Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,31

old wood cabinets in Esme’s kitchen.

It felt good.

I was taking a chance, I knew. We’d not discussed working on her kitchen, but the cabinets were just so old and beat up that I figured I’d rebuild them as a surprise. While we didn’t have the time or budget to completely redo the kitchen, this much of a facelift would go a long way when she went to resell.

As the brittle wood splintered, I thought back to the night before and how confidently our beautiful girl had handled us three guys. She was hot as shit, no doubt about it, and the way she responded to our touch was sexy as fuck.

And now, even though I was swinging a freaking sledgehammer, I was getting a hard-on thinking about her.

“Damn, buddy. You’re destroying the place,” Alden said, poking his head into the kitchen to see what all the noise was.

I stopped to wipe the sweat off my face. “Yeah, well, gotta get these piece of shit cabinets out of the way.”

“Seriously? You’re putting new ones in? I didn’t know that was part of the job.”

I was glad I’d started the demolition before either Case or Alden stopped me. And now that half the cabinets were nothing more than splinters of wood, there was no turning back.

“It… wasn’t. But it is now,” I said matter-of-factly.

He nodded. “So how’d it go last night after we left?”

“I put her to bed, and she was still snoozing when I left this morning.”

I knew that if I woke her up before I left, I’d never get out of the house.

“You think she liked our proposition?” he asked.

I had to think about that one. “Hard to tell. I mean, we all had a freaking hot time, that’s for sure. But who knows whether she wants to… take it further.”

I hoped like hell she did. I know all us guys did. A woman like Esme didn’t come along every day. Actually, a woman like Esme never came along, if you asked me. It used to be that all I dated were girls from my private school, and then later, my parents’ club. And I’d never been more miserable.

When I was finally out from under their thumb, I mostly just hooked up with girls I met in bars. Not to pat myself on the back, but it seemed there was no shortage of women wanting to hook up with a decent-looking guy.

And for the time being, that suited me fine. Since I’d lost my sister, I’d not had it in me to do anything more than one-nighters. I still had nightmares about the night she OD’d. On one hand, I hoped I always would. I didn’t want to forget. And I supposed, wanted to keep punishing myself, too.

My parents were certainly doing that successfully.

But all that was background noise now.

Something about Esme clicked for me, like it did for the other guys. She was a determined journalist, and while she might not be working for a big and prestigious publication, she was following her dream.

Like I was.

Case woke me out of my reverie. “Hey, it’s six o’clock. I’m heading out. See you tomorrow?”

“Of course. Going to meet up with Esme in a bit. She invited me to her work happy hour or something.”

Case gave me the thumbs up. “Have a great time and say hello to our girl.”

Our girl. Yeah, she was totally our girl. Even if she didn’t know it yet.

He winked at me and left.

I ran upstairs and into Esme’s shower to clean up.

22

TY

I spotted her from across the bar, talking and laughing with her coworkers, just like the first time I’d seen her.

And not been able to take my eyes off her.

She was beautiful with her porcelain skin and long dark hair, but what drew me the most was her quiet, sexy, no-nonsense approach to life. She might have had some setbacks like everybody does, but she didn’t dwell on them.

She was left at the altar holding the bag on a practically worthless house, and without blinking, got to work having it fixed up for sale. She didn’t sit around feeling sorry for herself. I just don’t think she had the time. Or patience.

“Ty! Over here!” she called, waving over all the heads.

And as I entered the circle of her work people, I noticed I was getting a lot of stares. I didn’t blame anyone. They knew what she’d fairly recently been through, and probably wondered who the hell the new guy was.

I’d be thinking the same