“Maybe.” His eyes darken, not a smirk in sight on his usually cocky face. His stare is so intense, I have to fight to not squirm underneath it. My mouth dries, and I try to swallow against the lump that’s formed in my throat. Suddenly, the air feels thick for an entirely different reason.
Surely, he doesn’t mean that. He’s just trying to fuck with me… right?
Before I have a chance to respond, a knock sounds at the door, startling me and effectively breaking the bubble we’ve built. We both stand, watching each other for a moment longer before he turns, heading for the door. With his hand on the knob, he glances behind himself at me. “Don’t forget our bet… you owe me,cariño.”
He pulls the door open a second later, a short, stocky man standing in front of us. “Locksmith?” the man says.
Pulling my gaze away from Mateo, I regain my senses. “Uh, yeah. That’s me. It’s across the hall.”
I follow the man out into the hall, Nova trotting right beside me, as he gets to work. Mateo stays put in his doorway while the man fiddles with mine. It only takes a handful of minutes before the apartment door pops open, and as I’m entering my house, I turn around and glance at Mateo, a signature cocky smirk on his face.
The first thing I do once inside is plug my phone into the charger. When it powers on, I scroll through all my missed notifications. My sister and Xander have sent several, but it’s the text from an unknown number that catches my eye and has me opening it before all the others.
Unknown: Soon… we’re going out. Don’t even think of telling me no. A bet’s a bet, cariño.
For a second, I’m confused about how he got my number, and then it hits me… I gave it to the locksmith over the phone.He memorized my phone number.
My stomach flutters, and I roll my eyes despite the stupid smile forming on my face. Nothing good is going to come from this. I just know it.
20
MATEO
It ended up raining overnight. Woke up this morning, and it’s like the snowstorm never even happened. Fine by me… I fucking hate the snow anyway. Walking into the shop, I flick on the lights, heading into the office to crank the heat. It’s so damn cold in here, I can see my breath in front of my face.
I’m usually always the first one to arrive. Miguel and Benny are slower starters, whereas I like to get up and get moving right away. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember. In high school, I’d get up a few hours before school to run and workout. I still do that, but it’s too damn cold right now, so I’ve been pushing it off for later when it warms up. The gym is about a mile from my house, and when it’s not literal freezing temperatures outside, it’s usually no problem for me to jog there before work.
Stepping into the garage, my eyes find Travis’s car, and thoughts from the last few days come rushing back, a smirk sliding into place. The sex with him was some of the best I’ve had, and I’m antsy for a repeat. Something tells me he isn’t going to make it easy, though.
I turn on some music and get to work. Miguel and Benny show up about an hour after I do, and we’re all busy enough that we don’t get a chance to shoot the shit at all until it’s late afternoon, and finally time to eat lunch. We ordered pizza because none of us brought anything, nor did we want to leave to pick anything up.
“So, my neighbor locked himself out of his apartment the day the storm started,” I say nonchalantly as I shove another piece of pizza into my mouth.
Miguel drops his slice, knowing gaze meeting mine. “Oh, yeah? Which neighbor?”
“The one across the hall.”
“You mean the one who hates you?” Benny asks.
I nod, my smirk growing. “That’s the one.”
Miguel laughs like he already knows what’s coming. “What did you do?”
“I did what any good neighbor would do,” I murmur with a shrug. “I invited him in to wait until a locksmith could make it out.”
“There’s no way he took you up on that,” Benny scoffs.
“Oh, but he did.” I always feel a sick sense of pride whenever I accomplish something—or someone—either of them thinks I can’t. There are very few—if any—things I’ve set my mind to and have been unable to attain. I get what I want, and people doubting me only makes me want it more.
“Oh, boy,” I hear Miguel mumble under his breath as Benny groans. “Do tell.”
“It was no big deal,” I say nonchalantly. “He came in, used my phone, but the locksmiths were all closed due to the snow. We smoked a little weed, we made a bet.” I shrug. “No big deal.”
“What was the bet?” The question comes from Miguel, but they’re both watching me.
“That I could make him come.”
Benny throws his hands in the air, rolling his eyes. Miguel chuckles.
