The King Next Door. Maureen Child

she really didn’t. Not only was the thought of trying to keep her nearly three-year-old son contained in a tiny hotel room exhausting, but there was the cost to consider. She couldn’t afford to fix the kitchen and live in a hotel.

      “Besides,” Griffin added, “this way, you’ll be close by while they’re working on your place and you can stay on top of things.”

      True. All true. But she hated owing someone. She took care of herself and her son and she’d done a damn good job of it, if she had to be the one to say it. Depending on someone, accepting favors from anyone, was just something Nicole didn’t do. Not anymore. Not since her ex-husband had taught her the hard way that the only person you could count on was yourself.

      She looked up at Griffin and ground her teeth together. He looked so sure of himself, fresh irritation spiked inside her. Mainly because, though she didn’t want to admit it, Nicole knew she didn’t have a choice, and she really hated that.

      But, she told herself, the truth was, if this had happened when Katie and Rafe were at home, Katie would have insisted that Nicole and Connor move in. So having Griffin extend the invitation wasn’t really much different, was it?

      Her mind laughed at the pitiful rationalization. Hmm. Happily married couple offering her a place to stay, or a matching offer from a gorgeous, single guy who made every one of her hormones stand up to do a fast boogie. Sure. Exactly the same situation.

      Frowning, she pushed that thought aside.

      Boogying had not been a part of the offer, sadly.

      Besides, she reminded herself, Griffin had started the fire in her kitchen.

      “You know it’s the only solution,” he said.

      “Yeah, it is.” Nodding, she glanced back at the kitchen and tried not to picture what it looked like in there. Instead, she imagined it after the work was done. Maybe, if it wasn’t too expensive, she could upgrade it a little. Maybe this would turn out to be a good thing.

      Then her gaze shifted to Griffin, who was watching her out of brilliant blue eyes. His tanned, muscled chest caught her attention for one wild second. If he had been temptation living next door … what was it going to be like living with him?

      It was a nightmare.

      The next morning, Griffin rubbed eyes gritty from lack of sleep and told himself he might as well get used to it. Sure, Rafe and Katie’s house was big. But he’d been exaggerating a little when he’d assured Nicole that there was plenty of room for all of them.

      He’d forgotten that all of the bedrooms led off the same hallway. His room was directly across the hall from Nicole’s, and he could have sworn he heard every move she made during the night.

      She’d paced, then sat on the bed with a telltale squeak. Then she’d been up and pacing again. Several times she opened her bedroom door and took the four steps to the room where Connor was sleeping. She’d open that door, walk across the wood floor, pause. Then back across the room, close the door and pace in her own room again.

      Okay, it wasn’t the noise that was bothering him. Hell, he’d been known to sleep through a fireworks display, complete with M-80 rockets. No, it had been picturing Nicole, blond hair tousled, bare feet whispering across the floor, that was doing it to him. He wondered what she slept in. Nightgown? T-shirt? Nothing? He’d seen enough of her body in the tank tops and shorts she wore to know that he’d like to see more.

      Knowing he couldn’t was annoying the hell out of him.

      But he could do this. Play the white knight. Offer her sanctuary, a place to stay, and he could do it all without groping or seducing her. Didn’t sound like much fun, but he could do it.

      She was a mother, for God’s sake. And then there was Katie’s threat to consider. Besides, he was thirty-three now. That was the magic number. The age he’d decided would be the end of his days as a player. The age when he would damn well mature whether he wanted to or not.

      “And I really don’t want to.”

      “Are you talking to yourself?”

      He glanced up as Nicole came into the kitchen, Connor on her hip. She was wearing white shorts and a bright pink tank top with matching pink polish on her toes. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and twin silver hoops winked at him in the early sunlight.

      “What? No.” He shook his head and focused on the cup of coffee he held between his palms. “I’m just thinking.”

      “Wow, you’re a noisy thinker.”

      Connor shouted, “Down!”

      Griffin winced. It was too early for conversation and way too early for chipper.

      “Want some milk, baby?” Nicole asked.

      Griffin almost said no thanks.

      Connor shouted, “Milk! And cookies!”

      Nicole laughed. “No cookies for breakfast.”

      Griffin looked at the boy. Such a cute kid. Would it be wrong to put tape across his mouth?

      Nicole brought Connor some milk, then took eggs from the fridge and a skillet from the cupboard. She was as comfortable in Katie’s kitchen as she was in her own. “Can I make you something?”

      “No, I never eat breakfast,” he mumbled, concentrating on the coffee. Caffeine. The secret to survival.

      “It’s Connor’s favorite meal,” she said, and started scrambling eggs, setting the skillet on the stove and in general making a clatter of noise that had Griffin clenching his teeth.

      “I’ve decided that I’m going to look at this whole situation as a gift,” Nicole said from her place at the stove.

      “Is that right?” Griffin reached out and took away the spoon Connor was beating against the tabletop. The little boy’s features screwed up, his bottom lip poked out and a sheen of tears filled small blue eyes. Griffin sighed and handed the spoon back.

      Just keep drinking coffee, he told himself and stood up to get a refill.

      “Well, like you said,” Nicole continued, “I have to have it fixed anyway, so I’ve decided to try and look at it like redecorating rather than rebuilding.”

      “Probably a good idea,” he allowed as he took his seat again. Connor grinned at him and pounded that spoon with all the fervor of a rock-band drummer.

      Griffin was not a morning person. He preferred conversations over a late supper with plenty of wine. He never spent the night with any of the women he … dated, so the morning-after chat had never been on his agenda. Now, not only did he have a woman to talk to, but a two-year-old to endure.

      Usually he greeted morning with all the enthusiasm of a condemned prisoner facing execution. Today, even more so.

      Nicole set scrambled eggs in front of Connor and the little boy used his fingers to eat while he continued to pound the spoon. Griffin sighed, then asked himself just when exactly he’d turned into an old crank.

      “Connor has preschool,” Nicole was saying, “so as soon as I drop him off, I’ll be back here to make some phone calls to the insurance company and a contractor …”

      Griffin took a sip of coffee. “You take care of calling the insurance company and I’ll call King Construction,” he offered. “They’ll take care of it and give you a better deal than you’d get anywhere else.”

      He watched her and saw refusal glint in her eye a moment before she nodded and said, “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

      She might appreciate it, he told himself, but she also didn’t like having to accept favors. He could understand that even as he would have swept right past her refusal if she had argued with him.

      “No problem. What’s the point of having family if