Gypsy Beach (5 page)

Nana! If you did something that made this
happen… Ugh! I should have buried you so I could dig you up and
scream at you for this!
Ryan McNamara was standing in what
she’d decided would be her new bedroom, asking to become her
contractor. He looked so utterly devastated and so completely sexy
that it broke her heart all over again.

My God, how had she forgotten the way his
eyes always revealed the storm in his soul? His enviably long
eyelashes lifted in slowly timed blinks as if he didn’t want to
stop looking at her. Muscles rippled out from under the thin,
white, t-shirt he was wearing, and the toolbelt slung low on his
waist had the makings of some kind of delicious fantasy. The kind
she often had lying in her bed at night with her favorite vibrator
in hand.

“I’m an idiot for even asking, and I swear I
wouldn’t, but I’m desperate, Sienna. If you want to hear all of the
shit that has become my life, I’ll tell you, but you don’t owe me
anything. I don’t deserve a job or even a conversation with you.
I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t know you’d bought this place.”

“I didn’t.” She took one step closer, and
Ryan’s heart threatened to burst from his ribcage. He drew a ragged
breath and willed that damn gown to disappear. “Uh, I mean, Nana
left it to me. I had to stop my mom from selling it out from under
me, and pay the taxes and stuff, but I kind of wanted to open the
Inn again. I do need a contractor.” That information didn’t seem to
make her very happy.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m sure you don’t want it
to be me.” An uncomfortable silence drowned the heat that sizzled
between them.

“Well,” Sienna shrugged and called herself an
idiot of epic proportion. He just looked so desperate. “I did kind
want it to be someone I know.” Confusion was the only real emotion
she could locate.

“Why were you screaming?” finally blurted
from his extremely sexy lips.

“Oh.” She tried to chuckle but didn’t quite
hit the mark. “Uh, no hot water. I can’t get the water heater to
start. It’s freezing. I hate to be cold.”

“Yeah, I know.” His voice seemed to catch in
his throat, but the memories were playing in his eyes. An entire
symphony of recollections formed throughout Ryan’s body. The way
her sweet lips tasted composed its memory on his tongue. Holding
her against him until she stopped shivering when she got out of the
ocean heated his chest and made his biceps flex of their own
accord. Thankfully, the tool belt did a decent job of hiding the
fact that his cock still hadn’t let him forget the stunning imagery
of her in nothing but a half towel.

He had to get out of that bedroom. She had to
get dressed. It sounded like she might be willing to give him a
chance, but he had to keep his libido in check, no matter how
mighty the task of that might be. “I could go check that water
heater for you. If it’s shot, I can get you one in town and install
it today. No problem.” He hoped against hope.

Okay, Sienna, Ryan is here, looking
devastatingly gorgeous and offering you hot water.
The
temptations were more than she was certain she could turn down.
What on earth had just happened? How was Ryan McNamara back at
Gypsy Beach, and could she possibly be stupid enough to consider
offering him the job? He’d broken her heart. She hadn’t even heard
from him in ten years. Even when he’d abruptly stopped calling,
she’d ridiculously driven to Gypsy Beach after graduation, certain
that somehow he would show up and they would be together forever.
With another quick glance around the room, with its loosened,
bubbled carpeting and peeling paint, knowledge that she couldn’t
fix up the Inn on her own took center stage in her mind.

You will not under any circumstances fall
for him again, nor will you sleep with him. This will be a
professional relationship. He was always really good with those
hands.

Her gaze drifted to his substantial hands.
They did look a little callused; maybe he did really open a
construction company. She couldn’t fathom his parents ever having
gone for something like that though. She thought he’d gotten
married, but there was no ring to be found.
If he works in
construction, he probably doesn’t wear a ring, so it doesn’t get
messed up. You really are an idiot, Sienna.

“Uh, if you’re interested, we could look into
doing a tankless system. I’m not sure they’ve worked all their
kinks out yet, but might be worth investigating if you’re going to
house multiple people here in the summers.”

Still trying to make sense of the insanity of
all of this, Sienna managed a slight nod.

