by Ann, Natalie
Next he showed her a full bath, this one done in creams and browns with a big tiled tub and shower unit and double sinks lining the wall. “The double sinks are nice for the main bath.”
“I always thought so. I hated fighting for sink time or space with my brothers growing up. Kaitlin had her own bathroom.”
“Brothers?” she asked.
“Yeah. Sorry, I thought you knew. My younger brother, Ben. He’s two years younger than me, four years older than Kaitlin.”
“What does he do?” she asked casually.
“He is the Director of Security at Albany Medical Center. His fiancée is a nurse. They met there.”
“Does he look like you?”
“I guess. Why?” he asked around a grin. “He’s taken.”
She smiled and shook her head. She liked this teasing side of him…liked it a lot. “Just curious. Kaitlin looks so much like you, and I was wondering if maybe Ben was the black sheep.”
“He’s the black sheep, all right, only not like you think. He used to be a Navy SEAL, but I guess you could say he is the most like me in personality, at least that’s what everyone says. Those that don’t really know Ben well, that is.”
“Why is that?”
“Ben’s funny. Always smiling and laughing, but he runs deep, very deep. Me, not so much. I’m the laid-back one in the bunch.” He shrugged again and then ushered her down the hall to the master suite. She wouldn’t bet on that. She’d bet Alec Harper ran deeper than most people would ever imagine, even though she would agree with his laid-back assessment.
After opening the door to the master suite, her eyes landed on the bed. Suddenly she realized that this wasn’t just a house he was flipping, this was his home, and that was his bed that he slept in every night.
He cleared his throat, and her eyes flew to his. Caught, she knew it, but she pretended like it didn’t happen, just like she’d been doing for weeks. “It’s nice and big in here. Lots of natural light.” She turned to the door on the left and walked forward, asking, “Do you mind?”
“No, go ahead. It’s the walk-in closet. Check it out.”
She opened the door and tried not to groan. He was a slob, no way around it. Things were hung up, but they were half on and half off hangers, nothing was folded neatly. There wasn’t a lot on the floor, but it was enough. And nothing was lined up just right—not the way she liked things. She did notice his bed was made, but barely, like he ran in the door and pulled the comforter up fast.
When she stepped back out, he laid his hand on her lower back and she stiffened, then relaxed. He guided her to the other door, keeping his hand there. She could feel the heat of it through her shirt and really hoped she didn’t blush again.
“Master bath,” he said, opening the door.
It too was very spacious. Again, done in neutral browns and creams like the main bath down the hall, only this bathroom had a nice big soaker tub. He definitely ticked off all the boxes so far to sell the house.
“So what do you think?”
“I love what you’ve done. I can’t believe you’ve done it all by yourself.”
“Phil helps when I need it. I’m at the stage where I can do the rest myself. I’ve been known to bring guys in if need be if the work slows down on other projects, but it hasn’t, so I’ve been doing most of it by myself.”
“Well, I would love to help. Really, I would.” She couldn’t wait to start doing something. “What do you need me to do?”
“Nothing glamorous. I was going to mud the walls, or as many as I could, then try to sand them down this weekend. Once that is all done and painted, I’ll move on to the flooring.”
“Well, consider me your slave for the night,” she said, and watched his eyes light up again. She hadn’t really meant to say it that way, but it confirmed something when she saw his eyes travel down the length of her. Definitely mutual attraction and now she needed to rein it in. The playful flirting was fun, but she didn’t want to get in over her head and jeopardize what she had worked so hard to regain.
Dancing Around
Two hours later, working with Brynn in a calm, peaceful routine, Alec looked over at her. She was methodically sliding the blade down the tape with a thin layer of mud. She didn’t work as fast as him, but she was just as good. There was little to no excess. Sanding was going to be fast and easy with her surefire strokes.
They had made progress, her on the walls, and him on the ceilings. Another twenty minutes or so and all the rooms downstairs would be mudded and could dry. With any luck he’d have them sanded and primed this weekend, and then he could tackle the upstairs walls. Maybe he could talk her into putting a few more hours in. No, that would be taking advantage. He wouldn’t, but if she offered…
He never thought he would feel so comfortable working next to her, not with all the sexual tension he’d been feeling. But for some reason, once they got to work, it all vanished. Crazy.
They just meshed so well. They stayed out of each other’s way, almost like they knew the other person’s move before it even happened.
He was just wiping his hands on a rag when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, he read Phil’s text. She said yes.
“I’ll be damned,” he said, laughing happily.
Brynn spun around. “What?”
“Sorry. Phil just texted me. He’s engaged.”
She ran the spade down the wall one last time, set everything on the floor and smiled at him. “That’s wonderful. They look happy together. He just asked her now?”
Alec nodded. Brynn was right. Phil and Sophia looked happy together because they were happy together. “I think so. His text only said ‘she said yes’ so I’m guessing it just happened.”
“You didn’t know he was going to do it?”
“No, but I’m not surprised either.”
