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I type the address into my navigation app and set out, groaning when it shows it’s going to take thirty minutes.
Where is he? He isn’t at the resort, which strikes me as odd. Maybe he’s with his brothers, but then again, what’s this bind he’s in? Why can’t he come to me? Or meet me somewhere?
Finally, after passing the turn the resort is on and winding my way up the mountain on a narrow, two-lane road, my navigation freezes. Thankfully, I can refer to the directions he texted and reach my destination. It’s a house, set in a ways from the road, at the top of the mountain, with nothing but fir trees on either side. Except, in the dark, it’s very hard to see, and there appears to only be one faint light shining through a window downstairs.
A little creepy.
Double checking the directions to make sure I’m in the right place, I get out of my car, shine the flashlight from my phone, and carefully make my way in the dark up the unpaved driveway.
As I near the house, I can see why it looks so odd. It’s under construction, and the reason there aren’t any lights on is probably because there isn’t yet electricity here.
I knock on the door, jumping when Sebastian opens it right away. He’s standing there, without a shirt on, the jeans he’s wearing so worn that they seem extra soft and pliable. They hang loosely at his hips. There’s a chalky, powdery substance halfway up his arms.
The effect of this dressed-down Sebastian is nothing short of life-altering. I’m a mess inside—a mess of want, of turmoil at how beautifully rugged my uptight boss actually is.
His “hey” is barely there as he steps aside so I can enter. Behind him, on a hook screwed into the wall, is a lamp with a long cord and I can hear what might be the sound of a generator in a nearby room.
“Thank you for coming. I couldn’t get the DocuSign thing to work up here. The service is terrible.”
“You like spending your free time in half-built houses?” I ask with a smirk. “Except, I didn’t think you ever had any free time. This is actually a plus, Sebastian! You needed to get out of that office!”
He only narrows his gaze as he wipes his hands on his jeans and then holds one out. “I’ll sign on the iPad now.”
We stand in the entryway, the light from the lamp hanging behind him, licking the edges of the darkness, as he pours over the document. He leans back against the wall, his hair mussed. I’ve never seen him like this, and I have to will myself to look away from his bare skin and his wildly sexy hair.
“They have other offers?” he murmurs, clicking his tongue, scrolling through the document.
After several minutes, he hands the iPad back to me. “I have to get back to that project. I’m sorry, but it’s urgent.” He sticks a thumb behind him. “And signing the document is urgent, too.” He shifts his weight. “Would you mind driving this down the mountain a ways until it sends? I think you’ll have service maybe a mile down.”
I nod. It would probably be a good thing for me to get away from his animal magnetism right now. I’m wholly undone at this side of him.
As I turn to leave, he touches my elbow. “Would it be too much to ask you to come back after it sends, though? I’d love to show you around.”
I clear my throat at his nearness. Knowing the healthy thing would be to decline the offer, I find myself saying yes.
Oh, I am weak.
He grabs the lamp and escorts me out, getting partway down the lane before the cord is pulled to its maximum length.
“Be careful driving down,” he says.
I leave. A few moments later, after I hear the swooping sound of the email sending, I turn around on the empty road and drive back. A thrill travels through me as I think of seeing him again.
He’s waiting for me at the exact same place on the lane, the lamp hanging low at his leg.
“Thanks,” he says as I reach him. He lifts the lamp high in the air and walks in front of me, glancing back around several times as I navigate the porch stairs and into the house. Once inside, I have a nice view of the planes and shadows of his back, in sharp detail because of the lack of light. Every stilted line and sinew is highlighted.
Because I can’t keep my mouth shut, I have to say something. “I’ve never seen you so dressed down, Sebastian.”
I meant it as a joke, something to pass the time. But the way his skin looks? I’m all shook up. My throat is raw and my voice lower than normal.
He only says, “Watch your step.” It’s then that I notice a staircase that looks like it leads down to a basement. But there’s no railing to protect people from falling down here. Just a bunch of barrels of paint and adhesives as a makeshift barrier.
“Do you pick up shifts as a construction worker at night?” I joke. He doesn’t say anything, but I might detect a small laugh.
We take several more steps into a kitchen, the cabinets lying bare and without fronts. He makes a sharp turn to the right to what might be a dining area and then there’s a wall of glass, the construction stickers still attached.
I gasp as I see the view, lights down below past a cavernous, inky black hole.
