Perfection: A Neighbor From Hell Novel Read online

  "Here you go," the bartender said with a delicious little smile that made Zoe even happier.

  "Thank you," she murmured, handing over a twenty and waving away the change. She picked up her drink and sipped it as she looked over the crowd, wondering what the best way to approach a man for sex was.

  Her eyes landed on Trevor as he walked into the bar and she nearly sighed. He really looked good, she thought and judging by the way every woman in the bar seemed to stop what they were doing to look his way she didn't think she was the only one that thought so.

  She raised her hand to wave to him only to stop mid-raise as she reminded herself that it wasn't like that between them. They weren't friends and the last thing she needed tonight was to look pathetic, well even more pathetic than coming to a bar alone to pick up a guy. For a minute she sat there sipping her drink as she discretely watched as he approached the corner where a lot of guys from work were hanging out.

  While all the guys greeted him the women looked him over hungrily. Not that she could blame them. He did look rather delicious tonight. Through narrowed eyes she watched as that jerk that liked to make fat comments about her when he thought she couldn't hear approached Trevor with several women. He wasn't an attractive man, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he obviously put a lot of work and time into his appearance. His hair was over styled, she'd bet everything that she had that his black designer tee shirt was ironed along with his pants and she knew the large bugle in his pants had to be a rolled up gym sock. The man was pathetic and a jerk and she was getting sick of his comments, but she kept her mouth shut only because she didn't want to start any drama at work.

  Obviously Trevor liked the big jerk, she thought as she watched him greet the women that the jerk practically shoved his way. She couldn't help but feel disappointed when Trevor didn't tell the jerk off or walk away from the women who looked like they'd been around the block one too many times.

  Of course nothing disappointed her more than when he looked up and met her eyes only to look away. Then again it shouldn't because they weren't really friends, she thought, making a mental note to short change him on his lunch Monday morning. She forced herself to look away and focus back on the task at hand.

  Having sex.

  "You're a pretty little thing," a man with shoulder length blonde hair and pretty grey eyes said as he took the stool next to her and gestured for a beer. He looked clean and had the boy next door look going for him and would probably be a good choice to help her get over her sexual slump.

  "Thank you," she said, feeling secretly pleased by the comment and attention. At least someone was happy to see her, she mused.

  "Are you here with someone?" the man asked as he ran assessing eyes over her, pausing on her breasts.

  She opened her mouth to answer only to have a familiar deep voice answer for her.

  "She's with me," Trevor said, throwing his arm around her shoulders as he gave the man a pointed look.

  The man opened his mouth, looking as though he wanted to argue, but quickly snapped his mouth shut as he took in Trevor's large build. With a forced smile and a nod farewell the man grabbed his beer and walked away.

  "You're welcome," Trevor said, taking the newly vacated seat and signaled for a beer.

  "Why the hell did you just do that?" Zoe hissed, watching the man hurry across the room towards a much prettier brunette. Great, now she'd have to figure out how to get another man to approach her, she thought, taking a sip of her very delicious drink.

  "Because he was bothering you," Trevor simply said, looking around as though he'd already dismissed her and he probably had, she thought, taking another large sip of her drink.

  "He wasn't bothering me."

  "No?" Trevor asked, sounding bored as he winked at a pretty blonde across the room. Even from this distance Zoe could tell the blonde was giggling behind her hand and loving the attention.

  Hmmm, perhaps that's what she should do. If she spotted a man that she wouldn't mind having sex with she should wink or giggle or something to let him know she was interested. Yes, that was a good plan, she decided, but she should probably wait until after she had another drink to put her new plan into action.

  She signaled for the cute bartender and pointed to her mostly empty drink and mouthed the words, "One more." With a wink the bartender did just that.

  "What the hell are you doing here, Zoe?" Trevor asked, not bothering to turn around on his stool to acknowledge her in any other way. "I thought you had a date," he bit out, making Zoe frown.

