Chapter Four
“Tell me your name,” Daniel said in a low voice that made Tasha feel warm all over in ways Eric never had, “and we’ll call it even.”
“I’m Natasha, but everyone calls me Tasha.” She hoped, with no little desperation, that he wouldn’t ask for her last name. Daniel was in the building industry, and her father had been building a resort, so it wasn’t impossible that he could connect the dots.
But her father hadn’t planned to actually build anything, had he? So it was unlikely that the two of them would have crossed paths.
Still, her stomach tightened and twisted, as it had for months, because who knew how far her father’s devious net had spread?
Thankfully, Daniel simply stuck out his hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Tasha.”
His hand was large and warm, with the most delicious calluses. Work hands. Big, tough man hands.
She’d already been on the verge of overheating simply from being this close to him—even with his shirt on, she would have been fighting the urge to drool—and now the feel of him wrapped around her hand like a blanket.
Forcefully, she reminded herself that all of this—her feelings, her attraction, her chatter—was bad. Wrong. She was supposed to steer clear of people, stay far away from temptation.
Maybe if he’d been just an average Joe, she’d be fine right now. Although honestly, it felt so good just to talk to someone that she’d gone on and on about every little thing she’d done around the place.
She wished she could chalk up her wildly beating pulse and slight breathlessness to being halfway to giddy after her fall, then shocked all over again after being rescued by a gorgeous, chocolate-eyed Adonis. One standing so close that she could smell the scrumptious all-male scent of him. It made her lightheaded and tongue-tied.
How could she have failed to recognize him immediately? Then again, who would ever have thought the Daniel Spencer would rescue her off a pitched roof? A tall, dark, handsome, filthy-rich guy showing up on her falling-apart doorstep?
That was like the prince putting the glass slipper on Cinderella’s foot and having it fit. It only happened in fairy tales.
The one thing Tasha knew for sure—the only thing she knew for sure anymore—was that her life was no fairy tale.
“You were going to show me…?” He pointed at his face on the screen. “I’d really like to stop staring into my open mouth, if you don’t mind.”
Horrified all over again—she couldn’t seem to do anything right today—she started to shut the lid on the laptop. “Never mind. It’s not important.”
“No. Please. Show me.” He tapped the touchpad, and his gorgeous screen mouth started speaking again. His voice was as chocolaty as his eyes, making her bones melt and her legs turn to jelly.
Why did he have to be living in the mansion down below?
The problem was that she needed him gone at least as much as she was dying for him to stay. He was too much temptation for her to rejoin the world.
Heck, he’d be too much temptation even if he looked like Godzilla, which he most definitely didn’t. It didn’t help, of course, that his sexy male scent tantalized her. The fine hairs on her arms rose as though trying to reach out to him. She rubbed her hands up and down her skin, trying to settle herself down.
“This could definitely work for your bathroom,” he said after he’d watched ten or so seconds of the video, “especially if you continue the tile over the toilet, like this.”
As he traced the screen, she could almost feel him caressing her skin in gentle lines and circles. He turned, felling her with a smile that would either knock her dead, or make her heart start beating right out of her chest.
“I’ve got an app on the website where we can sketch it out.”
We.
She loved the sound of we. Even if she hadn’t been alone for over three months, she would have loved the sound of we. She’d always been a people person, always felt more energized after a great conversation or party than by a quiet evening in. And it felt terrific to have him in her house—the only home that had ever truly been hers. To talk to someone besides the squirrels and birds and herself. Plus, he was surprisingly good at listening.
But she was in exile. She was here to do penance. To atone for her sins.
Which meant she couldn’t let herself feel all breathless and giggly and sexy around him. She most certainly couldn’t fall for gorgeous billionaire Daniel Spencer.
Really, she reminded herself, she didn’t even know him. What if the man seemed nice and helpful—but was really a secret ax murderer, or was running his company as a front for illegal activities?
She’d proven herself to be absolutely terrible at reading people’s true characters and motives. For God’s sake, this guy owned the biggest chain of home-improvement stores in the world. And he was on TV, too handsome for mere mortals. A celebrity. A rich guy. They always had their own agendas, didn’t they? Okay, so there wasn’t one single thing about him that screamed ax murderer or money launderer or even snooty know-it-all.
