Page 91 of The Grand Duel

He’s my boss.

“What’s this?” He rifles through my new toolbox, holds up a pink hammer, and sniggers.

I’m still too busy thinking about the body he’s been hiding under that suit for the past three weeks to care about his opinion, though. I don’t know what kind of person that makes me.

He finds the also pink Allen keys and looks up at me.

“It’s my tool kit.”

“It didn’t come in cream?”

“Cream?” I repeat, my lip twitching.

“It’s your favourite colour, isn’t it? You wear it every day, would probably have a lot of it in your dream home.” He looks towards my clothes rack as he repeats what I’d told him in the car.

I frown.

I do wear a lot of cream.

“Just something stupid my mum drilled into me as a child. I don’t think I have a favourite colour. Pink is pretty, though, don’t you think?”

He bends down and tears the instructions from the box. “I like you in cream.”

My face reignites like a crackling fire, threatening to melt off my makeup.

Did I hear that right?

Is he throwing compliments around now?

Andhelping me?

He removes my duvet and pillows before I can stop him, and then lifts my mattress, standing it against the wall to make space on the floor. I swallow and watch on as his biceps he dared not tell me about flex and go taut with each movement.

“Lissie?” he says, although it sounds repetitive and short.

“Hmm?”

“The piece of wood. It has a D on it, I think. Can you pass it to me?”

“Yes. Yes…sure.” I snap out of my trance and find the part of the bed he needs.

He looks over his shoulder at me as he takes it from my hands, his frown deep. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I lie. “Just hungry.”

You just make me hot and nervous, and not many men make me nervous, Charles.

He stops what he’s doing and dips his hand into his back pocket, pulling out a leather wallet. “Go and get yourself something whilst I put this together. I’ll eat anything.”

He’ll eat anything.

“Anything?” I repeat.

His back goes rigid, and I wonder if I’ve pissed him off. But then he turns, leaning an arm on the mattress as his body twists towards me. His stare doesn’t settle, a little uncertainty in it. Which is strange considering his eyes seem to burn with an intensity so sure, it paralyses me in place.

I watch as his tongue darts out, brow flinching as if whatever he sees on my face pains him. “Anything,” he confirms.

The second he turns away from me, I let out the heavy sigh that’s caught in my chest. “Won’t be long.”

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