  If she had a date she wouldn't be stuck hitting a bar, trying to get picked up for sex. Hopefully really hot sex, but sex nonetheless.

  "Well?" he demanded in that bossy tone of his that usually annoyed her, but for some reason she found it really cute tonight.

  She looked him over and noted the styled short hair, which if she was to be honest she'd admit that she liked the way his hair looked after a long day of work when it was all messy and adorable. His shirt was nice, dark blue and fit him just right, showing his muscular build off to perfection along with his dark pants. She sighed happily when she caught a whiff of his delectable cologne.

  The man was simply delicious. Deliciously cute, she thought, fighting back a giggle as she finished off her drink and reached for her new one. Had she paid the bartender? She wasn't sure so she pulled out another ten and handed it to him as he walked past, earning another one of his cute winks. Where Trevor was all hotness mixed with a bit of cuteness the bartender was adorable mixed cuteness.

  Wait......

  Wasn't cuteness and adorable the same thing?

  It didn't matter, she decided a minute later when she started sipping her new drink, which in her mind was even more delicious than the previous......umm, well, it didn't matter how many previous drinks she'd had, because this one was by far the yummiest.

  "Zoe? What the hell are you doing here?" Trevor, the hot cutie pie, demanded once again.

  "Probably for the same reason that you're here," she said, taking another sip of her drink and wondering if she could start drinking screwdrivers for breakfast since orange juice was a breakfast drink and vodka was made from grains. It would be her fun, delicious, healthy breakfast drink, she decided.

  "And that is.....," Trevor prompted, pulling her out of her happy thoughts and back to the task at hand.

  She threw a wink at the bartender that made the happy drinks and answered, "To have sex."

  Chapter 14

  Trevor was so busy running an appreciative eye over his little tenant that he nearly missed what she said. When her words registered in his mind, he decided that he'd simply misheard her over all the noise.

  "What?" he asked, leaning back slightly so he could run his eyes over her floral skirt encased ass. Holy hell, she had a great ass, he thought, taking a sip of his beer and nearly choking on it when she repeated her answer.

  "I need sex," she said in a matter-of-fact tone that clearly caught the attention of several men around them. One murderous look from him had them losing interest in Zoe real damn fast.

  "What the hell are you drinking?" he asked, already knowing alcohol was to blame for his normally reasonable tenant's temporary insanity. He stole the drink from her hand and took a sip.

  "Hey! That's my yummy diet drink!" she cried, trying to grab the drink back from him.

  He easily avoided her mad grabs. He cringed as the taste of hard liquor hit him. Holy shit, whoever made this didn't know anything about mixing drinks. This drink had to be more than half filled with vodka. He caught the attention of the bartender and handed the half empty drink over to him.

  "Hey! That's mine!" Zoe grumbled, making an attempt to reach for the drink, but the bartender was already gone. She sighed heavily as she watched the bartender dump her drink down the sink.

  "Is he going to make me another yummy diet drink?" Zoe asked, sounding so damn hopeful that he couldn't help but chuckle.

  "I don't think so," he said, still s
miling.

  She scrunched up her face adorably. "Damn."

  "How many of those drinks have you had?" he asked, moving his beer away from Zoe with a heavy sigh as her sneaky little hand tried to steal it.

  "I don't know," she said, scrunching up her face adorably in thought, "I lost count after the third one."

  "And how long have you been here?" he asked, already having a rough idea.

  "About an hour," she said, running her eyes around the bar and looking slightly distraught. "This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would," she confessed, making another half-ass attempt to steal his drink.

  "What is?"

  "Finding a man to have sex with," she said with a lazy shrug as if her little announcement was no big deal.

  For a moment he could only stare at her in wonder. "You really came to a bar to have sex?"

