Her Dream Come True

Again he paused, this time actually setting down the hammer and reaching into his back pocket for a handkerchief. He swiped the square of white cotton across his forehead, and Hannah gawked as the sun caught the planes and curves of tendon and sinew of his powerful upper body.

It was then that she noticed his hands, imagining the hard calluses that must surely come with such physical labor, wondering how the rough surfaces of the pads of his fingertips might feel against a woman’s soft skin.

Her eyes widened at the thought, and at the same instant, the erotic idea caused saliva to pool in her mouth.

She swallowed and tried to look away. But she simply couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Could his chest be as perfectly formed as his back and rear? she wondered. The question had her taking an unwitting step meant to better her view of him. But the long grass caught at her heel, tripping her up, and she let out a tiny squeal of surprise. She was able to catch her balance, and most naturally, she swung her gaze back up to the top of the house only to find the carpenter looking down at her.

Suddenly she was overwhelmingly grateful for her misstep. If he’d have caught her ogling his body, she’d have been mortified.

“Hello,” he called down to her.

The corners of his mouth curled upward, his cheeks dimpled and his eyes lit with a friendly warmth. The sight of his handsome face, his charming smile, made Hannah’s mind go completely blank. The reasons for her trip south slipped from her thoughts as if her mind had mysteriously become riddled with a thousand sieve holes. If she were asked something as simple as her name, she doubted at the moment if she could provide the information.

Luckily, speaking wasn’t immediately necessary as the man picked up his hammer, slid it into a loop on his tool belt and then made his way over to the ladder leaning up against the side of the house. It took him several moments to descend to the ground, crucial moments Hannah used to calm the fluttering of her heart, steady her trembling hands, cool her most unseemly and inappropriate thoughts.

This was silly, she told herself. Her job as a nurse put her in the presence of naked male bodies nearly every day. Patients couldn’t be examined with their clothes on. So why should the sight of this bare upper torso wreak such havoc on her central nervous system and conjure such sensual thoughts?

She hadn’t time to ponder the answer before he was standing in front of her.

The man was more handsome close up than he had been way up there on the roof. The color of his eyes was an intriguing mix of blue-gray, his dark lashes making thick fanning frames. His brows were black slashes just below a strong, high forehead that was feathered with light worry lines that told Hannah he must be in his mid-to-late thirties. Perspiration from his hot work on the roof dampened the roots of his coal-black hair and glistened on the strong curve of his neck and his tanned chest. However, even though his skin had been tinged golden by the sun, the dusky disks of his nipples stood out in dark contrast.

Without conscious thought, Hannah’s tongue smoothed over her suddenly dry lips, and she blinked twice, forcing her gaze to rise to his face. The humorous glint in his eyes told her in no uncertain terms that he realized her blatant appreciation. She felt her face flush hot.

“Excuse me a minute,” he said, and then he moved past her. He picked up the end of the green garden hose coiled in the grass, turned on the spigot, bent over and doused his upper body with water. He ran his free hand over his chest, shoulders and the back of his neck. He rubbed at his face and combed his fingers through his hair, washing away the sweat from his body.

The blue jeans and work boots he wore kept his state of undress from being described as anything near indecent, still Hannah felt like some kind of sexual voyeur watching a very intimate act. A vivid image flashed through her mind, and she imagined her dream self taking the garden hose from his hand, directing the water to sluice over his chest as she smoothed her fingers over the massive shoulders.

The daydream came and went in a fraction of a second; however, she found it so utterly shocking that she squeezed shut her eyes and murmured, “You are going out of your mind.”

“Pardon?”

He’d turned off the water and tossed the end of the hose aside. Hannah watched him dry off his face and chest with his handkerchief, and then he reached down and picked up a T-shirt that lay in a heap on the lawn.

Say something, Hannah, she silently ordered. Talk about the weather, anything, just say something that won’t make this man think you’re totally insane.

“I said the day is just fine.”

Sunlight sparkled like jewels off the fat water droplets that clung to his hair. One particular liquid pearl ran along the outside edge of his ear, hovered for a moment on the bottommost curve of his sexy lobe, and then the sheer force of gravity caused it to splash onto his sun-bronzed shoulder. The instant the droplet hit, Hannah actually started, her blinking gaze lifting to his face.

