She was so pretty.
I moved closer, sucking in a deep breath of her natural scent. Her nipples pebbled to hard peaks beneath her flimsy cotton cleaning apron and my mouth watered. I imagined the tiny squeaks and moans that would fall from her lips if I dove my tongue between her silky swollen folds.
Her soft little body quivered as I towered over here.
Shit, I was probably scaring her with my broad form and deep voice. Without thinking, I yanked my shirt over my shoulders and then balled one corner in my hand and wiped at the soapy water suds covering her arms and neck.
Waves of dark hair fell over one shoulder in a ponytail, and the way her breasts stretched the soaking wet apron with each draw of her breath drove me goddamned insane.
“Where’s Trina?” I finally breathed, coming to my senses as I realized she must’ve come to my cottage with my regular cleaning woman.
“She’s my aunt.”
A full sentence and her voice was pretty like a songbird’s.
“I’m staying with her for my summer break.”
“Break? Are you in college?” I calculated the math. She didn’t look a day over legal, not that it mattered. I was too busy, now wasn’t the time for relationships when I was trying to keep my head out of hot water.
She shook her head. “I'm helping my aunt with her cleaning customers. I’m sorry I interrupted you.”
“No—don’t be.” Normally I would kill anyone else for taking me way from my business, but something about her told me every interruption would be worth it. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She nodded, eyes casting down to her feet again. “I should get back.”
I pressed my lips together, sensations tingling to life in my body that’d I’d thought were long, long dead. “Keep the shirt.”
She pressed her lips flush together, glancing at me one last time before a tiny smile darted across her lips. And then she turned and went back the way she’d come. Just like that, she’d stolen the air from my lungs and she was already gone.
I wasn’t sure what it was about her, but she looked like she needed taking care of, and why did it feel like I was the man for the job?
Two
Pet
His biceps bulged and rippled as he pulled himself up to the wooden beam that crossed the barn entrance.
His eyes were closed.
Otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the time to admire him. Even though I was at a safe distance, I could feel him from here. The way he tensed, his body eating up the air as he swallowed me whole in his presence.
It’d only been two days since I'd started this new job. Two days since he’d cleaned me with his warm shirt that smelled so much like him I’d had to go home and push my fingers between my thighs to get him off of my mind.
Larz Madsen.
I only knew because I'd caught sight of a piece of his mail that first day here. My aunt had put me to work cleaning in the kitchen while she worked on the bathroom, and I'd stumbled across a small stack of mail addressed to a postal box in Copenhagen.
The man was as mysterious as the morning mist that clung to him as he worked out. Why did he live so many hours away from the big city but keep a mailing address there?
I admired the way he worked out almost obsessively. His physique thick and wide and hard as steel. The angles of his face were inviting, the dark slash of his eyebrows and intensity radiating from his eyes made my stomach swim. His full lips parted with each breath, the reckless, unkempt dark hair with features so chiseled I was pretty sure I would spontaneously combust if I stared at him for too long. Why did it feel like something was twisting down deep in my belly with just one look from him?
Larz grunted loudly then, dropping from the wooden beam and throwing his arms in the air as he bellowed like a beast.
I jumped in my sneakers, afraid he’d seen me watching him.
“You need somethin’, Pet?” His throaty voice curled my toes.
I gulped, then shook my head.
He approached, stopping only when he reached me. His broad form eclipsed mine, I’d never felt so small.
A crooked smile that made my stomach turn somersaults cracked his lips. “Cat got your tongue?”
And then he winked.
He winked at me.
I nodded, unable to form a syllable in his presence.
My lips slid open, the way his eyes held mine leaving me completely transfixed. His dominant presence ate up the energy between us and made me a slave to his scrutiny. I couldn’t think straight, could hardly take a breath without feeling his gaze prickle my skin.
“You need me to carry you?”
Mouth clamped closed, I broke his hot gaze and shook my head again. “Why would I need that?”