Then again, she hadn’t thought her family could be any of those things either.
“The app is free,” he added, as though he thought that was why she hadn’t responded. “Would you like to download it?”
It struck her that he was asking what she wanted to do instead of telling her, the way her father would have done. Or Eric.
As if she were wiping her windshield clean, she deliberately scraped all those thoughts out of her mind. Or she would go stark crazy. Besides, Daniel would be gone soon, and then she’d have to settle back into her solitude.
For just this one teeny-tiny moment, she wanted to enjoy him for all she was worth and savor the memory for the endlessly quiet days and nights to come.
So she said, “Yes, please.”
After he demonstrated how to use the app, she couldn’t help raving. “That is so cool. I could even do the kitchen using this. Plus, I can test out the log cabin paneling you talked about.” Maybe it wasn’t right for her to be so excited about turning her vision for the cabin into reality, not when living in a dilapidated shack was supposed to be part of her penance for her family’s con jobs. But after a lifetime of longing for a real home, she simply couldn’t help herself. No more than she could keep herself from excitedly asking Daniel, “Did you build this app yourself?”
“I told a designer exactly what I wanted.” He gave her a half-smile that only made him look more gorgeous. “I’m pretty sure he hates my guts now. I’m damn picky.”
“I would love to have built something like this for you.” She spoke without thinking.
He raised his eyebrows. “You build apps?”
Silently cursing herself for her mistake, she said, “I’m a graphic designer. Or at least I was…until I moved up here.” She waved her hand at the screen, trying to be nonchalant about it. “I used to develop websites and do interactive stuff like this.”
He turned, their noses almost touching, and homed in on the one thing she hadn’t wanted him to focus on. “Why did you come here? All alone. To renovate a cabin by yourself.”
Her racing heart thudded to an abrupt halt. This was exactly why she needed to keep away from other people. If she hadn’t been chattering on, he wouldn’t have felt he could ask her such a pointed question. Now that he had, she would have to tell him the same thing she’d emailed to her friends before she headed off—not a lie, but not the complete and very difficult truth either.
“I hit a crossroads and needed to unplug from the rat race.” Unplugging was something everyone always said they wanted to do, so thankfully, no one argued with it. The irony was that Tasha was someone who longed to be plugged in all the time, not to digital devices, but with other people. “I needed to learn to depend on myself and no one else.”
“Well, you should definitely be proud of what you’ve accomplished.” Again, he was far kinder than a billionaire needed to be. “How-to videos are practically my bread and butter, and yet I never knew anyone could get so much done simply from watching them.”
“I also asked a lot of questions at the hardware store. So many that now the staff run in the opposite direction when they see me coming.”
“None of my clerks had better do that.” He was surprisingly stern. Gorgeously so. “You’re exactly the kind of customer we want. Eager, willing to experiment, open to trying new things.”
A blush crawled up her cheeks, despite her trying not to melt into a puddle at his feet. Eager. Willing to experiment. Open to trying new things. It was really hard to remind herself that he wasn’t talking about sex.
He pushed the laptop toward her. “Show me your work. I’d love to see it.”
She was so busy trying to shove her hormones down that it took her several beats to realize what he’d said. “Work? You want to see my work?”
“Maybe I could use you when I’ve got another project.”
Three months ago, she would have leaped at the chance to work for Daniel Spencer and Top Notch DIY. It would have been a dream come true. So she had to force out the words, “Sorry, but I don’t do that stuff anymore. I’m done with the rat race. I like it here in my own little cabin in the mountains. The simple life. No frills.” She hoped she sounded convincing, because most of it was true. She really did like the mountains. She just missed her work, her friends, and talking to someone other than herself.
“Fair enough,” he said as the screen went blank in front of him. “Hopefully, the app will help you put your simple life together just the way you want it. If you need extra tools, feel free to come down and borrow anything I’ve got.” He pointed up. “About the roof—”
She cut him off before he could offer the moon and the stars as well. The nicer he was, the harder it became to remember why she didn’t deserve nice things. “Thanks. I’ve got everything I need.”
