“Now close your eyes sweetie, time for dreams,” I said tucking Kadee in a little tighter with her bear.

I now knew the difficulty in getting her ready for bed when something exciting was on her mind. Even though we’d read three bedtime stories, she had not stopped talking about Georgie and more time with her bike tomorrow. But she was all settled, finally, her heavy eyelids were slowly closing. I lent down and kissed her sleepy head.

“Do you like Georgie, daddy?” she murmured.

“Well, what do you think?”

“I asked you first, but I like her.”

“She is very nice.” As Kadee’s brow furrowed slightly, perhaps not entirely pleased with my tentative answer, I added, “but I do know she likes you.”

“Do you think she’s pretty?”

“Not as pretty as you, baby girl.”

“Daddy! You didn’t answer. I’m not going to sleep till you tell me. Properly.”

“I think she’s very beautiful,” I replied, thinking maybe one day my little girl would make a fine interrogator. But I couldn’t lie to Kadee, even if it meant acknowledging feelings that had seemingly bubbled up from nowhere.

I stroked Kadee’s fine hair gently, smoothing down the little wispy curls around her forehead. “Now, no more questions, sleep time. You want to be up bright and early to play, don’t you?” Kadee nodded, her eyelashes fluttering as she shifted.

Silently I stayed and watched as she drifted off, her breath becoming light as she sank deeper into her pillows. As quietly as I could, I stepped away, careful not to trip over a few toys that hadn’t been tidied away, and headed downstairs.

Obviously I hadn't wanted to answer Kadee’s question directly, but I couldn’t deny what even a five-year-old could see. There was definitely something between us. Electricity practically leaped from my body when Georgie was around. But these days I had with Kadee were precious, I didn’t need the distraction. The truth however was clear as day, I found Georgie irresistible, despite the paces she’d put me through.

In fact, her beautiful eyes struck me every time I saw them. I could barely think of anything else, it was as infuriating as her infectious sarcasm. But I couldn’t deny the effect Georgie had on me. I also couldn't decide if her sassy character turned me on more than it should, she was certainly feisty.

At least watching her storm away from our numerous conflicts had its benefits. Watching her tight jeans, hips swinging, as she crossed the road had left an impression on me that I had a hard time shifting. Hard time indeed, I remembered with a smirk, then immediately scolded myself for my wayward thoughts. I had to get myself together, this was still the same woman who had single-handedly wrecked my dreams and plans of buying the house across the street so I could flip-it and finally have enough to afford something remotely decent and suitable out west, closer to Kadee.

I opened a beer from the fridge and settled down to browse Netflix to take my mind off things. The baby monitor I had for Kadee's room sat on the coffee table. Sure she was a little old for such things, but I wasn't going to take any chances. Not with my girl.

After a good while scrolling through the app, unable to finding anything that piqued my interest, I sighed. I didn't feel like watching anything anyway, I was too distracted. I frowned as I heard a light knocking, and paused to listen. It was definitely the front door. I checked the time, it was getting dark outside. I downed the last of my beer, and got up as a rather raunchy trailer started to autoplay on the TV. The idea of a Georgie booty call suddenly jumped into my head. I tried to shake the idea off and opened the door.

Georgie stood illuminated in the porch light. Behind her across the street her house stood in darkness. Her sudden appearance left me speechless.

“Er, hey. I didn't want to disturb you. I just had a quick question really.”

“Okay, sure go ahead,” I responded, swallowing, “is it about the house?” I added to fully dispel the booty call illusion. It didn’t matter how long I’d gone without a good-woman in my bed, I couldn’t entertain those thoughts, no matter what.

“Well yeah, it’s more of a hypothetical question really.”

“Hypothetical, sure. Shoot. What’s the problem?”

“Let’s say you didn't have power in the house, and when you went to the fuse box it kept tripping. Then let’s also say your only source of light—your phone—died because it wasn't charged. So yeah, if this was your hypothetical problem, what would you do?”

I nodded along with her roundabout explanation and scratched my head, indulging her. “Hmm, sounds troubling. In this situation, I don't have a flashlight do I?”

“Ah no, afraid not. The only available flashlight may have been broken,” she smirked as she dropped her coy facade. “So yeah, that’s the problem. I’m sure the answer was in the book, but I can’t read it in the dark. I was about to start reading in the truck but I can’t find the keys. It’s getting late and I’m super stuck.”

The TV-show trailer on Netflix started up again, the sexual sounds heard all the way from the lounge to the front door.

