Airman To The Rescue. Heatherly Bell

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СКАЧАТЬ and leading the way to the sliding glass door. Matt let him out, then went to find Sarah.

      Where the hell was she? They had to talk about the roof, and plenty of other decisions that would need to be made about their now joint project. This house was a classic when one got right down to it. A Craftsman built in the early 1960s, it had seen better days, but from the beginning Matt had seen nothing but possibilities. He figured it was the fixer in him, but he’d always admired great craftsmanship.

      He headed toward her bedroom when the bathroom door jerked open a few feet away from him. Sarah emerged. Naked. She took one startled look in his direction and streaked down the hallway toward the bedrooms. Frozen in place, he stood as still as a rock and nearly as hard. Her sweet ass was the last thing he saw before she slammed the door to her bedroom shut.

      “You took the last towel!” she screeched from inside.

      “Sorry,” he called out. Not sorry.

      If this was what living with her would be like, maybe he should just kill himself right now and make fast work of it. Anything had to be better than letting her kill him slowly like this without any mercy.

      He headed back to the kitchen where he stuck his head in the freezer. “Yep. That ought to do it.”

      Next he reached inside the refrigerator for bottled water and considered whether he should drink the cold water or pour it all over his head. Choosing to drink first, he uncapped it and took a big swallow just as Sarah walked in the kitchen.

      “You men are all alike.”

      He turned to find her standing in the kitchen, arms folded across what he now unfairly knew was one of the greatest racks he’d ever been privileged to see. She wore a blue tank top and loose gray sweats. Was she wearing the red bra or the pink one? Black or red panties?

      “I didn’t see anything,” he lied.

      “That’s not what I mean. Why is it so hard to remember to replace a towel? You use one, you put another one back. It’s not rocket science.”

      “You’re right.”

      “I went ahead and put all your towels in the top shelf of the linen closet.” Her arms dropped to her sides. “I guess I didn’t tell you that.”

      “Nope,” he said, and drained the contents of the water bottle. “But I would have brought you a towel. All you had to do was ask.”

      She shifted her weight from one leg to another. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

      He scrunched up the water bottle until it was an inch tall, releasing a small amount of tension and pent-up sexual frustration, though not nearly enough. “Easy mistake. Don’t worry. We’re both grown-ups here.”

      “Okay,” she said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “It’s just that...well, first the underwear and now the naked thing. I don’t want to scare you off.”

      “Scare me off?” Was she seriously worried about this? Did she not notice his tongue practically hanging out, mouth salivating? Or maybe that was the problem. She didn’t appreciate the salivating.

      She stared at her hands. “I need your help, as you know.”

      “And you’ve got it.” He took a seat next to her.

      She met his eyes and a tiny smile curved her lips. “Have I said thank you enough?”

      “You have.” He forced himself to relax and unkink his shoulders. “Now, about the roof—”

      “You said we’d talk about it, but honestly, the Realtor I talked to said we can just give the new owners a roof allowance. Roofs are expensive, they—”

      “Unless you have a roofer in your pocket.”

      He smiled, because now they were in his territory. Fixing inanimate objects, whether it be a broken sink, jammed window or bad electrical wiring. Planes, cars, bicycles, vacuum cleaners; you name it, he could damn well fix it when it broke. As long as it didn’t talk back to him.

      Sarah was staring at him. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

      “Yeah. I’m a lousy cook.”

      “I’m not half-bad, so I’ll cook for both of us.”

      “You don’t have to do that.”

      “I know I don’t have to, but I want to.” The way she gazed at him with her pouty bottom lip made him think about the panties again.

      He wondered if electroshock would help him with this little problem. He got up. “Sure, but nothing fancy. I better get to work.”

      “Me too,” Sarah said, rising from her chair.

      He winced. “What are you going to do?”

      “Don’t you give me that look.”

      “What look?”

      “The girl-needs-to-stay-out-of-my-way look.”

      Check him out, male chauvinist pig of the year. “Of course you can help. What do you want to do?”

      She smiled, and she might as well have coldcocked him for the way it temporarily stunned him. “I’m going to put the baseboards back on in the living room. Stone already painted in there, but I bought new boards. They have cool edging to them.”

      So she’d picked out fancy baseboards but didn’t want a new roof. Okay, he’d let her have that one. Not going to judge. “Do you know how to use a nail gun?”

      If he wasn’t mistaken she blinked twice as if to signal help me but her lips didn’t move to say those words and the hell if he’d be accused of being a chauvinist.

      She nodded. “Yep. I watched Satan use it.”

      While that didn’t mean she could use it herself, Matt went over to the nail gun he’d brought over and handed it to Sarah. He reminded himself that while trust didn’t always come easily to him, he did trust Sarah. Mostly. The rest of it he was working on.

      “Thanks. I’ll just go get dressed in my construction outfit first.”

      He almost asked, but thought better of it. If she had a special outfit she wanted to wear that was probably a good idea. Maybe some steel-toed boots or something that could protect her from catastrophic injury. He was on board with protecting her from injury. A few minutes later, he was going through his tools when she emerged from her room wearing what surely was from a page in a fashion catalog. And sue him if he still thought she looked blazing hot in khaki carpenter pants, a light-colored blouse, boots and protective eyewear. Nice touch with the protective eyewear. He felt better already. She carried with her a small toolbox in one hand and the nail gun he’d given her in the other.

      “Okay. I’m ready.”

      “So you are.” He felt a grin coming on. “Sometimes I wear old clothes, but what you’re wearing is good, too.”

      “Everything was on sale,” she said as though this explained everything. СКАЧАТЬ