Shit.That spiraled out of control quickly.
“Mr. Walsh?”
Her eyebrows winged up, and I was betting she knew exactly what I was thinking. Narrating that fantasy out loud was the only way to make it more obvious.
“Matt,” I croaked. “Call me Matt. Or Matthew. Around here, Mr. Walsh is my father.”
And I’d rather you not confuse the two.
I gestured to the seats in front of the desk and tracked her hourglass shape as she sat, watching her movements, studying her hands, admiring today’s Come Fuck Me heels. The red dress accented a narrow waist rising from flared hips that called out to my hands. I saw myself bending her over the desk, hiking up her dress, and taking her right now. And I saw her liking it.
I spent a full minute on that thought before groaning inwardly. I was a dick. An unprofessional, single-minded dick and I didn’t like small, curvy girls who left their mojo all over me.
“Matthew, I really hope you have some good news for me.”
On her lips, my name was a purred commandment, and I wanted to hear it like that, the confluence of gentle and firm, again.
“I ran some scenarios,” I began, spreading site plans on the desk between us.
I expected the linear order of shapes and structures to take over and cool my nerves, but Lauren tucked her hair over her ears and smiled, and there was no unwinding the lust in my belly. I wanted to touch her and taste her, and I wanted it very soon.
“That structure is barely standing. I looked for options, but I cannot see anything salvageable in the structure.”
Lauren’s fingers moved over the plans and she studied them carefully, and it was all I could do not to grab that hand and press it to my crotch. It was absurd and wrong to obsess over her this way, and I knew it, but there was no beating back the hunger surging through my veins, overtaking me. She did something to me, something I didn’t understand, but I definitely wanted to figure it out.
“The architects who looked at it before and the people who told me to check out that property, they didn’t mention any of this.”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “That’s because most architects—I love them, but physics isn’t their primary concern. I wear both hats: architect and structural engineer. You could have spent a fortune on rehab only for the foundation to crumble with the first heavy rainstorm. And that roof won’t survive the winter.”
Minutes passed in silence and Lauren continued looking at the plans. The optimism drained from her expression until her full lips pursed in a grim line.
Those lips. Rosy and plump, and I wanted to taste them, feel them between my teeth, on my cock, against my thumb.
“Lauren? Do you have any questions? Anything I can talk through with you?”
She inhaled deeply and shrugged. For a second, all that confidence vanished, and she looked young, vulnerable.
“I was hoping for better news.” A sigh propelled her back into the seat. “I’ve searched everywhere for a workable site and someone to help me. This was my last hope. I was convinced you were the guy to get it done, that you had the goods to make anything possible.”
I hated disappointing her, and I hated that her words made me feel things. I was quite content without regularly experiencing strong feelings. Numbers usually made it easy. Counting, measuring, estimating, solving. It occupied my brain enough to tune out most everything else. When that didn’t work, I went running. The math and the miles, they never let me down.
Sucking a fresh breath of air into my chest, I fought for the calm that usually came so naturally, the calm Miss Halsted destroyed every time I was within five feet of her.
“Well…thank you, Matthew. I wish things could have worked out differently, but it seems like I’ve hit another roadblock.”
She personified pin-up, but as I crossed my arm over my chest and propped my chin on my fist, I sensed something different, distinctive, something I wanted to uncover. She wasn’t just sexy, she was beautiful and smart and her own special version of beastly.
She collected her folders, and I knew I needed to get out of my head and seize control of the situation soon if I wanted to spend another minute with the naughty schoolteacher.
I skirted my desk and sat beside Lauren. Breeching the architect-client desk etiquette veered into creeper territory, and if the warning grimace she fired at me was any indication, I needed to be damn sure I was done with that element of our relationship before I went any further. Her fingers were folded around the smartphone in her lap, and I layered my hand over hers.
Not an architect move.
Not even a Matt move.
“Let me take you out for a drink, Lauren. You can tell me more about your project. It’s the least I can do.”
“Is there a possibility that Saint Cosmas can be rehabbed?”
