The Landlord Read online

  The

  Landlord

  by

  LILA KANE

  The Landlord

  By Lila Kane

  Copyright © 2017 by Lila Kane

  First E-book publication 2017

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or distribution of any part of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This literary work is fiction. Any name, places, characters and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental. Please respect the author and do participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials that would violate the author’s rights.

  Summary

  He’s my landlord, so it should be all business. I pay him, he makes sure my appliances run smoothly. That’s all there is.

  Or is it?

  Justin isn’t supposed to look at me the way he does. But I like it. And more, I like him. A moment in the elevator proves the attraction is on both sides.

  Before I know it, Justin isn’t just my landlord, he’s my lover. And things are heating up in the apartment building.

  Chapter 1

  The building is still under construction. At least three other units on the top floor. Which means Justin is in my building day in and day out, and I’m fully aware of it every time I step out of my apartment.

  Which is why I check my mail three times a day and find all sorts of reasons to leave my apartment, ride the elevator to the lobby, and look around.

  This time he’s standing right by the mailboxes, chatting with another man in construction. He manages to get his hands in there and get dirty along with the rest of them even though he’s supposed to be the boss.

  Because of that, he’s wearing a cutoff shirt that shows his muscular arms. There’s a slight sheen of sweat on them that proves he’s been working all morning. I bet underneath that shirt, his abs are hard as rocks and the rest of him is just as fine.

  I don’t know why I torture myself like this. Flirting. Sending him looks across the lobby. Making up excuses to see him. Because nothing ever happens. It’s just scorching looks and then lonely nights in my apartment.

  Still, I walk to the mailbox and pull my key from my pocket.

  Justin glances over, still mid-discussion, and I swear his lips quirk. I make sure to brush his arm as I lean in to unlock my box.

  “Excuse me,” I murmur.

  He keeps on talking but doesn’t move. He’s close enough I can smell him. All man, with an underlying hint of something else. Spearmint? Gum, maybe?

  I exhale and try to focus.

  There’re only two envelopes inside, so I pull those out. Another brush of his arm. And then I turn and put on a show of swaying my hips as I walk back to the elevator. Glancing over my shoulder would be too much so I don’t, but I swear I can feel his eyes on me.

  I step inside the elevator and press the button for my floor. The ancient doors shudder and start to close.

  Then, suddenly, there’s a hand on the door, stopping it. Justin appears, nearly a foot taller than me, and hops inside.

  He smirks. “Hey.”

  “Hi.” I swallow. “How’s it going?”

  “Pretty good, Lacey.”

  I forgot he knew my name. But I guess he is my landlord. He showed me around the apartment four months ago when I moved in. And even then I’d almost tripped over myself every time he was around.

  If he’s that sexy in professional mode, he’s got to be a god when he lets loose. And probably a master in bed.

  I squeeze my legs together as the elevator starts to move. He turns to me, and suddenly the elevator feels so small.

  “You remember me,” I say, because I’ll kill myself later if I don’t at least try to talk to him.

  I’ve only been fantasizing about this for four months.

  He smiles, a sincere smile that jolts my body. “Of course. 3B. You always pay your rent on time, never one complaint against you. One of my finest tenants.”

  Now he’s really flirting. So I step up my game, blinking up at him with a smile. “How’s the construction going?”

  “You want to see?” he asks.

  His breath touches my cheek, and there’s the spearmint smell again. It makes my stomach clench in anticipation.

  I nod. “Yes.”

  We skip my floor and go to the next one. There’s a crew working on one of the apartments, but Justin guides us past that and to the apartment on the end.

  “This is the one I’m most proud of. It’s not finished, but…” He opens the door and reveals the apartment.

  I step inside and feel his hand on my back. It sends tingles all over my body, and the only reason I’m not melting on the floor right now is because the apartment is so amazing. High ceilings, tall and wide windows, brick walls.

  It looks nothing like my apartment or the rest on the lower floors.

  “Oh my god,” I whisper. “It’s amazing.”

  “Thanks.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

  “How come my apartment doesn’t look like this?”

  He chuckles. “Because you’re paying for a one-bedroom. Besides, this one isn’t for rent.”

  I wander to the windows and stare outside. There’s no furniture in the living room, so it’s a big open space where our footsteps echo. I see a bridge across the river, and the path I jog on sometimes in the mornings or the evenings.

  Justin steps up next to me and I glance over. “Of course. Someone already snatched it up, right?”

  He grins. “Something like that.”

  “Mysterious. What’s what supposed to mean?”

