AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course.”
He walks past me, and I can’t help but follow his progress with my eyes. Damn, the man looks good in those jeans. They fit snug across his ass, and I can’t help but imagine what it would feel like in my hands. Great. He’s been here for all of 5 minutes and I’m already ogling him and thinking dirty thoughts about his body. How the hell I’m going to last through 2 weeks or more of this, I don’t know. Especially since I asked him to show me how to fix it. What was I thinking?
“Harlow?” Linc calls from the back room.
“Yeah?”
“Didn’t you want me to teach you?”
Shit.
“Yeah,” I call out. “I’ll be right there. Just give me a minute to finish sweeping.”
“No problem.”
I finish sweeping the floor in record time despite my nerves urging me to stall. I remind myself that I asked Linc to teach me. Which means I can’t back out now. And I need to stop acting like a weirdo around him. He’s just a guy I went to high school with. Right. Like that line is going to work. After taking a few deep breaths to steady myself, I head toward the back of the salon where I see that Linc is already pulling items out of the bag he carried in earlier. He glances up when he sees me and smiles. I ignore the way that smile hits me right in the nether region and attempt a smile in return.
“What’s first on the agenda?” I ask.
Linc gestures toward the panel on the wall that I know houses the electrical breakers for the building. “I figured I’d replace some of the breakers for now, so you’ll be able to wash clothes. I know a salon uses a lot of towels. Plus, those cape things.” He waves his hand around his chest in a vague motion.
I’m oddly touched by the fact that he considered the needs of my salon. Most men wouldn’t have thought about the laundry a salon produces. It’s not one of those details they usually notice.
I smile. “Thanks. That’s nice of you to think of it. Luckily, I just washed all the linen on Friday before all this happened. So, there’s not much laundry from the salon.” I grimace. “But my own clothes are definitely piling up. Sundays are usually my laundry days.”
He grins. “I know the feeling. If I don’t stay on top of mine and Ella’s laundry, it turns into a nightmare.” He gestures toward the electrical panel. “I’ve been looking at your wiring and I don’t know that we’ll need to replace all of it down here. I’ll need to do a better inspection to know for sure. But this panel isn’t up to code. I think they just added whatever they wanted as the need arose instead of properly configuring the breakers.”
I nod as if I’m familiar with everything he’s saying. As if I don’t have a ton of questions already. What’s wrong with the panel? How can he tell it’s not up to code? How long will it take to fix? Will I be without electricity for days? As if he can sense my confusion and worry, Linc reaches out a hand and touches my shoulder.
“I told you to trust me, remember?” he says, voice gentle. “I’ve got this. I promise.”
I nod, feeling immediately better at his calm reassurance. “Okay,” I say, injecting confidence into the single word. “What’s first?”
Linc’s smile is brilliant and lasts for just a second before his face takes on a serious expression. He nods toward the panel.
“First thing you need to understand,” he says, his tone filled with authority. “That thing right there can kill you if you’re not careful.”
I nod, remembering the little shock I’d felt the other day. “I don’t want a repeat.”
“I’m serious,” he says, his voice hard and commanding. “You need to do everything I tell you or I won’t teach you.”
His dark eyes are laser-focused on mine. I couldn’t look away if I wanted to. There’s an intensity to his gaze that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It sends a liquid heat through me to pool low in my gut. I’m locked in place, unable to move or turn away. I somehow manage a small nod.
“I understand,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Good,” he says, his gaze immediately softening into his normal, laid-back expression.
He turns back to the electrical panel and begins to explain things to me. I listen as best I can, but I can’t get over what just happened. The command in his voice, the implication that I’d be disappointing him if I did anything other than what he instructed. Not to mention the way it had made me feel. Like I wanted his approval? Like I needed it. Since when do I obey a man telling me what to do? And since when do I like it?
Since it’s him, I think.
I force myself to focus on Linc’s instruction, ignoring the way the deep rumble of his voice makes me want to hear that commanding tone again. I push out all thoughts of his strong hands on me, his arms wrapped around me, his mouth on mine. I absolutely do not daydream about what his ass might feel like in my hands.
He shows me how to make sure the current is turned off to the breaker before starting any work on it. Then he shows me how to test to see if a breaker is bad. It’s all tedious and it would be downright boring if not for the man teaching me. He’d been right before, though. He could do this in half the time if he weren’t teaching me. I should let him off the hook. It would save a lot of time. But I find that the more I’m around him, the more I like being in his presence.
He has a calm and patient demeanor that puts me at ease, even when I’m worried about my salon or trying not to be turned on by his mere presence. So, I stay. And I let him show me how to strip and splice wires and how to exchange a bad breaker for a new one. We’ve only been working for an hour or so before we’re interrupted by Linc’s phone ringing. He stops to look at the screen and frowns before answering.
“Cole, what’s up? Is everything okay?”
