Between the historical designation that took him eight months to have removed, replacing the roof that had been on the verge of collapsing along with the siding, the plumbing, the electricity, the water heater, and the boiler, he really didn’t fucking need another problem. He was hoping to have the house renovated by spring, but with the way everything was going, he might just demolish the fucking house and be done with it.
“I thought you replaced the plumbing,” Reed said, grabbing the other flashlight and joined him in searching for the source of that tapping noise.
“I did,” Garrett said, quickly running the flashlight over the exposed pipes running along the ceiling.
“It sounds like it’s coming from the dining room,” Reed said, which was the last fucking thing that Garrett wanted to hear after spending the last month renovating that room. He-
Couldn’t help but frown as he came to a stop in front of the closet that he hadn’t had a chance to tear out yet. After glancing up at the ceiling to make sure the pipes didn’t run through the closet, Garrett opened the closet door and-
“What’s another word for conspiracy?” the small woman staring down at her laptop asked.
“Complicity, collusion, connivance, intrigue, scheme, plot,” Garrett said as he stood there, wondering how she’d managed to sneak past him.
“I’m so fucking glad you bought this house,” Reed said with a heartfelt sigh.
“Have you considered my offer?” Garrett asked as he watched her fingertips fly over the keyboard.
“I have,” Kristen mumbled absently as she continued frantically typing while he ran his eyes over her, taking in her black baseball cap, the way she worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she stared intently down at her computer, and-
Was that his sweatshirt?
“And?” Garrett asked as he took in the oversized Bradford Construction sweatshirt that she’d helped herself to and felt his lips twitch.
“Sadly, it’s just not going to work for me,” Kristen said with a sad shake of her head and a helpless shrug.
“I see,” Garrett said, placing the flashlight on the shelf above her head before he leaned over and-
“Wait! We can talk about this!”
-picked up the woman who was honestly too fucking adorable for her own good and tossed her over his shoulder, careful of the laptop that she was currently hugging against her chest and headed for the door.
“Is there any way that we could discuss this?” Kristen asked, sounding really fucking hopeful as they crossed the large foyer.
“Do we have a deal?” Garrett asked, pausing by the front door.
Clearing her throat, Kristen said, “I’d like to explore other options.”
“Then, feel free to do that somewhere else,” Garrett said as he opened the front door and-
“But I just got to the good part!”
-placed her on the front step, gently booped her on the nose, mostly to piss her off, and promptly shut the door and locked itwith a satisfied sigh, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the stubborn little pain in the ass admitted defeat.
Thursday
This would do rather nicely,Kristen decided, moving to release a satisfied sigh only to rethink that decision and focused on double-checking the boxes lined up on either side of her instead.
Once she was done, she turned on her flashlight, grabbed her pen and set to work. She preferred working on her computer, but since that wasn’t an option at the moment, she settled for writing on the legal pad that she’d helped herself to when she broke into Garrett’s office. He really needed to do something about that window, Kristen thought with a sad shake of her head as she picked up where she left off earlier only to go still when she heard it, the unmistakable sound of the bathroom door opening.
For several minutes, she remained still, listening as Garrett made his way around his bedroom, opening his bureau, his closet, and then finally, he dropped down on the bed above her with a heavy sigh. Swallowing hard, Kristen slowly began writing again only to go still every time the large man above her shifted, causing the bed to creak softly.
Once he was done, she went back to work, writing faster with each passing second until her hand struggled to keep up, but she refused to stop. Not now when the book was practically writing itself. She didn’t stop when he climbed back off the bed to shut the lights off, when he went back into the bathroom to grab something, or when everything suddenly went quiet.
She kept writing, filling the pages as quickly as her cramped hand allowed only to shove the page out of her way as soon as she filled the last line, desperate to get the words on the next page and-
“Do we have a deal?” came the softly drawled question that had her wincing when she felt two large hands wrap around her ankles.
“Any chance that you’d be willing to go back to sleep and pretend that I’m not here?” Kristen asked with a hopeful smile that quickly died as the hands wrapped around her ankles tightened and-
