it with her that her attempts to be serious ended up amusing people, and vice versa?
He smiled at her a few more seconds and then looked toward the stairwell. “I have to be somewhere at three, so I should get started on the inspection.”
Lissa pouted behind his back. Apparently the words were her cue to get started on accepting she had no chance with him. So much for her dip into the nice-guy pool. She should be glad she’d failed so miserably. Bad boys never cared enough to put her first, but they also didn’t make her sulk. “Do you want my help? I’d rather not get up on the roof, if that’s okay by you.”
“Scared of heights?” he asked without looking back.
“No. Of falling and breaking something important. I like my body just the way it came assembled.”
His gaze moved back to her, zipping from her bare feet to her hair, which she’d only gotten around to finger combing so far today. The heat in Thad’s eyes when he met hers said he liked her body plenty himself. Just not enough to give in to the naughty urges she surfaced. “I shouldn’t need any help. I just didn’t want you to hear someone on the roof and decide to break out your gun.”
“I prefer a Louisville Slugger as my weapon of choice.”
“You play ball?”
She sighed. Another attempt at humor down the drain. She did have a baseball bat, but she didn’t use it to take out unexpected guests. “I was in a softball league the last few years, but I’ve got too much going on now to keep up with practice and games.”
He nodded at her computer monitor. “Business is good for you?”
“Yes,” she answered succinctly. Lissa realized he was making small talk then, instead of attempting to hightail it up the stairs. Idle as the conversation was, it could be her one chance to put him at ease around her. She smiled warmly. “I signed a new contract last night.”
“You’re obviously great at what you do to be pulling in clients right now.”
“Actually, hiring an interior designer is more cost-efficient than most people think. As much as anything else, my job is to help save money while making more space available in an established environment.” She recalled what Thad said yesterday, about needing to concentrate all his efforts on activities that paid the bills. Maybe that wasn’t just an excuse not to sleep with her. “Business isn’t so good for you?”
He shrugged. “Things are pretty slow on the construction side. The way the economy is, I’m surprised we’re seeing as much work as we are.”
“What else do you do?”
What looked like discomfort, probably over the idea she wanted to know more about him after he effectively turned her down a second time, registered in his eyes. “Just, uh, general handyman stuff.”
“I have quite a few connections. If you were to work on my roof and impress me with your many talents, I might be encouraged to put in a good word for you.” Lissa hadn’t meant the sexual talents she’d gotten a sampling of yesterday, but Thad’s hesitant expression said that was how he took it.
She sighed. So much for setting him at ease. After that comment, the chance of her being the center of his attention, even for the handful of days he worked on her roof, was as good as gone.
“You’re kidding me?” Thad barked into his phone. He glared out the kitchen window at the neighborhood lights cutting through the black night and wished to hell he could somehow redo this day. Starting with not going over to Lissa’s house and ending by magically making Benny’s foster mother’s health get better instead of taking a grim turn for the worse.
“I wish I was,” Nash returned morosely from the other end of the phone line.
“So do I,” Thad agreed, careful to put the right amount of sympathy into his voice this time.
He knew how close Benny was with his foster mother, how the woman had turned him from a kid who took comfort in hurting himself to a good-hearted man, and he hated the thought of him sitting at her hospital bed, praying for the improbable. But Thad also couldn’t get past the reality that, with Benny out of commission, Nash was going to need help with Lissa’s roof. Loose Screws couldn’t afford to hire someone, even short term, which meant that help would have to come in the form of Thad himself.
Shit. He was screwed.
He would never be able to play the nice guy for however many days it took to re-lay her roof. As he’d cautioned, he would be physically up on the roof, while his mind traveled to her basement office and thoughts of her loving herself up with a sucker.
Then again, maybe he wouldn’t be screwed. Maybe he would be so distracted he would fall off the roof and break his pecker. It would bring an abrupt end to his gigolo services and every chance he had with women in the future, but right about now that didn’t sound like such a bad thing.
Inhaling the fresh scent of springtime in the country, Lissa started around to the backside of her house. A huge, ugly green dump bin had been dropped in the yard this morning and was now in the process of killing the grass with its hulky weight. Typically, she loved the three acres of grass and another two of woods that made up the backyard. Today, she could’ve cared less. Thad was on her roof, stripping up thirty-year-old shingles and tar paper.
That he was only here because his partner’s mother was gravely ill faded her good mood some, but not enough to stop her anticipation for the possibilities that lay in the week ahead.
Five days of roofing work. Five days to get him to change his mind about them by proving she was okay with coming in second to his job. All right, so in the long run she wasn’t okay with it. But for now, knowing he was the kind of guy who would put her first as soon as feasibly possible, she could handle it.
Lissa reached the metal ladder leaning against the side of the house and extending up to the roof. She tipped back her head and shielded her eyes from the late morning sun. The scraps of roofing material flying over the side of the house to land in and around the dump bin told her Thad was on the roof, but she couldn’t see him.
It was for the best he was out of sight. No use getting her hormones riled up before heading out to meet with a supplier, even one who happened to be her friend. “I have to run into town,” she called out. “Do you need anything before I leave?”
“Will Sam be around?”
“A lot of times he comes home for a quickie lunch. Why?”
“In case any questions come up.” Thad’s head came into view followed by his body encased in worn jeans and a white sleeveless T-shirt that clung to his heat-dampened torso. He did a toe-to-head assessment of her practical low-heeled sandals, casual charcoal gray slacks, and burgundy knit top. A warm smile claimed his mouth. “You look nice, Lissa.”
She wet her suddenly dry lips. “You look hot.”
Seriously, who knew sweat could be so appetizing? If she thought there was a chance of him allowing it, she would risk scaling the ladder to get on the roof and lick the perspiration from his hard body.
He wiped an arm across the sweat beaded on his forehead. “It’s muggy out today. Not the best condition for working on a black roof.”
“If you want to take a shower to cool off, I don’t have to go right now.” Lissa winced at the raising of his wickedly arched eyebrows. God, what a mouth she had. She might as well have offered to skip her meeting to stay home and wash his balls with her tongue. “I don’t think that came out right. I meant the shower can be tricky to run and I would be happy to stick around to get it working for you.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m good for now.” He peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it aside. Glistening golden tan skin dusted with wheat-colored hair and inch after inch of rippling sinew came into view to do a swelling number on her sex.
“You look hot.” Nice. She sounded like the broken