Opposites Attract Read online

  Table of Contents

  Books by Jayce Carter

  Title Page

  Legal Page

  Book Description

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

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  About the Author

  Totally Bound Publishing books by Jayce Carter

  The Omega’s Alphas

  Owned by the Alphas

  Shared by the Alphas

  Saved by the Alphas

  Protected by her Alphas

  Caught by her Alphas

  Tamed by the Alphas

  Ready or Not

  Fake It ‘til You Make It

  Ready or Not

  OPPOSITES ATTRACT

  JAYCE CARTER

  Opposites Attract

  ISBN # 978-1-83943-049-7

  ©Copyright Jayce Carter 2020

  Cover Art by Erin Dameron-Hill ©Copyright June 2020

  Interior text design by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

  Totally Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2020 by Totally Bound Publishing, United Kingdom.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors’ rights. Purchase only authorised copies.

  Totally Bound Publishing is an imprint of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book”.

  Book two in the

  Ready or Not series

  Resisting the sexy bad boy next door should be easy…shouldn’t it?

  Tabby has spent her life following the rules and creating an orderly, regimented life. Nothing is out of place, from her landscaping, to her business, to her nonexistent love life. All that changes, however, when a tattoo-covered, motorcycle-riding bad boy moves in next door and throws her perfectly ordered life into chaos.

  Gray has always been wild, a guy who values his freedom above all else. It’s left him with a string of one-night stands and no intention of ever getting tied down. But as soon as he meets his nerdy and uptight neighbor, he can’t deny how badly he wants to see her come undone. He doesn’t want forever, but a few nights can’t hurt.

  The more time they spend together, the more the sizzling attraction between them grows. Even as they remind themselves it can’t go anywhere, both Tabby and Gray find themselves wondering…what if? Will they give up and go back to their own lonely lives, or will they risk it all and realize there’s a reason why opposites attract?

  Dedication

  To coffee, you sexy beast.

  I couldn’t do any of this without you.

  Chapter One

  How is it possible for a man to be that attractive?

  Tabby curled into the small chair set on her porch, a cup of tea between her palms as she watched her neighbor in front of their duplex in a way she had to convince herself was not creepy.

  Gray Conners. The motorcycle-riding, tattoo-covered nuisance who had turned her life upside down since he’d moved in three weeks before.

  She missed her old neighbor, the sweet elderly lady, Gayle, who never stayed up past eight and always kept the shrubs out front properly trimmed. Unfortunately, Gayle had moved in with her daughter, and the hoodlum standing in the driveway with his hair more than a little mussed and his pants undone but still somehow hiding everything important had moved in.

  The tall blonde woman with a chest that seemed to defy the laws of physics set a hand on Gray’s bare torso. Gayle had never done that either. She’d been past the days of early morning walks of shame, but Gray liked to parade them past Tabby’s duplex every morning.

  And despite knowing that—or maybe because of it—Tabby always drank her tea out front.

  She justified it by reminding herself she’d used her front porch to sip her morning tea since well before he’d moved in. She liked to start her day with the quiet and peace of a rising sun. The fact that it now left her in the perfect position to see Gray’s latest conquest—and usually him in some state of sinful undress—was just a lucky bonus.

  The blonde—Haylee from what Tabby had overheard before—went in for a kiss. Gray didn’t often have repeats, but Haylee had been there more than a few times. He must like her.

  Gray gave her one, but he pulled away so fast that she tried to follow. Then again, Gray struck Tabby as the type not to care for long entanglements. In fact, the number of times she’d watched that blonde leave was surprising.

  And not at all jealousy inducing. If she wants to be stupid and let a man like that ruin her life, that’s her business.

  Haylee turned and sauntered down the driveway—an actual, honest-to-god saunter, like she was walking a catwalk instead of a duplex driveway—with Gray staying put until she reached her car, parked on the street.

  Gray had his thumbs tucked into the belt loops of his unbuttoned jeans, his chest and feet bare as though he’d pulled on the minimum amount of clothing he had to without worrying about being arrested.

  And no matter how annoying the man was, how he pushed every neurotic button Tabby had, she couldn’t deny he was nice to look at. He had dark brown hair, pushed back out of his face and shorter on the sides. A beard covered his jawline, dense enough to give him that wild edge but short enough to avoid the mountain-man look. His eyes were a bright icy blue that shone in the darkness no matter how far away he stood. Tattoos covered his muscular frame, all the way from neck to knuckles. They had bright pops of color mixed with deep blacks, many blending into the next. A wolf sat on his hip, its howling face over his defined abs and disappearing below the waist of his pants that sat dangerously low.

