Chapter 2
Haley’s eyes widened in disbelief as Jason threw himself back on her poor tulips and began tearing them out of the ground again.
“Stop!”
He ignored her and continued ripping the tulips from the ground, making sure that the bulbs came with them.
He tossed them as far as he could onto his property so that she couldn’t get them back.
Not knowing what else to do, she squeezed the nozzle, hitting him in the back with a full blast of cold water, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Please stop!” she cried, but he refused to listen.
He kept going, only slowing down when he reached the tight space between their houses and he was forced to shift his shoulders so that he could keep going.
Thankfully, she gave up squirting him. It might be April, but they were in New England and that meant cold fucking days followed by even colder nights.
His body shivered violently as he moved to grab another handful of tulips when something suddenly clamped down around his ankles.
“What the hell-oomph!” Jason demanded only to find himself pulled off balance, landing face-first in the thick mud she’d created with her water meltdown. Before he could push himself up, Haley was crawling over his back to get to those damn flowers.
She used her small frame to her advantage, quickly crawling over him and began digging up as many tulips as she could get her hands on and setting them against the side of her house.
“Stop doing that!” Jason demanded as he reached over to stop her.
“Get off me!” Haley snapped, digging faster.
“I wouldn’t be on you if you weren’t on my goddamn property!” he snapped, only to end up grunting when she slammed her elbow into his shoulder.
Cursing the fucking tulips that got them into this mess in the first place, Jason pushed himself in further until her entire body was snuggled tightly beneath his.
She instantly went still beneath him as he took advantage of her stunned reaction and grabbed as many flowers as he could, tearing them out of the ground and threw them over his shoulder.
“I said get off me, not crush me!” Haley snapped as she tried not to panic.
There was a large man on top of her!
Her senses went into overload as she tried to focus. But all she could think about was how good it felt to have his hard stomach pressed against her back. Suddenly a shiver shot through her that had nothing to do with the ice-cold water seeping through her clothes and-
“That better not be what I think it is,” Haley bit out between clenched teeth.
“It’s not.” It was. “Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart,” Jason snapped, trying not to groan or grind into her, but God, did she feel good.
He had to admit that he was shocked to realize that he was reacting to her like this. Not that he ever had a problem getting it up. He didn’t. Of course, these days, his interest in sex had waned a bit. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had sex, which was a problem.
He made a half-assed attempt to pull out more flowers.
That seemed to distract her from the fact that her pert little ass was snuggled tightly against him.
His eyes closed as he nuzzled her neck and slowly inhaled.
Haley didn’t seem to notice, so he did it again.
He would swear on his life that she smelled like blackberries and vanilla.
God, she smelled so damn good.
She groaned in irritation. “I don’t know what your problem is. I made a mistake planting them on your property and I’m really sorry, but just let me move them over a few inches and everything will be fine.”
That snapped him out of his daze.
“Oh, hell, no!” Jason bit out as he reached past her and began ripping more flowers up. She swore under her breath as she crawled out from under him to save whatever flowers she could. He simply followed her, assuming the same position each time.
“You’re being a jerk! I just want my bulbs!” Haley said, trying not to cry. These were her grandmother’s bulbs. Her grandfather bought them for her grandmother after the war to celebrate the success of their first business.
“Not happening!” Jason snapped, digging faster.
“Why not?” Haley demanded, close to crying. “I don’t understand what your problem is. You don’t do anything with your property. So, why do you care if there’s a flowerbed here or a few inches over? They’re not hurting you!”
“The hell they’re not!” Jason snapped, thinking of all the spots on his back and neck that still throbbed.
“They’re just flowers. What the hell could they possibly have done to piss you off this much?” Haley demanded, absently waving off a bee as it buzzed past her ear.
“Bees!” Jason said, trying to back up only to realize that he was stuck.
“Yes, it’s a bee,” Haley said slowly as though she were talking to a small child, clearly not understanding the problem.
He groaned as he tried to twist free. When that didn’t work, he snaked his arm around her waist and tried to pull her free.
“Hey, get your hands-”
“It’s a fucking nest and we just disturbed it!” Jason yelled, frantically trying to get them out of there before it was too late.
