Caspin was finding Kallie more delightful by the minute. Her soft natural looks made her seem easier to engage and her personality drew him in faster than the curves of her hips did. He tried to focus on fixing the window, but he would catch her bending over out of the corner of his eyes and the shorts would rise dangerously high. Caspin almost wanted to tell her to change, the view so distracting.
“Do you have a saw?”
She looked at him like he was crazy or growing horns. “Why would I have a saw? Can’t we just nail them up there? It’s only temporary.”
“Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
“If you say so, but I don’t know if there are any tools here.”
“He kept some in the mud room I think.”
Once again a look of not knowing what he was talking about lit her face. Was she supposed to know what that meant? “The mud room is the room right off the front door.”
“Oh, okay. Do you want me to go look or do you know where they are?”
“I’ll go.”
Caspin pulled his jacket off as he walked into the dark room. Kallie tried to ignore the large muscles straining underneath his shirt. He was not made for the offices. “So how did you know my father?”
“He helped me out when I was younger. Pointed me in the right direction.”
“Were you going in the wrong one?”
“Unfortunately I was.”
“Well I am glad he could help you then.”
Caspin came back out with a tool box and she looked away quickly. It wasn’t before he caught her blue gaze falling over him. She was interested and it made his body respond in kind. He rolled up his sleeves as she avoided his gaze. Their bodies moved close together as she held the boards for him to cut. He was covered in saw dust when they were done, but the job was far better than she would have done by herself. Kallie was starting to think that it didn’t need glass, but looked better that way.
“Do you want something to drink?”
He nodded and she gave him the choice between tea and wine. Caspin chose wine and had a glass with her as they sat on the couch. “You might want to think about getting some security out here Kallie. You are too far out if something happens.”
“Do you really think I will have to worry about it?”
“I do. You don’t know the Wheelings. They tried many ways to get your dad to let this property go.”
“Well he will have to do worse than throw a brick through the window to get me to change my mind.”
Caspin could see that and it bothered him in a way because he didn’t want anything to happen to her. Of everything that had been going on, the last thing he wanted was for her to get mixed up with those types of people. The family had money like his, but it was the way they came to have theirs, that made the two of them so different. “Just be careful. You have a bunkhouse in the back if you want to hire a couple of guys to handle some animals and the gardens. This little house was a homestead not too long ago and could be again. Then you would have people around you instead of it being just you out here.”
She looked at him to see if he was being serious. “I am not really into the whole damsel in distress thing and I am not hiring men to feel safe. It will be fine. It’s just a brick Caspin, but thank you for your concern.”
It was a polite way to tell him to piss off and he knew what it was. Caspin had no problem reading between the lines. She was so adamant of her independence. He just wondered how far Craig was willing to go. It was far easier to intimidate a woman than it was a man and though she claimed she wasn’t one, Kallie made a very pretty damsel. She was the type of woman a man would do anything for, but it was because of the delicate nature of her. While she could try to be tough, Kallie had an innocence about her that he was sure Craig had picked up on.
Caspin wanted to stay, to give another excuse or reason to stay. His eyes looked around the old house and he could see many things that needed work.
“So have you talked to someone about fixing this place up or do you do that too?”
She blushed a little and the naïve look made blood flow to his groin. It was moments and looks like that, that drove him to want to stay. He wondered if a suggestion to sleep on her couch would work. Looking at her and the determined look in her face, he knew it wouldn’t go over well.
“Not yet. I stayed in a hotel for the last few days, so this is the first night in the new house.”
“I can help you fix up a few things if you want. Anything I can’t do, I will know someone that can.”
“Thanks, but I feel like I am imposing. You have already helped me so much.”
“I really don’t mind. I wish you would let someone stay with you or go elsewhere tonight, but I have a feeling you would not like that suggestion.”
“Are you offering?”
He thought he was hearing things. What did she say, offering?
“Yes, if you would like someone to stay on your couch or wherever, I would be more than happy to.”
“One night, huh?”
“What?”
Kallie shook her head. “Never mind. Thanks for the offer, but I think I will be okay. No mosquitoes, so I couldn’t ask for more.”
Grabbing his coat off of the back of a chair where he had tossed it, he looked back once at her before he left. There was a need in her eyes that he was sure mirrored his own, but she had refused him. It didn’t happen to him often and the very fact that she said no, made him think about her more. The feel of a challenge always pushed him. What had she meant by one night?