  She snorted out a small giggle, rolling her eyes. "No, silly, I wasn't planning on having sex at the bar," she said as if he were crazy. A few seconds later her lips pursed up thoughtfully. "Although I've never had sex in a bar and that does sound kind of fun," she admitted, shocking the hell out of him. Not because she thought having sex in a bar was fun, it was, but the fact that she was speaking to him so bluntly.

  "I couldn't help but overhear your dilemma," a man sporting a goatee and a wedding band said as he sauntered up to Zoe. "Maybe I can-"

  Trevor leveled a glare on the man that had him stumbling to a halt and practically running away a second later.

  Something soft brushed against his shoulder. He looked over in time to see Zoe's little balled up fist sail through the air and land against his shoulder, although he barely felt it he figured telling her that would only come as a challenge to his little tenant.

  "Stop doing that!" she hissed, glaring at him.

  "Doing what?" he asked, giving the platinum blonde that had been flirting with him from across the room a subtle shake of his head as she started to approach him. Although she was gorgeous and he normally wouldn't mind losing his body in a woman like her for a night he couldn't leave Zoe alone. With her mouth and determination she was going to find herself in a lot of trouble.

  "Coming between me and sex," she stated with a sigh. "I have a really good plan and if you'd just go sit over there," she said, leaning closer to him and in the process pressing her large soft breasts against his arm as she pointed around him towards an empty seat at the other end of the bar, "I can get on with it."

  He nearly groaned when she pulled her breasts away from him and demanded that she put them back. They had been soft and comforting, damn it! Somehow he forced his thoughts away from her selfish little act of taking them away and focused on the problem at hand, a drunk Zoe.

  "You're really determined to do this, aren't you?" he asked, noting the way she scanned the crowd almost desperately.

  "Five years, Trevor. Five long years," she said with a pout as she tried, unsuccessfully, to get the bartender's attention. When it became painfully obvious that the bartender wasn't going to serve her, at least not while Trevor was there, Zoe gave up and went back to scanning the crowd, which he had to admit was pretty insulting.

  What the hell was wrong with him? he had to wonder when she didn't spare him a glance. He was a fucking Bradford for Christ sake's. Bradford men were known for being studs and this small, normally plain woman, couldn't be bothered with trying to get him into bed when she was clearly desperate for it was really fucking insulting.

  "Can you imagine going five years without sex?" Zoe asked, breaking into his thoughts.

  He thought it over for a moment. It had been a long time since he had sex, a year? Year and a half? That was pretty bad, but five years? He'd sooner starve to death than go without sex for that long.

  Zoe took his grimace as agreement. "Exactly. Now," she said, straightening up in her seat and giving her breasts a slight push up to put them on display that made his mouth go bone dry within seconds, "if you'll excuse me I'm about to rectify that little problem."

  He sighed heavily as she stood up, wobbled, and took a step towards the crowd. She didn't make it far before he had his arm around her and was steering her towards the exit sign, resigning himself to put off his own plans for another night so he could play nursemaid to his drunk tenant hell bent on having sex.

  "Trevor? Where the hell are you going?" he heard Hank yell over the loud crowd and music, but he just ignored the prick.

  He still couldn't believe the man thought he'd be interested in any of those bar bunnies. When he realized his night was shot and he had to look forward to putting up with Hank acting like they were best friends and women who grossed him out hanging all over him he decided to leave and try another bar, but then he spotted her sitting all by herself, looking so damn pretty that he swore his heart actually skipped a beat.

  Even across the room he'd been able to tell that she wasn't wearing any makeup, but he hadn't cared. When he realized that she was actually making him drool from across the room he realized that he really needed to haul his ass out of there, but then he spotted the asshole sauntering up to her and he knew that he couldn't leave her to fend for herself.

  He really was too damn giving, he thought as he stopped her from pulling away from his side and steered her back towards the door.

  "Oh," Zoe said, stumbling by his side. "Are we going to find someone to have sex with me outside?"

  Trevor gave her shoulder a patronizing squeeze. "We sure are."

