Enchanting the Beast Read online

  “Spencer,” Andie prompted.

  He sighed as he headed back to his office with his tablet and the much-discussed cookies in his lap. “I don’t like cookies.”

  Andie snorted. “Since when?”

  As far as lies went, it was a bad one. He and Andie went way back. They’d been taken in by the same foster family when he was twelve and she was eleven and had been pseudo-siblings ever since. If there was anyone in the world who knew he had a sweet tooth, it was her.

  He didn’t answer and she let it drop, shifting effortlessly back to the conversation his neighbor had interrupted. Andie started up with her badgering as if the whole bizarre cookie incident had never happened. She’d been trying to convince him to join her and her boyfriend, Cole, for Christmas in Peru. The two lovebirds had decided to traipse around the world while Cole, an undercover cop, let the heat die down from his most recent investigation and figured out what he wanted to do next career-wise.

  Spencer could honestly say he was happy for them—Andie needed a fresh start just as much as Cole. She’d recently discovered her real family and had undergone a bit of an identity crisis as a result.

  Travel was good. Perspective was great. But there was no way he was going to get on an eight-hour flight to South America just to play third wheel during the happy couple’s first Christmas together, no matter how much Andie nagged.

  “Come on,” she whined. “Why must you be the Grinch Who Stole Christmas about this?”

  “I’m not stealing your toys, Cindy Lou, I’m just not joining in on the Whoville fun.”

  “Exactly, because you’re a Grinch.”

  He shrugged. There was no use arguing with her when she got like this. Sometimes it seemed like they both reverted back to children when they interacted, for better or for worse.

  “So what are you going to do for Christmas, then?” Before he could answer, she started spouting off ideas. “You could go spend it with Kate—”

  “Your lonely neighbor? No thanks.”

  “She’s not lonely anymore, she met someone on that singles’ cruise. How about Hunter and Jenna? They’re throwing a party on Christmas Eve and I’m sure they’d love for you to go.”

  He only half listened to her as he propped the tablet on his desk and stared down at the cookies. Covered in icing, they looked sweet. Like the baker. The curvy brunette was the very definition of sweet with her big Bambi eyes and bright smile.

  Sweet, but up to something, which was never a good combination.

  There’d been something off about her. She hadn’t seemed like a friendly neighbor looking to make an introduction. She’d seemed nervous. Scared, even. And that had been before Andie opened her big mouth.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Andie’s loud demand broke into his train of thought.

  “No.” Honesty had always been the best policy with Andie.

  He heard her weary sigh coming from the tablet. “Fine. I’ll stop with the Christmas plans for now. But I’m not giving up on you.”

  “Of course not.” His best friend was an eternal optimist and that lunacy led her to believe that there was hope for him yet. The problem with that line of thought was—he didn’t need saving. He preferred to be alone, but his best friend couldn’t seem to grasp that concept.

  “So,” Andie drawled, her tone too casual for his liking. “How about that cookie lady?”

  “What about her?”

  “She seemed nice. Hopefully you haven’t scared her off for good.”

  He let out a short laugh. Sure, he might have been a tad rude, but he hadn’t been the one making porno sound effects while she’d been trying to talk.

  “You should go apologize,” Andie continued.

  He shook his head. “I’m still trying to figure out why she came over here.”

  Andie groaned. “You’ve got that look on your face.”

  “What look?”

  “That suspicious look you get whenever someone is nice to you. Dude, you seriously need to work on your trust issues.”

  Maybe. Okay, probably. Andie might have had a point there. There was no denying that he had trust issues. Maybe he could even have been called paranoid at times. But this was not one of those times. He excelled at reading people and that woman had been hiding something. “What do you think she wanted?”

  Andie sighed. “Oh I don’t know, maybe to make friends in her new apartment building? Is that really so terrible?”

  He frowned at the screen. “I don’t do friends.”

  She smirked at him. “What about me?”

  “You’re different. You’re family. I’m stuck with you.”

  “Very true. And you’ve got Hunter,” she continued.

  He scoffed. An old bitterness reared up, making his tone sound more jaded than he felt. “You mean the guy who calls when he needs a favor?”

  There was a brief silence, just long enough for him to feel a pang of guilt at the harsh words. Hunter was a former cop, they’d met back when Spencer was into hacking. He’d been working with some lowlife crooks who were busted. Because he was young and a first-time offender, Hunter had given him a second chance. He’d let him off the hook with the understanding that when the police needed help on the tech side of things, he’d be there.

  He was still grateful to Hunter for giving him a break back then so when Hunter left the force due to an injury and went the private route, Spencer continued to help him. It was more of a business arrangement than anything and that was just the way he liked it. They had a mutually beneficial relationship, which was how Spencer’s world worked. People used each other for their own gain. With the exception of Andie, who was an anomaly, the people in Spencer’s life always came with an agenda. Even pretty neighbors.

  Especially pretty neighbors.

