Page 34 of Sutton and the CEO Forever

She opened her eyes at this, and he saw her disbelief. “There is nothing wrong with me. It was just a fall.”

“What were you doing up there?” Brian couldn’t help but ask.

“Changing a light bulb,” she said quickly, her cheeks turning pink.

He looked above the sink, where there wasn’t a light fixture.

“A light bulb?”

“In my flashlight,” she lifted her chin.

He fought a smile. She was a terrible liar.

“And where is that flashlight now?” he asked solemnly.

Katie’s cheeks heated to a rosy glow, “How in the hell should I know?”

She knew she sounded like an idiot, but the words kept flowing out of her.

“I hit my head. Obviously, I can’t remember.”

And to her surprise, he laughed.

17

Later that night, Brian thought about his encounter with Katie. He had checked her for signs of a concussion that she clearly didn’t have. Besides a bump, she was none the worse for wear. What had plagued Brian’s mind is that he couldn’t figure out why she had been on the counter in the first place.

The fact that she refused to tell him astounded Brian even further. He had glowered, spoken in his sternest voice, and even gave her the glare. The same glare that had plenty of Marines spilling their shit. But not Katie McCleary; she would just give him that dimpled smile and shrug her shoulders.

Those same creamy shoulders that couldn’t hold up the strap of her skimpy tank top. Do you know how hard it is to stand in front of someone in basketball shorts and hide a hard-on? He prayed that she hadn’t noticed.

It wasn’t like he noticed how her nipples were erect and pressed against the thin fabric of her shirt. No, that would be inappropriate. Brian wouldn’t dream of looking at his neighbor that way. I mean a girl in the club or a one-night stand? They were free game. They knew what they were getting, a night of wild, no-strings-attached sex. But one couldn’t do that with a neighbor. There was always the next time you wandered out to get the paper, and they wanted to stop and chat. No, Katie was off-limits.

And so, when he had decided she was doing well enough, he gave her an ice pack and went back to mowing the grass. So what if he checked the kitchen window eleven more times? He was worried about her safety, nothing more.

It really didn’t signify that as soon as he showered, his hand wrapped around his cock, and he blew his load against the shower wall, thinking about her. That was fantasy, and this was reality.

Brian dropped his head back and wondered just who he was trying to kid. He was a fucking PI, for hell’s sake. Aware of the classic signs of infatuation, he knew he had them in spades. The safest thing for everyone would be if he just steered clear of the pretty deputy.

With a few hours of daylight left, Brian decided to fix the crooked shutter on the side of the house. He grabbed a ladder and placed it under the window, and then, with the hammer and nail, he began to climb.

Once he was up there, Brian saw that the shutter really needed to be painted. So instead of rehanging it, he decided to pull them all down. It was long after nightfall when the last shutter was stacked in the one-car garage, and he was able to put the ladder away.

Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to see a pair of pruners. Brian’s mind flashed to Katie’s roses. They were in desperate need of some pruning. He walked around the side of the yard and saw that all the lights were off at her house.

Reena and Alice said that Katie worked earlier. Brian got a crazy impulse just to go do something for her. She would never know, and he liked gardening.

Like hell, he did.

Brian turned to go back into the house, but that little urge bugged and prodded him until he picked up the pruners and went across the grass into Katie’s yard. Brian knew how to be stealthy, but he had never had to be quiet while gardening.

A ten-minute job turned into almost two hours of stumbling around in the dark as he pruned roses, fixed hedges, and applied new mulch. With an aching back, he removed all traces of himself.

Brian showered before climbing into bed that night. He felt rather proud of himself. He had done something nice for Katie, and she would never know it was him. As the water cascaded down his body, Brian took his cock in hand. He thought of how appreciative she would be if she ever found out. Not that she would, but again, this was fantasy.

Katie cursedas her toe smacked the wrong side of the door. Her morning was going to shit, and her head still hurt from yesterday, when she had been caught acting as a peeping tom.

Katie hauled her bag onto her shoulder with a huff and made her way outside to her car. Putting it in reverse, she made it halfway down the driveway when Katie slammed on her breaks.

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