Lighting Her Fuse Read online

  “Are you their only grandchild?”

  She looked at me and for one unsettling moment I wondered if she sensed I was asking out of more than general interest. Then she smiled and reached for her coffee. “Only child of their only daughter. I came to live with them when I was eight, after I lost my parents. I came back a few times during this past year and hated that the house was standing empty, but there didn’t seem any point renting it out, especially not with it needing so much updating in terms of the kitchen and bathroom.” She sighed, her eyes scanning the room again. “And now with the electrics needing work, too.”

  I reached for my own coffee as a ray of hope lit my chest. If she planned on renovating the place, renting it out, and then moving on, that made things much more palatable and the impending conversation much easier.

  “It’ll be a whole lot of work for one person to take on,” I said reaching for a cookie. “Are you hiring renovators?”

  She laughed, a tinkle of sound that shot straight to my cock. “Good heavens, no. I couldn’t afford that right now. I’ll just have to do things piecemeal, the most urgent things first. Like the electrics.”

  That ray of light blew out. “That’ll take a while.”

  “I know, but I’m not in any rush. This is my home now, I’ve got time.”

  Shit. That was exactly not what I wanted to hear. “If you don’t mind me saying, that sounds like a huge challenge for someone who wants to start up their own business.” I took a breath. “You wouldn’t prefer to sell and let someone else take on the worry and expense?”

  Her pretty brow creased, and she looked at me as if I’d said something really offensive. “Absolutely not. Selling is out of the question. This place means everything to me. It belonged to my grandparents, they lived here for over sixty years.”

  I shrugged, as if it didn’t mean anything to me if she sold or stayed, when in reality it meant a whole lot. “I can’t believe they’d expect you to shackle yourself to an old place when you’ve got goals and dreams to fulfil. Wouldn’t they want you to do what you want?”

  “Of course, but what I want is to stay here.”

  That backbone I’d sensed she had was well and truly in evidence now. I had a feeling that once Hannah made up her mind about anything, she dug her heels in until she achieved it.

  Which meant I needed a Plan B.

  Hannah

  He seemed pretty interested in the fact I intended to renovate the house. Not surprising, of course, considering he was in construction. Maybe I could get some pointers along the way, although he specialized in commercial properties and therefore worked on much larger buildings and wouldn’t be at all interested in giving me tips on renovating what to him was likely small fry property.

  “I was thinking,” he said sipping his coffee. “Maybe we could help each other out.”

  “How?”

  He shrugged. “Well, me and Trey we could do with some help with our paperwork. If we don’t keep on top of it, then it gets way out of hand. I was thinking if you’ve got time to take on more clients, then maybe I could do some work around here for you. Tit for tat, so to speak.”

  I almost fell off my chair. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t joke about business.”

  “Even so, your time would be far more valuable than mine. It would hardly be a fair exchange.”

  He grinned. “You don’t know how bad we are at that paperwork, honey.”

  I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, both because the way he called me honey sounded so incredibly hot, but also because I hardly dared to believe what he was suggesting. “How would it work?”

  He shrugged those big shoulders. “We could agree to say, a couple of hours a day to start, if that works for you. Our office is downtown, but I’ll warn you it’ll probably take you a while to work your way through sorting the papers on the desk before you can make head or tail of what needs doing. Filing isn’t our strong point either.”

  “I’m good at filing. Very organized.”

  He laughed. “That doesn’t surprise me.” He leaned forward and took out his phone. “I can get started on the electrics first, hook Trey in to oversee things. Then we can go from there.”

  I took a huge breath in, my heart beating a mile a minute. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Yes, is a pretty good start.”

  I clapped my hands together, unable to hold back the excitement any longer. “Yes!”

  Chapter Three

  Jack

  Trey put down the drill he’d been holding and flipped up his safety goggles until they rested on his forehead. “I hope this is all part of Plan B and you haven’t just hooked us into this because you want to get between her legs.”

  “Two birds. One stone,” I said to Trey, ignoring his barbed comment as he looked at me through narrowed eyes. “We need an administrator. She needs a builder.”

  “I notice you didn’t deny wanting to screw her,” Trey huffed. “Don’t tell me, she’s built and all needy female. You’re a fucking sucker for those.”

  I slipped my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “There’s nothing needy about her, believe me. She’s got it all figured out. And she’ll whip our paperwork into shape in no time.”

  Trey eyed me again, then slid his safety goggles back on. “We could use some help, I guess. As long as you don’t get distracted from the goal here, bro. We haven’t got that long before we have to file the paperwork.”

  “I’ve got it all in hand.”

  I tapped two fingers to my temple in salute, then picked my way through the rubble of a building we were in the process of renovating for a local wholesaler.

  I’d agreed to meet Hannah at a coffee shop downtown and then show her around our office so she could get the lie of the land.

  As I crossed the road and saw her sitting in the front window, my insides gave an unsteady roll. This wasn’t really how I liked to do things, but there was a lot at stake. And it wasn’t as if Hannah would lose out. Trey and I would give her a good price for her grandparents’ house. Then she could start up that business she wanted. Everybody would win.

