It was a lazy, sweaty evening when the light faded. Rose’s mom dozed in her favorite armchair, the soporific fan blowing barely cool air across her. Rose couldn’t stand to be indoors when it was so humid like this, so, after dunking her face in a sink full of cold water, she grabbed a beach towel and her six-pack of beer from the fridge and trudged up to the rooftop terrace she loved so much. She hoped no one would be up there; alone time was exactly what she needed right now. But her regular spot was occupied.

Damn it.

Some shirtless dude was perched on the edge with his feet dangling over the side. She considered the opposite end of the roof, but the view over there was horrible. Just more apartment buildings and she would be on full display for everyone to see her slowly breaking down. On the verge of giving up, she glimpsed at the shirtless guy again and caught his side profile as he gazed wistfully into the orange and purple sunset.

It was Bellamy.

A gentle fizz of nervous excitement made her smile to herself. Self-consciousness was an old acquaintance, one she’d bested years ago; encountering it now was almost nostalgic. Ditto the girlish flutter in her stomach. But what was it about this guy that made her feel so…interested?

The mystery?

The fact that he was such a square and a mystery?

Or was it his boyish biker-look cuteness and his cut-from-granite body, without the obnoxious attitude that normally went with them?

Hell, all of the above, she thought as she made her way over. At the very least, I owe him a beer for saving my life.

He had a couple of smallish tattoos; one on his shoulder, the other on his right forearm. They suited his look but not his personality from what Rose could tell. It’s like the body didn’t belong to the person living inside of it.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked, already setting her towel down next to him. “You’ve actually found my favorite spot.”

“Please do.” He helped straighten the towel for her. “You come up here a lot?”

“Whenever I get cabin fever in that apartment or when it gets too hot…like tonight.”

“You’re not afraid of heights, then.”

“Nope.” She took her Punisher t-shirt off, revealing an old tube top that barely covered her breasts, then removed her clingy jeans so she wore nothing but her boy-cut shorts. The freeing of her clammy skin was refreshing in the humid Nova Scotia summer air. Bellamy watched her slyly from the corner of his eye, as though his libido was at war with his gallantry. It amused her to no end. “What’s wrong? Girls are shy where you come from?”

“Not exactly,” he replied, ogling her cleavage when she crouched to sit next to him. “They just had a lot more layers to peel off.”