Chapter One
“Well, hell-o there, hot stuff,” Kate Hampton all but purred as the hunky blond construction worker she’d been eyeing all week came into view.
“For the love of God,” Maggi Silver whispered as she leaned over Kate’s shoulder and also stared out the second-story office window. “Would you look at that?”
“I’ve barely taken my eyes off him in five days.” During which time Kate’s irritation over losing her coveted San Diego seascape from within the newly developed Liberty Station commercial and residential area had diminished considerably. All because of the rugged Adonis she’d recently discovered.
“Now that’s what I call a primo vista,” Maggi cooed.
“You said it, sister.”
The newest structure being added to the business park was little more than a stone’s throw away, with a small courtyard separating it from the building that housed Kate’s office. Which put Mr. Hardbody in Kate’s direct line of sight.
“So this is why you’ve started eating lunch at your desk,” Maggi mused.
“Blame me?”
“I don’t know, Kate,” her boss said, a bit tentatively. “This is so…un-PC. I mean, really. Ogling a construction worker all day? And one who looks to be a good ten years younger than you. He’s a baby, for Christ’s sake.”
Kate tore her gaze from the current object of her desire and said, “When have you ever known me to be PC? And what does age have to do with it? I don’t want to marry the guy. I want to fuck him.”
Maggi’s jaw fell slack. Kate laughed. “Oh, come on! What’s wrong with being honest about it, Mags? I haven’t had sex in nearly two years.” Not during—sadly—her engagement to Ken or after—sadder yet—their breakup.
It’d been a huge blow to her ego—not to mention her libido—when she’d learned her extremely successful fiancé was only interested in her as leverage. An asset to his on-fire career, particularly when they’d attended high-society events and hob-knobbed with the West Coast’s most prestigious law firms…and a parade of potential clients.
She’d been an escort. Nothing more.
Because, as it turned out, Ken Stoddard already had a lover.
An equally successful, equally male lover, to be exact.
A secret lover, which was why Ken had needed Kate on his arm.
Following that horrifically humiliating, gut-wrenching debacle, Kate had decided to rule out marriage altogether. She was thirty-six years old with a great career in marketing. She had a mortgage and a BMW, a handyman on speed dial, girlfriends to have dinner with and she could buy her own Tiffany jewelry, thank you very much. There really was no reason for a steady man in her life.
Except for that wee problem that had cropped up of late.
Kate desperately needed to get laid. And no, the battery-operated device in her nightstand drawer didn’t count. Unfortunately for her, those little bunny ears were no longer getting the job done. Kate required hard muscle and hot flesh pressed against her naked body. The weight of a man on her, settled between her legs. Or stretched out beneath her. It really didn’t matter as long as he knew how to use the equipment God had given him.
As Charlotte York had once declared, sometimes a girl just needed to be fucked.
And Kate had a feeling her Adonis was the perfect man to scratch her itch.
“God, he’s beautiful.” Maggi’s voice cut int
o Kate’s thoughts.
“Yes, he is.” Kate could practically feel the drool pooling in the corner of her mouth, along with the moisture dampening her panties. This guy didn’t leave a dry thong in his wake. Kate was thoroughly enjoying the voyeuristic guilty pleasure he evoked, conjuring fantasy upon fantasy as she watched him work.
No doubt, a man who looked like this one would be uninhibited and adventuresome in bed.
Oh, yeah.
This guy would want it downright dirty.
Precisely what Kate needed.
All week she’d thought of little else than what it might feel like to have his hands on her breasts and his tongue on her clit.
Biting back a moan at the mere thought of sweaty, headboard-banging sex with the god outside her window, she said, “Wait for it...” Her already racing pulse kicked up a few notches. “This is my favorite part…”
It was mid-afternoon and the sun was blazing down on the courtyard. The Adonis unbuttoned his faded chambray shirt and peeled it off his magnificent torso.
“Holy hell—” Maggi began. Then on a strangled sigh, she added a very indiscreet, “Ooohh, my.”
Both women took in the mouthwatering display of all his tanned and toned glory, presented right before their very eyes. Kate had never seen perfection of this magnitude in real life. His chiseled face was one thing, with an edgy look from the scant line of stubble along his strong jaw. His heavily muscled physique was something Olympic male gymnasts would kill for—a body Kate craved to crawl all over, licking and nipping her way up to his neck or down to his cock.
His broad shoulders gave way to rock-hard biceps that flexed mightily when he hoisted a two-by-four. She let out a long, lustful breath.
The women were rewarded a few more seconds of the tantalizing frontal view—a wide, expansive chest that would be difficult for Kate to take her eyes off of were it not for the fact that his corrugated abs commanded her attention. She didn’t quite make it to the bulge between his legs before he turned away. Didn’t matter. Her gaze had lingered on the button fly of his jeans for days.
Yes, indeed, seeing him stripped down and fully erect was what she really wanted.
As he sauntered off, away from the courtyard, she was gifted with another tempting visual. The man had one hell of an ass. His faded Levi’s fit him sinfully well. Kate had decided right around eight-oh-five on Monday morning that she didn’t need an elitist attorney in a three-piece suit to light her up.
She’d thought she was only attracted to professional business types.
And then this guy had crossed her path.
“His butt should be on the cover of women’s magazines,” Maggi said. As usual, her thoughts ran the direction of Kate’s. “It’d do wonders for any flailing subscriptions and would sure as hell make the grocery store line a personal favorite. I’d be shopping every damn day of the week.”
“It should be on any product targeting females. I don’t care what it is. I’d buy doohickeys and thingamajigs in mass quantity if the boxes came with that guy’s ass on it.”
“This is so wrong,” Maggi reluctantly contended, because despite the sentiment, her voice was filled with gratification over their playful letching. She’d likely be drumming up her own fantasies this evening.
“But it feels so good, doesn’t it?” Kate cajoled.
“Hell, yes.”
Kate grinned mischievously. She could easily envision herself on her knees before the Adonis, taking his thick cock deep in her mouth, eliciting a low groan from him that would make her even hotter. He’d shove his hands into the long strands of her auburn hair and coax her to draw him in further, suck him harder. And she would, because he was the kind of man she’d do anything to please. To make him beg for more. To make him explode as she swall—
“Hey! What’re you doing?” she cried out. “I can’t see!”
Maggi had stepped in front of Kate and her pretty brunette boss/soon to be ex-best friend if Mags kept this up propped her hip against the edge of the desk, effectively blocking the sight of Kate’s afternoon delight. It was like tossing a chain smoker’s last cigarette into a wet and muddy gutter.
Kate instantly felt the effects of withdrawal, as though she were missing something more vital than oxygen itself.
How Maggi had found the willpower or good grace to tear her gaze from the sexiest man alive, Kate would never know. Nonetheless, Maggi crossed her arms over her chest and demanded, “Exactly how many orgasms have you had because of this guy?”