  Just how far down do those tattoos go?

  The thought made her take her bottom lip between her teeth, distracted by images she couldn’t help of him and some faceless girl, of the things they must have gotten up to the night before. Tabby didn’t have much experience, so she had no doubt that her imagination was as strait-laced as could be, but that didn’t steal her desire as she considered her very vanilla fantasies.

  Before she could stop it, the cup of tea slipped from her hands and crashed to the porch, shattering.

  Tabby yanked her foot up to avoid the scalding liquid, cursing herself for the mistake. When she lifted her gaze, she found that her frustratingly distracting neighbor was staring right at her with a smirk that said she was in way over her head.

  Gray had never
found the whole nerdy thing all that sexy, so why was it that he couldn’t quite stop thinking about his neighbor?

  She dressed without flair, in disappointingly shapeless functional tops and leggings. Her long brown hair always hung down around her shoulders, not wavy enough to be considered curly but not straight, either. Thick black-framed glasses perched on her nose, making her look young and damned smart. She wasn’t that young, not according to his aunt Cindy, the landlady. Tabby Kasey was twenty-five and had lived there for seven years. On paper, she was the perfect neighbor.

  In reality, her sharp looks and never-happy glares said they didn’t mesh.

  Her perfectly kept porch with its fresh herbs all in matching pots without a speck of soil out of place said it, too.

  Gray wasn’t a perfect sort of person.

  Still, each time she didn’t melt for him, each time she didn’t give in to his smile to win her over, Gray found himself just a bit more tempted.

  His aunt, who owned both sides of their duplex, had warned him about the sweet but strung-tight girl who lived next door. He’d expected someone he hated, and despite all the reasons he should, he found her far more interesting than he had any right to.

  Sure, he knew she sat outside most mornings, but ignoring her little voyeur kink was just good manners. Plus, he was perverse enough to enjoy the audience. What did that say about him, though? That he suspected he liked his neighbor’s eyes on him more than he liked Haylee, the girl he’d had sex with?

  Except when she went so far as to drop her cup, he couldn’t keep up the entire ‘I don’t see you’ game anymore.

  And seeing the red flush up her cheeks? Worth it.

  “Enjoying the show?” He leaned his shoulder against the corner of the duplex, just off her porch. Close enough to get a good look at her but not so close he crowded her. He wasn’t sure if crowding would backfire or not with her.

  Besides, he wasn’t even trying for anything. It took one good look at her to know they didn’t fit, that they’d do nothing but annoy each other.

  That didn’t mean he couldn’t flirt, though. Flirting was like a battle, a wonderful back and forth that never failed to draw him in, and Tabby seemed like one hell of a fun opponent.

  “It’s not my fault. You’re the one out here putting on a show.” She spoke in a low voice, as if he should be embarrassed by the topic.

  “You’re out here every morning. You must enjoy it.”

  “Hardly.” She rose to her feet, a large baggy sweater hanging on her thin frame with a pair of black leggings beneath that gave him no real sense of her figure. Too bad he doubted he’d get a chance for a more hands-on feel. “If you’ll excuse me?”

  Funny how such a polite phrase could be muttered with so much fuck you in her tone.

  Suddenly, he wanted to mess up her life a bit. He wanted to put askew a few pieces of her perfectly organized world, to see her smile and laugh and come undone under his hands and his lips. A girl strung that tight would be so much fun.

  “I’m having a few people over next Friday. Wouldn’t be very neighborly for me not to invite you.” The moment the invitation left his lips, he wondered what the hell he was doing. Sure, she could use some time around his sorts of people, but that didn’t make it a good idea.

  Her eyes widened in surprise before she withdrew. “No, thank you.”

  And there it was again, that impressive ability to make a polite statement sound like a curse. Not that her answer surprised him. She didn’t strike him as the stopping-in-for-a-beer sort of girl.

  She gathered up the large pieces of ceramic from her broken cup before slinking back into her house, leaving him alone in the early morning light, the scent of her chamomile tea lingering.

  Her answer was for the best, but damn if he wasn’t still disappointed.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m going to kill him.” Tabby ran her fingers through her long brown hair to push it out of her face.

  “You’re no fun.” Becky, her younger sister, sat at the small bar in the kitchen. “It’s just a party.”

  “It’s midnight.” Tabby pointed at the clock as if that would drive home the fact that loud parties at that hour were altogether unacceptable.

  The music and laughter bled into her duplex despite the garages between their places, letting her know that Gray’s ‘small get-together’ was a lot bigger than he’d let on.

  It wasn’t the first one he’d held in his time as her neighbor, but it was probably the worst. Or maybe it was because her sister was over that made it all the more annoying.