“How do you know that’s what he asked her then?” Brynn questioned while she wiped off her hands.
“I know my brother almost as well as I know myself.” He typed back quickly to Phil. Tell Shorty welcome to the family. My lips are sealed until Sunday.
“Is it true then? What they say about twins knowing each other so well?”
“It is with Phil and me. See this scar above my eye?” He pointed over his right eyebrow to the faint scar that had been there since they were children. “Phil did that when we were kids. We were always beating on each other. My mother didn’t care, just always told us to be careful. But one day, Phil elbowed me, not on purpose, but I swear he cried harder than I did.”
She chuckled, and he snickered. “Okay, he really didn’t. Eleven-year-olds try not to cry, but it did hurt, and so did the ten stitches. Regardless, he apologized for a week. Did everything for me, even my chores around the house. He said at night that he kept feeling a throb in that spot on his head and wanted to know if I felt it too.”
“Did you?”
“Actually, I was. It was kind of freaky; then again, we were used to things like that.”
She was smiling warmly at him, and he felt his heart pick up its beat again. So much for the relaxing calm they had for the last two and a half hours. The tension was building in him again. “How long have Phil and Sophia been together?”
“Since spring, at least officially. Unofficially, they’ve been dancing around each other for years.” He held her stare as he said those words, then watched the meaning sink in as he closed the distance some more.
“Dancing around how?” she said in almost a whisper.
“Sophia is Kaitlin’s best friend. We’ve known her for almost six years. I now believe there was some underlying connection for years between them, even though they never acted on it, or so they said. Something tells me that might not be the truth. I think there was more than either of them said before they finally told everyone they were dating.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because I’m starting to understand the dancing-around thing myself.”
“How’s that?�
�� she said, standing her ground as he took a few more steps, his eyes drilling into hers.
“Why don’t you tell me? I know you’re smart. I know you know what I’m talking about. I see it just as plainly as you do.” Her eyes—the brown of them turning just a shade darker, then filling with heat. Oh yeah, she knew, all right. The question was, would she admit it or not.
“Dancing can be fun,” she said, almost breathlessly.
“It can be, but I would rather know what the next move is going to be,” he countered. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, no sound coming forth. “What? Nothing to say?”
She shook her head and he closed the distance even more, testing her and maybe himself. Stopping right in front of her, his eyes traveled the length of her face from her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail to her rich chocolate eyes, then over the speck of spackling mud on her cheek, right to her lips. “What about you? What’s your next move? Don’t you want to know?”
She lifted her eyes up and looked into his. His hand came out and gently wiped at the mud on her cheek. “Yeah.”
“Here is what I know,” he said in a low voice. “I know you’re as attracted to me as I am to you. I know you watch me when you think I’m not looking. And I know your heart is racing right now. Want to know how I know those things?”
Gulping, she nodded wordlessly.
“Because I do the same and feel the same exact way.” He leaned toward her, lowering his mouth to see what she’d do. She didn’t move, even inched closer to him, so he moved his mouth over hers, his lips just grazing. Softly, lightly, just a touch, just a taste. She didn’t pull back, didn’t even flinch, so he deepened the kiss more. Coaxing her mouth open, he slid his tongue in, tasting her, catching the sigh that escaped.
Then, instinctively, he pulled her closer, held her tight, and kissed her deeper. He was losing a part of himself, he knew it and he felt it, but he couldn’t make himself stop.
The phone going off in his pocket finally pulled him out of it. He pushed back fast, appalled at what he just did. He hadn’t meant to do it. He hadn’t meant to kiss her. He only wanted to see where they stood, get her to admit she was feeling the same things he was and try to figure out where to go from there. The last thing he wanted to do was pressure her.
Only he had no control of his emotions. His mind had shut off and his body took over, and he was just now realizing what a disaster he may have created. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”
“Oh shut up,” she told him and grabbed him, then kissed him harder, deeper, and he was lost, so completely and utterly lost.
He had no idea how long they had stood there kissing, no clue at all. It could have been minutes or hours. He wasn’t even sure when or why they stopped, but all of a sudden he was standing there alone, and she was a few steps away.
“Crap. I’m sorry. My turn to apologize,” she rushed out. “Totally uncalled for, so let’s forget this happened.”
Like that was going to happen. No way. It was time to address this. “Let’s take a minute here. Give me a second for my brain to start working. Wow, you’re potent.”
“Alec,” she started to say, rubbing her hands on her thighs nervously.
But he cut her off. “No. Take a minute. No worries. Let’s gather our thoughts and we aren’t going to forget this happened. Let’s deal with it like mature adults. We are and we can do it. Just give me a minute.” Or an hour, because holy shit he felt like he was shaking right now. “Kitchen. Let’s go into the kitchen and sit at the island. I’ll go get us some water.”
He walked out of the room and went up the stairs to his bedroom where the mini refrigerator was stored and grabbed two bottles of water. By the time he came back down she was sitting on a bar stool looking calmer and more composed than him. Reining it in better than he had been able to do once again. He wished he knew her secret.
