The man was tall, not giant tall, but certainly taller than Stephanie herself. His brown hair sat in tousled waves across his head, obviously subjected to regular stylings from his hands. But it was his eyes that drew her entire attention. They were the lightest shade of green she had ever seen, so green that they seemed to sparkle with a light all their own.
Her eyes slowly, unabashedly perused his body. She took in everything from the t-shirt stretched perfectly over his broad, muscular chest that was obviously built by hard labor.
The dirty, ripped, worn blue jeans were molded to his legs and stopped at the top of his scuffed work boots on his feet. Stephanie drooled for a moment, thinking he probably had strong, sexy feet.
Mentally, she slapped herself. "Get a grip, Steph! Since when did you fantasize about a man's feet?" she murmured.
"What?" he asked, his sexy mouth turned up with a grin.
"Nothing... ummm... I... I'm Stephanie," she repeated.
"Hello, Stephanie," he greeted her, the cocky heart-pounding grin still on his overly handsome face.
"Hi," she breathed out.
"I presume that you are looking for this furry little burglar?" he asked, then chuckled as Steve meowed at him.
Steve seemed to understand what the man had said and answered him before Stephanie had a chance.
The man knelt and rubbed Steve's chin, causing the cat to purr so loudly Stephanie could have sworn it could be heard through the whole house. It was truly pitiful, she thought to herself with a mental shake of her head. She was jealous of her own cat getting this man's entire attention.
Get a grip, Steph! She shouted at herself again. Clearing her throat, she tried to speak once more without sounding like a fool.
"Yes, thank you. I am so sorry. I thought this house was empty. I had no idea the Wilsons had finally sold it," Stephanie explained.
"We just bought it from them last month. The papers had barely been filed. But we needed to get down here to jump-start the renovation process. We're hoping to have buyers by the end of the year," he explained.
She had heard him use the word 'we' several times. As casually as she could, Stephanie glanced down at his ring finger to find it empty. It had to be a girlfriend or a fiancee. Either way, it meant he was really off-limits.
She returned her attention to everything else he had said. She had only vaguely known the Wilsons. They had moved out almost a year ago very unexpectedly and quietly. They had stopped by the house periodically over the last few months to pick up boxes here and there, but as soon as the sun set, they would be gone again.
They had never really said anything to her, especially after she had tried to explain how things happened on her street. But that was the way it was with all of her neighbors. They would move in and would mostly be nice at first. But then they would suddenly start keeping to themselves, especially after she had tried to help them or they found out she was into Wicca. Then something would make them move out, usually within months of moving in.
Occasionally, she would overhear the neighbors exchanging stories with each other, and the things they talked about reminded her of the unexplained happenings in her own house. Both houses had issues, as far as she could tell.
At three years and running, Stephanie was the longest tenet in the cul-de-sac. She suspected it had something to do with what she called "the little gremlins." that lived in her house. Stephanie wasn't sure if they were pixies, brownies, fairies, or ghosts. She didn't really care either way since she was used to being around things that bumped in the night. No matter where her family lived, they always had something in their house. The unexplained phenomena went a long way to soothe Stephanie when she moved into the big house alone. As long as she left out regular offerings of milk with honey or other sweets, they didn't break or hide things from her.
Stephanie had tried to explain these things to her neighbors, but they ignored her or outright called her crazy.
"Well… umm, nice to meet you, Mr. --?" she greeted him, holding her hand out to shake his.
"Daniels, Troy Daniels," he introduced himself, taking her hand in his.
The world tilted just a bit at his touch, and she would almost swear lightning struck them as soon as their skin met. The lights flickered above their heads as a bolt of electricity shot through, then settled into a simmer in her lower belly. His confused look as he glanced up at the lights could almost be classified as comical.
"Guess the first thing I need to check is the electrical wiring," Troy commented absently.
Stephanie giggled awkwardly but didn't correct him, not wanting to make him think she was odd. Or rather, even weirder since he had found her rummaging through one of his closets, cursing her cat and laughing maniacally.
"Well… I'll just get my cat and then get out of your hair. Sorry once more for breaking in," Stephanie said with a broad grin, reaching for Steve.
Steve growled in irritation at being taken away from his new friend that he was trying to claim.
"Shush," she hissed at Steve quietly.
He laughed softly. "No worries. It was a far better greeting from my neighbors than I expected."
Troy gave Stephanie a wink and a pointed look at her backside, letting her know exactly what he was talking about.
Even though she knew she shouldn't be enjoying the attention from him, especially since he was obviously taken.
He was obviously a bit of a flirt, and there was no way she needed to get mixed up with him, not with everything else she had going on.
She kept repeating this to herself as her cheeks flushed once more. She stuttered a quick goodbye, pretending she had no idea what Troy was talking about. His incredibly sexy chuckle followed her as she raced out of the room. Even knowing it was pointed at her, Stephanie still loved the sound and couldn't wait to hear it again.