Chapter 2
2
Zach stood on Miss Rose’s porch after sticking Trixie back inside and tried to reach for an air of calm. That woman was like a punch to the gut and a free fall all wrapped up in a sexy redheaded package.
A Karen never looked so good.
But fuuuuuck. That ass was definitely going to be on his Christmas list.
Thing was that for whatever hotness she possessed, she really wasn’t his type. He liked them long and willowy. She was more Amazon warrior than runway model. Plus, she looked as if she might faint in horror at the idea of having a tattoo needle come within a mile of all that unblemished, creamy skin.
He didn’t like the squeamish type, either.
He liked adventurous and willing. Tovah acted as if she’d have to be dragged to the bed and then proceed with all the lights off and most of the clothes on.
Naw, that wasn’t for him.
Glad he’d talked himself out of doing something insanely stupid, Zach headed back across the yard and home.
He still had to deal with all the shit that went down that day and to figure out what he was going to teach for the unexpected class he’d been assigned. And yeah, he had to contact Penny. That was the most important thing. Didn’t want to leave her hanging on Thursday.
This time he got inside without fear of arrest. He found his spare key and stuck it on the ring with his bike key. He’d have to have another one made when he went back into town.
The rest of the evening was spent writing out a syllabus and downloading a metric for the new class, then rearranging his schedule to accommodate the time slot.
He could have just said no. They would have found an adjunct and not inconvenienced him in the least. But instead, he’d agreed because on rare occasions he did like to play nice. It looked good on his resume, especially when all the other boxes usually ticked for tenured professors were still open next to his name.
Admin needed to face the fact that he’d never conform in either dress code or attitude. He’d do his job to the very best of his ability and be respectful to his superiors, but he wasn’t about to go out of the way to lick their boots or kiss their asses.
That wasn’t him and hadn’t been for a seriously long time.
He believed in being true to himself and not the image the world had of what he should be.
Take Ms. Tovah Reese for instance. Even without admitting to it, she had totally called the cops on his ass because she took one look at him and decided he meant no good when all he’d been after was getting into his house after a trying day.
All right. Truthfully, there was more of that going around than just her perception. That woman looked nothing like her grandma. Pictures of Miss Rose sitting in antique frames around her house showed a petite goddess when she was young. She’d been a surfer girl back in the day. Plenty of the faded photos had her standing next to her board wearing a bikini top and shorts. Bummer that she’d taken a spill down a mountain.
As a matter of fact, he’d been so scared when word had come via a neighbor that he’d visited her in the hospital and planned to go see her during her rehab.
Man, they just didn’t make them like Miss Rose anymore. She was both the blueprint and the mold.
Her granddaughter was a haughty, rigid piece of business.
He stuck the end of his pen into his mouth and thought about what Tovah would do if he tried to put the moves on her. Probably have heart failure.
Might be fun to get her goat. Pull her out of her shell and show her how nice it was to live without a stick permanently engaged in one’s rectum.
Boy she was going to hate staying out here in Nowheresville. She didn’t seem like the type to enjoy the mountains, or nature. More the hustle bustle of city life and civilization kind of gal. The snooty kind who looked down on people in small towns as hicks.
And he was being every bit of a dick. Miss Rose had spoken highly of her granddaughter, and he trusted the senior’s judgement.
However, he’d seen Tovah’s type before. Judged first, asked questions never. They led with their prejudices and assumptions. Nothing was ever backed by science or first-hand knowledge. And that made him cranky.
Still, it would be worth it to see how far he could take her out of her comfort zone.
He leaned back in his desk chair and let out a chuckle. If her expression was any sourer, he’d call her Dill.
That thought led to another, more pleasant one—like how she’d look with his face shoved between her thighs, going at her like an Olympic hero in a pussy eating contest.
Damn, she probably smelled and tasted like a million bucks. Like a pampered rich girl. Like someone way out of his league.
He shook his head. Didn’t he stop worrying about things like that a long time ago? He knew the type of women who were attracted to him. They were the rebels and the rowdies. The women who spoke their minds and made no apologies for who and what they were. He liked them that way. Independent, in charge, and inked up.
Still, all the stories Miss Rose had told him about Tovah over the last few years, didn’t seem to jibe with the woman in the flesh.
And he was spending way too much time with her taking up free real estate in his brain meats. As it was his dick was already getting hard thinking about her with her legs spread wide and welcoming.
And damnit, why was he even interested?
She sure as hell didn’t give him a second thought.
The little devil in his brain whispered… Yeah, well what if she did?
“Grandma, I swear to all that’s holy you lied to me.”
