Another crash sounded as a couple of the workers dropped something. Jay cried out and slapped his hands over his ears.
Quickly, she led Jay inside the house. For several seconds, she stood there with her thoughts in a riot. She wanted to go out and look at Patriot, but her obligations lay with Jay, and of course she wouldn’t shirk that duty.
While focusing on her ward, her body felt too hot and tight, as if her skin had shrunk in the heat of the day or she got a sunburn. Patriot’s eyes scorching down into hers had stolen her mind. She pressed her fingers to her hot cheeks she knew bore a blush from a mere exchanged glance.
She got Jay settled with a picture book and headphones that read the story aloud to him. While he grew engrossed, she drifted to the window and looked out. From here, she couldn’t see the garage roof without going outside. She wanted to see Patriot again, but she couldn’t leave Jay’s side.
Sinking to a chair near the boy, she kept an eye on him while listening to the low thump of hammers and power nail guns as the crew nailed shingles. The dark, exciting moments of being in Patriot’s arms returned, leaving her breathless all over again.
From the moment she walked into Ben and Mel’s campsite, the man intrigued her. Not only gorgeous and rugged but capable of driving her mad. She practically threw herself at him, and he’d respected her enough to back off—at first. But soon she learned he was made of flesh and blood and unable to resist her pleas for more.
She might have lost her mind out there on the mountain, but she definitely would do it all over again. When she told him she was innocent, she wasn’t lying. She had little male attention due to her cousins. She also knew enough about her own desires to have zero regrets about being in that man’s arms…or having his lips on her body.
She squeezed her thighs together at the memory of his touch between her legs.
Jay made a sound, and she looked up to find his book had finished and he wanted another put on. After that, she sank to the chair again. The thumping on the roof went on. Patriot was up there. Did he think of her the same way she thought of him right now?
When her day finished and Mrs. Post returned home from work, would he still be up there working? If so, Aarica could stop and speak to him.
And say what?
She heard a light thunk and looked over to see Jay’s head down on the table. She scrambled up to see him fast asleep. She smiled at the sight of his long eyelashes and lips open as he drooled on his book.
Gently, she took him by the shoulders. He woke enough for her to ease him over to the sofa. He curled onto his side, and she spread a throw blanket over him.
She stood smiling at the sleeping child. She enjoyed being with Jay so much.
Her aunt’s friend knew Mrs. Post, and word of the nanny position had come through to Aarica. She jumped at the chance to leave the farm, on her own, and to begin her life. She loved her family so much, owed her happy life to them all, but she wanted to find out some things for herself. Like how to survive and who to love.
She couldn’t do either of those things while totally protected in her family’s arms. They were far from thrilled that she took the job offer and struck out for Mersey two days later. She settled in a one-room apartment over the Mersey Bakes and Treats, where delicious scents of pastries and coffee wafted through the cracks in the walls and ceiling to torment her. Of course, she had to pinch pennies and hadn’t yet given in to her desire to buy up half the shop and gorge some afternoon.
The boy snuffled in his sleep, and she rested a hand on his shoulder until he soothed to sleep once more. Watching over him felt rewarding. But she only cared for him a few days a week, and his grandmother took him for the others, leaving her in need of more income.
Which brought her around to the second job she needed. Inspiration hit, and she rummaged through a magazine holder and located a recent newspaper. She perused the want ads, wrinkling her nose as she scanned the list.
All these jobs required prior experience. Well, she could milk a cow. Goats too. Shoveling, making hay, all those skills seemed worthless here in Mersey. See? This was her reason for leaving her family’s safe haven and striking out alone—to find herself and what she was good at doing.
She quietly folded the paper and replaced it in the magazine rack. Then she drifted to the window again, staring out across the sleepy neighborhood. Down the block a bit and across the street, an older man pushed a lawnmower, and he looked ninety if he was a day. If not for Jay, she’d run out and offer to do it for him.
Sighing, she turned to watch the boy sleep. After her shift here, she’d hit the streets and search for a job. Convenience store worker, janitor, waitress…surely, someone had a position that would suit her.
She went to the back door and poked her head out. The men weren’t on the roof anymore—it was nearing lunchtime. But seeing the ladder stretched to the yard and the powerful thighs navigating down the rungs left her breathless.
Patriot paused at the bottom, facing away from her. He pulled his shirt out of his jeans pocket where it was tucked.
Her mouth went dry. She dug her fingers into her thighs to keep from tearing off her own clothes and begging him to turn around.
He proceeded to spread the cloth of the shirt, and she won the grand prize in getting to watch him dress. Spine muscles rippled, and his torso streaked with sweat and so damn yummy that she had to clamp her thighs to hold in the forbidden desires of wanting a stranger.
Not a stranger anymore—she knew him. His kisses, his fingers on her wet folds.
Without glancing around to find her gawking at him, he walked out of the gate and closed it behind him, which left her staring after him, hot and bothered in a way that had nothing to do with the Tennessee weather.
Chapter Three
Christ, he’d never roofed a damn house with a fat fucking hard-on. His cock was a steel rod sliding down his thigh and making it impossible to maneuver on a roof. If he fell to his death, he’d blame it on Aarica.
What the hell was she doing here, anyway? The woman was supposed to be a one-time thing. A mountain make-out session fit for fantasies only. Yet here she was, in the damn house his crew was working on.
Spotting her from the roof while she played with that boy left him aching and his chest burning. He wanted to climb down that very minute, pick her up and carry her off to his bed. The only thing keeping him from doing just that was her innocence and the fact she took the boy inside.
He seemed to have some disability. When they started pounding, he placed his hands over his ears and Aarica had been quick to calm him.
Her touch could calm the devil in anybody, even himself.
Finished for the day, he climbed behind the wheel of his truck, throwing looks around for any sight of the woman who kept haunting his every waking thought. Thankfully, she wasn’t in view and he could drive away without the urge to go back and act like some caveman.
After he reached his house, showered, changed and hopped on his bike, he still couldn’t relax. He wanted a woman he couldn’t touch, and the woman who wanted to touch him, he didn’t want. His crew was a bit behind on the roofing project too, having gotten a few days off schedule from unexpected rainstorms the previous week…
Then the business with the crimes.
The ride to the clubhouse was too short to offer time to relax, but at this point riding three hours wouldn’t help. He couldn’t relax, not when everything hung up in the air.