Good with His Hands (10 page)

 

9

T
HE
A
NDERSENS
WERE
some of Dani's favorite clients. Several years ago, she'd helped them buy a house when they were the brand-new parents of a baby girl. Now they were expecting twins and ready to upgrade. The Magnolia Grove subdivision, which managed to blend high-end amenities with a burgeoning close-knit community feel, seemed right in their wheelhouse.

Dread filled her as she drove through the redbrick entrance to the neighborhood. “Well, here we are.”

“Um...” From the passenger seat, Natalie Andersen slanted her a quizzical look. “Is there something we should know about this subdivision? I've heard your enthusiastic voice before, and that wasn't it.”

“Sorry, I was thinking about something else. Momentary aberration.” Dani could have kicked herself for the lapse in professionalism. Whether they ran into Sean today or not, her clients deserved her full attention. “This neighborhood has a lot of potential. Control is in the transition phase between the building company and eventual homeowner's association. People who move in now can help steer the direction of HOA governance.”

She parked in front of the model home, trying to keep her gaze from darting toward the trailer. She failed. Almost as if he'd been watching for her—or as if fate were conspiring against her—the door opened and Sean stepped out with a man in a hard hat. The other man nodded at something, then departed in the opposite direction. Sean, however, smiled at Dani as she climbed out of her car and headed in his direction.

His grin was full of mischief as he called out, “If it isn't my favorite fairy god-agent.”

Bippity boppity bite me.

“Good to see you, Danica.”

She gave him a bland smile. “This is Natalie and Ross Andersen.”

“Nice to meet you. Sean Grayson.” He shook hands with both of them. “Danica's already familiar with the display home, but if you don't mind my horning in for a few minutes, I can point out a few things that can be customized and what variations we offer on the floor plan.”

The Andersens seemed happy to have his input. He was using her clients as human shields, knowing Dani couldn't kick him to the curb while maintaining her professional veneer. Behind Natalie's back, Dani scowled at him in silent accusation.

He responded with a beatific smile.

They proceeded through a generous foyer into the living room. Although the house was a two-story, the upstairs rooms were built around the first floor in an L-shape. The living room had a high ceiling with two skylights.

Natalie smiled up at them, charmed. “I wonder if you can see any stars at night.”

“Doubtful.” Ross joined his wife beneath a skylight, putting an arm around her waist. “They've done a nice job of preserving trees around here and not putting the houses right on top of each other, but it's still an urban area. All the light pollution washes out the night sky.”

“Oh, I don't know,” Sean said softly, for Dani's ears only. “I've certainly seen stars in a living room.”

Sense memories blazed through her. Their mingled cries in her own living room. The leather of the couch cool against her skin, contrasting with the trail of heat created by his hands. She tried not to think about how closely he'd held her afterward.

Sean pivoted on his heel. “And right through here is the kitchen.” The model home included a flat-top stove and a kitchen island. “These counters are standard height, but we've also done some customization in the neighborhood to make individual kitchens more ergonomic.”

“Deviating from the norm can hurt resale value,” Dani warned her clients.

“One compromise for that is altering the height of a single counter surface to give yourself a break,” Sean suggested. “After all, people spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Standing, stretching to reach things, bending over...”

His gaze flickered to Dani, and her cheeks flamed. At the earliest opportunity, she was going to replace that damn couch.

His voice was completely composed as he continued talking about the kitchen, not betraying any sign that he shared her mental images. As he led them through the bedrooms, his demeanor was friendly but businesslike. Few listening would ever realize he was simultaneously having two different conversations—one with the Andersens, and one with her. Whatever assurances she'd made herself that she could remain strictly professional, he wasn't playing by the same rules.

He showed them the master bathroom, with its spacious tiled shower and built-in bench. “I wish the shower in my town house was this roomy,” he joked. “Heck, you could fit two people in here. Easily.”

