Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl

with some furniture. In case you hadn’t noticed, our place is a little spare.”
    He shot her a hooded look. “There might be something I can do for you.”
    This time, Merry didn’t give in to the embarrassment that wanted to rise up. She didn’t blush at the brush of his eyes down her body. He was teasing her, so she stretched out a leg and kicked his hip with her toes. “Shut up.”
    “I’m serious.” His hand closed over her ankle when she tried to pull her foot back. Merry would’ve been a trembling mess at this point if she hadn’t finished her beer. But instead of holding her breath and noting every nerve he touched with his callused fingers, Merry poked his leg with her toes again. He playfully tugged her ankle before letting her go.
    “Come on. I’ll show you.”
    He got up and walked toward the bedroom, and she followed him. “Are you luring me to your room?”
    “Sure. I’m not the one who promised no molesting.”
    If he could laugh about it, maybe she hadn’t freaked him out so badly after all.
    When he stepped into the bedroom and out of the doorway, Merry gasped. “Oh, my God, Shane! Did you make that?”
    A tall headboard of solid wood rose high above the bed. The warm stain showed off the scene that had been carved in relief into the arch of wood.
    “It’s a little clumsy,” he said, tipping his chin toward the scene of mountains and trees.
    “Are you kidding me? It’s amazing, Shane! Look at it!”
    A big grin spread over his face. “I see it every morning.” He tipped an imaginary hat. “Ma’am.”
    She couldn’t help but giggle at his exaggerated flirtation. “Seriously, Shane. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
    “Now that is just blatant ego stroking.”
    “It is not!”
    “Right. You think that headboard is more beautiful than a work of art? Hell, I bet it doesn’t even measure up to your romantic view of Providence.”
    “Dude, if I found something like this in Providence, it would be on the front of the brochure. That’s how much I like it.”
    “‘Dude,’ huh?”
    “Well, you told me not to call you cowboy.”
    He smiled and her stomach fluttered. It felt…secret, somehow, this smile. And when he spoke, his voice was softer. “I’d rather you just called me Shane,” he said.
    She could’ve sworn his gaze dipped down to her mouth, but she was so nervous, she focused on the headboard instead of him. “Well, it’s amazing. What you did. It’s…”
    “Rough.” When had he gotten so close? His biceps brushed her shoulder as he turned toward her. “This light is a little more generous. If you see it in the morning light, all the flaws stand out, at least to me.”
    “You want me to sneak in and surprise you at dawn?”
    “No, that’s not what I was thinking.”
    She’d been in denial, staring at the bed and ignoring that he was looking at her as he spoke. But there was no way to ignore him when his hand touched her shoulder. She looked up, her heart pounding so hard that she couldn’t hear, couldn’t think. Even as he bent his head toward her, she knew it wasn’t really happening, he wasn’t really about to kiss her. But her eyelids fluttered closed and then his lips brushed hers, and Merry wanted to weep.
    His mouth was gentle, as if it were asking her a question, but she had no idea how to answer. He was so gorgeous. So damn sexy he’d inspired fantasies she hadn’t bothered with in more than six months. But…did he like her? Did he really want her that way, or was it just that she was in his bedroom and she had breasts and all the other important female parts that made a bedroom more fun?
    She didn’t want it to matter. She wanted to just open for him, part her lips and take him inside, but it’d been too long for her. After two long years, she suddenly realized she didn’t want to be another notch in someone’s bedpost, even if it was handcrafted, because this would mean something to her. She couldn’t bear it being one