand.
"Where the hell are you going?" he demanded, giving up his pacing to lean back against the sink counter.
"Out."
He snorted. "Out where?"
"Just out," she answered hesitantly a moment later.
"Are we still on for the book tonight?" he asked even though he knew there was a good chance, god willing, that he wouldn't be around for that tonight. Then again if it was a quick lay he might be able to get back here in time.
"I, uh," he could just make out the sound of her clearing her throat, "might not be alone tonight," she said, stunning the shit out of him.
"You have a date?" he asked in a disbelieving tone that probably sounded a bit insulting.
"I could have a date!" she argued.
"But do you?" he asked, noting that she hadn't really answered.
"The shower's all yours," she said brightly, obviously trying to change the subject, which at the moment was fine with him. She could go out with whomever she wanted. He didn't care. They weren't really friends. She was his employee and tenant and nothing more.
Okay, so she also read to him at night and put a smile on his face first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, but she could still do that if she was seeing someone else. It would probably also help get his head straight if he knew she was off limits since he didn't poach. Well, he did, but he wouldn't try to steal her since she really wasn't his type and sooner or later his body would remember that.
Of course if she started to date he would really have to look into having the walls reinsulated. There was no way he wanted to hear her f*cking some other guy. Again, not that he cared, but that didn't mean he wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to hear her scream some other guy's name. He wasn't a masochist after all.
This could work, he thought as he tugged off his tee shirt and tossed it into the hamper Zoe picked up and demanded that he use. That woman could be so damn pushy sometimes. He still didn't understand why he had to dish out twenty bucks for a hamper when the bathroom floor did the same job for free. She was just making more work for herself by having to pull all his clothes out of the hamper instead of just picking it up off the floor and when he explained that to her she just rolled her eyes and told him to use the damn hamper.
Thinking on it now he really couldn't understand why he wanted her. She was so damn bos-
A high pitched scream broke off his thoughts.
"Trevor!" Zoe screamed.
His name was barely out of her mouth before he found himself running out of his room and taking the stairs two at time. He flew out of his apartment and into hers, glad that they didn't lock the doors, but worried that someone had managed to break into the front door and go straight into her apartment. He didn't stop to check the front door, but ran up the stairs, following the high pitched screams and dog's furious barks and growls that wouldn't stop, to her room.
He only paused in her room long enough to see that she wasn't in it and headed for the open bathroom door and nearly tripped over Toby in the process. As he stumbled over the dog and tried to right himself he felt the breath in his lungs freeze and his mouth drop open.
There could have been an ax murderer in the room for all he knew and he wouldn't have been able to look away from the sight of Zoe standing in the corner of the bathtub with her back to him as her baby pink towel threatened to drop even further, revealing more of that generous bottom that had him licking his lips and groaning. Thankfully her high pitched screaming covered the betraying sound.
Somehow he managed to tear his eyes away from the beautiful sight before him to look around for the serial killer that had to be waiting to attack them, judging by her screams. When he didn't find anything but Toby, he really hoped his new owners would take pity on the damn dog and change his name, looking in the open cabinet beneath the sink, growling and barking he couldn't help but feel confused and a headache coming on from all the noise.
"What the hell is going on in here?" he demanded loudly enough to thankfully cut through Zoe's screams and get her to shut the hell up along with the dog.
Without looking back she reached behind her and pointed frantically in the direction of the growling dog. "It's in there!" she screeched as if that said it all.
Sadly enough it really didn't. Although he did appreciate the fact that her towel had managed to drop another two inches, revealing the top halves of two perfectly rounded cheeks. It was the least she could do for scaring the shit out of him, he decided as he crouched down and gently pushed the growling dog aside so he could take a look.
He carefully pushed aside extra rolls of toilet paper, a first aid kit, a can of shaving gel, pre-treater and an unopened box of a twelve pack of condoms that earned a frown, but didn't find anything even remotely scream worthy.
"What exactly am I looking for?" he asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder at his shivering tenant who was still hiding in the corner, which was probably a good thing since she'd probably rip him a new one for staring at her ass.
"A spider," she said, sounding so horrified that he couldn't help but laugh.
"That's why you were screaming bloody murder? Over a spider?" he asked, knowing for any other woman and he would be yelling at her for scaring the hell out of him, but for his little tough as nails tenant he couldn't help but laugh. She was always so strong, always spoke her mind and loved to piss him off for fun. So to see Zoe freaking out over something as ridiculous as a spider was too much to believe. Other than keeping her mouth shut when she thought he was just the landlord's a*shole nephew and from what he knew about her last job he couldn't imagine Zoe being intimidated or afraid of anything.
"It's huge!" she clarified, not moving one iota away from the corner of the tub.
"Uh huh," he said, not bothering to hide his disbelief. No doubt it was some tiny little thing that she saw out of the corner of her eye and had overreacted.
"Well, I'm not seeing it now," he murmured, taking another look for this "huge" spider and chuckling.
He felt more than heard Zoe rush past him and wasn't all too surprised to find her standing in the middle of her bed with the towel now snuggly wrapped around her body much to his disappointment a few seconds later.
"I tell you what, Ms. Scaredy Pants," he said, grinning hugely when she shot him a venomous look, "after I get ready to go out I'll come back and take another look for the killer spider. Maybe by then it will feel comfortable enough to come out."
She licked her lips nervously as her eyes darted back to the bathroom where Toby, how he hated that name, now obviously bored since Zoe stopped screaming, now lay across the bathroom floor dozing off.
"You promise?"
"Yes, I promise," he said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. No doubt he was going to have to hunt down a small spider outside and throw it into a glass jar to convince her that he found it otherwise she'd probably be screaming for help all night over "spiders."
"O-okay," she said, shifting on the bed.
Trevor bit back a smile as he paused near the bed, knowing she'd probably kill him later, but simply couldn't resist. "There's just one thing. I need a towel."
Zoe yanked her eyes away from the bathroom to frown down at him in confusion. "Your closet is full of towels."
"Uh huh, but I need a pink towel," he explained as he reached out and ripped her towel away from her. He was already halfway down the stairs when he heard her gasp of surprise and heading out her door when she started threatening the poor confused appendage in his pants that hadn't been able to go down since he spotted Zoe cowering in the bathtub.