“Uh, that sounds good.” She had no idea what
he’d said, but that sexy husk of his voice always made heat surge
rapidly through her entire body. It quickly remedied the freezing
shower she’d endured.

“Sienna, thank you. Really, you have no idea
what this means to me. Let me go check the tank.”

Wait! Did I just hire him? Oh my God, what
did I say?
She watched Ryan walk out the bedroom door. Their
eyes met as he made his escape. Surely, that wasn’t longing that
she saw there. She’d imagined that.

Ryan McNamara could have any woman he wanted.
He was gorgeous and his family had tons of money. She’d never be
enough, but he was kind, and most importantly, he could give her
hot water. That fact alone sealed the deal.

Hoping it wouldn’t take more than a few weeks
to redo her beloved Inn, she told herself that she and Ryan could
work together, maybe even be friends again. That she could
endure.

That liquid heat that she felt forming
between her thighs would just have to chill. Her heart could not
survive another devastating blow. She could not fall back in love
with him and then watch Ryan McNamara walk away again. She wouldn’t
survive.

Ryan located the
water heater in the old workroom just off the kitchen. He was too
stunned to concentrate for several long minutes. Leaning back
against the concrete walls, he tried to fathom how on earth he’d
ended up working for Sienna Cooper. Not that he minded, but he
wasn’t at all certain he could survive having her in his presence
without having her in his arms.

The last decade had done nothing to douse his
desire for her. She was somehow still the only thing in his entire
world that made perfect sense. He’d lost her for good. She should
never forgive him for what he did, and she sure as hell didn’t need
to be dragged through the hell he’d been living for the last
year.

Maybe by redoing the Inn for her, he could
make up for some of the heartache he’d caused. If he didn’t
desperately need the money, he’d do it for free. He owed her far
more than that.

Payment or not, he could help her achieve
what was quite obviously her dream. She’d make it a huge success,
and he would stand back and be supremely proud for her and of her,
but she wasn’t his anymore. She deserved so much more than he could
ever offer her. If he played all of his cards right, maybe they
could just be friends and neighbors. He could still bring Evie here
and raise her, but if he screwed up again, it would be too painful
to live in the same town with Sienna. He had to do this right.

She appeared in the workroom before he had
time to prepare himself. His mouth flooded with saliva. He was
unable to speak as he stood there, stupidly pointing to the pilot
light that had just gone back out.

She was wearing some kind of thin slip dress,
and apparently her view on undergarments hadn’t changed in the last
ten years as she wasn’t wearing any underneath the dress. It was
cut in a low v and showed off the beautiful swells of the tops of
her breasts. His jaw clenched as he ordered his hands to remain
away from her chest. Tracing over those swells was the only thing
his brain offered him. The rage of teenage hormones that her lack
of belief in panties and bras had given him when he was seventeen
was nothing compared to how hard he was hung at that moment. His
cock could drive every damn nail he’d need to rebuild the entire
town.

“Uh,” he stammered, and tried to remember how
to speak.

“Did you figure out what’s wrong?”

He nodded and swallowed back another flood of
saliva brought on by the melody of her voice and the movement of
her lips. “Yeah, you’ve just got a dirty thermocouple.”

Her lips pursed, and his entire body tensed.
She wrinkled that adorable nose. “I don’t know what that is.
Redoing this place was probably such a stupid idea.” The dejection
that took over her body had him moving to her. He stopped short of
running his thumb over her cheek in an effort to bring back her
smile.

“No, it’s a great idea, and you’ll be great
at running this place. We’ll get it back in working order before
the season starts up, and you’ll be making money in no time.”

“Do you really think so? I’ve never owned
anything, much less an entire Inn. I’m not sure I know what I’m
doing.”

And there it was. That quizzical, questioning
look that said whatever his answer was that she would believe him.
How, after everything he’d done to her, did she possibly still
believe in him? He didn’t deserve that, but suddenly nothing was as
important and keeping his word to her.

