She whistled.  “Twenty years?  What happened?”

I just shook my head.  I couldn’t talk about it without sounding bitter, and I didn’t want to come across that way.  Not to her.

“And you’re not old, Alasdair.  You’re distinguished.”

That surprised a laugh out of me.  “Oh, that’s rich.  Yes, I’m apparently very distinguished, and you’re young enough to be my daughter.”

“Only if you had me when you were sixteen.  Do you have any kids?”

“No.  I always thought I would, but time just slipped away.  I’m too old now, I think.  I like kids, though.”

“You’re not too old.  That’s ridiculous.  Look at your hard-on.  That thing looks like it wants to make babies right now.”

I sent her a censuring look and tried to make it convincing.

She just gave me an irrepressible smile.

We got to the gates of my community.  I waved to the security guard, and he nodded back, letting me in.  I saw him shoot Iris one quick glance, his expression indecipherable, as we went by.

“Oh, I bet we just started some good rumors.  ‘Alasdair’s brought home a young, scantily clad girl again.’”

I shifted uncomfortably, but couldn’t stifle my urge to correct her.  “Not again.  I don’t do this sort of thing.  Not ever.”

“Not ever?  And what sort of thing are we calling this now, Dair?  I’m dying to know.”

“Bring women home.  Especially very young women.  I’ve never done this.”

She beamed at me for that one.  “I like you.  You make me feel good.”

I could say the same for her, but I didn’t.  I was being enough of a beast already, bringing her home.

She whistled long and low when I pulled into my U shaped driveway.

I parked directly at the front door, the car ready to take her on the return trip.  Still just humoring her.

I kicked my shoes off in the entryway, tossing my gym bag down.

She copied me, tossing her own bag on top of mine.

“You can use my shower,” I told her, my eyes all over her na**d skin.

“You’re a doll.  I’ll do that.  God, you’re tall.”

She moved to stand right in front of me, her hand up as though to measure.

I was over the six-foot mark, and she was just the right height to tuck her little blonde head under my chin.

I shook off that ridiculous image.

At her insistence, I gave her the grand tour of my oversized house.  I hadn’t taken pride in it in a long time.  It had turned into a rather large tomb for the bad memories from the last years of my marriage.  But oddly, I found myself taking that pride again as I showed it to her.  I had designed it, top to bottom, and I really did love the house.

It was a modern monstrosity at eight thousand square feet, but I liked my space.  Probably because I liked to spend ninety percent of my time in it.

She took particular delight in my large library, running her hands along the spines of the books in the classics section.

“I could spend a year in here,” she told me.

That had my brows raising.  I’d gotten the impression she was more of a wild party girl than a reader.  “You like to read?”

Her nose wrinkled like she thought that was the oddest question.  “Um, yeah.  Who doesn’t like to read?”

Good point.  I mean, there were people that didn’t like to read.  Logically, I understood that, but it had always baffled me anyway.

I meant to pick her brain about that more, but she was off again, and I was following, my eyes glued to her perfect little ass as I showed her the rest of the house.

CHAPTER THREE

She acted very impressed that I’d designed the place.  She had a lot of questions, curious about every inch of the property and how it pertained to me.

It seemed to me that she was always trying to connect pieces of a puzzle.

One thing I noticed right away was that I never had to dumb my explanations down for her, which was something that stood out to me, because the dumbing down was such a common occurrence for me, that I wouldn’t have taken a note of it if I’d been doing the opposite.  She understood my references, big and small picture.  It was astounding, the more I thought about it, because she was just so young.

“Why aren’t you in school?” I asked her.

Her eyes twinkled at me.  It was too adorable and highly dangerous.  “What, you don’t think I’m reaching my full potential?”

I tried to backtrack.  I had a tendency to put my foot in my mouth.  Socially awkward was really a kind way to describe me.  “I-I didn’t say that, I’m just…”

She took pity on me, waving it off with a laugh, and we went on with the tour.

I had several guest rooms, but I showed her to the biggest one, with the nicest bathroom.

“You can use this one while I make us that kale drink.”

She shook her head.

I blinked at her.

“I’ll use the shower connected to your bedroom.”

“This one is just as nice.  I made sure at least one of the guest suites was built like a master.”

“Which one do you use?”

“The master.”

“I’ll use that one.  No need to dirty this one up just for me.”