Except someone to talk to. Someone to watch the sunrise and the sunset. Someone who made her laugh. Someone with unruly curls she could run her fingers through and dark chocolate eyes to gaze into.
No, no, no. Daniel seemed great, but so had her father when he’d offered her the commission for the website, saying it would be so good for her career. He’d been doing her such a big favor, giving the project to her instead of a big, professional company. Giving her a chance. So caring, so altruistic.
When really, he’d just wanted someone who wouldn’t ask a lot of questions. But he’d destroyed her career. Her name had been on that website. Her reputation had been damaged. Along with her heart.
She’d been blind to her father’s faults all her life. And she’d been blinded by Eric’s slick façade too. So how was she supposed to figure out if Daniel Spencer was really as great as he seemed—or if it was all just a big lie?
And if he did turn out to be great, that would be even worse in some ways, because then he should be with someone equally marvelous, rather than a woman who had the stink of a nasty con job all over her.
“Well, if you do find you’re missing something, feel free to stop by.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “As I’m sure you can tell, I’m building my own cabin too.”
“My place is a cabin,” she countered. “Yours is a lakefront mansion.”
“It didn’t start out that way. But I want my family to visit, so I need to make room for all of them.”
“You must have a pretty big family.” Up until now, she’d only thought of him as one of the most eligible bachelors on the planet. A big family that he loved was a whole other—far too sweet—addition to his appeal.
His smile brought the sunshine right in through the window. “One sister, Mom, Dad. Four foster brothers and all the family they bring with them.”
“You sound like you adore them.”
His shrug was carefree and boyish. “The Mavericks aren’t a bad bunch.”
“The Mavericks?”
“That’s what we called ourselves back in high school. Me and my foster brothers.”
“I like it.” She’d adored her friends too. But her family had moved so often that it was hard to keep in touch with everyone, and now it had become impossible to call any of them, because she could never return to her old life.
He nudged her arm with his elbow. “What about you? What about your family? How do they feel about you living all the way out here in”—he gestured to the holes in her floor and ceiling—“this?”
Her stomach took another nose dive, the way it did every time he asked one of his far too on-point questions. “I haven’t seen them for a while,” she said flatly. Drew and her father were lost to her.
“I’m sorry.” His gaze was kind, as though he truly felt her pain.
No matter how desperate she was for company, no matter how nice he seemed, talking about her family was a devastating reminder that she couldn’t trust her own instincts.
Standing abruptly, she said, “I should get back to work.”
He was forced to stand too, backing away as though he was reluctant to go. Although maybe that was just her projecting onto him, given that she hated the thought of his leaving. Not just because she didn’t want to be alone again—but because being with Daniel made her feel completely alive and energized. More than she’d ever felt in her life.
“Don’t fall off any more roofs,” he said. “You need someone here with you next time you head up there, and be sure to secure yourself too. I can help, if you’d like.”
“Thanks, but I finished tacking down the tarps just before I slipped.” She felt like an ungrateful wretch when he was being so nice, but if she didn’t let him go now, she was afraid she’d drag him back inside, ply him with coffee, and force him to talk to her for hours and hours. Instead, she’d have to make do with his videos. And, honestly, even those would be a sweet treat she didn’t deserve. Especially after meeting him…and liking him so much.
As the door closed behind him, she sank to the floor, leaning back against the wall of a house that felt emptier and quieter and colder than ever before. Because for a few minutes, when Daniel was there with her, it had felt like a real home.
* * *
Daniel was his mother’s son through and through—he couldn’t stop trying to aid lost souls. Through his company and with hammer in hand, he’d helped many single parents and youths-on-the-edge work through their issues and move toward a better future.
Tasha was clearly a lost soul. Why else would such a beautiful, obviously capable woman run away from her career to hide in the wilds of Tahoe in a run-down shack? What had caused the pain in her eyes that had materialized more than once during their conversation?
Barely an hour ago, Daniel had been wishing for a perfect woman. What he’d found instead was a prickly yet adorably talkative new neighbor.
One whose mysteries he couldn’t help but want to unravel, even if getting involved with a woman who obviously had big problems was the very last thing he should do.