  What was she up to? He hadn’t been able to shut down the curious part of his brain, the part that loved a puzzle. He was intrigued and it had been too long since anyone had intrigued him. Most people were cut and dry. Their motives were shallow and apparent. But the baker neighbor was an enigma. She looked kind and sweet. Almost too good to be true. But her eyes had taken on a decidedly shifty look and her breathing had grown erratic as she talked. Like she was nervous. Or hiding something.

  Was he paranoid? Maybe. But it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

  “So, are you going to go apologize to your new neighbor?” Andie asked.

  He nodded, a plan already starting to formulate. “I am.”

  Andie’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? I mean… that’s great.”

  He understood her surprise. It was no secret that he was a bit standoffish. Andie and Hunter called him a recluse, but that suggested that he was agoraphobic or something. That wasn’t it. He just didn’t like people, that was all. He’d made the perfect home for himself, filled with the computers, games, and gadgets that kept him busy even when he wasn’t working as a freelance cybersecurity consultant.

  But most of the time he was working. He’d saved up enough to build his dream home far away from the city with its teeming streets and crowded subways. Far from the paper-thin walls of his apartment building and the obnoxious neighbors who filled it. He loved his little apartment but couldn’t wait to relocate his home to a place that wasn’t overflowing with people.

  Andie and her sister, Jenna, insisted on referring to his apartment as his bat cave. Maybe they had a point—it was a small space with limited sunlight where he worked on secret technology. The comparison wasn’t totally off base. But if this was his bat cave, the new home he’d designed would be his Wayne Manor, complete with an upgraded bat cave that would make any superhero green with envy.

  Just a few more jobs and he’d have the funds to pay for it outright. Which meant he needed to stay focused on his current assignments.

  But even as he thought that, he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus until he dealt with this new puzzle. His personality bordered on obsessive, which was an asset when that concentration was focused on
work, but it could be a pain in the butt when his brain got sidetracked with a mystery. And that’s what his new neighbor was—a riddle he needed to solve before he could get back to the work at hand.

  Which was why he was currently shocking Andie by agreeing to go visit the new neighbor. Much as he hated to leave his sanctuary, and much as he loathed the idea of willingly speaking to a stranger, it was the only option. He needed to learn more about this new neighbor and considering he didn’t even know her name, that meant talking to her.

  He needed to catch her off guard so she wasn’t prepared with more lies.

  The best way to do that seemed obvious.

  He’d beat her at her own game.

  Chapter Two

  Holly was biding her time. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a lot of time to bide.

  Jack had given her two weeks to deliver. She just had to get one surly, slightly intimidating neighbor to meet with a lecherous creep out in Brooklyn. How hard could that be?

  Hard. The answer was hard. She tried to focus on her day job but her mind kept drifting back to Spencer and how on earth she was going to get on his good side.

  She would have thought he didn’t even have a good side if she hadn’t seen that smile. A sigh escaped her as she remembered that smile.

  But that smile hadn’t been for her, he’d been laughing at his friend. She’d just been in the line of fire. As for her, he’d been content to watch her squirm. He hadn’t even offered his name or asked for hers. Not exactly the most auspicious start to a friendship.

  But he had found her attractive.

  She shoved that thought to the side. She would not go there. She could be friendly and she could chat up a stranger, but she didn’t know the first thing about flirting. Being sexy and coy was Eve’s domain. Even if she did know how to flirt without looking like an idiot, the thought of even hinting at a sexual relationship in exchange for getting something she wanted… Ugh. It made her skin crawl.

  Though the thought of sexual relations with Spencer had an entirely different effect on her body. Her skin didn’t crawl so much as it burst into flames. Ever since she’d walked out of his apartment the day before, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. About that smile, in particular.

  It really had been a stunning smile. What would it be like if he had actually smiled at her like that? She had a crazy urgent desire to hear him laugh and see his eyes crinkle up at her like they’d done when he’d embarrassed his friend.

  The numbers on her screen started to blend together as her eyes unfocused. She couldn’t even pretend that the string of numbers were making sense anymore. As an accountant who worked from home, she prided herself on her ability to stay focused and on task no matter what chaos was going on around her.

  Back at her real home, the apartment she shared with Eve and Lexy, when she wasn’t off at school, she could tune out Lexy’s loud music and Eve talking a mile a minute. She had no problem with focus. But here… She looked around her sparsely furnished apartment. Jack had rented it when it became available a few months ago—apparently there was a high turnover in this low-rent apartment building and Jack had made some sort of deal with the landlord just so she could have easy access to her mark. Whatever his reasons, Jack was serious about trying to get her into Spencer’s life.

  Of course, Jack had gotten the place for Eve. Eve, the gloriously beautiful and charming Hallister sister who would have had Spencer falling all over himself to welcome her and her cookies.

  What had she done wrong? She snapped the laptop shut in frustration. She had to come up with a plan. A better plan. One that didn’t rely on a smile and some baked goods. This guy was tough. Suspicious. She had to put her natural instincts to the side for the time being and pretend she was Eve.

  What would Eve do?

  After a heartbeat of intense thinking, she gave up. She had no clue. She and Eve were close but she’d never asked her sister for specifics about her jobs. Truth be told, she hadn’t liked to think too hard about what her sister was doing to provide for them.

