"He won't be smiling at you," Alec cut me off, all traces of amusement leaving his eyes and features.

I frowned. "What has your knickers in a twist?"

"Kitten, when I'm in your presence I don't want to hear you talking about my brothers. Any of them."

When I am in his presence?

"Who the hell do you think you are? Jesus?"

Alec shrugged his shoulders. "I'm probably the closest thing on this Earth to Jesus, kitten."

What. The. Fuck?

"You vain piece of shite. How dare you compare yourself to-"

I was cut off when Alec burst into laughter; he bent forward smacked his left knee with his left hand and placed his right hand on the wall to keep him steady.

"Your face!" Alec roared with laughter. "You should have seen your face!"

I hated him.

I didn't know him that well but I hated him and I was allowing him to move in with me.

I officially lost my fucking mind!

I grimaced as I turned around. "Pipe down and follow me."

Alec continued to laugh as he followed me down the narrow hallway.

I stopped when I entered the combo kitchen and sitting room. "This is the kitchen and the sittin' room since there is no wall separatin' them. It's a small one bedroom apartment but it suits me fine."

I glanced behind me to look at Alec who was glancing around.

"You make the place look even smaller," I muttered.

Alec chuckled. "It's fine, it is small but we can use that to our advantage."

I turned to face him. "Explain."

Alec grinned. "We will be in close quarters so getting to know each other and becoming comfortable with each other will be a breeze. That's what you want, right?"

I eyed him sceptically. "Uh-huh."

Alec had a ghost of smile on his face that broke into a wide grin when Storm came up beside him and brushed his head against his thigh. Alec reached down and rubbed behind Storm's ears then he bent forward and gave him a few strong pats on the stomach. I folded my arms across my chest and glared.

"Bloody traitor," I muttered lowly to myself.

I cleared my throat. "Okay, so I don't know what time me ma will be here at but this place needs to be spotless before she gets here."

Alec stood up, glanced around the apartment and looked at me. "It is spotless."

I scoffed. "There is dog food and water on the floor behind you."

Alec shrugged. "Okay, apart from the dog food and water on the floor, everything else is spotless."

I scratched my neck. "I don't think so, I have to hoover, wash down the kitchen counters, and bathroom, then straightened up my bedroom-"

"Hold up. You mother checks your bedroom when she comes over? How old are you thirteen or twenty-three?"

I groaned. "It sounds bad I know, but just havin' everything clean and tidy will make her visit less painful. Trust me."

Alec regarded me with a wary look but eventually complied. "Okay, what can I do to help make this visit from the she-devil less painful?"

He was going to help me?

That was a nice and unexpected surprise.

"You can rinse the dealf that Aideen left on the draining board next to the sink this mornin'. I don’t like them sitting there all day, dust and such will gather on them. Get on that while I sort out me bedroom and the bathroom, okay"

Alec held his hand out to me, his fist tightly closed and said, "On it, boss."

It took a second for me to realise that he wanted me to fist bump him and when I eventually did ball my own hand into a fist and touched my knuckles against his, he audibly awed.

"Your fist is the size of a toddler's, that's probably the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire-"

"I'll punch you in the face with my toddler sized fist if your finish that sentence, playboy."

Alec bit his lower lip then proceeded to salute me. "Aye, Captain."

I rolled my eyes. "Just rinse off the dealf like a good little lad."

I brushed by him and smiled when I heard his dramatic gasp. "Little lad? I'm big all over, baby!"

"Yeah, I noticed how big your feet were," I called back down the hallway as I neared my bedroom.

"They are average size for a man my size!" Alec bellowed. "Besides, you know what they say about men with big feet, right?"

"Yeah, they wear big socks."

"Smartass!" Alec shouted making me laugh as I closed my bedroom door.

I shook my head still lightly laughing as I moved around my bedroom five minutes later. I opened my bedroom windows, stripped the sheets from my bed along with my pillowcases and put them into the wash basket in the corner of my room. I got fresh linens from my wardrobe and put them on my bed. When that task was don, I got the hoover from my wardrobe - yes, items besides clothing were stored in my wardrobe because my apartment was so small I had no hot press for storage - and hoovered my entire room.

I opened my bedroom door and hoovered the hallway then inside the bathroom and back out into the hallway until the cord belonging to the hoover halted my movements as I neared the kitchen entrance. I went back to my room and unplugged it from the socket on my bedroom wall and brought it out to the hallway. I left it there so I could bring it into the kitchen and sitting room when I was finished cleaning the bathroom.

I was about to ask Alec how he was getting on with the dealf when I heard him singing. The fucker was not only good looking, but he could sing and sing really well. His choice of song caused my eyes to roll though.

"Sex bomb, sex bomb, I'm a sex bomb-"

"You’re a sex bomb!" I corrected the lyric cutting him off as I went into the bathroom.

Things were silent then and I didn't notice he entered the bathroom until I looked up into the mirror and saw him behind me.

"Did you just call me a sex bomb?" Alec asked his gaze locked on mine through the mirror.

I would have laughed at him if his gaze wasn’t so intense.

"I was correctin' the lyrics," I said then blew out a breath. "You aren't goin' to jump me, are you?"

Alec cocked an eyebrow. "I'm sorry did you say jump me or fuck me?"

I gasped. "Alec Slater, don't be so crude!"

Alec's pretty smile stretched across his face. "Did you just chastise me, little kitten?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I did, and I'll kick your arse if you keep up that dirty talkin'."

"I'll keep the dirty talking up as well as something else up if you don't stop being so damn innocent."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "What makes you think I'm innocent?"

Alec deadpanned. "You just yelled at me for being crude."

I rolled my head on my shoulders feeling frustrated. "Just because I don't like you bein' crude doesn't mean I'm innocent."

"Prove it," Alec challenged.

I raised my brows. "How?"

Alec pumped his eyebrows at me and said, "Surprise me."

I cracked my knuckles. "Stop tryin' to bait me into doin' somethin' sexual with you. I'm not havin' sex with you now or ever."

Alec stepped closer to me molding the front of his body into the back of mine and covered my hands on the bathroom counter with his. He kept eye contact with me through the mirror as he did this then he lowered his mouth down to my ear and lightly blew on it making me shiver.

His breath on my ear caused my eyes to drift shut as shudders shot throughout my body.