For a moment, she could almost feel steam caressing her body as Sean lathered shampoo through her hair. She gave herself a mental shake, pulling herself out of the memory, glad neither of the Andersens seemed to notice. But Sean's eyes met hers over the top of Natalie's head, his expression knowing.

After a quick scan of the bedroom and its vast walk-in closet, Natalie slid open the glass door that led to the balcony and stepped outside to check the view. “Ross, look. You can see how the entire neighborhood is laid out from up here.”

He joined his wife, closing the door behind him.

The second they were alone, Dani socked Sean in the arm.

His lips quirked. “I'm not typically into the rough stuff. But for you, I—”

“What is
wrong
with you?” she demanded in a fierce whisper. If he pretended not to know what she was talking about, she was going to sock him again. “Do you normally try to seduce everyone that sets foot into the display home?”

“No. Just you.”

The simple, poignant admission deflated her righteous fury. She'd expected him to play dumb and had been working herself up for a fight. Or, considering that the Andersens could rejoin them at any moment, at least a
really
angry glare. But he wasn't denying his actions.

Instead, he stared at her with such open hunger that if he pulled her into his arms right then, she wouldn't have been surprised. Indignant, maybe. Conflicted and confused and uncomfortably aroused. But not surprised.

“Sean...” Damn. The way she'd said his name didn't sound like the admonishment she'd intended. It sounded dangerously close to an invitation.

He reached out, his hand cupping the side of her face. She swayed on her feet, unconsciously leaning toward him. Desire warred with common sense. The Andersens were right outside.

“I screwed up.” Compared to the amiable sales-pitch tone he'd been using, his voice seemed naked now, stripped of everything but unvarnished emotion. “I know how badly I screwed up. But if you'll give me a chance...”

Wasn't that what all liars and cheaters said?
It'll never happen again, baby. It was just this once.
Sean sounded more convincing than most, but that wasn't a guarantee. It might simply mean he was a skilled liar.

Seeming frustrated by her silence, he dropped his hand to his side. “You can't tell me you don't have any feelings about us.”

“Buyer's remorse.” She took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest. “And embarrassment. I shared a really uncomfortable elevator ride with your brother.”

He winced. “You talked to Bryce?”

“Yeah. And, not that he's entitled to an opinion, but I don't think he approves of our jumping into bed together.”

Sean's face tightened. “If he said one insulting word to you, I—”

“No, nothing outright.” She was startled by his protective tone and how quickly he sprang to her defense. As an only child, she didn't have any personal basis for comparison when it came to sibling relationships, but she'd watched Meg with her family plenty of times. The Raffertys razzed each other and even seriously disagreed on occasion, but the core of their relationship was loyalty. They presented a united front to outsiders.

Apparently, such was not the case with Sean and his brother. One would think that identical twins, sharing the same DNA, would be the closest siblings of all.

“It wasn't that he said anything hateful,” she clarified. “He just seems...”

“To have a stick up his butt?” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Sorry. I shouldn't be crass. Or involve you in family squabbles. It's just that my holier-than-thou brother—”

“It is beautiful out there,” Natalie said, stepping back inside. “Of course, if we moved into the neighborhood, I'd want a house
without
a view of the community pool. I'm not sure my self-esteem could take Ross watching babes in bikinis while I'm pregnant out to here with twins.”

“Hey,” her husband said sternly. “You
are
a babe. And carrying our children—” The unexpected sound of a foghorn filled the room. Ross pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “That's my agent. I need to take this.” He retreated back onto the balcony for privacy.

“Twins, huh?” Sean smiled at Natalie. “I have a twin brother myself. We're nothing alike, though. He's Mr. Book Smart and I have what one counselor called ‘kinesthetic intelligence.' Which is a fancy way of saying, I'm good with my hands.”

Dani kept her gaze steadfastly locked on the baseboard, refusing to risk a glance in his direction.

“We're having twin girls,” Natalie said.