“I think you’re perfect,” fell from his lips
without him quite meaning for it to come out that way. “Uh, I mean
I think you’ll be the perfect person to run the Inn, Sienna. You’re
amazing.”

That vow was met with disbelief, however.
“Thanks. So, can you fix the water heater or do I need a new
one?”

Thankful to be able to discuss something that
wouldn’t make him sound like a complete idiot, Ryan smiled.

Dear God, that smile!
Sienna’s pelvic
muscles clenched tightly as if to pull that devastatingly sexy
smile inside of her body.
Okay, he needs to stop smiling
.
Smiling is bad. There should be no smiling while we redo this
house.
If he kept looking at her like that, she was likely to
spontaneously burst into flames.
Burning down the Inn would only
make the repairs go on longer. Did he just say I was
amazing?

“Yeah, this heater’s only a couple of years
old. Thermocouple got a little rusty. Probably from the storm. I’ve
got some sandpaper in my truck. As soon as it cools back down from
me lighting the pilot, I can clean it up for you. You’ll have hot
water soon. And maybe you could tell me a little about what you
want to do in the house while we wait on it to cool. We can turn
this into
the
place to stay on Gypsy Beach.”

Sienna grinned at him. His heart and his
groin mocked him with internal laughter at his vow to keep his
hands and his cock away from her.

Her bottom lip slipped through her teeth, and
his hands shook. He shoved them in the pocket of his jeans. “This
is kind of weird,” she finally admitted.

His head fell and air escaped his lungs in an
audible hiss. He lifted it again and had to nod his agreement.

“But it doesn’t have to be, right?” The utter
hope in her question speared through him and did a decent job of
shutting up both his heart and his groin.

“Right.” He offered her another kind smile
and ran his hands back through his hair, not entirely certain what
else to say but deciding just to go with the truth. “Sienna, I
really am sorry about all those years ago. Like I said, I know that
means nothing to you now, but I’d really like to just be friends
with you. If you think that’s okay. If not, I’ll just be your
contractor, completely at your service, and then I’ll leave you
alone. I won’t bother you anymore.”

Being completely at her service was about the
closest thing to heaven Sienna had ever heard. She allowed her mind
to conjure images of Ryan doing her sexual bidding before she
ordered them away, because leaving her alone sounded a lot like the
hell she’d already lived through all those years ago.

Why had he just stopped calling? What had
happened to him? She had no idea why she wanted to know. She had no
business associating with him at all, but the only voice she could
hear in her head was Nana’s. She was chanting,
“Cast no dirt in
the well that offers you water, Sienna Rose.”
And he wasn’t
just offering her water, he was offering her hot water and to help
her make the Inn everything she wanted it to be.

Oh fine, Nana! I’ll do this, but you better
not let him hurt me again!

“I’d really like to be friends again. That
would be nice… I think.” She prayed it would be nice and not her
undoing.

There it was again, another one of those
perfect smiles. He looked like she’d just saved his very life.
Damn you, Nana!

Sienna had tried
all day not to notice the way all of those rippling muscles that
Ryan McNamara had developed, at some point in the last ten years,
looked when he’d removed his t-shirt. Now he was sweaty, and she
was certain there was no better view anywhere on Gypsy Beach. She
was still insanely curious about what had happened to make him so
meek suddenly. He’d always been so full of confidence, but she of
all people knew that a decade was a very long time and that a lot
of things could change.

She also knew that she shouldn’t care. Ryan
was in her distant past, and she got the distinct impression that
he didn’t want to share too much with her. She tried to tell
herself that it was a good thing. If he did have some plausible
explanation for what had happened to him, where he’d disappeared,
then it would make this entire thing impossible. Not forgiving him
was the key to making this work. She needed to pretend that their
past simply did not exist.

She couldn’t risk her heart taking over
again. He clearly knew what to do to her Inn and that was as far as
Ryan McNamara could be trusted. She moved back to the stockpot
where she was trying to master Nana’s sauce. She needed it to be
perfect before she fed it to her guests, but her eyes refused to
obey her order to stop spying on Ryan while he worked.