“Though, maybe you have better things to do?” Georgie mocked with a mischievous smile, leaning her head in through the opening inquisitively. “What are you watching? Something R-rated? Fifty Shades of Hardwood?”

Ignoring her question, I didn’t answer. Regardless, I don’t think I could’ve without blushing like a fool. “Give me a sec, I’ll be right with you.” Flustered I went to turn the TV off and gathered up my phone and the baby monitor. “Kadee’s asleep but I can come take a look, but only for a minute,” I said showing the content of my hands.

“Great, thank you,” Georgie said with a smile and turned to leave.

As we strolled across the tranquil street together, I adjusted the flashlight on my phone. The comfortable peace was short-lived, however.

“A baby monitor, really?” she inquired with her characteristic hint of sarcasm.

“Definitely, I’m keeping my girl safe and sound, whatever it takes. Besides, wouldn’t you agree it’s proving handy right now?”

She didn't really have time to respond as we navigated up the broken steps and into the dark house.

“Now watch where you go, there may be some mess on the floor,” Georgie warned.

The fuse box was toward the rear of the house in a small hallway that led to the back door. As I guided us through the house I aimed the light from my phone at objects and furniture so we could avoid them. Georgie was following close behind me. I could feel her presence, smell her sweet perfume. She was intoxicating. Almost too close… driving me wild.

As we made it deeper inside, it was surprising just how pitch black it was in the back, away from the diffused glow of the streetlights. “Careful, nearly there.” Saying it more for my own benefit than hers. Sooner I got this sorted, the sooner I could get back home. Away from temptation.

Once at the fuse box I handed over the phone for her to direct the beam as I investigated the source of the problem. It was a much older circuit breaker with porcelain chunky circular fuses, and a heavy-duty grey plastic covering. And sure enough it tripped when I threw the mains.

“Of course, we won’t be able to find the specific source of the problem in this darkness. But if we can pinpoint which circuit it is we can skip that one to get some of the power back on,” I advised.

“Yes, I agree, just what I had in mind,” Georgie replied then paused. “How do we do that?”

“Trial and error. I’ll remove each one in turn and pass the fuses to you as we go. We’ll narrow it down.”

“Sure thing, I’ll be right here.”

She was indeed right there. The narrow hallway wasn’t really built for two people to be in there at the same time. It was more like a cupboard than anything and in this dark confined space I was very aware of her brushing up against me to angle the phone light over my shoulder. I gave out a notable sigh and willed my self-control to concentrate on the task at hand.

“Oh no, what’s wrong with it?” asked Georgie after a moment. I detected a bit of panic in her voice at the sound of my sigh. She pointed the light from the fuse box into my face.

I squinted at the sudden brightness in my eyes.

“It’s fine, just hold that steady will ya? And try not to blind me?”

She laughed and returned the spotlight the fuse box. “I’m not going to drop it you know,” she said, nudging me with her elbow.

Given how mad I had been on that first night, she sure knew how to tread a fine line with her jests. Admittedly her manner was growing on me.

“Well, you never know,” I retorted. “You and your butterfingers.”

Two fuses removed and still no joy, I pulled out the third to hand it over. I hadn't noticed Georgie struggling with the other fuses as well as the phone. The third fuse leaped from her fingers as she shuffled them in her hands. I reached after it, but in the confusion I stumbled into Georgie bending over to reclaim the stray fuse. I knocked into her ass with some force, pushing her forward. Instinctively I grabbed her to steady her from a fall… and fuck, it sure felt good to have my hands on her.

She gave out a small gasp of shock that aroused me further.

Georgie straightened up and turned to face me in the darkness. Her chest rose and fell against me, her heavy and hot breath licking up my neck, testing me. Daring me. I couldn’t bear it any longer, the fuse box forgotten and took her in my arms and kissed her.

She moaned under my touch, her lips parted, admitting me entrance. We were lost for a time in our passion there in the hallway, exploring each other’s mouths as if we were hunting for lost treasure.

Breathless we parted paused for a moment. “Two secs,” I whispered, wanting to be able to see her properly. I reached out to try the mains once more.

To my surprise it didn’t trip. We were still in darkness in the hallway, but a glow from the staircase in the main hall filtered across the wooden floor, spilling onto our feet.

“You have some lights, that’s a start. I should try and get this finished up,” I suggested, my senses returning to me.

“Oh, hell no, not again,” Georgie said, her voice low, hands still upon my chest, fingers clawing at me. “You need to take care of something else first.” Georgie ran her fingers down my arm and took my hand, pulling me back towards the stairs.