  She sighed contently. "Good. Just make sure he likes oral sex, because I really miss doing that for a man," she announced, making him stumble.

  ***********

  This was going to be a long fucking night, Trevor decided five minutes later after he managed to somehow convince Zoe that if she wanted to have sex that she had to get into his truck.

  "Hey, you lied!" Zoe gasped as they pulled out of the parking lot.

  "Took you long enough," he mumbled, wondering when she'd be a good little girl and pass out and put him out of his misery. All this talk about Zoe having sex and giving blow jobs was killing him.

  "Now I don't feel bad," she said, crossing her arms stubbornly over chest as she did her best to glare at him.

  "About what?" he asked absently, not really in the mood for any drunken rambling.

  "About lying to you," she said, making his eyebrows arch.

  "You lied to me?" he asked stunned, not because she lied to him, well he was, but that she had managed to do it without giving herself away. She was a horrible little liar after all.

  "Mmmhmm," she mumbled, already starting to lose interest in him and the conversation as she turned her attention to playing with his radio. He placed his hand over hers and stopped the already annoying channel surfing.

  "What did you lie about?" he asked, wondering if she would actually admit to something or if this was just alcohol induced bullshit.

  "The book series we're reading. It doesn't have any sex in them until the last book and even then it's only really hinted at," she said, surprising the hell out of him.

  "You bitch!" he hissed, but couldn't help but laugh.

  "Yeah, I know. It was really fun to screw with your head," she admitted in an offhand tone. "I also lied last week when I said that orange shirt looked good on you when it really looked stupid. Then last month I lied when I said the bakery was already closed when I just really didn't feel like going and I took a long hot bath instead."

  "I see....," he murmured, lost in thought. He'd heard of angry drunks, happy drunks, sad drunks, but this was the first time he'd ever encountered an honest drunk. It made him wonder........

  "Has it really been five years since you last had sex?" he asked, deciding to test the waters.

  She sighed heavily. "Yes, at least five years."

  "Were you really going to have sex with a complete stranger?" he asked, not really believing Zoe would do something like that.

  "In a heartbeat," she said without any hesitation, further surprising the hell out of him
and pissing him right the hell off.

  "Are you out of your fucking mind?" he practically bellowed, not even making her flinch in her alcohol induced mellow state. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is, Zoe? What could have happened to you?"

  She frowned at him as she opened her small black purse and pulled out a handful of condoms. "But that's why I brought these," she explained, looking confused. "For protection," she clarified when he only glared at her.

  He gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to fight back the urge to ring her neck or spank her ass. "Zoe, you cannot go around sleeping with strangers. It's dangerous," he said through a clenched jaw, wondering if she'd remember any of this later or if he'd have to have this talk again with her tomorrow when she was sober.

  "Weren't you there to have sex with a stranger," she said accusingly.

  "That's not the point, Zoe," he gritted out.

  "How is it fair that you can go have sex, but I can't?" she demanded, crossing her arms beneath her ample breasts and unintentionally shoving them up until he swore, prayed, that they'd pop out of her blouse.

  "It's just the way it is," he said tightly, pressing the gas pedal harder in an attempt to get her home and out of his hair before she drove him crazy.

  "I don't see how it is. I want sex. I miss sex and used to love it. I've decided that I shouldn't have to worry until I'm ready to have a relationship, which probably won't be for another year or two before I have sex again. So, I decided that I should be allowed to enjoy being single and have sex with whomever I want, whenever I want," she informed him in a tone she probably thought would make him think twice about arguing with her. "Now," she said with a slight roll of her hand back towards the direction of the bar, "take me back there so I can have sex."

  "Not happening."

  "But I want sex!" she whined. "Really good, hot, sweaty sex!"

  "Uh huh," he said, ignoring her adorable little pout. "You're really not interested in a relationship right now?" he asked, allowing his mind to go somewhere that he knew was dangerous.