Connor flexed his hard jaw. “Bug up my ass? Hmm.” He snorted a laugh. “Let’s say that I don’t like surprises and you...were a surprise.” The last woman who’d been on one of his reno sites had tried to turn his project into her own personal HGTV reality show when she’d shown up on-site with a camera crew. He’d nearly lost his own crew in that fiasco, along with his credibility—since he’d been sleeping with her.
Olivia drew in a breath and slowly exhaled. “I’m as surprised as you are. I had no idea this was the rehab project you were working on.” Her eyes cinched at the corner. “Do you think I was trying to undermine you in some way...because of last night? Some kind of dumb setup?”
She’d read him like an open book. “The thought briefly ran through my head.”
“You have got to be kidding,” she said, enunciating every word.
His right brow flicked but he didn’t respond.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Lawson. I’m a professional. I don’t need to wheedle my way into any situation to get what I want. And I certainly don’t need the all clear from you to do my job.”
The rain had gone from a plop to a sprinkle.
He held his hands up, palms facing her. “If you say so.”
Her shoulders tightened, as did her expression.
“There aren’t many people that I run into that don’t want something. There’s always some agenda.” His dark, haunted eyes moved by degrees across her face.
“Every now and then, Mr. Lawson,” she said softly, “there’s an exception to your rule.”
The rain came down harder.
He shifted his weight to relieve the sudden throb in his pants. “I have to wait for the roofers to finish,” he repeated, as if the statement would send her on her way.
Thunder rumbled like the stomach of a starving man.
“Do you mind if I wait with you? I’d like to take a look around.” She wiped water from her face.
He knew damned good and well that was a very bad idea. But what the hell. If they had to work together they may as well be cordial. “Sure. Come on before we really get drenched.” He took her arm and hustled her down the ridge to the main building. “And maybe you can call me Connor again,” he shouted over the roll of thunder.
“We’ll see, Mr. Lawson,” she teased, as they ran like children chased by the bolts of lightning that lit up the early afternoon sky.
Connor chuckled to himself as he pushed open the door. She would. If he wasn’t sure about anything else today, he was sure of that.
The interior was dark, more so because of the lack of sunlight. Olivia shook off the water while Connor turned on the generator that lit the lights.
“No place like home,” he joked as dirt and dust swirled in the air and settled.
Olivia wiped water from her face and looked around. Immediately she was thrown back in time. She could feel the spirits of the ancestors who had found their new lives and freedom within these walls. The energy was palpable. She wrapped her arms around her body and slowly walked around, taking in as much as she could in the muted light. She ran her hand along the scarred oak mantel of the hearth, the frames of the makeshift windows, the warped wood of the walls.
Connor closely watched the awe move in slow waves across Olivia’s face, the wonder in her eyes. He knew what she was feeling. He’d been there, felt it whenever he worked on a project like this.
She spun toward him. “This place is amazing.” Her eyes were wide as she lifted her gaze to the rafters of the cabin. “The write-ups and diagrams do it no justice. I can’t wait to get started. How many buildings have you worked on so far?”
“We’ve done mostly shoring-up work. The structures are pretty worn and weak from water damage, rot and age. Before we can do any restoration we have to make sure the structures are stable.”
“Of course,” she said in a faraway voice, while she continued to explore. “There’s so much history here that’s not visible to the naked eye.”
Connor leaned casually against the wall. He folded his arms. “What had you planned on doing first?”
Olivia focused on him. She exhaled slowly. “I’d like to examine anything that has been left behind—chairs, boxes, cabinets, bedding, old clothing, photos, papers, draperies, all the artifacts. Pretty much any and everything beyond the actual structures. What I want to do is to begin to build a picture, piece together the story of this community and try to match it up with any written documentation.”
Connor grinned. “My job is so much easier than yours.”
She returned his smile. “This is the fun part—the hunt, the discovery.” She walked to the far side of the room. “Mind if I take some pictures?” She already had her camera out before he had a chance to respond.
“What if I’d said no?”
Olivia peeked at him from above the camera lens and clicked. “And why would you do that?” she teased in a singsong voice.
Connor chuckled to himself. This woman was the real thing. She may have been taking pictures, but so was he. He studied her; visually strolled along the dips and curves of her lithe body, memorized the way the dim light lit a honey-tinged fire in her eyes. The energy that wafted from her was an aphrodisiac that whetted his hunger. He shifted his body weight and shoved his hands into his pockets. She bent down to get a snapshot and he took a picture of her luscious rear end. Deep in his chest he hummed in appreciation, and clenched his jaw to keep from groaning out loud. What he wanted to do was snatch her up in his arms and take her breath away with a real kiss, not like the preliminary one of last night.
The sudden blare of a honking horn brought them both up short.
“Must be my roofers needing something. Be right back.” He brushed by her on the way out and caught a whiff of scent that nearly stopped him in his tracks. He pulled open the door and stepped out into a steady rainfall.
* * *
Once he was gone, Olivia dared to breathe. Her heart pounded and her fingers trembled. She leaned against the wall and momentarily closed her eyes. If there was the slightest thought in her head that working side by side with Connor Lawson was going to be easy, she was dead wrong. Her thoughts were in a jumble when he was in her airspace. It was a wonder she uttered anything that made sense. Crazy. This was so unlike her. But there was something about Connor from the moment she’d laid eyes on him that had unsettled her way down to the essence of her being. Clearly she couldn’t do her job if she didn’t get her head in the game. Maybe she should just go to bed with him and get it out of her system. Both of their systems—because she knew he felt the same way.
She ran her fingers through her damp hair. Yes, that was what she’d do. Screw his brains out and then she could think clearly.
The door pushed open. Connor stood in the doorway with the darkened sky as his backdrop, and the raw, animal energy that pushed out of his pores was palpable. His shirt was soaked and clung to the hard outline of his chest, the concave slope of his belly. She wouldn’t look any farther. She didn’t dare.
Connor wiped water from his face. “It’s getting pretty messy out there. I need to hang around until they’re done with the emergency work. You should probably head on out.”
To Olivia’s ears he didn’t sound very convincing about why she should leave. Her heart thumped and thumped. “Um, how long do you think they’ll be?”
“An hour, maybe less. They’re working fast. Fortunately they got started just before it really started coming down. Now it’s a matter of securing what they’ve put up.”
“I’m