Hero Next Door (Next Door Romance Book 2) Read online

  She shoves passed me, practically knocking me out of the way, and slides in to her car. I’m stunned to the core as I watch her fly away, I can’t believe how rude she was to me right then. That was just strange. Maybe she isn’t a nice wounded person after all but someone who treats others like shit. I might have misread her after all, which I suppose is possible. I mean, you can’t make a decent judgment on someone after two minutes of greeting, can you?

  “Well, you know to walk away from her then,” I remind myself as I walk inside. I’m trying to convince myself that I’m not seething, but I can’t hide how angry she has really made me. “She is trouble. Not worth the effort. If she can’t even be nice to me when I’m being nothing but pleasant to her… well, she isn’t worth it.”

  Anyways, I can’t fight the sleep any longer, so I take the stairs two at a time and collapse on to the bed sheets, needing to rest more than anything else in the world. Screw Esme and her nastiness, she means nothing to me. I don’t even know her. I hope that by the time I wake up, she will be out of my mind for good.

  “Oh, Theo,” she murmurs, the plumpness of her lips pouting out to me. Esme grabs her hair and flicks it flirtingly over her shoulder, acting completely different to the last time I saw her. Now, instead of being snappy and kinda bitchy with me, she’s seducing me, trying to lure me in with her sparkly blue eyes, and I have to admit that I’m falling for it. “You really are a gorgeous man. You make me feel all kinds of things. I can’t even explain it.”

  I have to admit that even if it isn’t wise, I am being lured in by her. I find myself moving towards her moving hips, wanting to reach out and touch her soft skin, needing to have her as near me as possible.

  “Esme, I thought that you hated me,” I whisper as she pins me down and straddles me. “What happened?”

  “There is a thin line between love and hate.” She wiggles her eyebrows knowingly. “Lust as well…”

  She kisses me. Her lips meet mine with intense passion, with such power that she blows me away. I am hard as rock underneath her and she can feel it. She wants it. Esme grinds against my cock with her core and she lets out little gasps of need. Knowing that she needs me only fires me up even more. I fucking need her no matter what.

  There isn’t even a rational thought in my brain that this shouldn’t be happening. I am too blown away.

  In the next breath, Esme is on her knees in front of me and she has my cock in her mouth. She’s hungrily sucking on me, she can’t get enough of me, and it has me nearly losing my fucking mind already. She is incredible, the way that she’s tasting me is something else. I could explode between her lips already. Her mouth is hot and needy, it’s sending a shudder down my spine. I knot my fingers up in her flame red hair and tug whenever it’s too much.

  “Shit, Esme.” She’s licking me, tasting me like a damn lollipop. “Fuck, it’s too much.”

  I don’t even know this woman, not really, but fuck me I feel like I damn well know everything about her now. She’s a porn star, someone that I want to watch all the time, someone that I want to experience as well. I can’t get enough of her. I can’t think of another time that I have ever felt like this for anyone. I want to hold her, to be inside of her, to thrust within her until she’s losing her freaking mind. I want to drive her wild…

  The next moment, her mouth is gone, but I am buried deep inside of her. She’s on my lap, bouncing, her breasts going wild, her hair all over the place, looking like a fucking goddess. My finger cling on to her hips, I dig in her skin, I hold on to her like I can’t bear to let her go which is the truth because what she’s doing to my cock right now is off the scale. Her walls are clamping tight to me, coaxing the orgasm from me, and I can’t contain myself. She’s pushing me to the edge of desire, sending me over the hill in to the abyss, but I don’t feel ready yet. I want to really experience every inch of her body in every way, I don’t know when I will get this opportunity again.

  Esme is on her hands and knees and I’m thrusting into her from behind, stroking the curve of her ass as I do. This feels good, I like this, I reach over her, cupping her breasts, holding her nipples between my fingers. Then she’s underneath me, she has her legs and arms wrapped tightly around me as I fuck her hard. The next moment, she’s on her front and I’m on top of her, I’m standing with her up against the wall, she’s on top of me facing away… the positions keep on changing with every breath and I fucking love it. It’s making me animalistic and crazy.