  She spotted me, her bright smile and friendly wave adding to my sense of unease. I pushed it down and went inside to meet her.

  As I sat, she waved to the waitress. “Friend of yours?”

  “No. I pre-ordered a coffee for you. Black, two sugars. Just letting her know to bring it now.”

  The simple act touched something in me. Not just that she’d been thoughtful to do that, but that she remembered how I took my coffee. “I could get used to this,” I said trying not to show how it had affected me. “Unless you’re going to ruin it for me by saying you remember how everyone takes their coffee.”

  She laughed, a sound that went straight to my crotch which grew hard as I looked across at her.

  “I thought I’d better suck up to the boss,” she said taking a sip of her own latte and looking at me above the rim. Shit, but I just bet those brown eyes held a lot of dirty secrets. Things she was capable of doing when the lights went out. Or even when they were on. I found myself wondering if she was shy in bed, or if she just went for it.

  Suddenly I was desperate to know, and my pulse ratcheted up several notches.

  “Well, you’ve gotten off to a good start.”

  My coffee arrived and I kept my eyes on Hannah as I thanked the waitress. When she’d moved away, I leaned my elbows on the table, wanting to get closer to Hannah. Her delicate scent floated across and I took a surreptitious breath, drawing her deep inside me.

  I wondered how long it would be before I could get deep inside her. My need to do that was growing more urgent by the minute.

  She wore a white tee under a caramel-colored jacket, and just the hint of a nipple outlined against the simple cotton made my mouth water. How would she taste in my mouth? How would she feel as I rolled my tongue around that nipple…as I sucked her lightly…as I licked her? Would she arch against me? Moan my name? Tell me ne
ver to stop?

  I wanted to know.

  She made a slight sound and I looked up, meeting her eyes. All that brown had turned sultry. Did she know what I’d been thinking? If she did, the hint of color across her pretty cheeks told me she wasn’t unaffected by that knowledge.

  I glanced down again, really briefly, and could have sworn her nipple was even more evident through her tee.

  Aware that we were in a crowded coffee shop, and I was basically mentally fucking her right there, I brought the coffee cup to my mouth and took a healthy sip.

  “Shit.” I almost dropped the cup back in its saucer, my tongue on fire and the roof of my mouth having probably lost a layer of skin. “That’s freaking hot.”

  I sat back, blowing out a breath, and caught her knowing smile.

  “What?”

  “It serves you right,” she said, delicately sipping her own drink, those eyes not leaving mine. “You were having very lewd thoughts.”

  I raised my eyebrows, feeling like a schoolboy who’d been caught jacking off to a picture of a centerfold. “How do you know that?”

  She sipped her drink again before placing it down. Then she leaned back in her chair and tapped her fingernails lightly on the table. “Your eyes went all dark and your eyelids went heavy. Plus, you were almost salivating as you stared at my chest.”

  Hell. She didn’t beat about the bush.

  “Then your breathing rate increased,” she continued. “And your nostrils flared. They’re sure signs a man is thinking about sex.”

  “You got all that in a few seconds? Did you take body language classes alongside creative art?”

  Another throaty laugh. “I’m a woman, I don’t need body language classes.”

  “You’re certainly a woman,” I said, chancing a grin. Considering she seemed to be enjoying herself, and she hadn’t singled me out for being some kind of lecher, I sat forward again and clasped my hands on the table. “A woman I’d really like to get to know better.”

  “Won’t it be difficult? Me basically working for you. You’ll technically be my boss.”

  “And you’ll technically be mine, seeing as I’ll be tackling your electrics.”

  Shit. If she kept laughing like that, I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions. The thought of taking her right here on this table was looking mighty appealing.

  “We’re basically on equal footing then.” She shrugged, but her brown eyes gleamed wickedly. “Although I have to say, being attracted to you isn’t really the best plan.”

  “I’m thinking it’s a pretty good one, seeing I’m attracted to you as well. That means we really are on equal footing. The question is, what are we going to do about it?”

  She took in a huge breath, let it out on a sigh. “It can get complicated.”

  “It can, but only if we let it.”

  She took another breath. “I’ll need to think about it for a while. I’m not a very spontaneous person, I usually have to work around things.”

  “How long is a while?”

  She gave a slight shake of her head. “Hard to say. I only met you yesterday.”

  “Instant attraction. What can I say?”

  She smiled. “Maybe we should finish our coffee and head over to your office so you can show me what you want me to do.”

  I knew exactly what I wanted her to do, what I needed her to do, but I could respect her need to think about things. Even if I didn’t especially like it.

  “Okay.”

  Hannah

  I’d never known a man who could turn me in circles like Jack did. I’d meant it when I said I needed to think on it. Having sex with a man wasn’t something I took lightly, but Jack was the first man I’d considered throwing caution to the wind for.

  He did things to me. He made my body react in ways I’d never really experienced before. Oh, I’d had sex. Twice. It was okay, both times, but not earth-moving. I knew, just knew, that with Jack it would move pretty much the whole universe.

