Neighbors with Benefits (Anderson Brothers, #2)

“I was as surprised as you were when Dr. Whittelsey gave him to us. I was pulling nothing over on you.”


“Okay.” She continued her stroll around him. “How about when you had the entire apartment covered in rose petals the day you proposed.” Never in a million years would she forget that day. After the spectacularly public proposal, Lee drove them to Michael’s apartment in his horse-drawn carriage. Michael carried her all the way from the carriage, through the lobby, up the elevator, and into the apartment, which had been carpeted from the front door to the bedroom with red rose petals.

Dimples flashed. “What a mess. I’m still finding petals under furniture.” He winked as she circled back to the front. “Totally worth the mess, though.”

Oh, yeah. She’d made sure he wouldn’t regret a surprise like that. It had inspired Mia to see just how fast one hot man could be divested of his ghastly sweater—and all his other clothes as well. Pretty freaking fast, it turned out.

Her body tightened at the memory of that weekend. He’d been full of all kinds of surprises and inventive suggestions.

Again, he raised his hand to his sternum and his eyes widened.

“Michael?”

He cleared his throat, hand splayed across his chest. “Hmm?”

A tiny white and black muzzle poked out of his overcoat.

“Oh, my!” She covered her mouth with her hands as he pulled the squirming puppy out of his coat.

“Mr. Kawashima sent us an engagement present—one of his wife’s Japanese Chins. Her name is Sachi.”

“Sachi,” she repeated. The puppy couldn’t have been more than ten weeks old and was adorable with her short nose, round tummy, and silky looking hair.

He squatted down to let Clancy sniff the puppy. After a few tail wags and a nudge with his nose, Clancy strolled over to his bed and curled up as if nothing out of the ordinary were going on, right as Michael’s phone rang.

He passed the puppy to Mia. “Hello?” He shot her a look and smiled. He smiled a lot now, Mia realized. “Sure, Will. We’d love for you and Claire to stop in. We have someone we want you to meet.” He stroked the puppy cradled against Mia’s chest as he spoke, and his fingers grazed her skin above the neckline of her shirt. She trembled at the contact and his gaze grew heated. “Actually. I just walked in the door. Why don’t you come by in say, an hour?”

He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “They’re stopping by to hash out some more wedding plans.”

Mia had been stunned when Michael suggested a double wedding with his brother. “Is Chance coming with them?” She liked both of his brothers, but had seen a lot more of Will than the youngest brother.

“No. He always goes to a bar down in Soho on Fridays.”

“I thought he didn’t drink.”

“He doesn’t. I assume he’s hanging with his buddies from the dojang.”

She handed the puppy back to him and took her paintbrush to the sink. “Maybe there’s a girl he likes.”

Holding the puppy against him, he nipped her neck as she rinsed the brush, sending sparks of desire skittering through her. “There’s a girl I like,” he said, tugging the neckline of her T-shirt with his teeth. “A lot.”

He kissed a hot path from her ear to her shoulder, and she had to summon every ounce of concentration she had just to finish the simple task of drying her brush. “How much?”

Taking her hand, he pulled her toward the door between the studio and the apartment. “Let me show you.”

He already had. With words and actions. Far more than she’d ever imagined possible. “What about the puppy?”

“Sachi sleeps through anything.” He shifted the sleeping puppy higher on his chest and picked up speed as he pulled Mia into the bedroom, arching an eyebrow and getting that wicked look in his eye she loved. “I bet she wouldn’t wake up even if you screamed.”

He pulled a pillow from the bed and placed it on the floor, setting the pup in the middle. She didn’t even open her eyes. Then he removed his overcoat and his suit jacket, pitching them carelessly to a chair in the corner, followed by his tie.

“What does Sachi mean?” She asked as he pushed her back onto the bed.

“It means fortunate.” He pulled her shirt over her head and the satin sheets cooled her heated skin. “Lucky.” He kissed a trail from her belly button to the hollow of her throat, lighting her on fire as only he could. “Like me.”

Reaching between them, she unbuttoned his pants. “Let’s see how soundly that puppy sleeps.”



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Acknowledgments

Marissa Clarke's books