Eve grinned and gave his arm another squeeze. “You’re awesome.”

  “And at least one of us will know how to cook.”

  She promptly shoved her elbow into his ribs a second time. “Asshole.”

  From the corner of her eye, she noticed Pete in the hallway.

  His black hair was a mess. The bundle of nerves between her legs sizzled as she remembered her fingers running through those curls a few minutes ago.

  When their eyes locked, it sent a jolt of energy through her. Why the heck was she so drawn to him? It couldn’t be the way he dressed, just a simple long–sleeved grey pull–over and faded jeans. So why did she keep fantasizing about tearing each piece of clothing off his body?

  Only one thing could solve this problem. Distance. What happened between them today served as another example of her bad judgment. Nothing good could come from a relationship established on nothing more than sex. She needed to follow the same advice she gave her brother and learn from her mistakes.

  Chris pulled away from her and stood. “Hey, Man. I didn’t know you were here.”

  Pete strode into the room, grabbed the kid’s outstretched hand, and gave it a squeeze. “Yeah, I just checked out your sister’s plumbing.”

  From behind Chris on the sofa, Evie turned various shades of red before dropping her head in her hands. Pete worked on keeping a straight face and focused on her brother. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but did I hear you say you’re looking for a job?”

  “Yeah, looking being the key word.”

  “Well, I’m in need of an assistant. Interested?”

  Evie shot him a look he tried his best to ignore and explained the position. “You’d help me and my guys out in the big project sites. It’ll be hard work, you’ll get your hands dirty, and the pay sucks.”

  Chris’ eyes brightened. “Are you serious? You’d do that?”

  Pete crossed his arms and smiled. “Yup. I remember being in your shoes. But. If you mess up, it’s my prerogative to fire you. It won’t matter whose brother or nephew you are.”

  The kid nodded. “That’s fair. I’m in.”

  “Good, then you can help me tonight as a trial run.”

  She grabbed onto her brother’s arm and pulled herself off the couch. “Tonight?”

  He nodded. “The bolts around the base of your toilet are rusty and falling apart. I’m sure you’ve noticed it moves when you sit on it. And your sink’s clogged.”

  She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes as she listened.

  “They’re both quick fixes and since I brought the van, I have all the supplies downstairs.”

  Pete itched to touch her. To pull her into her room and finish what they started. Unfortunately, the vibe she sent out made it clear that, for her, the moment had long passed.

  “You don’t need to,” she said.

  A smile tugged at his lips. The woman obviously had no clue who she dealt with.

  He stared into her baby blues. “Unclogging pipes is what I’m good at.”

  Chris groaned.

  Pete chuckled and winked at the kid before returning his attention to the red–faced beauty.

  “Fine. No favors though, I’ll pay you.”

  He considered the option and came up with a better one of his own. “Buy me dinner.”

  Before she had a chance to say anything, Chris answered for her. “Perfect.”

  “Tonight,” Pete added.

  Her eyes widened. She opened her luscious mouth to answer, but again her brother spoke up. “She’ll get ready right now.”

  When she kicked the back of his leg, the poor kid grimaced and stepped out of her way.

  Pete chuckled and headed out to his van. Something told him those two needed to talk.

  Eve glared at her little brother. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  He shrugged. “I like him.”

  “Then you go out with him.”

  The little shit grabbed her arm, pushed her out of the room, into the hallway and toward her bedroom.

  “I don’t swing like that. Could you please get dressed and give the poor guy a chance?”

  Her heart pounded. This was a bad idea. She needed distance, time to think rationally.

  And who the hell did her brother think he was anyway? “Just because he’s giving you a job doesn’t mean I need to date him.”

  He shoved her into her bedroom. “It’s one meal and he seems like a good guy. The kind I’ve always thought you should be with.”

  “Really? You figured all of that out after meeting him last night at an NA meeting?” she yelled as he slammed the door in her face.

  A few seconds later, the cell in her hand dinged. She rolled her eyes at her brother’s text.

  Please. For me?

  She would do anything for the little shit. Besides, who was she kidding? The prospect of being alone with Pete again excited her.

  Eve brushed a finger over her still swollen lips. Her body heated at the memory of how his mouth pressed against hers. She’d spent so many nights of her senior year fantasizing about his kiss. Warmth spread across her cheeks. None of those dreams did him justice.

  Hmm.

  As long as she didn’t let herself do anything more than dinner, it might be a great way to get to know him better. She could at least thank him after he hired her brother, and the toilet did move whenever she sat on it.

  No harm in spending a couple of hours with him, right?

  Pete would be back any second to fix her plumbing.

  The blush deepened.

  No. Her pipes.

  She giggled and headed to the bathroom. After taking off her clothes and tossing them into the hamper, Eve grabbed a brush and smoothed out the kinks in her hair.

  As she popped in her contacts, she gave herself a pep–talk.

  Time to stick to her guns. No sex with a man she barely knew—no matter how wet her panties got when he was around. Which reminded her, she needed a clean pair.

