New: Quick & Dirty

By Kate Roth

She's a single mom, kid-free for a week. He's the sexy, young substitute teacher in the apartment next door. She moans, he knocks and together they both find something new.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Roth
• Release date: Nov 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201758561

Book preview

Chapter One

Monica

I refuse to drive them to school on their last day. I don’t want to sit in that pollution creating drop-off line in my pajamas without so much as a sip of coffee in my system again until September.

Shoes on! I holler from my bedroom, quickly running a brush through my hair enough to pile it on top of my head in a bun. I can hear Nate and Hailey arguing near the door and I remind myself to be kind. They are kids.

I need coffee.

Guys, we have to hustle. The bus will be here in two minutes. I bend down and smile at Hailey as I help her buckle her pale pink shoes. She smiles back at me and I feel that little ache in my chest I always get when I know I won’t see them for a few days.

Mom? Nate’s voice makes my head turn and he points to the sliding glass door off of the living room that leads to our tiny concrete patio. Beyond it I see the giant yellow school bus turn into the apartment complex. I gasp and pick up both of their backpacks and shoo them out the door. The lights flash and the red stop sign pops out from one side of the bus as the brakes squeal. Nate looks up at me as he gives my side a quick squeeze.

You did it, Mom. We made it on time.

I snort. We sure did, buddy, I reply. Only took the whole school year. I drop down and hug them both. Dad is picking you up. Have fun camping. Listen to your dad. I’ll see you guys in a week.

Is Brandy going camping with us? Hailey asks, her bright blue eyes shining—her excitement not even remotely contained.

Brandy. The seventies song about sailors rolls into my mind and I curse the young twit not only for sleeping with my husband but for putting that song in my brain for the next day and a half. In all honesty I’m glad the kids like her. Oddly enough it makes things easier. But it doesn’t change the fact that she helped with the demolition of my heart eighteen months ago. Plastering on a fake smile for my girl, I nod.

Yep, you guys are going to have a great time.

The kids offer I love yous as they bounce toward the bus just behind the two other kids from the apartment complex. As the bus pulls away, I let out a sigh. My week alone begins. I should be happy. I was happy about the idea of this much ‘me time’ a few weeks ago when I told my boss at the real estate office I was taking six days off, but now I regret it. What the hell am I going to do with six days? I guess I still haven’t gotten used to being alone. Sometimes I don’t know who I am if I’m not being Mom. And even though I’ve been selling real estate for a year, the job doesn’t consume me like I’d hoped it would when I so desperately needed distraction. I suppose I still need a distraction. Especially since my dumb ass planned to have six days of nothing to do but sit and wallow while my kids are off camping with my ex-husband and his hussy. Gonna be a fun week. Maybe I should go to the office.

As I turn to head inside for my coffee, I jump when I see the figure sitting on the patio beside mine staring at me. I don’t know my new neighbor’s name yet, mostly because he’s some cool, young, tattooed guy and I figure he probably doesn’t give two shits about the single mom and her kids next door. When I saw him and his roommate moving in last week I remembered praying not to hear some shitty jam band music or a chorus of orgasms through our paper thin walls. So far I’ve only heard the slight rumbling of action movies.

My feet haven’t yet moved, my morning lethargy still gripping me tightly. I scan him where he sits shirtless in gray gym shorts, his black tattoos pulling me in to decipher them. Roses. They’re beautiful and they cover him from his left wrist to the center of his chiseled chest. The other shoulder bears another tattoo I can’t see from my angle and he has a few more peeking out from his shorts, gracing his muscular thighs. My eyes graze his entire body and my blood takes on a new rhythm but when I land on his face, the dark beard over a strong jaw, the penetrating dark eyes, and the sandy brown hair laying carelessly over his forehead—bedhead—I lick my lips involuntarily at the complete picture of him. He smiles at my reaction then speaks against the rim of his coffee mug. Morning.

A moan slips out of me. Jesus. I cough, trying to recover a shred of dignity with no luck. The moan hadn’t been for him necessarily. It was more for the coffee. At least that’s what I tell myself. His sexy grin grows watching me—the messy bun, sweatpants wearing, bags under her eyes mom next door—lose the last bit of cool I have and his grin doesn’t help the heat growing in my loins. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had sex, a thought that often plagues me as I lay in bed but eventually I just have a date with my vibrator, Hans, and buzz those worries away. But looking at my neighbor and considering the long lonely week ahead of me, I don’t know what I need more, that hot cup of coffee or that hot piece of twenty-something ass.

Good morning, I chirp, my face red and my voice unrecognizable. My legs finally decide to listen to me and I head for my apartment.

Hey! His voice calls out. He’s just out of sight, I could keep walking away and pretend I didn’t hear him but I stop when he yells, Nate’s mom!

Nate’s mom? What is this, a Sunny D commercial? For whatever reason, despite not having my coffee yet, I become incensed at the title. He could at least call me ma’am but I’d probably still march over to him just as angrily for that one too.

Back on the sidewalk in