her distance. She could be grateful for his assistance without swooning over him, right?
He set to work right away taking out the old lock and cutting the proper holes for the new one. He was fast and efficient and Sera couldn’t stop herself from watching the way his hands moved. His large knuckles flexed and she could see the tendons stretching and moving underneath his tanned and tattooed skin. She thought about the things that those long masterful fingers could do and felt herself blush. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she get sex off of her mind when she was around this man?
It had been so long since she’d been with anyone. Greg kind of ruined her in that sense. She was terrified to get involved with anyone and even more frightened to be vulnerable enough for sex with someone. She was so scared of being hurt again that she just avoided everyone.
As Psy worked on her door, Sera decided it was probably best to call her best friend to fill her in on all the details of the day.
As expected, Darla freaked out about Sera’s encounter with Greg. She demanded his head, threatened to have her brother’s gang loosed on him and again, tried to get Sera to stay with her.
“I’m fine, really. Someone is fixing my door as we speak and these locks are much stronger, I promise.”
Darla sighed.
“Wait, who’s fixing your door?” She knew that Sera couldn’t afford a repair man and was prepared to offer to help with the costs.
“Uh… a… friend?”
“Oooooh, a friend huh? What’s his name? Is he cute?”
Sera rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face.
“I’m not going to talk about that right now, but yes. Very.”
“Mmm. That’s exactly what you need, babe. A nice big hunky man to kick Greg’s ass from here to Timbuktu.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at her best friend. Leave it to Darla to make something more out of it when it was totally and completely innocent.
“It’s not like that… well, I mean he offered, but I don’t want to get anyone else involved.”
“Sweetie, we’re already involved. I care about you and this guy obviously does too. Why don’t you let him help you? It could do you some good to be with a decent man for a change.”
Sera cringed at the subtle jab. She knew her friend didn’t mean anything bad by it, but she’d had such a long string of terrible relationships with deadbeats and criminals that it was kind of a running gag. Sera knew better now than to trust her judgment with men. Even though Psy seemed like the perfect gentleman, she was sure that he had something somewhere. There was always a ‘but’. As in: “He’s great, but he can’t keep a job.” Or “He’s really sweet, but he drinks too much.”
There was always a but. She didn’t know what Psy’s but was, but she knew there had to be one. Speaking of which… She watched him crouch down on the ground to screw in part of the lock and she was awarded with a perfect view of his rear end.
After about an hour’s worth of work, Psy stood up and dusted off his hands, admiring his handiwork. Sera’s door now sported a shiny new lock, a dead bolt and a chain. He tested everything out, double and triple checking that the keys worked and that the locks held against all of his weight.
Finally satisfied that she would be safe from that door, he turned back to Sera.
“Do all of your windows have locks?”
She nodded and made a mental note to make sure they were all locked.
“What about your back door? We don’t want anyone getting in there.”
He said it seriously, but Sera’s mind was still focused on sex and she couldn’t stop the pink that crept up the back of her neck. He didn’t mean that back door.
“Um, it’s actually glass,” she answered with a frown.
Psy’s concerned look returned, knowing that he couldn’t do much for that.
“Are you sure there isn’t someone else you can stay with? I really don’t trust this bastard to not smash his