Sneaking a Peek by Eden Summers Page B

Not only was she shamelessly perving, she had sunk to a lower level by beating her own drum while she watched. Yeah, her best friend would most definitely kill her.
    Jenna had never appreciated Tarney’s interest in her older brother. She still remembered the brain explosion at her sixteenth birthday party. Ethan had been kind enough to give her a sweet peck on the lips for her gift.
    Her first kiss.
    It had meant a hell of a lot more than a simple kiss to Tarney, but on Ethan’s behalf it had been entirely innocent. Jenna hadn’t seen it that way. Apparently Ethan was being a bastard of a brother, trying to steal her away and ruin their friendship. Tarney had laughed away the whole ordeal. She may have been sixteen, but she wasn’t naive enough to think her friend’s older brother would have the hots for her. It was typical family bullshit, and Tarney had made the decision to hide her interest in Ethan from her best friend ever since.
    These weekly indulgences were her reward for keeping her feelings in check. If Ethan was off limits, at least she could enjoy the show. In all honesty, she wouldn’t know how to stop even if she wanted to. The sight of his addictive body held her entranced. At first she had willed herself to stay away, to keep the doors locked and curtains shut. Her self-control had lasted five minutes. Now, it was an event she catered for with wine, crackers, exotic cheeses, and a big bucket of drool.
    “Yeah, I know. What Jenna doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
    Tarney had been playing the laid-back neighbor role since she moved in next to Ethan. Who would have guessed that the first house she fell in love with after returning from college would be the one beside his? Either she was one lucky lady to have her high school crush living next door, or fate was one teasing bitch.
    Leaning her seat back on the hind legs of her chair, she tried to see into the far corner of his room, still mentally cursing Kristen’s interruption. She’d only needed two minutes more to finish her self-service.
    Ethan disappeared. If only he had floor to ceiling windows. The downside of the muscle-mania show was the limited view. If he did exercises on the ground, she pretended to stretch her legs and stand up to see. When he did weights at the front of the room—like now—she leaned backward to watch.
    “So what’s he doing? Come on, I need the visual.”
    Tarney leaned back farther, testing the laws of gravity, trying to see him on the bench press. She moved her feet to the porch railing, balancing the chair and wineglass while keeping a tight hold on the phone.
    “Umm, he’s on the bench press, lifting that bar thingy with the big round weights on the ends.”
    Damn, this was the part of his workout she loved to hate. His pecs and arms were her favorite muscled areas. The problem was the restricted view. She lifted her chin, tilting her head at an angle to see better. His face was taut with strain, shiny and red from exertion, the same way he probably looked when he blew his load.
    Her body hummed to life again, her core convulsing with the need to be filled. What she wouldn’t give to be his towel girl, to slowly wipe each bead of sweat off his lovely body…with her tongue.
    “He’s ah…” she leaned a little farther back, “he’s—”
    Her scream pierced the night as gravity decided to bite her in the ass. Ethan’s head snapped up, and she swore their gazes met. Dropping the phone, she grasped frantically for the chair arm, trying to stabilize herself.
    Too late.
    She fell backward, and the shrill noise continued to leave her throat. The sound of smashing glass registered seconds before her head hit the hard floor, snapping her jaw shut with a jarring thud. She groaned through the pain of impact and cursed under her breath. A burning sensation in the back of her hand also demanded attention.
    Damn it.
    Her ears began to ring, the screaming sound increasing along with the throb of her brain. The inside