Page 27 of The Haunting Plot

“Shouldn’t you know the answer to that? What kind of contractor are you?”

“You always gonna bust my ass this hard?”

“Are you going to keep asking stupid questions?”

He smiles, the creases around his blue eyes deepening. “Your fire doesn’t scare me.”

I have no idea how to respond to that. The urge to lob another insult at him is strong, but what’s the use? It seems to turn him on more.

There are a million things I should be doing right now. Instead, I stand in the space between the foyer and living room, watching as Sawyer bends over to inspect the boxes. He’s got to be doing that on purpose, hoping I’ll check out his ass.

I’m so engrossed in my leering that his voice startles me. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

Puffing out my cheeks, I stomp over to my office and plop into my chair. My fingers drum the keys as my eyes peek over the top of my screen. Sawyer is down on all fours, ass in the air, crawling around like a dog. I shake out my hands and type. Every so often, a noise steals my focus, and I sneak a glance at him. I thought he was going to fix the lighting? One minute he’s ripping out flooring, the next he’s sanding. Several other tools are laid out, but he ignores most of them as he flits around the room, hopping from one thing to the next. It’s chaos, but I don’t have time to manage it. I’m on a deadline. I shove a handful of Jonah’s leftover crackers in my mouth and continue typing.

Minutes later, a hand slaps my desk, and I peer up into his warm blue eyes while his flick down to my chest again. “Hey, gorgeous.”

“Jesus Christ. You act like you’ve never seen a pair of boobs before.” I clutch my robe closed.

“I got you something.” He reaches into his back pocket and hands me a stack of what looks like notecards.

“What’s this?”

“They’re paint swatches. So you can pick out your favorite.”

I flip through the samples. “They’re all gray.”

“Exactly. I figured you’d need at least fifty shades of gray for your sex dungeon.”

I bite my lip to hold in the chuckle that wants to escape. I won’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, I roll my eyes and give him my most menacing glare.

“Ah, practicing your domme face, I see. You’re gonna need to look more intimidating than that if you want me to crawl on all fours for you, madame.”

I ignore the bolt of lust that jab gives me. If he only knew. “If I’m not mistaken, you’ve been crawling around my floor all morning. And I didn’t even have to pull out my riding crop to get you to do that.”

Shock lights up his face, his eyes widening slightly before they flick down to my lips. This has gone too far. For fuck’s sake, he works for me. Wait, does he work for me? I still don’t remember agreeing to this. This horny repartee could be considered sexual harassment. I need to stop engaging him. Even if it’s fun. Even if it spikes my dopamine. Even if it gives me a rush of warmth between my thighs.

He looks at my chest again, and I lose my battle with self-control. Part of me wants to shut him up so he can get back to work and get out of my house. And another part of me wants to throw logic aside and do something wild. Fuck it.

I roll back in my chair, slowly standing as I grip the edges of my robe and hold it open. “Is this what you want? You’ve been staring at them since you got here. Go ahead, get your fill.”

His eyes fixate on my left breast as I try to maintain my mask of confidence. “You’ve got a… uhh… there’s something on your…” He reaches toward my breast, and I look down in horror as he peels a Cheez-It off my nipple. Ever so slowly, he brings it to his lips, popping it in his mouth before I can stop him. He points to my other breast. “You saving that Goldfish for later, or is that up for grabs too?”

I look down, and there’s a Goldfish cracker perched atop my breast. Before I can answer his ridiculous question, he plucks it off my skin and eats it.

“When I pictured eating food off your body, kids’ snacks were not what I had in mind.”

“For fuck’s sake.” I close my robe in a huff, tightening the belt. “Get back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am. I like it when you boss me around.” He walks back to the living room before I can reply.

I sink into my chair and resume typing, but the banging from across the way gets louder. I pop my earbuds in and blow out a deep breath, cracking my neck. It’s no use. I can hear the racket through my earbuds, so I take them out since they hurt my ears.

“Shit!” Sawyer slurs as he clutches his face. Great. The last thing I need is for him to hurt himself on the job. I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but this is exactly why I wanted to hire a professional. There’d be protocols in place to handle this, and I need rules and order to feel in control.

Sawyer sinks onto his knees, still holding his cheek as I saunter over to him. His face twists in agony, and something stabs in my chest. Concern, maybe? It’s similar to the feeling I get when Jonah has a meltdown. Fuck, am I worried about him? Do I care about him?

He leans over and spits something into his hand that looks like a tiny tooth. Fucking RJ. “Your first mistake was not using fake blood.” I bend down and pick up one of his “teeth” and pop it in my mouth as he watches in horror. I’m not sure if he’s scared that I figured out his prank or horrified that I’d eat something that was in his mouth. “Your second mistake was using comically tiny Tic Tacs instead of Chiclets. Wow, your teeth are minty fresh.”