  “Shit, Esme…” She’s my dream girl, I mean, literally. I can tell that this is a dream. It’s all happening much too fast paced to be real, but I fucking love it. It’s absolutely incredible. “Esme, oh my God…”

  I say her name over and over again, it falls off of my lips like a prayer as the pressure of pleasure starts to get the better of me. Her mouth is on me, I’m buried deep inside of her, she’s riding me like there’s no tomorrow, until I erupt like a fucking volcano. It feels like I’m never going to stop coming, it’s the most intense pleasure that I have ever experienced, I can’t stop it, and it’s all because of Esme. Her beauty, her sweet face, her sexy curves, her peaks and dips… every single part of my stunning next door neighbor. I don’t want to let her go, I want to cling on to her forever, but already, she’s fading. It feels like she’s slipping through my fingers like grains of sand.

  “Don’t go,” I whisper. “Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be on my own anymore…”

  But she’s gone and the light is coming for me. I can no longer remain asleep in my own little dream world however wonderful it might be. I’m losing Esme, and her wonderful curves, her alluring smile, her gorgeous nipples, she’s fading. Real life is coming back for me, whether I want it to or not…

  Chapter 5 – Esme

  The knot in my stomach is so huge I can’t stand it. The anxiety zig zagging through my body is so intense that I honestly don’t know how I’m standing. My knees might as well be knocking together because I’m like a jelly. That was the worst drive to work I have ever had and I know the day is only going to get even worse. Now I have to face him.

  There’s no one in the office. Of course there isn’t. No one isn’t supposed to be in the office yet. Not until after nine AM, but today I found myself woken up my Mr. Jones demanding that I turn up right away because the issue with the Starks contract has only gotten worse. He can’t seem to make them want to continue dealing with us no matter what he tries. I don’t know what I can do in this that he’s calling me in so early to office. I’m not sure what I can do, but he was far too furious on the phone for me to even begin to disagree. I got dressed as quickly as I could, and drove off instantly.

  I can’t slow down now. Much as I want to hang around in the reception area while I get my breath back and maybe even try and gather up some inner strength to face him, I can’t. I have to keep on going or his temper might bubble over to another level. I can’t be the reason that he gets even more wound up… I just can’t…

  “I need to get out of here,” I whisper to myself as I run towards Mr. Jones’ office. “It would be worth any financial difficulty not to have to deal with this all the time. I don’t know how much more I can take of this.”

  Empty words, of course. If I was going to walk out on this job then I would have done so already, but allowing that thought to flood me while I’m within the office is strangely freeing. Perhaps that’s the way to get through this day. There definitely isn’t anything else that I can do, is there? I can’t fix all of this…

  Oh God, what if it’s all about to crash right now? What if today is the end? I don’t know how much Mr. Jones can keep this up if things are really bad. I don’t know if it will go slowly or explode all in one go. Will we be given a clue as staff members are slowly ebbed away or one day will it all be just gone? Nothing left…

  “Fuck this!” I hear Mr. Jones screaming in his office, followed very quickly by the sound of something shattering, breaking as it smashes against the wall. Now that does st
op me in my tracks. I have heard him yell a million and one times, more than once a day, but he hasn’t ever acted in a violent manner. Oh God, I’m chilled to the bone, scared that Mr. Jones has snapped, lost his mind at last and now I will be the one who has to deal with him. I’m not equipped for that, no way. I’m not strong enough for any of this. Maybe I should message Delia. “Fucking, fucking… fuck!”

  More smashing follows, then his office door swings open and Mr. Jones lays his eyes on me. Delight springs across his face because he finally has a target to take his temper out on. All I want to do is run.

  “You’re here,” he growls. “At last. You have come to help me sort this shit out. And so you should.”

