in a never-ending cycle of mortification for the next eighty-nine days.
Sensing there was no use denying it, she settled on the truth. “No. You’ve got me.”
Their gazes locked. His pupils grew larger, catching the light of the chandelier before the brown in his eyes grew darker. She couldn’t look away. After what felt like minutes, he broke their connection and checked out her feet.
“Did you need me for something?” he asked quietly.
Her mind went blank. What had she come to ask him? “Oh, yeah. I can’t get the sink to work. I’m thinking the pipes are loose because the water pressure is really low.”
He nodded. “You came to the right guy. I told you, I know my way around pipes. Let me grab my tools and I’ll teach you how to fix a sink.” With one hand, he picked up the tool chest and swaggered off to the kitchen like the mighty Thor off to do battle.
She held in a laugh and followed. He flipped up the sink’s handle and his eyes narrowed as he observed the low water pressure. After flipping it to cold, he kneeled and stuck his hand underneath the sink. “Could you switch it to hot for me?”
A tingling sensation began in her chest as she decided how to best accomplish his request. With him on his knees, she could stand behind him and lean forward, straddling him with her thighs, or she could stand next to him on her tip toes and reach. It shouldn’t be this difficult. A rational person would stand beside him. So why did she want to play with fire and straddle him?
She shuffled forward, stopping a couple feet behind him. Despite her overwhelming urges, rationality won out and she moved to stand to his right, going to her toes and reaching to turn the handle to cold. She remained next to him, waiting for his next command, amazed she could smell him over all the other scents in the kitchen.
“You can turn off the water,” he informed her as he got to his feet.
She complied and held onto the counter with the tips of her fingers acting as if it were a barre . Her feet couldn’t help themselves from moving into third position. Darn, he was going to wonder what was making her so nervous.
“What’s the verdict, Mr. Vila?” she teased. “Can you save our sink?”
His gaze flew to the floor to watch her feet. “Of course. My guess is the cold water valve is rusted. It’s a common problem with older pipes. They should have used copper, but instead they used galvanized. Not a terrible thing, but my guess is they charged Uncle Alexander copper prices and pocketed the difference. Like my Dad, he wasn’t exactly handy.”
He hadn’t mentioned much about his family and she wondered why he was broke when he came from a family worth billions of dollars, but she didn’t think now was the appropriate time for discussion and filed it away for later. “If the pipes are rusted, how do we fix them?”
“We’ll need to clean the gunk out,” he explained, bending to pull out a couple of tools from the box. He dropped back to his knees and patted his thighs with his hands. “Come on down here and you can help me fix this.”
She really didn’t want to get this close and personal with him, but she couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse to get herself out of it. Resigned, she told her lady parts to behave and knelt beside him.
“The reason I asked you to turn on the cold water was to check which pipe isn’t working right. The hot’s working fine, so we need to de-gunk the cold pipe.”
“De-gunk? Is that the technical term?” she teased, elbowing him playfully in the ribs.
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Now see this part here?” She got on all fours and joined him under the sink to see him pointing at a lever. “This is the cold water supply valve. We need to remove the whole valve and see what the problem is, but chances are, it’s rusted.” He grinned and turned his head toward hers, so close she felt his warm breath on her lips. “Impressed yet?”
She wanted to say something witty,
Sensing there was no use denying it, she settled on the truth. “No. You’ve got me.”
Their gazes locked. His pupils grew larger, catching the light of the chandelier before the brown in his eyes grew darker. She couldn’t look away. After what felt like minutes, he broke their connection and checked out her feet.
“Did you need me for something?” he asked quietly.
Her mind went blank. What had she come to ask him? “Oh, yeah. I can’t get the sink to work. I’m thinking the pipes are loose because the water pressure is really low.”
He nodded. “You came to the right guy. I told you, I know my way around pipes. Let me grab my tools and I’ll teach you how to fix a sink.” With one hand, he picked up the tool chest and swaggered off to the kitchen like the mighty Thor off to do battle.
She held in a laugh and followed. He flipped up the sink’s handle and his eyes narrowed as he observed the low water pressure. After flipping it to cold, he kneeled and stuck his hand underneath the sink. “Could you switch it to hot for me?”
A tingling sensation began in her chest as she decided how to best accomplish his request. With him on his knees, she could stand behind him and lean forward, straddling him with her thighs, or she could stand next to him on her tip toes and reach. It shouldn’t be this difficult. A rational person would stand beside him. So why did she want to play with fire and straddle him?
She shuffled forward, stopping a couple feet behind him. Despite her overwhelming urges, rationality won out and she moved to stand to his right, going to her toes and reaching to turn the handle to cold. She remained next to him, waiting for his next command, amazed she could smell him over all the other scents in the kitchen.
“You can turn off the water,” he informed her as he got to his feet.
She complied and held onto the counter with the tips of her fingers acting as if it were a barre . Her feet couldn’t help themselves from moving into third position. Darn, he was going to wonder what was making her so nervous.
“What’s the verdict, Mr. Vila?” she teased. “Can you save our sink?”
His gaze flew to the floor to watch her feet. “Of course. My guess is the cold water valve is rusted. It’s a common problem with older pipes. They should have used copper, but instead they used galvanized. Not a terrible thing, but my guess is they charged Uncle Alexander copper prices and pocketed the difference. Like my Dad, he wasn’t exactly handy.”
He hadn’t mentioned much about his family and she wondered why he was broke when he came from a family worth billions of dollars, but she didn’t think now was the appropriate time for discussion and filed it away for later. “If the pipes are rusted, how do we fix them?”
“We’ll need to clean the gunk out,” he explained, bending to pull out a couple of tools from the box. He dropped back to his knees and patted his thighs with his hands. “Come on down here and you can help me fix this.”
She really didn’t want to get this close and personal with him, but she couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse to get herself out of it. Resigned, she told her lady parts to behave and knelt beside him.
“The reason I asked you to turn on the cold water was to check which pipe isn’t working right. The hot’s working fine, so we need to de-gunk the cold pipe.”
“De-gunk? Is that the technical term?” she teased, elbowing him playfully in the ribs.
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Now see this part here?” She got on all fours and joined him under the sink to see him pointing at a lever. “This is the cold water supply valve. We need to remove the whole valve and see what the problem is, but chances are, it’s rusted.” He grinned and turned his head toward hers, so close she felt his warm breath on her lips. “Impressed yet?”
She wanted to say something witty,
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