  But now…well, now she wished she’d asked. She should have taken notes. Studied for a con job like it was her CPA exam. But there was no turning back the clock and like it or not, she had a job to perform.

  A knock on the door had her bolting out of her seat like she’d been caught sitting there plotting. Jeeze, she had to get her conscience under control or she would never make progress. When she opened the door, she found Spencer on her doorstep with….a smile on his face.

  The mere existence of that welcoming grin shocked the heck out of her, but it wasn’t the smile. His expression was blandly benign. Nice, even. Polite yet impersonal.

  Whatever, she’d take it. It might not be the sexy, heart-flipping smile but it was a heck of a lot better than his scowl.

  She dropped her gaze from the pleasant smile to his hands, which were holding something in his lap. He’d brought the blue platter. That fact registered a second too late and her disappointment was palpable. That had been her only excuse to go see him again and now he’d taken it away.

  But he was here, now, so this was her chance. Right, no pressure.

  Panic saddled up alongside the shock she was still reeling from at the sight of him at her door. He was watching her expectantly, and she realized she’d stayed quiet for a beat too long.

  “Um, hi,” she said ever so eloquently.

  Apparently that was all the opening he needed. Before she could say, “Do you want to come inside?” he was rolling past her into her sparsely furnished living room.

  “Nice place you’ve got here,” he said.

  She couldn’t tell if he was being serious or sarcastic so she mumbled, “Thanks.”

  He spun his chair around when he reached the center of the room and reached out with the platter. “For you.”

  “O-oh, thank y-you.” And now she was stuttering. Fantastic.

  “No, thank you,” he said, and she nearly fell over backward at the graciousness in his tone.

  Who was this man and what had he done with the Spencer from the day before?

  Lexy was the one who used to love soap operas and thanks to her, Holly’s mind was jumping to illogical conclusions about evil twins and multiple personalities.

  Just when she’d decided it must be a twin, she realized her error. It was clearly a split personality because she saw a flicker of his earlier suspicion when he announced, “You haven’t made cookies for the other neighbors yet.”

  Oh for crying out loud. She should have remembered to bake more cookies. After she’d left his place the day before she’d thought long and hard about where she’d gone wrong. The answer had been clear. She wasn’t a good liar. This was not breaking news. From here on out, she’d decided, she would stay as close to the truth as possible when dealing with this man. She realized now that meant making the few lies she’d told the day before into truth. She should have baked the rest of the freakin’ cookies and delivered them to the other freakin’ neighbors.

  It was becoming painfully clear that this man saw everything. She should have covered her bases. But it wasn’t too late. She forced a smile as she said, “I was going to bake them today.”

  “Wonderful!”

  Her head snapped back at his overly enthusiastic response. Was it wonderful? Was it really?

  He rubbed his hands together. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  “Um…you were?” In her defense, her smile never faltered. Not once.

  He nodded, his eyes glinting with pleasure. All hints of suspicion gone. “That’s why I came over here. I felt badly about my less-than-neighborly greeting yesterday and I thought you and I might get to know one another….” He leaned in as if sharing a secret. “And if I can get your recipe for those delicious cookies in the process, all the better.”

  She stared at him in shock. “Oh. Okay.” She should be happy. Enthusiastic, even. Her mark had come to her. He wanted to spend time with her, get to know one another. Maybe
it was beginner’s luck or…maybe not.

  “How did you know I haven’t baked the rest of the cookies yet?” She tried for a curious tone rather than suspicious but she had a feeling she failed by the way he laughed when he pointed at her smoke alarm. “The alarms in this place are ridiculously sensitive and the ovens are old and not exactly well-maintained.” He shrugged. “Any attempt at baking usually ends in an alarm that’s impossible to ignore.”

  That made sense, she supposed. Still, she couldn’t shake a wary feeling even though he seemed relaxed and in a surprisingly chipper mood. “So you want to bake with me,” she said slowly. “Now?”

  He shrugged. “Whenever works for you.”

  She looked around her apartment helplessly, like the explanation for his sudden shift in attitude might be hiding behind her loveseat. “Um, yeah. Okay. Let’s do it now.”

  He was here, wasn’t he? And the clock was ticking. Might as well get this over with. Operation Befriend Spencer was officially underway.

  His grin grew and he leaned forward in his chair and stuck a hand out. “Spencer, by the way.”

  She shook the outstretched hand, trying and failing not to notice how warm and solid his hand was clasped around hers. This assignment would be hard enough without a silly crush getting in her way.

  “Holly,” she said without missing a beat. It couldn’t hurt to use her real first name and besides, it was all part of her new decision to stick to the truth as closely as possible. That was also why she added, “There’s something I should tell you….”

  His eyes widened slightly in anticipation. “What is it?”

  “I’m really not a very good baker.” There. She’d said it.

  She was rewarded by a flicker of a real smile, a genuine one, as amusement made his brown eyes brighten. They were a warm shade of brown and the crinkles around his eyes as he laughed at her admission made her want to tease him or crack a joke. Anything to get another genuine smile out of him.