  “What… what do you want me to do?” I stammer back, terror lacing my tone. “I’m here to… to help…”

  “Get the Stark files from my office, then follow me in to the conference room. I need a plan and now.”

  He takes off for the conference room, hurricane of storm clouds off with him. The thunder and lightning might be gone, but the after effects of the tornado are still rampant, including the shards of glass all over his room. I know that I will be expected to clean this up without being asked and I figure it better to do it sooner rather than later. I’m sure that Mr. Jones won’t want anyone to know about this hissy fit. I would rather people be aware so that we all know who and what we’re up against, but I can’t. I can’t resist snapping a photograph on my cell phone though, but that’s just to show Delia later. I want someone to get the hell of my job. Honestly, it’s a nightmare.

  I get the glass cleaned up as quickly as I can, only cutting my finger once. The band aid covers up any potential blood spillage, so at least I’m not adding to the mess. Then I grab the files and join Mr. Jones in the conference room. I feel like I’m walking in to the lion’s den, a lamb that is ripe for slaughter. Of course, I get my yelling the moment I am inside the room for taking too long to find the file. I know time is of the essence, but I decide not to mention the cleanup I just had to do. It just doesn’t seem worth it. I sit in silence and take the yelling instead.

  “Okay, well let’s get on with it then,” he eventually sighs once he has run out of things to shout. It’s taken longer than I’m sure it should have done. “I suppose we need to plan out how to make this work somehow.”

  He would be better with a production manager or someone on the assembly line, but it’s me always. If I didn’t know any better than I would think that he has a weird obsession with me and that this is all to do with that. I’m sure it isn’t, but sometimes that concept creeps in to my head. Although if that’s the case I don’t know where it will lead…

  “Woah, that is fucked up,” Delia hisses as she pours over the picture of Mr. Jones’ office that I took for her earlier on. “That dude is getting weirder by the day. What the hell do you think is going on with him? I can’t work it out. He’s unhinged, isn’t he? Not a normal person. Do you think that the power has gone to his head?”

  I shrug my shoulders hopelessly. “God knows. I don’t know what is going on with him at the moment. He certainly isn’t like he used to be when I first started working here, but I wouldn’t want to speculate what that means.”

  “I would,” Delia shoots back grumpily. “And it’s that he is a massive asshole. Sometimes, I think that we should all just leave this place. Leave him in the lurch, but then I know guys like him never fail, never fall. They always find a way and I’m sure he will just have a staff force to replace us in seconds and we will be the ones to lose.”

  My shoulders sag forwards because that’s exactly how I feel about it all. “I know. He has that way about him.”

  “Urgh, let’s stop talking about him anyway.” Delia shudders. “He takes up enough of my life without me needing to spend my whole life discussing him. I hate him, but I have to work for him, that’s the end of it.”

  Huh, if only I could be so blasé about it all. But then it isn’t as easy for me to turn my back on my boss because I am his target, the one who is attached to him all the time. I don’t get any kind of escape. Not even when I’m at home. He has me worried about every phone call, every email, every message, and I have nightmares about this place.

  I was already in the middle of a horrible dream about work when I got that dreaded phone call this morning. So, it made it even less welcome. The mood that the whole thing put me in was horrific. I was also confused and sleepy.

  “Tell me about your hot neighbor.” Delia nudges me in the side and winks at me. “How is he?”

  All of a sudden, an iciness trickles down my spine. My neighbor, Theo, he tried to talk to me this morning and I was… well, really quite rude to him. I didn’t even think of it at the time, I was too swallowed up by anxiety and exhaustion to even think about it. So much so that I forgot about the whole thing until now, but it’s all coming screaming back. He was so sweet to me, so polite, on his way back from a hard shift with the fire fighters judging by the smell of him, and I barely answered him, I practically pushed him out of the way, I was awful.

