Читать книгу Suddenly Last Summer - Sarah Morgan - Страница 14

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS later Élise stood on the deck of the café and wondered why it hadn’t occurred to her that accepting Sean’s offer of help would mean he’d be working here, under her nose.

Why was she so impulsive?

Why did she never think anything through?

After her daily run around the lake, she’d spent the morning in the restaurant, working lunchtime service, discussing menus, meeting with her team. She’d met with two new local suppliers and interviewed a kitchen assistant. And if all that conspired to keep her away from the Boathouse, she told herself it was coincidence, nothing more. It was everything to do with pressure of work and nothing to do with the fact that Sean was working on her deck. And she told herself that pressure of work was also the reason she hadn’t responded to frequent text updates from her new sous-chef, Poppy.

Hi boss, the view from the Boathouse is better than ever today.

And five minutes later.

It’s scorchin’ hot over here J

And now she was back at the Boathouse and could see it for herself.

Concentrating was impossible.

“What is it about a guy using power tools?” Poppy grinned as she balanced a stack of boxes in her arms on the way to the kitchen. “I just look at him and want him to nail me to the deck. He is insanely good-looking. I’m taking my lunch break outside today, Chef.”

Élise gritted her teeth. “Did everything arrive?”

“One chair was damaged but they’re replacing it. Oh, dear God, he’s taken his shirt off. How does a man with an indoor job get muscles like that?” Eyeing Sean, Poppy almost dropped the boxes. “Sorry, but honestly you just have to look.”

“I don’t have time to look! We are snowed under with things to do before the party next weekend. Poppy—” Sensing she was losing her audience again, Élise sharpened her voice. “Focus!”

“Yes, Chef. Sorry.” Poppy dragged her gaze from the deck to Élise. “I’m going to get these unpacked. I’m on it.”

“Good!” Exasperated, she watched as Poppy wound her way through the newly arranged tables, bumping into at least two as she stole a final look at Sean.

Teeth clenched, Élise walked to the kitchen, grabbed a glass and jug of lemonade from the fridge and strode out onto the deck to see for herself what all the fuss was about.

Sean was doing something to a plank of wood. Something that required him to stretch forward, displaying his torso. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw all the female staff lined up in the doorway.

Catching her eye, they grinned and slunk back to their jobs.

“Sean!” Torn between exasperation and irritation, Élise thumped the jug of lemonade down on the table next to him.

He glanced up and rocked back on his heels, his smile slow and sure. “Is that for me? You’re a lifesaver.” Putting down the plank of wood, he stood up and took the glass from her.

She watched as he drank. Sweat glistened on his forehead and his wide shoulders. It reminded her of that night in the forest. She’d ripped at his clothes. He’d ripped at hers.

Thinking about it raised her temperature another notch and she gritted her teeth. “You need to put your shirt back on.”

Raising his eyebrows, he lowered the glass slowly. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your shirt. You need to put it back on.”

Blue eyes held hers.

Heat built inside her. Her insides melted.

“Care to tell me why?” His voice was soft and suddenly she wished she’d just let her staff carry on falling over tables. What were a few bruises compared to the effects of standing this close to Sean?

“You are distracting my workforce.”

He glanced over her shoulder. “They seem to be working pretty hard to me.”

“Now. But two minutes ago they were all staring at you. They can’t concentrate while you’re working out here half-naked.”

“It’s a hot day and I’m doing manual labor.” He drained the glass and ran his hand over his mouth.

“That’s why I brought you a cold drink. Are you done?” Everything about him was physical. Sexual.

“Why? Are you having trouble concentrating, too?”

“No.” Why hadn’t she sent Poppy out with the iced lemonade? “I couldn’t care less if you’re totally naked on my deck, but I have a deadline to meet and I can’t have my staff distracted. Let me know if you need anything else.” She took the glass from him and was about to walk away when his fingers closed around her wrist and he pulled her back to him.

Caught off guard, she lost her balance and fell against him. She put her free hand on his chest to steady herself, met his eyes and almost drowned in a flash of intense blue, heat and raw desire.

“Sean—”

“You asked me to let you know if there’s anything else I need.”

“I didn’t mean—” She couldn’t breathe properly. The attraction was so shockingly powerful it almost knocked her off her feet. “You promised you’d finish the deck.”

“You’ll get your damn deck.” His voice was rough. “You think about it, don’t you?”

“What?”

“You know what.” His eyes were on her mouth. “Last summer. Us.”

All the time. “Rarely.”

He smiled. “Yeah, right.”

“Arrogance isn’t attractive.”

“Neither is pigheadedness. Want me to remind you what happened? Who cracked first last time?”

Her heart was pounding. “I didn’t crack.”

“Honey, half of that shirt I was wearing is still lying somewhere in the forest. We never did find it. Maybe next time we shouldn’t let it build up.”

“It’s not building up. I make that sort of decision with my head, not my hormones.”

“Really?” His eyes were back on her mouth. “In that case your head was in one hell of a hurry to get me naked.”

“Having made the decision, I didn’t see the point in hanging around.”

“A decision I supported wholeheartedly. And would again.”

The heat was intense. Suffocating.

There were people working around her, members of her team, no doubt trying to lip-read and probably reading too much into the fact that their boss was currently up close and very personal with the dangerously attractive Sean O’Neil.

“More than one night with the same woman, Sean? That doesn’t sound like you. You should be running.”

“Normally I would be.” His mouth curved into a sinfully sexy smile. “But you don’t want a relationship any more than I do, which makes you my perfect woman.” The words managed to snap the spell in a way that her fading willpower hadn’t.

“I’m not anyone’s perfect woman, Sean.”

She wasn’t the person he thought she was. She was deeply damaged, with secrets even Jackson didn’t know. She’d put herself back together, piece by piece, and now she protected herself carefully.

Aware that her staff were probably watching and speculating, she extracted her wrist from his grip.

“Put the shirt on. That way there will be something to rip off should I ever decide to go down that route again.”

TWO DAYS LATER, Sean drove Walter home from the hospital. His grandfather clutched the car seat and stared straight ahead.

“This car should be on a racetrack.”

Sean drove gently, nursing the Porsche around the bends so that his grandfather didn’t even shift in his seat. The car purred like a tame lion. “It’s engineering perfection. There is no such thing as a bad day when you’re driving this.”

His grandfather grunted. “You could have bought a Corvette.”

“I didn’t want a Corvette.”

“It doesn’t even have cupholders.”

Sean tried to imagine what would happen to a cup of coffee as he accelerated away and waltzed around corners. “But it does have a super sharp throttle response. You can’t drive this car and not smile. If you ever want to give it a try, let me know.”

“If I want to kill myself I’ll just stand in the middle of the road.”

Sean slowed down as he took a right and drove past the sign for Snow Crystal Resort and Spa.