Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
He grabbed a pad of paper from where he’d left it on the counter and sat at the small eat-in kitchen table. He needed to sketch out the work to be done and he had a list of appliances to order.
Fuck, he still had to order the new cabinets.
At least that was going to take him out of the house for the first half of the day and remove the chance of him running into the mystery man.
It was like the guy could sense Dane thinking about him. The soft shuffle of feet across the tile floor had Dane cringing for a second. He looked up to find the man standing in the doorway, glancing around as if he were trying to get his bearings.
“Good morning,” Dane greeted when he could finally get enough saliva in his mouth to make it work. The guy was in a clean T-shirt and jeans. His hair was sleep-tousled, and there was a flush to his cheeks that hadn’t been there when he first saw him.
The man blinked, and a slow smile spread across those perfect lips. “You’re real.” His voice was low and husky.
Dane’s dick decided to take that as an invitation, which shocked the hell out of him. Since Katie’s death, both his body and brain had lost all interest in anything sexual, but this man seemed to be determined to be the cure to his celibacy—not that he was fucking looking for one.
“Excuse me?”
Clay shook his head and took a couple of steps into the kitchen. God, he was barefoot. Of course, he was barefoot. It wasn’t enough he looked and sounded sexy. The stranger had to walk in barefoot, reminding Dane that he’d just climbed from a nice warm bed full of twisted sheets and plump pillows. Where so much more of him would be bare besides his feet.
“The past day, I’ve been so out of it. I thought I’d dreamed you.”
Yeah, this guy wasn’t doing anything to help his current hard-on situation. As it was, he couldn’t get up from the table to properly introduce himself without it being embarrassing.
“Nope, I’m real. Dane Briggs,” he said. He extended his hand and partially stood up, using the table to shield his crotch.
The man closed the last few feet between them and took his hand. “Clay Green. Are you the one working on the house?”
“Yes!” Dane said more sharply than he’d meant to.
Yeah, his brain wasn’t firing correctly yet. The damn thing was focused on its assessment of Clay’s warm, strong grip and how it sent little tingles racing up his nerve endings.
He cleared his throat. “Flo, Jo, and Willie hired me to work on it.” Confusion dug lines in the man’s handsome face, so he pushed on. “Jo was the one that brought you in last night.”
Clay nodded a bit slowly, as if pieces were starting to make more sense. “Did you do the bathroom? The one attached to the room I was put in.”
Dane couldn’t stop the smile that grew at the excitement he heard in Clay’s voice. “The master bath, yes. I finished that a week ago. I thought it turned out pretty good.”
“Pretty good? That bathroom is fucking amazing. It’s all so sleek and gorgeous. Now that everything is a little clearer, I was almost afraid to touch anything. And I thought I saw something that looked like controls for the floor?”
Dane nodded. “Heater for the floor tiles. You can program it so that it comes on at the same time each day, like if you have to get ready for work in the morning.”
Clay grinned at him. “That’s insane.”
“The tub has whirlpool jets. If you need something like that after the other day…” Dane’s voice trailed off at the end. He wasn’t sure he should bring up how bad the guy looked or even ask what had happened, though he was dying to know.
Clay’s smile fell away, and his eyes dropped to the table between them. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
Dane bit his tongue. He wasn’t sure what the hell to say now. The guy looked so lost and alone, even if he was in better shape than Dane had expected him to be.
Clay cleared his throat. “You got any more of that coffee around?” He motioned with one finger toward the travel mug sitting in front of Dane before his gaze shifted to sweep over the empty countertops. Everything that could be cleared out of the kitchen already had been.
“Not in here, unfortunately.”
“Oh,” Clay said, his shoulders slumping. “You’re about to start working in here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, the master bath was sort of a testing ground. I’m ordering cabinets and appliances today, then starting to rip everything out. Plumbing and wiring need to be updated.”
“Damn. Lot of work,” Clay murmured as his eyes traveled over the room again.