Because he was the most amazing man I had ever met, but I couldn’t tell him that. I couldn’t hand him the last drop of my dignity because I didn’t trust him with it.
“I’m just used to seeing you walk around staring at other people’s work or barking orders. I have yet to see you in action.”
“Well, grab the rest of those spindles, and I’ll show you some action.”
I carried the spindles into the house.
I handed him tools.
I ran and grabbed stuff from his truck.
I got him ice water.
I answered his phone when people called for him.
I watched Fisher Mann feed my obsession with him to the point where I knew no other man would compare, which meant I’d die a single and barren virgin. Occasionally, he’d lift the front of his T-shirt to wipe the sweat from his face. And on more than one of those occasions, he caught me gawking at his abs while wetting my lips.
“I’m going to start deducting pay from your check if you keep stealing free peeks at my body.”
I cleared my throat and glanced at his phone. “Hailey just texted you. She said Brad’s crew is done. She wants to know if you’re coming by the office before you go home.”
“No.”
I risked a glance up at him. “You want me to just say no?”
Sliding a pencil behind his ear, he lifted his gaze to me from three steps down. “To Hailey, yes, I want you to say no.”
“Who else would I say no to?”
He shrugged. “I’m hoping that’s your last no of the day.”
What did he mean by that?
I replied with a “no.” Then I watched Fisher finish the railing. At some point I started nibbling at my fingernails; I wasn’t a nail chewer.
“Grab the vac and clean the dust that didn’t stay on the drop cloths.”
“Um … okay.” I jumped to attention and did what he asked me to do while he loaded his tools in the trailer parked in their driveway.
“Are you done?” I handed him the vac.
“Almost. I’ll finish up tomorrow afternoon.” He closed the trailer and locked it.
“Think you can teach me something?” I asked with my hands in my pockets.
Fisher closed his tailgate and walked to my side of the truck, standing uncomfortably close to me. “Oh, Reese … I think I can teach you a lot.”
Choking on my words for several seconds, I coughed and shook my head. “A-about construction. Can you teach me how to cut and nail things?”
The grin that climbed up his face made me melt like M&Ms on a hundred-degree day. “We might wait on the cutting, but I think I can show you how I nail things.”
Another gulp clogged my throat. “I’d … um … I’d like that.”
“Oh…” his grin did the impossible and grew even bigger “…I have no doubt you’d like it.”
Oh my gosh …
I didn’t think he was talking about construction. And I wondered if he understood that I was talking about it.
“Well…” I lifted my shoulders and shoved my hands even farther into my pockets “…time to call it a day?”
He eyed me with his signature predatory, ready-to-pounce-on-its-prey look for several seconds. “Definitely.”
When we pulled into the driveway after a ride home with no conversation, only music—his sexually explicit music—I jumped out before he got the truck into Park.
“Goodnight. See you tomorrow.” I ran—sprinted—to the back of the house and fumbled the key with shaky hands. Rocks crushed under big boots—Fisher following me.
“Open!” I begged the key and my hands to work together.
Just as he turned the corner, it opened.
“Are you running from me?”
“Nope.” I slid inside and shut the door behind me, locked it too. On a sigh of relief, I turned and made a straight line to my bedroom.
Click.
The door unlocked and opened. Of course he had a key. It was his house. The door clicked again when he shut it behind him.
“Whatcha need?” I asked with the last little bit of breath left in my lungs. His proximity made breathing so hard. It made my heart work even harder. It made my thoughts cross lines that should not have been crossed.
“Why are you running from me?” He was right at my back.
I forced myself to turn toward him, and it took superhero strength. He stepped toward me.
I stepped back.
We did this dance until a wall stopped my retreat.
He pressed his hands to the wall above my head, and my heart rate spiked a thousand percent. The air exchange in my lungs sounded like that of someone finishing a marathon.
Was I reading him wrong?
It wouldn’t have been the first time I got it wrong and felt like a fool. But that moment felt different.
The look in his eyes wasn’t the same.
The part of his lips.
The increased intensity of his own chest rising and falling.
“You can’t have my virginity,” I whispered.