  “This is my place.”

  “Really?”

  I take another look around. This is where Justin lives? It gives me a great idea of his style, his craftmanship, too, because I can see touches around the room that have been added or changed from the original structure of the building.

  “Been living here for two months. Only the kitchen and the bedroom are finished.” He grins. “The most important rooms in the house.”

  I’d like to see the bedroom. The best indicator of a man’s style. But I stick to the kitchen. “What do you cook here?”

  “Everything.” He wanders over and props his hand on the counter next to me, so his back is touching mine. “Pasta. Seafood. Steak. Anything that goes well with wine and candlelight.”

  My throat dries. Goosebumps rise on my skin when he traces a finger over my shoulder.

  “Pretty much everything goes well with wine and candlelight,” I whisper.

  “Should we test out that theory?”

  I turn around, and have to lift my chin to look into his eyes because he’s so tall. “When?”

  “Tonight.”

  My lips curve. “It’s about time.”

  He nods. “You’re right. It is.”

  Chapter 2

  I dress like I’m going out, because you can’t go wrong with a sexy LBD and a pair of heels that make your legs look like a dream. Perfume on the wrists and just below the earlobes, and yeah, a dab between the breasts, too, because I plan on getting close with Justin tonight.

  We’ve had this sexual tension between us for months, and this is the first time we’ve both been on the same page, ready to act on it.

  A flicker of nerves races through my belly as I ride the elevator upstairs. This it.

  The door is cracked when I get there, open enough I can see candles flickering inside. He has them centered around a blanket in the middle of the large, empty living room. A picnic.

  “Justin?” I step inside and see him in the kit
chen across the room.

  His eyes lock on mine. “You made it.”

  “I made it.”

  I shut the door and walk over, my heels clicking on the hardwood floor. It smells heavenly in here, like thick pasta sauce and garlic bread.

  “You weren’t lying,” I say, stepping to the opposite side of the counter.

  “About cooking in here?” He smiles. “I never lie about anything.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Why waste my time with a lie when the truth usually works better?”

  My belly quivers. “What’s your truth right now?”

  He sets down the knife he’s using to cut some tomatoes. “I want you.”

  I meet his gaze. “I feel the same.”

  I expect him to finish dinner, to wait until we’ve eaten, but he walks around the counter and skims his hands down my arms.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he murmurs.

  “Not as long as I have.”

  I catch a glimpse of his smile before he lowers his head. His lips brush mine softly at first, and then turn hungry in an instant. He grasps me around the waist and jerks me to him.

  “You look so fucking hot. It’s almost a shame to take it off,” he says, pulling down one strap of my dress. “Almost.”

  Not for me. That was the whole point. To make that first impression. To make him want me. And now he does.

  Or maybe he has all along.

  I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. His lips are warm, and his tongue tangles with mine in a flash of heat.

  He hikes me up so my legs are around his waist. I hang on, continuing to kiss him, as he carries me to the living room. He lowers me to the blanket and pulls off my heels one by one before taking off his shirt.

  I was right. Everything underneath there is toned and hard. I can’t stop my hands from running over his pecks, and dropping down to his abdomen.

  He releases a long, slow breath, one that tells me how good he thinks my hands feel on him.

  “Don’t stop,” he says, leaning in to feather his fingers through my hair.

  I undo the button on his jeans for better access, longing to feel every single part of him. On me. In me.

  Justin pulls down the other strap of my dress and tugs it off, his eyes dropping to my breasts in the lacy black bra I wear. “Shit. You’re so hot.”

  He kisses my collarbone and then trails those kisses between my breasts, where he breathes in deep. “And you smell so good.”

  My body is alive with sensation. Tingling and throbbing, and definitely a healthy dose of impatience. I want him. No, I need him. Right now.

  “Justin…”

  He understands right away, and pulls off his jeans and his boxers, letting his cock spring free. God, it’s huge. And thick.

  I close my hand around it, needing to feel him. I run my fingers down to the base and then back, hoping to get my mouth on it soon.

  Justin grips my wrists in one hand. “Not yet.”

  Not yet? I’m barely keeping my cool here.

  He undoes my bra expertly with one hand and lets it fall aside. His eyes are full of heat as they trace my curves. Then he nudges me back on the blanket so he can pull of my lacy underwear. For one moment, he leans back, taking in the entire length of my body with appreciation.

  Then his hands are on me again, gripping my breasts and thumbing the nipples. I arch my back and moan, already hot and halfway ready to come.

