Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,22

her eyes whenever I was around was somehow lessened. In fact, while I could be flattering myself, I could swear it was completely gone.

I couldn’t resist her grin any longer. I grabbed one of her hands and pulled her closer to me.

And of course, kissed her.

16

ESME

“Oh my god. The time. Shit, I have to get back to work.”

I jumped off the sofa where Case and I had been getting cozy—maybe too cozy—and grabbed my bag.

He stood, too. Close enough to kiss me again.

He still had no idea who I was—the girl he’d kissed under the bleachers senior year of high school. And while the humiliation of that was still fresh for me, I had to say I was pretty damn grateful he didn’t remember any of it. It was nice to start with a clean slate.

I’d planned to remind him at some point of our ill-advised liaison of way back when—not to be a pain in the ass, especially since he was being so kind about my house and all. But I was itching to make him squirm at least a little to get a taste of what I had when it all went down.

But I was re-thinking that. Maybe just keep my petty bitterness to myself.

Even better. Let it the fuck go. Completely.

Was I that big of a person?

Probably not.

But as long as he thought I was a happening chick who worked as a journalist at a cool weekly paper, who just so happened to buy a shithole of a house, who was I to change that?

I could see it now. Remember me from high school when I was awkward and wore thick eyeglasses and you kissed me under the bleachers and then everyone in the school talked like I was a slut?

Yeah, no. Why bring that shit up?

Not to mention that he’d been my first kiss?

And how all these years later the touch of his lips on mine caused flutters all through my stomach, and if I weren’t mistaken, a little wetness down there…

I had to get back to work.

“Thank you for the coffee, Case. I’ll see you at the house this afternoon, right?”

He stared at me with those damn intense eyes. If I didn’t hurry out of there…

“We’ll see you later, Esme.”

I didn’t want to leave. Shit.

“Thank you for the coffee. And for rescuing me.”

I wanted to add, thank you also for working on my house. But first things first.

Just before I ran off, he popped a kiss on my cheek.

I hustled the couple blocks back to my office.

I was screwed. Getting cozy with the guys from McKinney Construction? Probably not the best thing to do.

But on the other hand, fuck it. I deserved to have a little fun. Besides, we were only in each other’s lives temporarily. They’d be done with their work sooner or later, and I’d be rid of that house.

Maybe I’d even move to a new city. Experience something new.

Nah. Scratch that. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Hey, Esme, do you have a sec?”

I was just getting settled into my cube when Adam appeared.

Dammit. I was so busted for being late. I braced myself for a scolding while I followed him to his office.

I was still trying to catch my breath from having run back to work. Adam always seemed to know when you were the most flustered.

That’s when he liked to pounce.

“Es, how are things?” he asked with his smarmy smile.

No. He didn’t get to call me by a nickname.

But I beamed, like everything was right in the world. “Great. Just great. How’s things by you?”

He ignored my question. “Say, are you still working through the whole emotional upheaval of the left-at-the-altar thing?”

What?

Was he fucking kidding?

“Um, why?” I asked slowly, to keep my voice from getting shrill.

He gave me one of those no big deal shrugs. “Oh, you know, I was just wondering—”

He could take his wondering and shove it up his ass.

I cut him off, irritation getting the better of me. “That’s… not really your business, Adam.”

His mouth twitched, but quickly became a smug smile. “Esme. You don’t have to get defensive. I mean, c’mon. You’re not the first person in the world to get stood up at your wedding,” he scoffed.

If I weren’t mistaken, he was getting pleasure out of repeating what I’d been through.

Dick.

And as if he hadn’t already insulted me enough for one day, the fucker doubled down. “I was just wondering because I thought we could, you know, hang out sometime.”

And there we had it.

He’d hinted around before about