Haley’s eyes shot forward and then widened.
Sure enough, two feet in front of her was the start of what appeared to be a very large nest poking out of the ground thanks to the flowers they’d yanked up.
Yellowjackets began swarming just above the nest. It wouldn’t be long before they descended on them.
“Move!”
“I can’t!”
Haley clenched her teeth as she slammed back against him as hard as she could. He groaned low in her ear but didn’t stop trying to move back. She moved forward and slammed back again and again. Each time was met with a groan and a gain of a few more inches.
“One more time!” he grated.
She moved forward and this time when she slammed back against him, she pushed up with her shoulders and managed to dislodge him. Jason used the momentum to pull her free. He kept his arm snaked around her waist as he dragged her away from the nest.
“They’re swarming!” Haley cried.
“Shit!” Jason said, looking frantically around for a safe place to run.
“My house!” Haley yelled, gesturing wildly towards her front door as the buzzing grew louder.
“Good idea,” Jason said as he ran towards the house, dragging her behind him. The buzzing became louder as the swarm began circling them. Once they reached the front door, he opened it, relieved that she’d left it unlocked, and dragged her inside, slamming the door shut behind them.
“Bees!” Haley cried, gesturing wildly to the yellowjackets that had followed them inside.
He quickly released her hand and grabbed two magazines from a small pile on the coffee table and threw one to her. Without a word, they rolled the magazines up and began to attack the dozen or so yellowjackets that had managed to follow them inside. Neither spoke until the last one was dead.
“Five nights…in…a…row…stung…” Jason tried to explain while he struggled to catch his breath.
“You knew there were yellowjackets and you still tore up the flowers?” Haley asked in disbelief.
Her grandmother had taught her well. A ground nest was not something you wanted to mess with.
It could be as small as a stack of quarters or several feet long, but you wouldn’t know until it was too late.
Jason gestured towards his house. “I was trying to kill them!”
She shook her head in disbelief. He knew there was a nest and he hadn’t told her? He knew that she worked outside every weekend.
“Why didn’t you tell me there was a nest?” Haley demanded, trying not to yell at him, but it was difficult knowing just how easily they could have been killed.
“I did!”
“No, you didn’t!”
He threw his hands up in exasperation. “I’ve been trying to tell you for the last few weeks, but whenever I approached you, you ran off!”
Haley opened her mouth to argue only to shut it just as quickly with a wince. Yeah, that really did sound like something she would do where he was concerned.
“Oh,” she finally said.
“Yeah, oh,” Jason snapped as he glanced out the window and groaned. “They’re still swarming.”
Haley sighed. “They’re going to be a problem for a few hours. We need to call an exterminator.”
Man, he was fucking freezing.
He was soaked to the bone and it didn’t look like he was going to be able to go to his house to change anytime soon.
Normally, he’d strip down to his boxers, but his neighbor was already skittish around him.
He didn’t want to give the poor thing a heart attack.
Jason looked down at her very clean and, obviously well cared for, wood floor and cringed.
“Shit, maybe I should step out the backdoor and dry off,” Jason said as he raised his eyes to look at the adjoining kitchen and swore roundly as he watched the windows suddenly turn black.
“I don’t think that will be happening for a while,” Haley mumbled softly as she rubbed her forehead. “Why don’t you go take a shower and I’ll see if I can find you something to wear. While you’re taking your shower, I’ll call an exterminator.”
“If you’re sure?” Jason said, hoping that she wouldn’t change her mind. He was freezing his balls off. Hell, at this point, he’d squeeze his ass into a dress to get warm.
Haley nodded absently as she watched the bees swarm around her backyard through the gaps in the windows. “Yeah, let me show you where the bathroom is.”
Ten minutes later, the shivering had finally stopped and he was able to enjoy his shower.
Never in his life had hot water felt this good before.
This was the best shower he’d ever had. It didn’t hurt that his shy neighbor shared his appreciation for the simple things in life like a normal bar of soap.
She didn’t have any of that perfumed shit that never lathered properly and always left a rash on his skin.
It also didn’t hurt that the bathroom looked like a bathroom and wasn’t covered from head-to-toe in lace and makeup.
This was a bathroom a man could comfortably use.