Free The Sextet - Entanglements [The Sextet Anthology, Volume 4] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) by Cheryl Brooks, Mellanie Szereto, Bethany Michaels, Elizabeth Raines, Niki Hayes, Morgan Annie Page A

funny. Okay, then. What time do you want me to be here?”
    “I have to work tonight, so I’ll probably be asleep until four or so tomorrow. Anytime after that is fine.”
    “I’ll be here with chains on.”
    Trish was pretty sure he meant to be amusing, but he still came across as more seductive than silly. When did he get so damned sexy? “Oh, let’s not go there.”
    “Belts then.”
    “Yeah. Whatever.” She glanced up at the clock. “I’ve got to take a nap before work.”
    “Okay, see you tomorrow then.”
    Trish walked him to the door and watched as he crossed the lawn and squeezed through the hedge between the two yards. Damn. He even looked sexy doing that.
    Now I’ve got to try and get some sleep.
    No way.
    No possible way…

Chapter 3

    After virtually no sleep and one helluva night in the ER, Trish collapsed on her bed the next morning. The thoughts of Aidan lying there essentially naked had kept her awake the previous afternoon, but this time exhaustion won out over eroticism.
    Even so, she woke up an hour earlier than usual, and after stumbling to the bathroom, she wandered into the kitchen. A quick glance through the back door window revealed Aidan hard at work planting marigolds. His bike was leaning up against the garage with two hanging baskets of impatiens strapped on the back. Aidan had never owned a car. He’d saved his money for college and rode that bike everywhere. No wonder he had such great legs.
    Watching him made Trish feel like crying all over again. Aidan was such a sweetheart. She would have given anything to have a man like that for her very own. Unfortunately, she’d waited too long, and now all the good ones were taken. She’d dated some guys in high school but never had a serious boyfriend. A girl didn’t meet very many men in nursing school, either. True, there were more male nurses than in the past, but the ratio was still about twenty to one. Since she’d graduated, the only men she’d met were doctors, aides, policemen, and the occasional patient who wasn’t completely dysfunctional. None of them had been the sort she was looking for. Online dating and the bar scene held no appeal for her. Finding Mr. Right was more impossible than the needle-in-the-haystack analogy. And yet, here was Aidan, right next door. And six effing years younger.
    Telling herself that in the greater scheme of things six years was nothing didn’t help much. He was still the boy next door, and she had no business having erotic fantasies about him, much less following through with them.
    Still, the flowers were beautiful. She’d have to pay him something, though she’d probably have to argue with him for a while before he agreed to take the money. Getting dressed, she brushed her teeth and hair and went out.
    “That looks great, Aidan. What do I owe you?”
    “Not a penny,” he replied. “I think we’re, um, even now.”
    “I pull your hair, you plant my flowers?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Well, if you think it’s a fair trade, I won’t argue with you.”
    “Good. I hate it when someone insists on paying me for something I consider a gift.”
    Glad I didn’t argue.
    Aidan stuffed another marigold into a hole and pressed the dirt in around it. “You’re up early.”
    “Yeah, when I only work one night like that, it seems pointless to sleep any later than I have to. I get up when I wake up.” She was glad she’d awakened when she did. After all, it wasn’t every day she awoke to find a hunk busily planting flowers in her backyard.
    “So you aren’t working tonight?”
    “Nope.”
    “Got any plans?”
    “You mean beyond tying my next-door neighbor to my bed and making him scream? No. Not really.” Wasn’t that enough?
    Aidan licked his lower lip and sucked it into his mouth. A simple act, perhaps, but one that had Trish salivating at the thought of doing it herself. He reached for the watering can and soaked the soil around each plant. “Want to do