  Back in the bedroom, she dug through her dresser and grabbed the ugliest underwear she owned. Five minutes later, Eve sat on her bed wearing a high collar blue sweater and a loose–fitting grey skirt. She tried to calm her racing pulse.

  No big deal.

  She didn’t even need a man. The drawer full of love tools next to her bed served as a testament to that. She brushed her fingertips against her bare thigh. Her eyes shuttered.

  But.

  There were some things big, warm hands and a full sexy mouth could do that battery–operated toys couldn’t.

  After fixing her plumbing challenges, Pete set out in search of Evie. She’d kept herself well hidden since he’d returned to her apartment. A nagging thought made him wonder if she made a run for it.

  When he found her on the couch with a magazine, he let out a breath only to suck in another deeper one. Her hair hung loose over her shoulders, molding her breasts. She’d ditched those wicked witch glasses and even put on makeup for their impromptu dinner.

  And that wasn’t the half of it. She’d changed into a pale blue top, which brought out her eyes and a skirt that fell above her knees, showing off toned legs. His body warmed in appreciation. Maybe he’d read her wrong about the second thoughts.

  She looked up and caught him staring. “All done?”

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, ready to go?”

  Before she made it out of her seat, Chris appeared in the living room with a phone stuck to his ear. “Hold on Dad, here’s Evie.”

  She gave her brother’s arm a squeeze, took the phone, and flashed Pete an apologetic look before she and Chris walked out of the room to take the call.

  Pete wandered to the fireplace and leaned in to get a closer view of the framed pictures. Candid shots of a family who clearly loved each other, littered the mantle.

  One in particular caught his eye. A man who resembled Evie played a guitar. Beside him sat a young girl with glasses. Red–headed, eyes closed, she seemed to have been singing outside,
the starry sky evident in the background.

  His chest tightened. He knew that exact spot, he’d seen them there before. Could visualize the two of them up there and even the song she sang.

  Pete took in a breath, remembered the moment and the voice. During some of the lowest points in his life, he’d transported himself back to the apartment complex of his childhood and to that seat in the stairwell where he sat hidden, listening to her.

  He gazed over his shoulder as Evie walked back in to the room.

  This changed everything.

  Chapter 6

  What the hell?” Eve hollered at the checkered cab wedging into her lane. She slammed the brakes and horn at the same time. The cabbie flashed a finger to which she honked the damn thing a couple more times. “Asshole!”

  Only in New York on a Wednesday night would the drivers be this crazy.

  She kept her hands on the wheel and eyes glued to the road, very aware that the passenger beside her hadn’t taken a breath in a while. Understandable, considering her driving skills were the butt of many family jokes.

  Did Pete consider her a crazy driver?

  For some reason, the thought bugged her.

  She glanced over at the tall, dark–haired, sexy man to her right.

  He raised his brows and flashed a reassuring smile.

  Yup, he thought she was nuts.

  “Sorry, New York drivers.” Eve cleared her throat and returned her attention to the road, ignoring the warmth in her cheeks.

  This was exactly why, except for work, she avoided getting behind the wheel at all costs. Well, not all costs, because when Pete opened the passenger door to his van for her, she politely offered up her services.

  The shiny black whale of a vehicle looked stable enough. But as cute as the picture of the little kid with the plunger was, the words printed in big white letters made her cringe.

  Plumbing problems?

  Take the Plunge.

  Call Russo’s Plumbing Service!

  Then there was the whole getting into a van with a stranger component. For all she knew, he’d drive her to a remote spot, drag her to the back and chop her into little bite–size pieces. With no windows in the back, no one would even notice. If she drove her car, there were windows everywhere, drastically decreasing the possibility of dismemberment.

  Eve tried to rein in her over–active imagination. Did she have a reason to be worried? Well, they’d only met twenty–four hours ago. Since then, she’d attacked him twice. Yesterday with pepper spray. Today, when she tried to suck his tongue out of his mouth.

  Eve stifled a groan.

  If anyone should have been scared, it was Pete the plumber not her.

  “You’re going to take this exit and turn right at the light.”

  She nodded and got off the highway.

  He didn’t strike her as a killer. Not that she knew any to compare him to. So she called her uncle to get the dirt on the guy while he fixed her bathroom. Turned out he already knew about Pete’s past and instead of telling her to stay far away, the old man did the opposite.

  Uncle Danny painted the guy out to be some kind of saint. According to him, Pete stepped in and took over a failing family business and turned it around. Said he had the best work ethic of anyone her uncle had ever met. Even took care of his sick father.

  “The guy should be inducted into sainthood,” he said.

  When Uncle Danny began discussing the kids she and Pete would have together, she reined him in. Nothing more than dinner would happen between them, ever. But it did make her look at the guy different. Uncle Danny trusted very few people and made it his goal to see the worst case scenario in all situations. If he thought highly enough of Pete to envision red–haired, brown–eyed children running around, it said something.

  Maybe she should give him a chance.

  Once she pulled off the highway, Pete visibly relaxed. For the next fifteen minutes, he talked her ear off. The more he shared about his Italian relatives, the more she found herself laughing and enjoyed his company. How could she not? He was a handsome and likable guy. A perfect catch in every way. Aside from the whole recovering drug addict thing, of course.