Amusement twinkled in his eyes, and Hannah was left to wonder just how long she’d studied that glistening pellet. Her embarrassment grew, prickling every inch of her skin with a heated self-consciousness. And she could tell from his expression that he was enjoying her discomfort—very much.

What in heaven’s name was wrong with her? She was normally a serious, no-nonsense kind of person. A woman who would never gawk at a man. Not under any circumstances.

However, it wasn’t entirely her fault, she decided. If he’d get himself dressed, cover up that broad expanse of bare skin he was exposing, then she could keep her mind on more important issues like...his identity and what the heck he was doing here working on her father’s house, and who had given him permission to—

The thoughts bombarded her, pushing her to speak. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

Adam wasn’t able to completely suppress the chuckle that rumbled in his chest and tugged at his mouth. Evidently, the woman was taking on a defensive stance to cover up the blatant flirty looks she’d been giving him. In an effort to hide his humorous reaction to this new behavior of hers, he stuffed his arms into the sleeves of his cotton shirt and then took his time pulling it over his head.

He’d gotten quite a kick out of how the beautiful strawberry-blonde had been seemingly unable to take her gorgeous green eyes off his body. The current he felt sparking from her had been something akin to summer heat lightning, and it had been a long while since he had experienced its like.

After tugging the hem of the shirt, he combed his fingers through his wet hair.

“I’m Adam,” he told her. “Adam Roth. And I was up there fixing the roof.”

She planted her small fist on her narrow waist. “Well, I figured out you were fixing the roof. But why?”

This time his grin simply refused to be subdued as he obligingly supplied the obvious. “Because it leaked.”

Her wide, very kissable mouth puckered in total frustration, and Adam felt the urge to laugh, but he didn’t think it wise.

She was doing a commendable job, he decided, of keeping her gaze directed on his face; however, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that what she really wanted was to let her eyes roll up and down the length of him. It wasn’t entirely conceit that made him think this, it was the simple fact that, as they stood talking, her gaze would dip to his nose, then raise to his eyes, then it would dart to his mouth and raise again to his eyes. Her gaze had so far gotten as low as his chin.

The truth of the matter was, he found her obvious attraction to him pretty ego boosting, to say the least.

His silly answer to her even sillier question had made anger spark in her clear green eyes, and Adam decided the heated emotion only made her all the more beautiful.

“Pardon me,” she said, keeping her voice under tight control. “It seems as if I didn’t make myself clear. What I meant was, under whose direction were you up there fixing the roof?”

What was this? he wondered. An inquisition?

The suspicion in her tone took the edge off his humor. Hell, it did more than that. It pretty much grated on his nerves.

“Before I answer that,” he said, shifting his weight onto one foot and crossing his arms over his chest, “I think I’d like to know who’s asking.”

Chapter Two

The man was infuriating! Who did this carpenter, this handyman, think he was, to be questioning her right to inquire about his identity and what he was doing to her father’s house? The man was simply infuriating!

“Look,” she said, “I don’t know who you are, but—”

“I already told you who I am,” he quietly informed her. “I’m trying to find out who you are.”

For some odd reason Hannah felt a sudden reluctance to give this man any information about herself. However, she doubted he would be satisfied until she told him something about her presence here in Little Haven.

“I’ve come from New York.” Her tone was stiff. “To arrange the sale of the house and its contents. Now, if you don’t mind, would you please tell me who authorized your work and how much you expect to be paid.”

His eyes narrowed ominously as she spoke, and Hannah was only barely able to squelch the urge to back up a step.

“What did you say?”

She searched his face, wondering exactly which piece of the information she’d just disclosed had so thoroughly changed his demeanor. She was sure it must have been the fact that she’d cast a heavy shadow on the issue of his payment for the roof job.

“I think it’s only fair for me to know just how much this is going to cost me,” she said, “before I agree to pay, don’t you?”

Obvious irritation tensed his jaw muscle. His voice lowered to a grumble as he said, “I was never expecting to be paid.”