Page 67 of With Spite

“You know that’s Katana, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then why’d you call her the ‘new girl?’”

“Because I knew that it would irritate her.”

My lips twitched. “Why would you want to irritate your cousin?”

“Because she didn’t listen to me when I told her she shouldn’t take the job,” he grumbled as he put his thumbprint into the scanner that led to a door that I’d always wondered where it led.

When the door opened, I was presented with a set of stairs that looked like they went on forever.

“Whoa,” I said as I took the stairs behind him. “You need an elevator.”

He snorted. “When I need an elevator, I’m going to be dead.”

“Getting groceries up here would suck,” I pointed out.

He hummed. “I guess you’re right, but it’s not often that I have more than one or two bags.”

“What if you had a girlfriend and then got married and had kids? What then? You’ll need a hell of a lot more groceries, then you’d have your new wife making that haul up the stairs.”

He grunted. “I guess that could happen.”

When we reached the top of the stairs, I was slightly breathless.

He studied my face with a serious expression, taking in my elevated breathing and the pulse at my neck, then said, “I’ll talk to my contractor.”

I blinked. “Why?”

He didn’t answer.

He also let me go finally, which I hated.

Not having his finger in the waistband of my pants anymore felt like I’d lost my soul.

What the heck was wrong with me?

We rounded the corner of the stairs, and I stopped at what I saw.

The apartment wasn’t an “apartment.”

It was a massive, wide-open space that had the dining room, the kitchen, bathroom, the laundry room and the bedroom.

“Whoa,” I said.

“There’s more beyond that door over there,” I said. “It’s getting finished out and everything. But for now this is livable.”

“Can I see?” I asked.

He nodded and led me to the door. “At first, I was just going to make it into a one-bedroom apartment, but the contractor, Koen, said that this place could be a home if I took the time to finish the rest out. For now, this is where I’ll be staying. When he has the other end done, then we’ll break out a wall to make the hallway, and I’ll probably move into one of the other bedrooms. The bathroom will eventually be enclosed, along with the laundry room and the closet.”

“Nice,” I breathed.

I was in awe.

This place was pretty darn cool.