  “Oh no.” My head flies forwards and smacks on to the canteen table. “I just remembered that he tried to talk to me this morning and I was too freaked out about work to chat back. He must think that I am so rude…”

  “I’m sure that he doesn’t,” Delia tries to reassure me right away. “He’s a fire fighter, so he works in a high pressure environment. He will get it. Everyone gets like that when work is too much.”

  “But I am a personal assistant to a horrible man. He saves lives. It isn’t the same…”

  I groan once more, shame washing over me. I have to fix this. I don’t want my new neighbor to hate me, and not just because he’s good looking, but because he’s sweet as well and he’s been nothing but nice to me. I might not be able to be his friend, but I don’t have the energy to be his enemy either. I want him and his girlfriend to at least say hello when they see me. I don’t want them assuming that I am the worst kind of person.

  “I need to buy him some chocolates or something, take them around tonight,” I moan to my friend. “I have to say sorry because honestly it was so bad. I feel like an idiot. I just hope that I get out of here early enough. Just because I came in to the office at the crack of dawn, it doesn’t mean that Mr. Jones will let me go home at a normal time.”

  “You do worry too much,” Delia laughs as she hugs me. “I bet he didn’t even notice.”

  But now that I’m thinking about it and I am trying to remember the stark details of our exchange, I can see hurt in his eyes, hurt because of me. I never want anyone to feel that way because of something that I have done.

  “Anyway…” Delia continues, not sensing my internal dilemma at all. “I will smuggle you out at the end of the day. Hide you and help you escape. We can sneak passed the reception desk and no one has to know.”

  “If only.” I roll my eyes in an over the top dramatic fashion. “You know that Mr. Jones likes to keep an eye on me at the end of the day. He doesn’t ever want to give me the chance to get out of here without another conversation with him.” Actually, that sounds weirdly like obsession, now that I’m thinking about it. “Nice try though.”

  I don’t want to express my fears about Mr. Jones to Delia because she already thinks that I am paranoid about Theo. I don’t need to add to that. The last thing I want if for people to think that I am the one losing my mind. I have enough issues on my plate without adding that in to the mix. I’m sure that I’m wrong anyway and my boss is just an asshole. No need to get all worked up because of him.

  Chapter 6 – Theo

  What the hell? I blink a few times, trying to work out what is going on. One minute, I’m in bed dreaming about the beautiful red head making me feel absolutely amazing, and the next moment, she’s in front of me looking like a dream come true. I don’t think that I am still asleep, but I’m, not totally convinced that I’m awake either.

  I woke up to knocking, properly woke up anyway, or so I thought.
Now I’m not quite so sure.

  “I’m sorry, Theo,” she starts, with an adorable blush consuming her cheeks. Her face might as well be the same color as her hair, she is definitely back to be her sweet normal self, nothing like the grump I came across this morning. “I was so rude to you this morning. I was having a terrible time with my boss and I just…”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it,” I reply breezily, not letting it show that I was bothered at all. “I know how stressful work can be, I hope that whatever the issue was, you managed to sort it out.” Her face falls. “Uh oh…” I lean my body up against the door frame and shoot her a lop sided smile. “Anything that you want to talk about?”

  “No, no. I just wanted to give you this.” She hands me an expensive looking box of chocolates. “I feel so bad for the way that I spoke to you when you were just being friendly. And you’ve only just moved in…”

  “You don’t need to worry. I don’t think bad of you,” I chuckle. “Like I said, I get it. My work can be a bitch too. You keep the chocolates, I don’t need them. I forgive you without them. I haven’t even thought about it.”

  She insists that I keep them, blushing even harder. I only take them because I feel like it’s the right thing to do, just to calm her down. I feel like Esme’s head will explode if I don’t take them from her. She needs this apology to work out. Poor woman, again I find myself struck with worry about what is going on in her life. She is just so sad.

  “I know that I didn’t see your girlfriend, but apologize to her as well,” she continues quietly. “I should never have behaved like that. I couldn’t be more embarrassed. I don’t want you guys to hate me or anything…”

  “Girlfriend?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are you talking about? I don’t have a girlfriend?”