Page 48 of Falling for the Billionaire Best Man

18

KAISEN

I’d decided something. I really, really wanted to kiss Dorie again. But she was shy—painfully so—and I knew she wasn’t going to grab me by the shirt and throw me on her bed. That wasn’t her style. And my usual charms? They weren’t going to work on her. I’d already figured that out.

So now what?

She was unlike any other woman I wanted. With them, it was pretty easy to figure out what made them tick. And I didn’t typically need to put a lot of effort into getting them in bed.

But Dorie was different.

I pulled into a spot in front of her condo.

“Uh, you don’t really need to come in,” she said. “I can figure out the machine. I just don’t have the time.”

I killed the engine and turned to her. “I told you I would install it. I’m not going to leave you with a box of parts and instructions in Italian at midnight. My gift shouldn’t be a burden on you. So let me help.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she looked down at her hands, fidgeting with the strap of her purse. “Right. Yeah. Okay.”

She stepped out. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but it was still enough to make her hair cling to her gorgeous face.

Dorie unlocked the door to her condo. I followed her inside, immediately greeted by her cat who was doing his usual routine of hissing at me while simultaneously rubbing up against my legs. It was like the little guy couldn’t decide whether he wanted to hate me or adopt me.

“Sorry,” she said. “He really has a thing about men. Not just you. All of them.”

I decided I’d had enough of the cat’s mixed signals and scooped him up, holding him at eye level.

“Listen, buddy,” I said, staring into his unimpressed blue eyes. “I’m going to be around for a while, so you need to get used to it.”

Rick blinked at me, then let out a disgruntled meow before going limp in my hands. I set him down on the couch, and he immediately curled up into a ball, pretending to ignore me. I turned to Dorie, who looked uncomfortable. Or weirded out. She was avoiding eye contact and doing her very best to fade into the beige walls. I didn’t have to guess why. She was still reeling from the kiss in the car. I wasn’t going to apologize for it. I wasn’t sorry in the slightest.

And she did kiss me back.

It had been the result of building tension between us. I knew she felt it just as much as I did. We were both drawn to each other. We couldn’t ignore it.

“Alright,” I said, clearing my throat. “Let’s get this contraption hooked up. Do you have some basic tools?”

“Like?”

“Screwdrivers,” I said. “Probably a wrench. Where is the manual?”

Dorie shuffled over to the box in the corner of her small kitchen and grabbed the manual. She handed it to me, her fingers brushing mine for the briefest moment before she pulled back like she’d been burned.

I smirked but didn’t comment. Instead, I flipped through the manual, which was a lot of nonsense. “I don’t know why they make it so complicated.”

She shrugged, leaning against the counter. “I figured I could just wing it.”

“Have you seen how many moving parts this thing has?” I raised an eyebrow, trying not to laugh.

“It’s not like I have a choice,” she muttered, crossing her arms. “I can’t exactly afford to hire someone to do it for me.”

“Tools?”

“Um, yeah.”

She opened a drawer and pulled out a small toolbox that looked like it got very little use. “Here. It’s not much, but it’s all I’ve got.”

Inside I found a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, and a wrench that looked like it could be from a child’s play set. “Not a lot to choose from,” I said, trying to keep the skepticism out of my voice.