“Safety first.” He pulled a pair of goggles out of his back pocket and settled them on her nose, then put on a pair of his own. Then he looked inside the first doorless cabinet. “Actually, you may get your wish. These are glued to the wall. You know what that means?”
Her face lit up. “Time to smash?”
“Time tocarefullysmash. Let’s get rid of what we can through civilized means first.”
“Ugh, fine.”
He grabbed a second screwdriver for himself, and they got to work removing doors and shelves, but after a point all that was left were the old, ugly cabinets themselves refusing to give up their grip on the wall.
“Time to pound shit,” he announced. “Be right back.”
He jogged out to his truck and grabbed two sledgehammers. When he got back, Thea was doing that curled-in-on-herself thing that he’d seen after her stepdad’s visit, which was so much more alarming than her earlier grumpiness.
Good thing he had the perfect remedy for shitty feelings.
“Go to town.” He handed her a sledgehammer. “Try not to destroy the walls.”
“Nice!” Her face brightened, and she squared up to the cabinet on the far end. But her first swing was too tentative and glanced off the side without making an impact.
“Here.” He hefted his own hammer. “Like this, see? Swing at the waist so the power comes from your whole body.”
He turned, swung, and struck the cabinet with a satisfyingthunkthat sent chunks of old, brittle wood tumbling to the ground.
She watched him closely, then mimicked his stance and swing. The sledgehammer hit the cabinet this time, but it barely nicked the front edge. “Dammit!”
Her growl was ferocious, and again, he hid a chuckle. She might use that hammer on him if she knew how cute he was finding her irritation.
“Okay, good start. But again, you’ve got to swing from here.” He hesitated for a beat, then moved behind her and set his hands lightly on the curve of her hips just below her waist. “Use your body weight to propel the hammer forward.”
She glared over her shoulder. “What are you saying about my body weight?”
His fingers tightened, and he drew her back against him for a fraction of a second, suddenly reminded of that morning when he’d kissed her without a second thought. It hadn’t occurred to him to wonder if they had an audience. He’d just done it on autopilot. His fault for going without sex for as long as he had and for enjoying her company as much as he did. Those two things were a dangerous combination.
Still, his hands lifted to smooth down the satiny skin of her exposed shoulders. “You’re a tiny, delicate flower, so it’s going to be harder for you to give your swing enough force. But I believe in you. Give it another go.”
He moved his hands back to her hips—the better to feel her windup and not because he enjoyed the warmth of her skin of course. And this time when she swung, she knocked a large chunk of cabinet free. She hooted and swung the hammer over her head in triumph, almost clocking him in the process.
He dodged, and she winced. “Sorry. I’ll try not to murder you with construction equipment tonight.”
“Appreciated,” he said. “I’ll loosen what I can with the crowbar, and you keep knocking the rest free. Sound good?”
She nodded, and soon enough the only sound was the thunk of the sledgehammer and the crack of the wood separating from the wall. Demolition was punishing work, but Thea held her own, swinging and connecting over and over as she excised the ugly from her house.
After forty minutes without speaking much—forty minutes in which Aiden surreptitiously watched Thea’s body twist and sway as she worked—they’d stripped the kitchen wall bare. He set his crowbar down and brushed debris from the front of his damp shirt. “Nice work.”
She turned to him with a bright smile. “We did that!”
“Sure did,” he said, thrilled to see her sparkle back. “As good as any member of my crew could’ve done.”
She ducked her head and waved off his praise, wincing a little as she rolled her neck and stretched out her arms. She’d be sore tomorrow, for sure. His first instinct was to stand behind her and massage the soreness out of her muscles, but touching her like that screamed danger. Fuck, she looked good though. Sweat darkened her formerly clean tank top, the skin on her neck and chest glistened with perspiration, and her hair stuck in damp tendrils to her cheeks. She pushed the safety goggles onto her head again and swiped a dusty arm across her brow, and all he could think about was a shower. A joint shower. Imagine the hot water running over their bodies, washing away the sweat and grime, easing their aching muscles, pinkening Thea’s skin…
Goddammit. Every time he was around her these days, touching her was all he could think about. Maybe he should’ve remembered his abstinence bender before he agreed to spend hours and hours with a smart, funny woman who always smelled nice. A woman he’d made a no-sex bargain with.
The only shower he’d be taking tonight was a cold one on his own.
Still, he wasn’t ready to walk away from the reason for his visit tonight. He might not be allowed to touch her the way he wanted, but he could at least try to make sure she was okay. “So. Want to talk about it?”
Just like that, her gaze zipped away from him, and the joy she’d found in destruction fell from her face.
