An Accidental Date with a Billionaire

“Hopefully I can return the favor and remind you how to do something, too.”

She spun on her heel, fully facing him, raising her brows in question. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, holding his arms out. “You’re a mystery I can’t quite solve, but I intend to do my best to figure you out.”

She let out a small laugh. “Yeah. Okay. Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

As she walked toward a group of women, he watched her hair swing with each step and couldn’t help but think that around her, he’d need all the luck he could get.

Chapter Five

Sam legit couldn’t take her eyes off him. She’d done more watching and admiring than actual building, and it was all Taylor’s fault. Why did he have to go and not be a jerk? She liked him better when he seemed like the kind of guy who never thought twice about the world outside of his penthouse. But noooo.

He had to go and care.

His muscles flexed as he hammered a nail into the wood, and a trail of sweat rolled down the side of his forehead and into his hair. The jeans he’d bought for their date hugged his butt in all the right places, and he’d rolled his flannel sleeves up to expose muscular forearms with dark brown hair speckled across tanned skin. A backup nail was perched in his mouth as he pounded steel on steel, and in complete honesty, she had to admit there was nothing more attractive in this world than Taylor Jennings using his hammer. He hadn’t lied—he knew how to use it.

Damn him.

She was happy he wasn’t a prick, but it made it so much more tempting to forget who he was, and what he represented, for just a night…

No. She couldn’t do that.

Lisa, a buddy who always ended up at the same builds as her, waved a hand in front of her face, fanning her. Sam snapped to attention, blinking. “Huh?”

“I said,” Lisa enunciated, “you need some cooling off. Here you go.”

Sam’s cheeks flushed, but not from heat—though it was an unseasonably warm fall day in Chicago. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, sure you are,” she agreed, grinning, “and so is he.”

Sam forced her expression to remain calm. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That fine-ass man over there you’re drooling over,” Lisa said, pointing at Taylor.

Sam grabbed her hand, yanking it down. “Don’t point at him.”

Lisa laughed. “Who is he, anyway?”

“He’s…he’s kind of my date.”

Lisa broke the laugh off. “You brought a date to Habitat for Humanity?”

“It’s a long story,” Sam muttered.

“I’ve got nothing but time,” Lisa said, picking up a nail. “Tell me all about it.”

Sam did the same, sighing, because to be honest, she wanted to talk to someone about this. “I went to a charity auction last night—”

“Big shocker there, you helping charities.”

Sam ignored that. “—and he was on the stage.”

“Why am I never invited to these types of things?” Lisa muttered.

“I bid on him, won, and brought him here to make him eat some humility pie. Turns out, I’m the one who needs it. He’s actually a nice guy, and he’s hot, and he had a toolbox in his car, which is even hotter, and now I can’t take my eyes off him.” Sam pounded on a nail, taking out her frustrations on the poor thing. “And he’s hot. Like, really, really hot.”