When she came back upstairs with a ladder in her hands, he got up and took it from her.
“Jesus, Harmony. I could have gotten that for you.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t have the expectation that you’re the man and I can’t do anything for myself. I planned to install these shutters myself. It’s just the windows are higher than I expected, the shutters are heavy and I was a couple hands short.”
“You know, I get that you’re all female empowered and all that shit, and I have no doubt you can move mountains on your own. But it’s still okay to ask for help if you need it.”
She arched a brow. “I just did, jackass.”
He wasn’t insulted. He liked when she got feisty and stood up for herself. It made him like her even more. He didn’t enjoy women who were doormats, who let a man walk all over them. Harmony obviously wasn’t that woman and he respected her for it.
So he laughed and took the ladder from her. “Okay, let’s take down these curtains.”
“They let too much light in,” she explained.
He set up the ladder against the first window, climbed up and pulled the curtains off the rod, then used the drill to remove the screws. He shoved the screws in his pants pockets and dropped the drapes onto the floor.
“And when I sleep, I want to sleep. Plus, the shutters are prettier.”
When he just stared down at her, she quirked a smile. “Okay, I can see you don’t care at all about the reasons for the change in window treatments.”
“Not so much.” He climbed down, kneeled on the floor and broke open the plastic package in the box. He took her hand, flipped it over so her palm was up, and dropped the screws in her hand. “Hold these and follow me.”
He picked up the first shutter frame and positioned it against the window.
“Screw.”
She handed him a screw and he drilled it in. It went that way for a while, until he had the frame mounted, and then the shutter.
“You make it look easy,” she said after he finished the first window.
He smiled at her as he picked up the ladder and moved over to the second window. “I’m a lot bigger than you, so for me it is easy. I can see how this would have been unwieldy for you.”
“I can handle most any project around the house. I’m handy with power tools. I hung the drapes myself.”
“You did a good job.” He took the curtain down and mounted the shutter on the second window. When he was done, he folded the ladder and took a step back so she could inspect his work.
“These shutters are beautiful, just as I envisioned. I don’t know what I was thinking putting drapes in here. It was a wrong decision. This is so much better.”
“Glad it worked for you.”
She closed the shutter louvers and darkened the room. “Perfect. I won’t have any trouble falling asleep now.”
“And I won’t have to worry about you tossing and turning at night.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine that’s going to occupy a large amount of mental space in your head.”
He carried the ladder and the tools back downstairs and put them in their places in her neat and orderly garage. She actually had a toolbox out here with more than enough tools to handle any task.
Good for her. He came back into the house.
“So was that another decorating project to deal with you being upset?”
She cocked her head to the side. “A . . . Oh. No. It was actually something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I just needed two people to get it done. The painting, however, was definitely a redecorating project. I like to paint or redecorate and it helps me think and work through problems.”
He kind of had an idea where this was going. “Problems like ex-boyfriends?”
“Maybe something like that.”
“Gotcha. So any other ‘honey dos’ you want done before I take off?”
She leaned against the kitchen counter. “No. All the light bulbs are currently in working order. Though I can replace those myself.”
He moved in closer to her. “I’m sure you can do most anything yourself.”
She pushed off the counter and stepped toward him. “Yes, I can. Though some things are more fun done with someone else.”
He knew exactly what she was talking about, and the look she gave him not only gave him dirty thoughts, but made his cock come to life.
He took a step back. “Harmony.”
She took a step forward, pressing her hands against his chest. “Barrett.”
The last damn thing he wanted was her hands on him. It was also everything he’d thought about lately. Her hands on his chest. On his cock. Along with her mouth.
Fuck.
He grasped her wrists. “Not a good idea.”
She lifted her gaze to his. “Why not?”
“You know why not.”
She raised a brow. “If you tell me right now that you’re thinking about my brother, I’m going to seriously question which side of the field you’re playing for.”
He took her hand, slid it down his chest and laid it on his now-hard cock. “That has nothing to do with your brother, and everything to do with you. Which is a problem.”
She let out a soft laugh, then rubbed his erection with the palm of her hand. “Yes, a pretty sizable problem from what I can tell.”
He wanted her hands on him. He wanted to take this further. He wanted to kiss her pretty mouth and slide his tongue inside to taste her.