  Becky was nineteen, so not a child, yet Tabby often acted the mother bear when it came to keeping her safe. It meant that when Becky was spending the night to get away from her annoying roommate, who was rehearsing for a musical, Tabby was only too happy for her to come over.

  At least she had been until Gray’s party started, when not only had she been faced with the annoyance caused by her neighbor but also her sister’s face each time she looked toward the music—like she wanted so badly to go join in.

  Which wasn’t surprising. Becky had always been the outgoing one, the one who liked people, who liked change and noise and…fun. Tabby was the wet blanket who made sure everyone was safe and where they needed to be.

  And no matter how much it bugged her at times, she’d come to accept her place. The world needed people who were no fun to be designated drivers and to remember all the terrible choices everyone else made.

  “We could go over,” Becky said.

  “How about no? You don’t need to be anywhere near that place.” The thought of her sweet, innocent sister in the same house as Gray made her skin crawl. Okay, maybe sweet and innocent aren’t entirely true. While Tabby could spot the walking disaster that was her neighbor, Becky was too young to see him for exactly what he was.

  “Come on,” Becky whined. “I’ll never get to sleep like this. Why don’t we just ask them to turn down the music a little?”

  Tabby opened her mouth to say no again, to remind her sister that she’d been young once, too, and could see right through Becky’s obvious ploy. Except Becky wasn’t wrong. The music would keep them up, probably managing to annoy Tabby more and more until she was nothing but a bundle of frustration come morning.

  “Fine,” Tabby gritted out. “We’ll go in, tell him to keep it down then come back here. That’s it.”

  Becky lit up, bouncing down the short hall toward the room she always stayed in. “I need to change, first!”

  Tabby rubbed her fingers against her eyelids, behind her glasses. This is probably a terrible idea.

  The thought was proven all the more right as soon as she stood with Becky on the front porch of Gray’s place, his grass too long and sand strewn across the walkway.

  I should come out here early and sweep— Tabby cut that thought off. Even if it annoyed her to have the things out of place, she would not start doing his jobs for him. It would only end badly for her, and she needed as little to do with him as possible.

  No one answered when she knocked. Could they even hear over the beat of the heavy, loud music?

  Finally, the door swung open. Tabby was ready to tell Gray off right then, to never move past the threshold of his loud, dirty apartment.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t recognize the man who answered, the same man who barely spared her a glance before dismissing her and settling a far-too-familiar leering smile at Becky. It wasn’t the first time she’d gotten that reaction and it wouldn’t be the last. Tabby wasn’t the sexy girl at a party, the one with perfect hair and makeup, the one who knew how to flirt. Everyone needed to be comfortable with their place in life and she’d settled well into hers.

  Not that it meant she’d let the man leer at Becky that way.

  Tabby shifted herself between the two and recaptured the man’s attention. “Is Gray here?”

  The man lifted his eyebrow before hitching a thumb over his shoulder. “Out back.”

  Tabby offered a n
od, not wanting to continue the discussion any more than was required. She weaved through the small living room crammed with bodies, all of them people she wouldn’t normally consider speaking to. Laughter filled the space, a general sense of fun that made her uneasy.

  “I’m going to look around,” Becky said.

  Tabby caught her wrist. “Oh no you aren’t.”

  Becky pursed her lips. “I’m not a kid, Tab. Go talk to your neighbour. I’m going to see if I know anyone.”

  Sadly, Becky might just know someone. She worked at a local restaurant, the sort of place everyone went to because there weren’t a lot of options. Not to mention, this party was far more her speed.

  Despite Tabby’s attempts, she’d never quite managed to stop Becky from doing anything. The best she could do was to rescue her when it went wrong, as it often did. “Okay. But this is only going to take a minute.”

  Becky offered a mocking salute before turning and heading toward the open kitchen.

  Tabby decided to add this to the list of reasons she hated her neighbor. Not that she needed a list to keep it straight by that point. She’d already gotten to where she didn’t like him, to where nothing could really tip the scales back, yet keeping track made her feel better.

  She made her way through the crowded space, impressed he could even fit this many people into his identical small one-thousand-square-foot place. Through the dining room slider, clear Christmas lights illuminated the back yard.

  More people sat out there, lounging across the outdoor sofa and chairs that surrounded a raised firepit. The flames from it licked up into the darkness, and through those dancing, twisting tendrils of red and orange, Tabby met Gray’s icy-blue eyes that were locked on her.

  Gray didn’t fight the grin as he watched Tabby move through his place, the look in her eyes as she took in the relaxed atmosphere.