Rose laughed. The sound full of happiness as it traveled over the distance and cell tower transmissions. “I did no such thing. I told you Zach was a nice young man. And he is. I didn’t lie about it.”
“He looks like a felon.”
Rose clucked her tongue through the phone. “You’re every bit as stuck up as the rest of your family.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say.” Especially since it was so far from the truth. Everyone at EdgeCorp had that corporate sleaze down to a science. The double talk, the backstabbing, the greed. No, she wasn’t anything like them.
“Ask Zach to take you for a ride on his Harley. A little ride through the mountains might do you some good.”
The thought of being on the back of the bike with her arms around that broad expanse of man made her heart pick up pace. Imagining her asking him for something so…well…intimate had her social anxiety rising to the surface. “I doubt he’d want to take me anywhere. He accused me of calling the police on him.”
“Of course he did, dear. Everyone else in the neighborhood knows him.”
Tovah pulled the phone away from her face and looked at the screen. Zach had said exactly the same thing. She was the odd one out in the neighborhood. The variable. No one else. Just her. Kind of narrowed down the suspects.
“I think you spoke to him.”
Now Rose didn’t just laugh, she cackled. “I wish. That man is yummy.”
“Grandma!”
“Hey, I’m old, not blind. If I was about twenty years younger, I’d go all cougar on him.”
“You are positively incorrigible.”
“And I own it.”
Yes, she would. Rose was an original. An unapologetic explorer of her own destiny. If she didn’t wrest every minute of fun out of a day, she considered it a waste of time. Even rainy days were opportunities to get into mischief.
“Now,” Rose had used her serious tone. “Have you told the rest of the family your plans?”
“No. And I don’t plan to anytime soon.”
“Good. None of their business anyhow.”
Tovah smiled. As long as she had one person supporting her in her desire to break away from the family then she was good. The fact it was her beloved grandmother made it even better.
Not that she didn’t care about the rest of her family—more like she no longer trusted them. Not after they turned on her. Okay, maybe that was taking it a bit far, but they hadn’t believed her when it mattered, and that was a wound that wouldn’t heal anytime soon.
As a matter of fact, she had no desire to tell them any of her plans. If they knew, they’d wonder why she chose the path of science rather than acquiring. Money, land, assets, power, it didn’t matter as long as it was a tradable commodity.
She loved her family but didn’t necessarily like them. This was her life to live. Not theirs. Any happiness she gleaned out of life was going to be due to her efforts alone and not that of anyone else.
A brief image of Zach flashed through her mind.
If anyone had the ability to make her live outside her comfort zone it was that man. He had ‘wild and untamed’ written all over him.
Unruly.
And that might seem mercenary. As if she used him to get back at her family for thinking she was a disaster. Even she wasn’t a big enough asshole to do that to a guy. However, if she apologized and gave him a message from her grandma….
No. Rose was right. Someone like Zach was probably used to women who were more forward and made their wants known.
Not that she wanted him.
Well, shit…he was taking up more cells in her brain than he ought for a first meeting. The fact he was her neighbor—if only temporarily—meant they’d most likely run into each other. At the very least she had better strive for cordial in the future, in order to not piss off Rose.
That was something she never wanted to do.
Tovah got back to looking at the course offerings and compared it to the grid of what she needed. Yes, she’d made a spreadsheet to keep track of her courses and requirements.
The fact her undergrad was in Business meant only the most general of her credits transferred. So far, she had Intro to Forensics, Intro to Criminal Justice, and a one hundred-level law class. They were at various times and days, which meant she had plenty of breaks in between her classes. Next semester wouldn’t be as ragged as she would be able to select her classes with all the other students. Since, she’d made the decision so late…well, she got what she got, and she had to live with it.
On the bright side, her feet would not only get wet but submerge completely in this new endeavor.
She refreshed the screen and half the other classes she wanted to take had red ribbons on them that said full.
Great. Now what was she supposed to do? Go with only a part-time load?
She checked her grid once more. Well, there was always Anatomy and Physiology. Unfortunately, the only block left was one being taught as an evening course once a week. A three-hour class.
Lord in heaven, those were long ones. A number of evening classes decorated her transcript. Her entire freshman schedule had been done in those long lectures as night fell on the university.
It hadn’t been fun.
When her classmates had been going out and having fun, she’d been stuck listening to professors drone on about macro-economics, dividends, and fiscal responsibility. A major her family had heartily encouraged. Where she had the aptitude for business, she hadn’t felt a particular passion for it.
All that was well and good, and she had done fine…until she hadn’t. But that was another story.
Now, she was going to pursue studies she was interested in.
In the end, Tovah bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on the evening class. They weren’t going to give her credit for staring at the screen.