Page 28 of The One Who Got Away
He turned up the radio and we took off down Hope Street toward the High School. When he turned off a windy lane near a new development, I frowned.
I’d never been over this way in Indigo Valley. When he stopped at the end of a dead-end street I straightened.
“So, we got a job over here. A company is flipping some of the old Cape Cod houses. They got in over their heads on one of them.”
“It’s empty?”
He grinned. “Handily it’s being staged for photos.”
My jaw dropped. “Gus, are we going to get into trouble?”
He shrugged. “Maybe we need a little trouble.” He hopped out and ran around to open my door. He reached in for the cooler, looping it over his shoulder before he helped me down.
My mouth watered at the muscles in his arms. He’d been working out a lot in the gym. While I was happy with some yoga and the elliptical machine, Gus had been working his ass off with a trainer.
Skinny Gus was definitely filling out. It helped that he spent more than a few days eating at my house then going to his own parents’ place to get fed as well.
He held a hand out for me and drew me up the pretty walkway. It was too late in the season to plant much, but there were some fat mums in decorative pots lining the path up to the house. More dotted the stairs much in the way I’d have loved to do at my mom’s house.
It was a breathtaking gray Cape Cod style house with crisp white trim and dormers. A large bay window dominated thefront and tucked along the side was a small porch. The sun was high in the sky and gleamed off the polished windows.
“This is stunning.”
“I know. They fucked up the kitchen and it took all six of us to fix it.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Ripley too?”
He punched in a code on the door and the lock snicked open. “Yep. He wasn’t happy about it, but he chipped in. The pay was too good for him to say no.” He pushed inside, leading me into the entryway.
“Whoa.”
I slowly walked through the open floor plan. A bright kitchen was now the heart of the house. Built in cabinets had Cam’s stamp on it as well as the intricate touches to the tops that could only be custom work. The wood was a weathered gray stain that matched the stone and shingles outside. It made the marble countertops pop.
All the appliances save for the stove were hidden behind cabinetry.
“Wow. Cam was all over this, huh?”
“Yep.” He walked in behind me, setting the cooler on the massive kitchen island. “I got to play plumber mostly. They needed it completely rerouted out to the road.”
I turned in his arms. “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”
He shrugged. “I learned a lot of things working on houses in a rainforest.”
I smoothed my fingers over his pecs, my body humming at the warm muscles under his clothes. “Don’t diminish what you learned. It makes you an expert in a lot of things.”
His lips quirked, his dimple showing in his beardy cheek. “Yeah, and while I’m really proud of what we did in this kitchen, I only care about one room.”
I lifted my finger to his lips. “Just how staged is this house?”
He walked backwards down a hall drawing me with him. “They went all out. No fake beds.”
I licked my lips and stared at his mouth. “Is that right?”
I distantly noticed the high ceilings and crown molding, but there was only thing that had my full attention. The king-sized bed with the tufted headboard that took up most of one wall.
Gus bumped into the end of the bed and I tipped him onto his back. He laughed and scooted up the bed with me hot on his heels. I crawled over him, shoving my cardigan off my shoulders.
He reached behind his head and tugged off his Henley and my mouth watered. I hadn’t been able to see all of him yet. Just pushed aside clothing and desperate touches in the dark. His chest was lightly furred and muscular, making my mouth dry as dust.
