He was just about to get the little spider hunt over with when a familiar pink logo on a group of bags buried towards the back of the pile caught his eye. After a minute of trying to ignore temptation he shrugged and walked over to the bags. If Zoe came back and caught him he'd just tell her he that he was checking for spiders, he decided with a mental pat on the back, knowing damn well that she'd thank him too.
With one last look over his shoulder he opened the bag closest to him wider and felt his eyebrows arch clear to the hairline. The bag was filled with lace and silk of every color. Rubbing his suddenly sweaty hands on his slacks he reached into the bag and picked up the lacey baby pick item on top and nearly groaned when he realized they were panties, a little larger than he was used to seeing and in no way a thong, but still sexy as hell.
He exhaled slowly as he ran a shaky hand through his hair as he imagined that beautiful bottom of Zoe's covered in this material. Christ, he really didn't need to know what she was wearing to cover her curves and he should walk away, but curiosity was a bitch and had him quickly going through the rest of the pink bags.
Five minutes later he was sitting on the edge of Zoe's bed with his elbows propped up on his knees and his head in his hands, trying to wrap his mind around the amount of panties, bras, and teddies Zoe purchased. He still couldn't believe how sexy some of those items were and that unnerved him a bit, because when he thought about Zoe he never thought sexy. Yeah she turned him on for some weird reason, but never intentionally.
But damn if he wasn't turned on now, he thought with a grimace as he sat up and tried to adjust himself in his now too tight pants. When that didn't work he stood up and began to pace the spacious room.
Who the hell was she seeing? he wondered. It had to be someone serious for her to go nuts shopping like that and buying intimate apparel. In his experience women only did that if they were in the start of a relationship, but Zoe hadn't said anything to him about seeing some guy. There was too damn much she wasn't telling him and that really pissed him off.
Every morning and for a few minutes every night they talked about work, the book they were reading, television and all the stupid shit in between and not once did she mention a boyfriend. He knew he mostly viewed her as a tenant and employee, but he hadn't known that she only saw him as a boss and landlord, one apparently that she made small talk with to be polite. That knowledge pissed him off in the worst possible way and it didn't take a genius to figure out why.
Somewhere along the line he actually started to think of Zoe as a friend.
Whatever.
Fuck her.
If she wanted to keep this relationship strictly professional then that was more than fine with him, he thought opening the sink cabinet with a little more force than necessary. He didn't give a rat's ass if they weren't friends. Why the hell would he? It's not like he went out of his way at work to talk to her, which proved that he didn't care.
Or proved that he was an ass**le, he thought shaking his head ruefully. Then again she didn't exactly go out of her way to talk to him at work either, which only proved his point or that he was turning into a f**king woman overanalyzing every little thing, he thought, sighing as he shoved things around as he looked for this "huge" spider.
There was no need for all this drama. So Zoe didn't tell him about her date? So what? It didn't mean anything and besides tonight was not the night to stress over this shit. Tonight was about getting laid and clearing his head of Zoe, he reminded himself as his hand landed on the condom box. As he picked it up to toss it to the side a condom fell out, making him frown.
He could have sworn it wasn't open earlier. After a minute of feeling like an ass for caring at all he dumped the rest of the condoms out of the box and counted. Six left out of a twelve pack. Looks like Zoe wasn't the only one planning on getting laid tonight, he thought darkly as he tossed the box back into the cabinet.
This was f**king unbelievable.
He was f**king jealous.
The knowledge both sickened and shocked him. He never got jealous. Not once. Well, when he was kid he'd been jealous of Jason, but that was completely different. He never become jealous over a woman, but here he was crouching down on his frumpy tenant's bathroom floor, wondering who the hell she needed six condoms for and wanting to kick his own ass for caring so damn much.
It was past time he worked her out of her system, he decided, moving to stand up when Toby started growling. He followed the dog's glare and couldn't help but roll his eyes when he spotted the tiny little black spider racing across one of the rolls of toilet paper.
"I knew she overre--holy shit!" he yelled, falling back on his ass and scooting away from the largest spider he'd ever seen. When it decided to come after him he was left with little choice but to grab one of Zoe's magazines off the neat pile near the toilet and beat the shit out of spider as Toby barked encouragingly. Even after he was pretty sure it was dead he kept up the attack, afraid that it was just a trick and the spider was buying its time before it attacked him and dragged him beneath the sink.
Panting hard, Trevor tossed the magazine back on the pile and slowly stood up, never taking his eyes away from the gooey mess on Zoe's floor and leaned back against the wall, making a mental note to call an exterminator first thing tomorrow morning. He watched the mess intently for a moment, making sure it wasn't going to come after him again before he decided to clean it up and get the hell out of there before its friends came looking for him.
He walked downstairs, trying to calm his damn nerves, barely aware that the dog followed him downstairs and headed for Zoe's kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down, wishing Zoe had something more substantial in her fridge to calm his nerves like steak or left over lasagna instead of diet yogurt and a huge pile of green veggies.
Toby's whimpering caught his attention. "Of course she went back and bought it," he said when he spotted the large clear plastic jar filled with mini dog treats.
With a sigh he opened the jar and grabbed a handful of mini treats and held them up. "You're going to keep your mug shut about the spider, right?"
Wagging his tail happily, Toby barked.
"That's what I thought," he said, tossing the dog a biscuit.
**********
"Excuse me?" Zoe said, signaling the bartender as she did her best to ignore feeling like she was on display in her new clothes. It was the first time in a long time that she'd worn something so revealing. Granted, compared to the scantily dressed women walking around the bar she was probably dressed more like a nun.