  His hands slide down my waist and to my hips while his mouth finds one nipple. He nips at the taut peak, drawing another moan from me.

  “Justin,” I whisper.

  “Just feel,” he answers.

  I can’t help but feel, especially when his kisses travel down my abdomen and to the small thatch of hair at my peak. One hand continues to squeeze my breast and tease the nipple while the other parts the folds of my pussy, allowing him access with his tongue.

  “Oh, god—” My eyes slam shut, and I grab his shoulder with one hand, squeezing tight as he torments me with his mouth.

  He sucks on my clit, then blows. Then his thumb circles it over and over while his fingers slide in and out, making me wetter and wetter.

  “Please, Justin. I need—”

  “I know,” he murmurs. “So do I.”

  He levers himself over me, and then slides his cock inside slowly. Inch by inch, it stretches me, driving me so close to the edge, I have to focus on not coming. Not yet.

  I reach for him, but he catches my wrists again and pins them above my head. A thrill of excitement and pleasure runs through me. I couldn’t break his grasp if I wanted to.

  “I’m going to make you come so hard,” he says, swiveling his hips against mine.

  I can already feel it building, the endorphins racing through my body and gathering toward an explosion. “Yes,” I gasp. “Please.”

  He hikes up one of my legs with his free hand, giving him deeper access to thrust inside over and over. He’s so long and thick, every single thrust hits a new, sensitive part of me. I cry out in pleasure.

  His eyes lock on mine. “Yes, Lacey. Come for me.”

  He thrusts again, so hard his ball sack hit me with a loud slap, and I come. Hard, just like he said, and in a wave of complete bliss, I nearly go blind. And he just keeps pumping into me, making the orgasm go on and on. One orgasm rolls into the next, and I cry out again when his finger brushes my clit.

  “God, Justin—”

  He slams into me again, and then grunts, and his body tightens. His fingers flex on my wrists, and I can feel his cum spurting hot inside of me.

  “Lacey,” he groans. “You feel so good.”

  I squeeze my legs around him, and he shakes his head. “God, you’re going to make me come again.”

  And his does, his body jerking against mine. He buries his face in my shoulder, his teeth biting gently on the sensitive skin.

  I squeeze my arms around his back and wait while his heartbeat races against mine.

  After a long moment, Justin pulls out of me and props himself up on one elbow. “Hey,” he says, smiling down at me. “Did you work up an appetite?”

  “Yes.”

  He slides on his jeans and hands me his shirt. I tug it over my head and get ready to stand.

  “Stay,” he says. “I’ll bring you some wine and a plate of dinner.”

  “Thanks.”

  I can’t help but watch while he finishes cutting the tomato for the salad, and brings me a glass of wine. He’s so strong and capable, but seems to have this gentle side I wasn’t aware of. Damn, that just makes him sexier.

  When he walks back to the blanket and we’re ready to eat, he says, “Thanks for coming tonight.”

  I grin at him. “Thanks for making me come.”

  He laughs. “Funny. So…I was hoping we could do this again sometime.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Epilogue

  We spend every night together after that, me working outside the apartment during the day, and him fixing up the apartment building. After another two months, his place is finished. Even though I’ve been by every day, I’m excited to see it completely finished.

  Justin stands outside the door, his hand on the knob. “You ready?”

  “Yes. Open the door!”

  He grins. “You sure? Because—”

  I push past him and grab the handle, making him laugh. We both open the door, and I walk inside. He put out the furniture we both picked, and there are cozy chairs in front of the windows.

  Justin takes my hand, guiding me through the house and then down the hallway. “And the best part.”

  He opens the door to the bathroom and lets me step inside. It’s completely finished. The last piece of the puzzle.

  “It’s done,” I say, turning around in the room and admire it.

  “And the best part,” Justin says, walking to the bathtub.

  It’s huge, with jets and a ledge on the side that already holds candles. br />
  “We can both fit in there,” I tell him. “If you’re willing to share.”

  He pulls me into his arms. “More than willing. In fact…”

  He reaches into his pocket and pulls out something I can’t see. “You know how you were asking why your apartment didn’t look like this?”

  “Yes?”

  “I was thinking maybe your apartment could look like this. If you moved in with me?”

  I smile at him. “Really?”

  “Really.” He sets the keys in my hand. “I love you, Lacey.”

  I lift on my toes to kiss him. “I love you, too. And, yes, I’ll move in with you.”

  He returns the kiss and then mumbles something about putting the bathtub to good use, making me laugh.

 

 

  Lila Kane, The Landlord

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