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“What are you looking at?” Quinn’s voice fell on her like a ton of bricks.
Lori gulped so hard that she choked on the air.
“Hey,” he said, his voice drawing closer. “Are you okay?”
She dropped the file and spun around. “I’m fine!”
His raised eyebrows slowly lowered. So did his eyes. “Good. You certainly look great.”
“Um. Thank you.”
“You look…tousled.”
Well, she wasn’t worried about being embarrassed anymore, but she did raise a self-conscious hand to her hair. Quinn shifted closer and sneaked his arms around her waist. His kiss was a welcome relief. A deep, knee-weakening welcome relief. By the time he ended it, Lori was sitting on the files she’d been pillaging before.
Quinn eased back a bit, his thumb idly stroking the small of her back. “How long have you been up here?”
Oh, jeez. “Ah. You know. Just a minute.”
“Huh. I bet it was longer than that.”
Frozen, she tried to think of an excuse for what she’d been doing.
But Quinn surprised her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you.”
“I…Uh…”
“I’m just kind of an ass sometimes.”
He didn’t suspect a thing. Lori shook her head and grinned in mad relief. “You can’t ignore someone if you don’t even know they’re there.”
“Damn.” He winced and let her go. “You’re right. It’s really bad. I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me if I make you breakfast?”
“Quinn, you were working. It’s no big deal. What are you doing, anyway?”
He shot a frustrated look at the drafting table. “I’m working on the house. What else?”
“Yourhouse? Can I see it?”
“Really? I wouldn’t advise letting me talk about it. An hour from now you’ll be begging me to stop.”
Electricity arched between them at his words. Their eyes locked. And then Quinn grinned.
“Come on. I’ve got you at my mercy again. I might even tie you to my office chair and make you beg me for more detailed descriptions.”
Lori rolled her eyes and headed for the drafting table, trying to pretend she wasn’t blushing.
“Wait!” He jumped in front of her and held up a hand. “Let me get it ready. Just a sec.” After opening a few storage tubes and laying out the huge pieces of paper within, Quinn nodded and motioned her forward.
She tried not to smile at the nervous way he crossed his arms, but she couldn’t help it. Still, the smile fell away when she rounded the table and got a look at the full-color drawing before her.
His home was gorgeous. Of course it was. But it wasn’t what she’d expected. She’d thought he must be building a lodge-style home, framed with polished pine logs and hewn timbers. But this structure looked less like a mountain lodge and more like a mining office.
The wood plank walls glinted silver with age, as if the house had already survived a hundred years of winter. The steep roof was corrugated metal, the foundation and chimneys jagged rock. In the middle of the tall, narrow wing of the main part of the house, three huge square windows were stacked up to the roofline, creating what looked to be a full thirty feet of glass.
“Wow,” Lori breathed.
His head turned toward her, then back to the table. “This is reclaimed wood,” he said, touching the thin vertical planks of the walls. “The roof is steel, and photovoltaic sheets will be laminated to the south-facing rooflines. Flexible solar panels,” he explained, before she could ask.
