Faith jerked a thumb to her new place. “I just moved in. Thought I would introduce myself to my neighbor.” She motioned to the door she had been knocking at.
“Oh. Ain’t that nice. I’m Serena.” Serena picked up a scone off the plate. She sank her teeth into the crust and then moaned in delight. “Oh my God. These are amazing. Promise me you’ll make these all the time.”
Faith shrugged uncertainly, wondering why she was asking. Because she lived here with North? Or was she simply a frequent guest? “I like to cook,” she offered.
Serena nodded. “You moving in is a very good thing. Or bad.” She laughed harshly. “My ass doesn’t need to get any bigger.”
From what Faith could see, Serena’s ass was very nearly perfect.
“Do you live here?”
“With North?” She laughed. “No. No one lives with North. I’m just a friend. I pop in . . . you know, whenever the mood strikes. North.” She chuckled again and this time the sound was throatier, as though she’d just taken a bite into a delectable piece of pie and was reveling in it. “He’s always up for a good time.”
Faith’s cheeks burned. Serena’s meaning was unmistakable. The two of them were friends with benefits. Fuck buddies or whatever.
Serena sniffed the scones again. “Maybe I’ll come by even more now if you keep supplying him with baked goods.”
“Oh, well.” She motioned lamely at the plate. “I was just going to say hello—”
Serena’s eyes glinted with amusement. “Have you seen North yet?”
Faith shook her head.
That eating-a-slice-of-fabulous-pie look came over her face again. Only this time Faith knew it had nothing to do with food and everything with this North guy. “Well, you’ll be baking more scones for him once you do. Trust me.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Let me do you a solid. I’ll give him the scones. Tell them they’re from his new neighbor. You introduce yourself to him another time.” Her thick-lashed eyes swept up and down, surveying her. “Once you’ve done something with yourself.” She whipped her finger in a small circle at Faith. “I suggest you start by losing the sweatpants. You’re tall. Wear something short and show off your legs.”
Faith groped for speech, shooting a quick glance down at herself in baggy sweatpants and a T-shirt. She plucked at her shirt, pulling it away from her chest. She wore a sports bra underneath, so her breasts were mashed into one nearly nonexistent uniboob.
“Don’t look so offended. You’ll thank me later.”
Feeling embarrassed enough, Faith mumbled something incoherent and abandoned the scones to her. Whirling around, she stalked back into her duplex without another glance behind her.
Once inside, she vowed not to think about the mortifying exchange. She dove back into unpacking, determined to get the rest of her house in order, telling herself that the encounter with her neighbor’s guest wasn’t a reflection on him . . . necessarily. So he had vulgar friends. It didn’t mean this North guy was going to be a bad neighbor. He was probably perfectly civil. Polite and courteous. The kind of guy who would loan her a shovel or hose or ladder.
After showering in her new bathroom, her contentment returned as she slid beneath the sheets of her bed. She stared up at the ceiling at the hypnotic spin of fan blades.
Her ceiling fan. Her shower. Her bed. Her home.
It had been a long time coming. Nothing could ruin this for her.
The noise started slowly. A gradual thumping . . . steady thuds against her wall. Like wood striking wood.
She sat up and cocked her head to the side, listening. She turned and stared at her headboard, her wall close behind it. It was coming from the other side. She pressed a hand to the wall, felt the vibration of every thud through the plaster and paint.
Then the moaning started.
Her face caught fire, understanding exactly what was happening.
Sex. Sex was happening on the other side of her wall. Mere feet away Serena was going at it with her neighbor. The mysterious North.
Serena’s moans twisted into wails, the volume increasing with every bang against the wall. “Oh God! Oh God, oh God, oh God!”
Not just sex, Faith amended. This was down and dirty fucking. Her face burned nuclear-hot.
She dropped back on the mattress with a gust of breath. “Fabulous,” she muttered. It couldn’t last long, right? It had never lasted long with her and Chad. She winced. Nothing about what she was hearing next door resembled what she had with Chad.
She laced her fingers over her queasy stomach and stared up at the whirring fan blades, waiting for the racket to subside.
Minutes passed. The thumping continued.
Serena stopped crying out pleas to the Almighty and reverted to keening wails, broken up with intermittent pleas to North.
“Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop. North! North! NORTH!”
Faith’s eyes grew so large and aching in her face that she had to force herself to blink. That tantalizing glimpse of a muscled arm and too-long dark hair flashed through her mind.