A Mysterious Man novel Chapter 3

"What the hell is that?" the man asked loudly over the yowling, a look of confusion contorting his chiseled features. His darkly tanned skin made my mouth want to water, and his muscled begged me to touch them, but instead I replied to his question

"My cat." Offhandedly I shouted into the room at Edgar. "Edgar, shut up!"

Of course, he didn't.

"Who are you?" the man asked before I was able to ask him the exact same question.

"Jonah Tyler," I responded. "The new owner of this house. Who are you?"

"Grayson Kires," he pronounced his last name so that it rhymed with tires, and then continued, "the handyman."

"And you are naked why?"

"I was sleeping," Grayson said, "when the yowling woke me up."

"You sleep naked?" In hindsight, it wasn't the best question, nor was it the most appropriate.

"Yes," he said. Then he threw me for a loop, the side of his mouth quirking up in a smirk before asking, "Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Sleep naked."

The only thing I could do was splutter and cough as I choked. "N-no, of c-course n-not."

The grin that spread across his face was as sweet as honey yet downright sinful at the same time, and I had the feeling that he was going to enjoy making me flustered. His dark eyes twinkled in the dim light and I had to raise my gaze to his hairline because my disobedient eyes continued to try and peep at the deliciously sculpted muscles he was sporting. His grin widened even more and I knew he had caught me, which was extremely embarrassing in of itself.

I felt a furry body wind around my ankles and looked down to see Edgar nipping at my jean-covered calves with his tiny, sharp teeth.

I bent down and picked Edgar up, pulling into my arms before glancing up - a big mistake. I was eye level with something I didn't need to see at the moment. My head snapped down into Edgar's dark brown and black fur at a supersonic speed, earning a chuckle from the man standing in front of me, clearly perfectly comfortable in the midst of this unusual situation. If this happened to him every day, good for him - but it didn't happen to me. At all. I did not make a habit of my cat waking people up from naps and having those - naked - people confront me about it.

Edgar squirmed in my arms, trying to claw my arms to little bloody bits in order for me to release him. Before it got that far I let him go, his mottled fur a blur as he ran past me and Grayson into the hallway and down the stairs, going Lord knows where in the house to escape the all-kinds-of-awkward that was going on at the moment between me and the naked man standing in my doorway.

It seemed that being interrupted during a fairly important conversation was our "thing," because as soon as I was opening my mouth to speak to Grayson, my phone chimed, again, and I decided that it would be too annoying to ignore my mom instead of talking to her and getting it over with.

I had nineteen messages from her. She must be worried. What else is new? My mom is the eternal worrier. In high school all my friends had offered to hang out at their house, never at mine. My mom was one of those that all friends loved, but mostly hated. She was nice, but smothering. I read through the first few messages that she had sent me.

Jonah, check your phone.