“Congratulations.” Sean leaned forward, his voice an exaggerated whisper. “Boys are obnoxious handfuls.”

Natalie laughed, while Dani resisted the urge to nod in emphatic agreement. Sean was infuriatingly, blood-pressure-raisingly obnoxious. But he was also so much more than that.

“How long have the two of you been married?” Sean asked conversationally.

“Seven years.”

“Well, it's easy to see you were made for each other.” Sean unknowingly echoed the opinion Dani had always held about the Andersens.

Natalie giggled. “It's sweet of you to say that, but it wasn't always apparent. We had a rather, er, tumultuous courtship.”

The door behind them slid open, and Ross raised his eyebrows at his wife's amused expression. “Did I miss something funny?”

“Natalie was just telling us that, early on, the two of you hit some bumps in the road,” Dani said. “Which, personally, I find impossible to believe.”

“Oh, believe it. Although, calling them ‘bumps' is kinder than I deserve.” Ross grimaced, putting his arm around Natalie's shoulders. “Thank God my wife is a forgiving woman.”

She snuggled against him. “You were worth forgiving. Besides, what choice did I have? My only other option was being without you.”

The words reverberated through Dani. Even without turning her head, she could feel Sean's gaze on her, his silent entreaty. He wanted her to forgive him. And, frankly, it was tempting. Sean was the most exhilarating man she'd ever known.

But what was the saying?
Fool me once, shame on you...
Did she want to risk setting herself up to be made a fool of again? In Dani's opinion, the key part of Natalie's story wasn't that she'd forgiven her husband. It was her certainty that he'd been worth it.

Dani was nowhere near the neighborhood of certainty. That neighborhood hadn't even been zoned for development yet. Was Sean worth second-guessing herself, going back on what she felt was a wise decision? There was one absolute way to know for sure, but she didn't think she could face the consequences of being wrong.

* * *

A
FTER
WORK
F
RIDAY
, Dani attended an orientation meeting for all the volunteers in the softball league, then grabbed a late dinner with a few of the other coaches. It was almost ten when she got home, and it had been a fairly eventful week. She took a quick shower, planning to curl up with a good book afterward. She deserved some downtime.

But once she'd shimmied into a pair of comfortable pajamas and scanned both her e-reader and bedroom shelf for choices, she realized she felt too manic to concentrate. Restless and edgy.
That would be the sexual frustration.

She rejected the thought as soon as it crossed her mind. Frustrated, because of a few paltry moments alone with Sean today? Ha! She'd been celibate for
months
and had survived just fine. She was not going to become a needy hostage to her hormones. For crying out loud, it had only been a week since she'd had sex.

Really, really great sex.

A knock sounded at her front door. Dani was so tightly strung that she jumped. Who the hell was showing up unannounced at this hour of the night?
Sean.

The unbidden thought made her go liquid inside. There'd been that moment today when he'd considered going for broke and kissing her—she'd seen it in his eyes, heard it in the change of his breathing. If he was rash enough to do it, did she trust herself not to kiss him back? No.

She was honest enough to admit to herself that, if she opened the door and let him in, they were going to make love. She just didn't know if that's what she wanted.

Another knock interrupted her mental debate.
Down, girl. It's probably not even him.
One of her neighbors had given Dani a spare key for the times she'd locked herself out of her apartment, which was four and counting. Dani went into her living room warily, as if Sean's magnetism might be too much for her to resist even through metal-reinforced wood.

“Who is it?” she called, not yet close enough to look through the peep-hole.

“It's me.” Muffled sniffling came from the other side. “Meg.”

Dani unfastened the chain and turned the deadbolt. “You're the last person I expected to see.” She knew from their chats earlier this week that Meg and Nolan had special plans tonight. It was their six-month anniversary.

“Sorry I didn't call first,” Meg said. “I left the house in such a hurry I forgot that my phone was on the charger instead of in my purse.”