Page 4 of Sicilian Savior

“Here are your towels,” I said. My protective instincts still told me to keep my distance, so I hovered in the doorway.

Knox emerged from my bathroom sink cabinet and stood up. This time fear didn’t cause my heart to rattle against my ribcage. It was the way his wet, white t-shirt clung to his abs and his pecs, giving me a perfect view of every chiseled inch of him. His muscles strained against the soaked shirt, and I could see the dark ink of more tattoos on his chest as well as the outline of what looked to be military tags.

He looked downright dangerous with his tattoo-covered muscles, scruffy beard, and intense hazel eyes. If I hadn’t been so terrified when I’d first seen him, I’d have certainly still been struck dumb by his good looks. But finding a behemoth of an inked man in the bathroom with me had startled me past any other thoughts than “he’s here to kill me.”

I still wasn’t certain he wouldn’t. From the size of his hands and his biceps, he could probably snuff the life out of me in seconds. But, when I’d gone for the towels, I’d called Ned to confirm his story, and sure enough, Ned had told me Knox was his handyman, and I could trust him.

Trust him. Right. Like I’d ever trust any man again.

“Looks like I’m gonna need some new pipe,” he said.

I tossed him a towel, still keeping him at bay. He caught it with ease and used it to dry his hands and his face. After he finished, he dropped it on the floor and started mopping up the water with his foot.

“I’ll order the part from the hardware store in the next town over. Should be able to get it this week and get this fixed. In the meantime, we’ll just leave the valve off, so you don’t end up with an Olympic-sized swimming pool instead of a lotion store.”

“How did you know it was a lotion store?” I arched a suspicious eyebrow, my spine stiffening.

Has he been watching me? Is this all some elaborate ruse?

His full lips lifted in a smirk. “Um, because I saw the lotion on the counter, and the store is called Lucia’s Loziones. I don’t speak a lot of Italian, but I recognize that as lotion.”

“Oh,” I whispered as the heat flushed my cheeks. “Sorry. I just thought maybe—”

“What? That I was stalking you?” He chuckled but stopped when he saw my reaction.

“Uh, no,” I lied. “I was just... sorry.”

“I thought we were past the part where you thought I was a serial killer. Didn’t you call Ned to confirm my story when you went for towels?”

“How did you know that?” I snapped. “Were you spying on me?”

His eyebrows shot to his hairline, and he laughed. “No. I just thought that’s what a smart woman would have done, and you seem like a smart woman. Are... are you okay?”

I knew I was acting jumpy and probably looked insane by the way he stared at me. And he wasn’t wrong. Maybe I was going insane.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I’m not normally like this. You just really startled me today.”

He raked me with a suspicious gaze of his own, then said, “I get it. I would probably be freaked out, too, if I saw me standing in my bathroom.”

I smiled and laughed softly.

“But I just want to make sure you’re okay,” he asked again, tipping his head while he waited for my answer. The weight of the question hung in the air, and I knew that he sensed something more than his presence had shaken me today.

And he wasn’t wrong.

Even as I started to believe he wasn’t here to hurt me, I lied anyway. “Yes. I’m fine. Sorry. I’ll stop treating you like a psycho. I’ve been watching too many true crime shows, I guess.”

His eyes lit up, and I noticed the swirls of green mixed in with the shades of soft brown. “Oh, I love those! I swear I’ve binged every single one.”

“Same.” I smiled. “And apparently too many since my mind is clearly playing tricks on me now.”

His close-lipped smile pulled wider as he exhaled a sigh. “Well, I’m just glad you don’t think I’m some stalker killer now. I’m going to have to come back and install this pipe when it comes in. I don’t want you pulling a knife on me or calling the cops.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “I won’t. I promise. I’m over my paranoia.”

And I hoped I was. Knox seemed like a good guy. Well, he looked like a bad guy with his menacing appearance, but there was a softness in his eyes and his smile that soothed me.

“Do you need help cleaning this up?” He gestured to the water still pooling on the floor.