beneath the simple white cotton of a button-down shirt.
Seriously rattled by the urge to keep ogling him, she gritted her teeth. ‘Do you want this job or not, Mr Holmes?’
‘Uh-oh, the thermostat got turned down again.’ His teeth fake-chattered and she bit back a laugh. ‘And for what it’s worth I don’t give a fuck about this job. I run one of the top specialised construction companies in the country. I don’t advertise because word of mouth recommendations will keep me busy with potential business for the next few decades.’
He took another step closer and she held her breath. ‘So let’s get one thing straight. The real question here is whether I choose to do your job and whether you can afford me.’
Nobody spoke to Hope like this, ever. From the moment she’d been born into the illustrious McWilliams family, everyone around her had kissed her aristocratic ass. She’d thought it the norm until she’d grown older and wiser, around the age of seven, when one of the maids’ daughters had called her a stuck-up prig. She’d been shocked to be disliked for the first time in her life and hadn’t liked it. Her parents had deferred to her and the domestic staff had too; even her teachers had been politely fawning.
The problem with everyone pandering to her meant she could never fully trust when someone liked her for herself. And she’d made a monumental mistake in her personal life because of it.
She couldn’t tell the difference between suck-ups and sincerity. So she really admired those who didn’t kowtow to her. Like Logan.
‘Sorry if I offended you.’ She offered the same smile she’d used to great effect over the years when wheedling exactly what she wanted out of her parents. ‘I revert to my English roots all too quickly when I’m bamboozled.’
‘I have that effect on you?’
Damn, in her efforts to calm him she’d slipped up and said too much. ‘I meant the upcoming renovations and my eagerness to get them done quickly.’
She gestured at the walls to emphasise her point but by the glint in his eyes he knew her excuse was BS.
‘Right, the renovations,’ he drawled, sticking his hands into his pockets and following her line of vision around the room. ‘Here’s what I see. You’ll need a complete revamp of the space. New roofing for a start. If you want to keep the glass dome, it’ll need to be double-glazed. But if you want this to be completely soundproof I’d ditch the glass. The flooring will be an easy fix and the walls not too hard either.’
She could listen to him talk all day, his deep voice with the broad Australian accent as intoxicating as the rest of him. His eyes lit up as he explained the renovations, demonstrating true passion for his work.
How would he look indulging in other passions?
When she caught him staring at her oddly again, she quickly cleared her throat. ‘How much?’
‘I’ll outline all the proposed changes and costing in a formal quote I’ll email to you later, but from what I can see, including materials and labour, you’re looking at a ballpark figure of around sixty grand.’
Hope tried to hide her surprise and failed. She wasn’t a complete novice and had obtained quotes from two other companies, both coming in at about half of Logan’s. But a fellow music teacher who also played violin in a major touring orchestra had recommended him to her. Apparently Logan’s company had constructed their rehearsal spaces to a standard higher than that of anything in which her friend had practised around the world and Hope had known then that she had to have him. Renovate, that was. That clarification was important for her howling libido that hadn’t quit since she’d first laid eyes on him.
‘Done.’
His eyebrows shot up and his lips thinned, as if he was clamping them together with all his might to prevent from blurting that she was crazy for accepting his first offer.
‘I’ll settle for nothing less than the best and I know what I want.’ She stepped into his personal space, almost toe to toe, done with him toying with her. Time to regain the upper hand. ‘And I want you.’
LOGAN KNEW HOPE was referring to him doing her precious bloody renovations when she said ‘I want you’ but it took a second or two for his eager cock to catch up with his logic.
He’d been rock-hard since he’d set foot in this room and she’d become animated, like one of those wind-up ballerinas in his mum’s old jewellery box that whirled when wound up.
He’d tried to get a rise out of her several times, to tease her into lightening up, to see what was beneath that frosty exterior.
He hadn’t expected her to turn the tables on him.
She stood too close, some exotic flowery fragrance reminiscent of newly budded roses teasing him to bury his nose in her neck and inhale. Close enough he could feel the heat radiating off her, as if she’d been standing next to a radiator too long. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips parted and tiny jade flecks glowed in her eyes.
For a second he almost lost it. He imagined backing her up against the nearest wall, flipping up that short kaftan, tearing off her panties and burying himself in deep. Or having her kneel before him, that prim and proper mouth wrapped around him, sucking him off...
‘I accept your offer. When can you start?’
Logan blinked, his X-rated fantasy instantly obliterated by her coolly polite question.
Of course he had to accept the job now, even after throwing out that ludicrously inflated price. He’d done it to see her baulk and had looked forward to bargaining with her. She had a hidden fire beneath the frost and it had come out several times already when she’d returned his quips. He sure as hell hadn’t expected her to agree to it so fast.
But he couldn’t recant now, not without appearing unprofessional, so he nodded. ‘I’ll do the preliminaries and get my team set. We can start Monday if that suits?’
She grimaced. ‘Monday is my busiest teaching day and I don’t want my students disrupted. Can you start Tuesday?’
Usually he called the shots on where and when his crew worked but residual guilt over the exorbitant quote for a fairly routine job made Logan nod. ‘Sure, but you’ll need to reschedule the following Monday, because a job of this magnitude may require two weeks to complete. Plus we need to factor in unforeseen hold-ups like bad weather.’
‘Understood.’ She twisted a strand of hair that had come loose from her elaborate topknot, gnawing on her lip absentmindedly. ‘I knew there’d be some disruption but maybe I’m better off closing and changing all my appointments for the next fortnight.’
He nodded. ‘It would make life easier on us. We take occupational health and safety very seriously and having people around during renovations is a hazard we’d rather avoid.’
‘Okay.’
He eyed her suspiciously, wondering why she sounded so meek, as though the ice princess had melted into a submissive little snowman.
‘I