  If he could make me feel this way with our clothes on, how on earth would he make me feel when we were naked.

  I shivered as we crossed the street to his office, even though the spring day was pleasantly warm. He looked at me, raised his eyebrows. “Cold?”

  “No. I’m just thinking.”

  His grin told me he knew exactly where my thoughts had gone. “Good. Keep doing that.”

  Jack’s office was in a modern twelve-storey building and situated on the seventh floor. As we rode up in the elevator, I kept a safe distance from him. It didn’t stop me inhaling his scent, which seemed to permeate around the enclosed space. Thinking back to yesterday, and how he’d filled my roomy hallway and kitchen, I wondered if he always dominated every space he was in—large or small.

  My breathing was choppy as we exited the elevator and Jack led me toward the door on the far left. When he opened it and stood back for me to enter, I think the breath I sucked in was actually audible.

  The space was huge with desks scattered around at odd angles, interspersed with various paraphernalia, which I supposed was building related, and mountains of paperwork piled everywhere. About a dozen people worked at the desks, some on computers, others at drawing stands, while others manned telephones.

  “I didn’t realize you had staff,” I said naïvely, glancing at the piles of paper on each desk. “Doesn’t anyone here handle the paperwork?”

  “Everyone seems to know where things are and can lay their hands on whatever they want when they want it. It’s not ideal, but it kind of works.”

  “Then why do you need me?”

  “When I said everyone, I wasn’t including me and Trey in that. We need organizing.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him as a thought came to me. “You didn’t just give me this job because you felt sorry for me, did you? Because you knew I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay you to help me at the house?”

  He looked decidedly sheepish. “Maybe there was an element of that. But we really do need you to sort out our mess.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say, what to do. He was basically being kind, and it would be crass of me not to accept that kindness. Besides which, I wasn’t going to get an easy ride of it, not if the disarray around me was any indication. “Okay,” I said. “But I’m going to monitor this arrangement and if it seems that I’m getting away lightly then we’ll have to reconsider it.”

  “Sounds fair, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be eating your words at the end of one week here.”

  After Jack had shown me around and introduced me to everyone, he excused himself to go join his business partner at a job site, and I got to work.

  It didn’t take me long to realize that he’d been right. I might be eating my words sooner rather than later. It was an absolute mess. Not just the physical paperwork piled on Jack and Trey’s desks, but also the systems they had on their computers were antiquated and inefficient.

  I hadn’t realized how long I’d been working until some of the others started packing up and wishing me goodnight as they left the office. I’d grabbed a sandwich off the lunch trolley but had then lost track of time.

  I was shutting down the new computer systems I’d downloaded when Jack came in.

  He came to an abrupt halt when he saw me. “You should have left a long time ago.”

  “I got caught up,” I said, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair and shrugging into it. “Don’t worry, I won’t be billing you extra hours. Our agreement stands, a couple of hours a day, but I just wanted to get a head start.”

  “You most definitely will bill me the extra. People around here don’t work for nothing.”

  “I’m not worried, really.”

  He looked at me for a long while, the silence humming between us, even as his eyes bored into mine and made my feminine parts tingle.

  “I was going to grab a quick supper and then head over to your place to get a start on the electrics. Why don’t you join me?”

  “That will make it late when
you get going, and you’ve already done a day’s work. Why don’t I cook us something while you make a start?”

  He pursed his lips, as if he was thinking around that. Then he nodded and held the door open for me.

  “I’ll follow you home.”

  Chapter Four

  Hannah

  I had the makings of a simple pasta in the cupboard, so I busied myself with the meal as Jack fiddled around in the electrics box, regularly wandering off to check plugs and fittings and other related things.

  I’d really enjoyed getting stuck into organizing his paperwork and had been surprised to realize just how many important projects he and his business partner were involved in. Which made me even more grateful that he’d taken the time to help me out and helping me out was exactly what he was doing because a couple of hours a day handling his paperwork really wasn’t a fair trade for his time and skill.

  “I’ve got a good idea what needs doing in the short term,” Jack said coming into the kitchen rubbing his hands together on a piece of old rag. “But I’ll get Trey to confirm my findings and let him have the final say. He can call in first thing tomorrow if that’s okay with you.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, taking a moment to enjoy the sight of him. “I’ll make sure I’m around.”

  As soon as we arrived back here, he’d changed into old jeans and a black short-sleeved tee, and my mouth watered at the sight of all that taut, honed muscle. In the tee, I could see the ripped perfection of his upper body—the definition of his chest, his upper arms, the sheer breadth of his shoulders. While the old jeans fit exactly where they were supposed to fit, stretching across his muscular thighs and curving sensationally around his perfect ass.

  I brought my gaze up to meet his and found him watching me, his mouth curved into that sexy lopsided grin. He knew I’d been checking him out, and I wasn’t in the mood to even try and cover up my enjoyable perusal of his excellent attributes.

  He dropped the old rag onto the table. “I hope that look in your eye means you’ve been thinking about things and have reached a mutually satisfying conclusion.”