Page 19 of Her Werewolf Lover
Her emotions were a complete mess. The last thing she needed was to fall into bed with some hunky handyman lover.
But it could be nice having someone on call. Snort.
“Well, burning the house down may be a bit drastic. Here, let me tell you what I would do for a start, and you’re not that far off, actually.”
Samantha nodded, waiting to hear what he would say.
“Your instincts are spot on. I say we gut it. Get rid of all the drapes, carpets, and the furniture you don’t want. But I’d keep these moldings and baseboards, they are cohesive with the original design of the house,” he said, and all pointed around her. “We’ll strip them, of course. It’s my guess they run throughout the house. Once we get this gold paint off, we might uncover something really special.”
“Okay,” she said, seeing his vision.
“The same with the floors. Once these carpets are up, I suspect you still have the original wood floors. Now, how do you feel about light?”
“Light? I love it. Oh, and I can help with stuff, too. To cut down costs,” she said, jumping up and down.
At her nod, he pointed to the far end of the living room and continued with a grin on his face. “Okay, next, you should install floor to ceiling windows here, triple insulated of course, and a sliding door opening onto the wood deck I see back there. I’ll have to get back there to check out whether or not the deck and stairs need any work. That part should be done before winter. Also, you should knock out this wall and that one, which I agree was probably very recently added. Once you do that, you will have great light and space.”
“Sounds amazing,” she whispered, hugging herself.
“It sure does,” he said, but his eyes were on her.
She inhaled a sharp breath. Should she say something? But he was already turning, and his attention was back on the house.
That’s good, right?
But part of her was disappointed.
“That’ll open this entire floor the way the original designer had in mind, creating a free-flowing concept that will give you the best use of your space.”
Samantha straightened her shoulders as Michael wound down his speech. For a moment there, shecould picture exactly what he meant. And it was amazing!
“Okay. I want to go forward. I am prepared to give you a ten-thousand dollar check today,” she began.
“I haven’t named a price yet,” he returned.
“I know, but I want to get started right away. It’s important to me. I don’t know much about construction, but I can throw stuff away with the best of them. I’ll help with the takedown, and that should help with labor, right?”
“Sure,” he nodded, a smirk teasing the corner of his full mouth.
“Sounds like a deal,” she said and held out her hand, professional-like.
Michael stepped into her space, and she sucked in a breath, almost swooning from his nearness. She shook his hand, ignoring the tingles that ran up her spine at the brief, platonic contact.
Plenty of men had been impressed to meet theJune Calendar Girlin the flesh when she was up and coming. She’d been paraded around by her agent, then her ex.
But no other man had ever sent her heart racing like this one did. Shutting down her out-of-controlemotions, Samantha looked straight into Michael’s impossibly dark brown eyes.
Her relationships with men had always been complicated. And she was honest enough to admit it was usually because of her.
Her beauty was the complication.
She knew she was attractive, something men wanted to possess, but she couldn’t take credit for a face she was born with.
The men in her life had always seemed to want to own that beauty, to brand her with their rings, their names, their sex.
Gary had been the most persistent and for a time, she’d thought he’d loved her, but he was just another trying to claim ownership of her body and soul.
This time, she would try something different from the very beginning.