  She waited for the red flags. Her mind drifted to Preston. There were always signs. She’d been too enamored by his charm and flattered by his interest, to pay any attention to the bright flashing lights. Like how his moods changed from happy to irritable in the bat of an eye. The way his ‘depth perception’ challenges made him come home bruised more times than not. And the lies. He lied about so many things and still she chose to trust him, blind herself from the truth slapping her in the face.

  Her grip on the steering wheel tightened as she thought back to the night she confronted Preston. The information had been irrefutable, like the drug paraphernalia she’d found in her bathroom, and he didn’t deny it. Instead, he raged to a level she’d never seen before, leaving her alone and unconscious on the floor of his apartment. She’d never quite remembered what happened or how long she’d been out.

  “You okay?”

  Eve cleared her throat. “Yes, fine. What did you say?”

  “To hang a left up ahead at Fifty–seventh.”

  Thoughts about her ex faded as she noticed the area. Too distracted by his stories and lost in her own memories, she hadn’t paid attention to the neighborhood.

  When they got to Fifty–seventh, the discomfort made Eve shift in her seat. High–rises, restaurants, and businesses lined the length of the busy street. Condos and apartments sat atop the retail shops. She knew because she once lived there.

  Pete pointed to the side of the road. “There’s a spot in front of the red fourteen–storied building with the green awning on the right.”

  Her stomach churned, not because she had to parallel–park, but from the nagging suspicion that poked at her.

  After she parked, she turned on the cabin light and stared suspiciously at him. “Why are we here?”

  Pete shrugged and tipped his head toward the building to his right. “It’s where I live.”

  When he reached for the door, she locked it. He stared at the handle and then at her. From the way his jaw twitched, the big dummy obviously stifled a laugh, which only ticked her off more.

  “I’m buying you dinner, not going to your place.”

  “You are and we won’t. Look.” Pete leaned across her, his cheek inches from her lips and pointed to the burger joint on the other side of the road. “There’s dinner.” Why’d his voice have to be so deep and husky?

  She sucked in a breath only to fill her nose with the musky woodsy scent of his cologne. Memories of his mouth, his body, his erection pressing against her flooded her thoughts. Both her mouth and groin moistened at the same time.

  Pete turned, their noses almost touched and he fixed his eyes on hers. “I hoped to get carry out and hang out on the roof of my place.”

  She sucked in a lungful of his minty breath. The ability to stay angry, much less on topic, became increasingly difficult.

  When his focus drifted to her now parted lips and heaving chest, she looked out at the people who sat in the restaurant a few yards away and tried to regain focus. “I can’t do this.”

  His nose brushed against her jaw, making her heart race. “What? Buy me dinner?”

  “No.” Although her words said one thing, she found herself doing the opposite, leaning in until his mouth pressed against her cheek. “Get physical with a man I don’t know. The things we did earlier at my place shouldn’t have happened.”

  His lips lightly brushed her ear. “Which things, exactly?”

  Her face flushed as the temperature in the car increased exponentially. “The kissing.”

  When he sighed, his breath hit her neck, making her own breathing ragged.

  “That was some amazing kissing we did, but we don’t have to do that.”

  His hand grazed against her bare knee, sending jolts of electricity straight to the bundle of nerves between her legs.

&
nbsp; She looked into his eyes and immediately regretted it. Amusement danced there and that damn sexy grin stretched across his face.

  “Touching too,” she choked out. “No more touching.”

  His hand immediately left her leg, but his mouth continued to stay a hair’s breath away from her neck. “I really liked that part.”

  Never before had she enjoyed being teased this way. Preston had tried similar things on her and look how that turned out.

  With strength she never knew she possessed, Eve put her hand on Pete’s face and pushed him away. “And personal space. No more getting in mine.”

  He leaned his back against the passenger door, giving exactly what she asked. “Ever?”

  Her body screamed no, aching for his touch. She clamped her hands together in her lap and stared ahead. “Not like this. Not until I know the person better.”

  After a painful silence, he cleared his throat. “I can respect that.”

  She nodded, but kept her gaze fixed on the car parked in front of her.

  “Any other rules?”

  Eve shook her head and finally glanced over at him. “I’ll tell you if I come up with any.”

  He grinned. “I’d shake your hand, but it would be a violation of the rules.”

  She giggled, relaxing immediately. A part of her expected him to get angry or even talk her out of it, the way Preston used to do. But he did neither.

  “Can we get out now?”

  Shifting her body to face him, she shook her head. “I need a question answered first.”

  “Okay.”

  “With so many options in the city, why here?”

  Now Pete turned to stare at the car in front of them, making Eve’s spidey senses go ballistic.

  He shifted to face her and cleared his throat. “The truth?”

  “Always.”

  He nodded. “I saw a picture on your mantle. The one of you and your dad taken upstairs on my roof.”

  Her eyes widened as his words sunk in.

  “Does the name Peter Russo ring any bells?”