sex. So good she hadn’t even thought it was possible. Which meant she was loath to give it up the morning after discovering it.
Ergo, she was willing to put some effort into charming Mike out of his bad mood. But how?
Stripping naked in front of him wasn’t going to work. After all, she’d been naked this morning, and he’d still made a beeline out the door. And since she didn’t have any other seduction tricks in her arsenal, she decided to focus on making him laugh.
Well that was easy. Everyone thought it hysterically funny when she proved herself to be clueless. She wouldn’t purposely make any mistakes. She detested women who hid their intelligence just to soothe a man, but she didn’t have to pretend anything. She was hopelessly out of her depth when it came to renovating her house. She just hadn’t cared because she’d decided to have at it anyway. So all she had to do was keep on as she’d been going and not hide her mistakes from Mike.
Easy peezy.
In fact, she’d start right now on her roof.
She was up there within a half hour, making sure to wear tight shorts and an easily stripped away crop top. She tied herself off, even cleared away the debris in her backyard so nothing would trip him up as he ran to her rescue. Then she started hammering.
And she did not make a mistake.
Well, hell. She was pretty damned impressed with herself, even as she was sad that Mike hadn’t come around to save her from idiocy.
No problem. There was always that afternoon. Surely he would run out to save her from dehydration or something.
Nope. Which was fine because she had plenty of water. She also had good footing so she never fell off the roof. Not to mention the smarts to rig a pulley system to help her haul those damned tiles up to her roof.
Wasn’t she clever? She didn’t need any man to come rescue her.
Which ended up depressing her a bit since it would have been lots more fun roofing with someone to talk to. Someone who laughed at her jokes and was sexy as hell with his shirt off. Or on, for that matter.
Damn it. Why hadn’t she thanked him for helping her on the roof? Maybe joined him up here yesterday? It certainly would have made the sweltering heat and the constant banging easier to deal with. Not to mention the shared shower they could take as a reward when they were done.
Hell.
For the first time in her life, she really wanted a man to help her accomplish something. Not because she needed it, but because it would be more fun to do it together.
Too bad Mike seemed to have misplaced his hero cape.
Now what?
Chapter Nine
“And do you know what she did yesterday? I swear to God I don’t know what to do with her.”
Joey narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on Mike’s arm as they went through some basic shoulder stretches. “Let me guess, she roofed her house.”
“No. Well, yes, but she busted her gutters while rigging a pulley system to haul up the roofing tiles.”
Joey gently eased Mike’s arm down, then slowly pushed it backward to test the resistance. “I thought she was a philosophy professor. ‘Ivory tower flake’ were your exact words.”
“She is.”
“Rigging a pulley system doesn’t sound—”
“She’s smart, okay? That’s not the point.”
Joey snorted. “Smart, sexy, roofs her own house—”
“And busts the gutters.”
“Inexperienced.” Joey gestured to Mike to start his regular exercises. “Sounds like a real loser.” His tone indicated anything but. “Tell you what, how about during your next barbecue, I mosey over to this gorgeous blonde loser and take her off your hands?”
Mike’s right side was aching like the devil, but there was nothing wrong with his left side as he accidentally dropped a barbell on Joey’s foot. Well, he tried. Sadly, the man was quick on his feet.
“Tori needs you like she needs a hole in the head.”
Joey just chuckled. “Well if you don’t want her…”
“I didn’t say that!” Except he had. Repeatedly. And he was still waiting for his dick to get the message. “Look, just because I’m not going to date her doesn’t mean I want her set up with a jerk like you.”
“Hey!”
“Look asshole, you use ’em and lose ’em faster than anyone I know. And considering the guys I know? That puts you deeply in asshole territory.”
“I can’t help it if there’re lots of them who want what only I can give.”
Mike looked