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“Is that the lake?” Of course it is. But I’ve never seen it from this angle so high above.
“Uh huh.” He opens the patio door. “And this will be my sunroom and deck eventually.”
“This house is yours? You’re building this?”
“I’mhavinga house built, yes.”
So many questions spring to mind I don’t know which one to pay attention to first. Instead I just sort of nod and open and close my mouth. I wish I’d run that brush through my hair a couple more times before I came. He’s standing so close to me, that I have to step forward.
Suddenly, his arm snags my waist, and he pulls me back towards him. He’s standing behind me now, and I’m pressed up against his abdomen. His bare abdomen.
“We’ve just poured the concrete, okay? You can’t step in it.” His voice is gravelly and deep, but he whispers in my ear, the heat of him singeing me.
“Sorry,” I breathe, and that’s when my eyes adjust to the smooth, still shiny green-gray concrete stretched out before me. “You did this? It’s so smooth. How did you do this?”
“I didn’t do it by myself. I had the concrete guy here helping me get it poured. He left a few minutes ago. I’ve been smoothing it out some more, making sure nothing falls in it, you know?”
“Like your executive assistant?”
His breath is warm on my neck. “Exactly.” There’s a pause and I can feel his heart beating against my back. My t-shirt is big, and the neck of it has slipped over my shoulder, exposing my bra strap. Exposing my bare shoulder.
How can he stand to be half naked right now? I can barely stand having part of my shoulder exposed. It’s so vulnerable.
“What do you think of my place?” His voice is gentle.
“I think it’s either full of booby traps or completely awesome, but I’ll have to see it in the daylight to know for sure.”
His chuckle is low, reverberating through him, and by extension, me. Knowing I made him laugh gives me a shot of adrenaline unlike I’ve ever known before. I think I’m addicted to it.
“That’s a construction site for you,” he says.
“When did you start this secret project, Sebastian?”
“I bought this lot before we bought the land the resort sits on.”
“Really?” I take in the lights below from farms and then more concentrated in the distance near city limits, brilliant dots speckling the sprawling land.
He nods, and I can feel the movement throughout my whole body.
“But I never told anyone. It was strange, coming back here after all these years. I bought it when we were having a hard time with the negotiations for the land for the resort. We’d been in a bidding war with Sophie’s grandparents, and everything was so up in the air. I don’t even really know why I bought it.” His laugh is a grunt. “Probably because if I couldn’t yet get the whole parcel down below, this little piece up high would placate me for a while. And let’s face it, I bought it to irk Patricia and Vernon Hanson. I didn’t consciously intend to build a house here, that’s for sure. The Longdale Lake resort was supposed to be like all the other properties we’d built up until then. I’d live here a year, tops, while I get it built and up and running, and then move on to the next property. I wasn’t counting on Longdale getting under my skin.”
“I could tell you love Longdale the first day at work.”
“Am I that transparent?” He eases even closer to me, if that’s at all possible. He lightly clears his throat. “Can you tell that you’ve gotten under my skin, too?”
I shudder and bring my hand up to his arms around my waist, sliding my fingertips across his skin. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It’s a very unexpected surprise.”
I shiver. The late September air is cooler up here.
“Are you cold?” He begins to rub my arms with his hands.
I’m rendered mute by the wash of sensations. After a moment, I find my voice. “Speaking of surprises, how did your family feel when they found this out?”
“They don’t know.”
I pull away and whirl around, scanning his face. “They don’t know? How could you not tell them?”