Opening the water, he handed it to her, then opened his own and downed half of it while he sat next to her. He opened his mouth to start, but she beat him to it.
“I really love my job, Alec. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that. It wouldn’t be wise for this to go any further.”
Okay, good start. He could work with that. “I really love having you work for us. I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your job,” he returned.
“This is awkward. I don’t want to be awkward. It can’t go any further, really it can’t.”
“It’s not awkward, and I don’t want you to feel that way, either.” He was trying to figure out where to go from here. He’d never been in a situation like this before. In the past, if he liked someone he approached her, and it worked or it didn’t. There were never any other issues they had to work around. Laid-back, easy, and nothing serious was his motto. But he would be damned if he would drop the whole thing like she suggested. Not knowing how she felt, and how he was feeling.
“It’s hard for it not to be awkward. I just kissed you in your house. You’re my boss,” she said almost shrieking.
“I kissed you first. It was mutual. It shouldn’t be awkward, and we can separate the two. Can’t we?” he asked. He was sure he could. Didn’t he just tell himself how all the tension was gone while they were working? Now that he thought about it, whenever they talked about work, all the sexual frustration left his mind and he looked at her differently. It was only once the work stopped he couldn’t focus. Maybe he would start with that.
“One month,” she blurted out before he could say anything else.
“One month for what?”
“Let’s give it one month. We work together for one month from this date. No dating, no kissing, nothing even jumping in that arena. Let’s focus on work, after a month we will reevaluate.”
“No,” he stated firmly. “I can’t put it on the back burner. I don’t think you can either. It happened and it’s there; we can’t ignore it and it won’t go away. I’ll give you that month, but not with your conditions.”
“Then what conditions?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She was annoyed with him. Wasn’t that interesting? And sexy. He liked the fire that just jumped into her eyes. Fire and stubbornness he hadn’t seen before.
“Work is work. We work well together. Don’t you agree?” She nodded her head. “And when we’re working, I’m not as tense, it seems. It doesn’t seem awkward—this thing we have,” he said, moving his hand back and forth between the two of them.
“True. I noticed it too. Okay. What else?”
“Outside of work we test the waters, sort of dating. No sex if you want, but definitely kissing, maybe a little petting thrown in?” he asked ruefully. He could have shot himself for saying no sex, but he would be damned if he would limit it to nothing at all. And he was positive she would agree, especially since her face just turned beet red again.
“I don’t know,” she said hedging while he held his breath and stared at her. “Can I think on it more?”
“You could, but it’s not going to change what we just did or how we feel. Think of it this way, if we don’t throw it on the table and address it could get worse, right? The tension between us. We share an office you know, we don’t want it awkward,” he threw out there, joking and hoping to get her to lighten up a bit. It was his last-ditch effort in the hopes she wouldn’t turn him down.
“I guess you could be right,” she mumbled.
“What? What was that? I didn’t quite hear you,” he said, enjoying this much more now.
“I said fine. I’ll agree to that. Thirty days. One month. We can reevaluate at that point.”
“I have one more condition,” he added.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing between you and me affects your job. Ever. If in thirty days or three minutes we decide it’s not going to work, your job will not be affected one bit. I value you too much.”
“Thank you, Alec. That means the world to me.”
***
Later that night, Brynn lay in bed wondering what the heck had happened tonight, and what the heck she had agreed to with Alec. One stupid kiss and all her brain cells flew out her ears.
Of course, just because she agreed to it tonight didn’t mean she couldn’t change her mind, because he told her she could a few times, and she believed him. As much as he was always joking and teasing, he was honorable. She knew that and believed what he said, if she decided she didn’t want to pursue this. But she wanted to, even though the practical side of her brain was arguing not to go down this path.
Especially after that third kiss, just before she left. Holy cow. He’d said she was potent—he didn’t know the half of it. She threw the thirty days out there for her peace of mind, figuring they might come to their senses by then. She needed time to process this whole thing more. She thought she’d been doing a good job pretending she didn’t feel anything for him, but she guessed not.
She wasn’t stupid, he was right: she saw the signs of his attraction to her all along too. That was probably what was making it so hard to pretend she didn’t feel anything for him.
She was so confused and usually she was never confused. She always knew what path she was going to take in life, what her next step was going to be and how she was going to take it…before everything came crashing down on her. But this thing with Alec, nope, she was way off course and had no idea what road to take to get anywhere, let alone to the right place.
So she would play by these rules. Work was work, he was right. When they were working, or talking about work, they clicked, and she only saw him in that light. She might still appreciate his good looks and physique. She wasn’t blind, after all, but it really didn’t affect her job if she found him attractive.
Matter of fact, she seemed to work better with him than anyone. Not once had she had to explain anything to him. He just watched her do her thing, absorbed what she was doing and they talked about it after the fact. He didn’t even try to show her up at the consultations last weekend.
