She actually squealed when she saw him, which was embarrassing enough in itself, but when he turned around, he had such a look of amazement she realized he wasn’t used to frightening people. And a second after that, she also realized Ceci was right. If this was darling Billy, he did look good enough to eat.
‘Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was at home. The work order just said the water was out.’ Lily Kallio’s tanned legs went clear to the ceiling as they always had … well, almost; they stopped at – Billy jerked his glance away. ‘This shouldn’t take long,’ he muttered, turning away, overcome by a schoolboy nervousness. Jesus, he felt as if he were fourteen all over again – he used to watch her sitting on the lifeguard tower at Shagawa Beach, tanned and beautiful in her pure white suit with the tiny Red Cross symbol about three inches from her crotch, wondering if she’d give him mouth to mouth if he pretended to drown, wondering if anyone would notice if he jacked off behind the dressing rooms. He never did either, although she was his nighttime fantasy for all of ninth grade until she graduated from high school and left town.
My God, the man was enormous. So much bigger than Brock, Lily thought, as though it mattered. And much more handsome, some perverse inner voice insisted on pointing out. Capable of home repairs too. Have you thought of that? And his very large hands …
It took her a moment to come to her senses, to stop looking, and a second more to tamp down the curious heated flutter warming her senses, and a second after that to say in a cool, polite voice, ‘Thanks for coming,’ and escape into her bedroom.
The word come struck Billy with a particular intensity. His body’s involuntary reflex brought him to a momentary standstill and thirteen years flashed by in a time-warp moment. Swearing softly, he shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind of boyish fantasies. And then he said, ‘Fuck and double fuck,’ in an explosive breath and surveyed the array of copper pipes, looking for the turn-off valve.
Lily didn’t come out of the bedroom until she heard the kitchen door slam and the sound of the truck driving away, even though she told herself she was acting like a child, even though she told herself it was perfectly all right if some guy turned her on like a damned spigot with one glance at his handsome face and perfect body.
Watching from the kitchen window as the Ace Hardware truck disappeared down the sandy drive, Lily was still shocked at her physical reaction to the man. She wasn’t impulsive by nature – she’d earned her Ph.D. in five years because she wasn’t; she was focused and deliberate. Her TV spots on the six and ten o’clock news had risen to first place in the Chicago TV ratings because she was absolutely single-minded in her goals. Even her decision to divorce had required a spreadsheet analysis … although in all honesty she was really fast on the computer; she couldn’t kid herself any due deliberation had come into that decision once she’d seen Brock’s e-mail correspondence with his lover. But with the exception of her rather precipitous divorce, she was really the least likely person to get carried away.
But darling Billy’s muscles were practically bulging through his T-shirt, weren’t they, and his sheer size sent a little shiver up her spine, not to mention his very, very large hands that made her speculate quite unintentionally on the old saw about the correlation between … ohmygod.
Maybe it had been too long since she’d had sex.
* * *
Carey Fersten may have the perfect life: he’s handsome, charming, a celebrated war hero and a champion equestrian.
He can have any woman he wants, except the one he truly desires…
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C. C. Gibbs, Knight Takes Queen
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