Marius Rabineaux lives with his daughter Sherie in an apartment complex. Across the hall is computer tech Xavier McDay, whose niece, Tonya, is best friends with Sherie. Taciturn, clueless nerds have never been Marius's thing, so no matter how hot he may find ‘Uncle Cranky,’ Marius leaves well enough alone. One evening when Marius picks up Sherie from her playdate with Tonya, Xavier insults his parenting skills. Later, Xavier turns up at Marius’ workplace and, instead of apologizing, further offends him by disparaging his work ethic. Xavier finally gets it and apologizes to Marius, who decides to give his clueless neighbor another chance. He accepts Xavier’s offer inviting him and Sherie to dinner. The evening is a fun affair, and while the girls have dessert in Tonya's room, both men get to know each other better. Then Marius challenges Xavier to a night away from computers by going out to a night club. One thing leads to another, and they wind up back at Xavier’s apartment. As things crank up between them, will they get more than they bargain for ... and perhaps a chance at something more?

Crank Me Up

“Uh.” Apparently I had robbed him of words. Good to know for future sassy-mouth encounters. And yes, there would be more of this, I swear. I let go of him and bent down to pick up the keys while I held him steady with one hand and unlocked the door with the other. Once it was ajar, I drew him inside the apartment and shut the door behind us. He took the keys from my hands and threw them on the living room table, then dragged me past the kitchen to his bedroom in the back. It could have been a really nice room, but I neither noticed nor cared.


When we made it to the foot of the bed, he turned to face me and said, “You were the hottest man there tonight. You’re mymark and I want you. Say you want me, too.” Xavier ran his hands up and down my bare arms, while he looked up at me from under his eyelashes. I couldn’t resist him if I tried.


“Oh I want you, baby. Don’t even worry about that.”


Chapter 14