“I’m not sure either.” I didn’t think about that. I needed working capital. I needed a sugar daddy. Or Reyes Farrow. Either way.

“Fine,” I said, folding my note and stuffing it in my pocket. “I’ll just go to the new owner directly.”

“You know him?” he asked, surprised. Of course he would think the new owner was a him. Reyes bought the building before transferring ownership over to me, a fact that still boggled my mind. Giving me an apartment complex was like giving a twelve-year-old a Fortune 500 company and saying, “Now, take good care of it.”

“I sure do, and I plan on giving him an earful of how I’ve been treated here today.”

“Yeah? And I’ll tell him about the ostrich.”

I gasped. “That was

one time

. And she pulled through it just fine.”

“Mm-hm. Can I finish my dinner now?”

“Yes.” I turned and stalked off to show him how angry I was. Ostrich, my ass. She was fine once the vet removed the Tupperware.

As I made my way to Reyes’s apartment, hoping he’d be home from work, I called out to Duff. Darn him. One minute I can’t get the man out of my hair, and the next he’s impossible to find. Like a ghost.

Laughing at my own sense of humor, I knocked on Reyes’s door. Someone had to laugh, and I was pretty much the only one who got me. It was a lonely life.

The door opened, and a seemingly annoyed Reyes stood on the other side. What’d I do now?

“Hey,” I said, about half a second before the door slammed in my face. What the—? I knocked again, this time pounding.

The door opened wide as he leaned against the frame and crossed his arms at his chest. He really liked that pose. I really liked that he liked that pose.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“Why didn’t you use the key?”

“Because.” I’d thought about it, but I still had a hard time just barging in on him. I handed him the list. “I thought you were at work.”

“Was. I’m not now.”

“A man of few words. Well, I got a few words for you.” I pushed it into his hands. “I need working capital.”

He scanned the list. “What will you do for a new stove in Mrs. Allen’s apartment?”

“Jump around and sing ‘Oklahoma’? How do I know? It’s a stove.”

“I’m going to need some kind of incentive program if I’m going to fork out this kind of money.”

I held back a laugh. “Incentive program, huh? So what’s a stove worth these days?”

“Depends. Do you have a nurse’s uniform?”

I raised a mischievous brow. “No, but I have a Princess Leia slave costume.”

A deep hunger flashed in his irises. It caused a warmth to flood my abdomen, and only partly because he knew what a Princess Leia slave costume consisted of.

“That’ll do,” he said. “And this is already taken care of.” He handed me back the list. “Just give this to the management company.”

“They won’t give me the runaround?”

“Not if they want to remain your management company.” He had a point. “Are you still insisting on paying the Dealer a visit?”

As he spoke, a shadow nearby caught my attention. Sometimes ADD was a good thing. I turned in time to see Duff appear by my door, then disappear just as quickly.

“Hold that thought,” I said to Reyes as I spun around and scanned the hallway. “Duff!” I called out. “Show yourself this instant.”

He did, but he materialized at the other end of the hall.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“N-n-nothing. J-j-just s-standing here,” he said, his stutter more pronounced than usual. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was keeping his watchful gaze on Reyes and resembled a rabbit ready to bolt.

“Look,” I said, walking toward him, “I just have a few questions. I wanted to talk to you. Will you come here?”

“I-I’ll s-stay here, thank you v-very much.”

Aw, he was sweet. “You’re so welcome. But, really, I need to talk to you—”

I’d started to gesture to my door when I caught Reyes’s scowl in my periphery. I turned back to him. “What are you doing?”

“What?”

“You’re intimidating him.”

“I’m standing here.”

“Yes, intimidatingly.”

One corner of his mouth lifted playfully. “And just how should I stand?”

“For starters, you can stop scowling at him.”

He let his gaze travel back to Duff, slowly, menacingly, then said, “But it’s fun.”

“Reyes Alexander Farrow.” I marched back to him. “Can you be nice to the departed or not?”

He lowered his head, pretending to be repentant, then looked at me from underneath his long lashes and said, “But Duff here isn’t just any departed, are you, boy?” He leveled another cold stare on him, and Duff disappeared.

“Damn it,” I said, backhanding Reyes’s shoulder, albeit lightly. “How do you know him?”

“Duff and I are old friends. He used to come visit me in prison.”

“What?” I glanced over my shoulder, but he was still gone. “Why?”

“He was keeping an eye on me.” He reached out and let his fingers glide along my stomach.

“Why would he do that?” I asked. I was always out of the loop.

“He was worried about you. Seems he’s smitten.”

Oh, man. Seriously? “He’s a departed, Reyes. It’s not like we can actually have a relationship.”

“If any human could have a relationship with a departed, it’d be you. And he knows it.” He slid a finger into my belt loop and tugged.

“Reyes, he’s harmless. Be nice to him.”

He ran a hand around to the small of my back, the heat of him almost too much to bear. It soaked into my skin and my hair, and caused goose bumps to lace over me, it was so hot. “I love that about you,” he said, picking up a lock of my hair and rubbing it between the fingers of one hand while pulling me closer with the other. “Your inability to see the bad in people until it’s too late.” He was being awfully flirtatious, almost as though he were trying to change the subject.

“Are you saying Duff is a bad person?”

“I’m saying you’re too good for him.”

I finally molded to him, letting him press against me. “I’m too good for you, too,” I said, teasing. But he didn’t take the bait.

“Agreed,” he said instead, a second before he lowered his mouth to mine, fusing us together like an arc welder. He wrapped his arms around me, the hold viselike, unyielding. The heat was blistering and surreal at once, and I felt it all the way down to my toes. He broke off the kiss and nipped at my ear. “I guess it’s a good thing you can have a relationship with a departed,” he said.

“Why’s that?”

“We can still see each other after I die.”

I tried to lean back to look at him, but Reyes went from cruising at a solid twenty-five miles per hour to flying faster than the speed of sound. In an instant, he had me pinned against the wall, the long fingers of one hand bracing both wrists above my head while the other slipped beneath my sweater. His hand slid around my waist and up my spine, his fingertips tracing the hollow line of my vertebrae.

“Probing for a weak spot?” I asked him softly, well aware of his penchant for severing spines.

“I know exactly where your weak spots are,” he said, and he proved his point by slipping his hand underneath my bra and cradling Will Robinson, teasing her crest with a soft squeeze.

Arousal leapt inside me so fast, I felt the world spin.

“And I know exactly where to probe,” he continued. He pushed my legs apart with his hips and pushed against me, the friction of our jeans causing a nuclear heat to build in my abdomen.

I tore one wrist free of his grasp and planted my hand on a steely buttock to pull him closer. He let a husky growl escape him. The deep sound reverberated through my bones, crashing like spilled wine against them. And like wine, the effect was intoxicating.

Someone, a man, cleared his throat nearby.

It took me a moment to realize we had company. When I did, I broke our hold with a startled jump. “Uncle Bob,” I said, smoothing my clothes and straightening to face him. “You’re early.”