“Where’d you get the old clothes?” They fit like they’d been molded to her body.
“I still had some stuff at my parents. I think these are from college. I may have put on a pound or two since then.” She rubbed her hand over her hip.
They were some damned fine pounds. But theyhad work to do.
“Did you bring some gloves?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Gloves?”
“Work gloves,” he said, pulling his from his back pocket. “A lot of the stuff down there has sharp edges and nails sticking out. Can’t ruinyour manicure.”
As she rolled her eyes, he pulled out another pair of gloves from his other back pocket and smirked. “I have some if youforgot yours.”
She grabbed the gloves and turned away, muttering, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Her backside sure was fine in the snug jeans. It was fine without the jeans too, but for some reason the jeans were turning him on even more. It could be the thought of tugging them off her later. For now they needed to concentrate on finding whatever the hell was in the basement that some asshat didn’t want them to find.
Pulling the key from his pocket, he unlocked the door leading downstairs. He flipped on the lights andtook her elbow.
“The stairs need some work and the lights have a tendency to flicker. I need to get the electricians on fixing the whole damn electrical system in here.”
“Which we can do as soon as we find out who’s causing us trouble. And I’m perfectly capable of walking down stairs by myself. I have boots on today if you hadn’t noticed.”
“Oh, I noticed.” And not simply the boots. At the bottom of the stairs she dropped one of the gloves and bent over to pick it up. Hot damn, those jeans were giving him fits.
“What?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.
“Nothing. You look good when you’re slumming it. That’s all.”
Shaking her head she walked away…and almost fell over a pile of debris. He grabbed her, pulling her close, then kissed the lips that always had a habit of screaming at him to do just that.
“You need to be careful, princess. Half of the lights down here are out. It’s why I brought flashlights.”
“Oh, now you tell me. You couldn’t have said something before I tripped?”
“Then I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to save you. And kiss you.” He pressed his lips to hers again. Her arms crept around his neck and the kiss continued,long and sweet.
“You’ve been doing quite a bit of kissing me lately. I think you’d be sickof it by now.”
“Are you kidding me?” Their lips met again, this time more passionately. “I think you’ve becomean addiction.”
Her smile warmed his heart and a few other spots he needed to ignore right now.
“Do we need to get you a twelve-step program? Some rehab?”
Pulling her in tight and feeling her breasts against his chest was not the smart thing to do. But hedid it anyway.
“The addiction isn’t a problem…yet. Now stop distracting me and let’s get down to business.” Slapping her butt, he grabbed the flashlights he’d left on the stairs then walked deeperinto the room.
The gasp she let out made him chuckle and he wanted to turn around and see her outraged expression, but he didn’t. It would push her buttons even more. She followed behind and grabbed his arm.
“Did you bring one ofthose for me?”
Handing one over, he replied, “Got to take care of my gal.”
Her face got all scrunchy, but she simply took the flashlight and turned away. His princess sure didn’t like accepting help from anyone. It was fine, though, because her independence was one of the things he liked about her.
“Why don’t we start in one corner and work our way across the room? Some of this stuff is big and will need both ofus to move it.”
