Free Built by Jami Alden, Bonnie Edwards, Amie Stuart Page B

civilized hour.”
    His smile stayed put, but his eyes were flat as he squinted into the bright morning sun. “It’s ten A.M. ”
    Her own smile slipped. “Well, that may be, but I had a very late night and—”
    “I’m sorry if you can’t be bothered to drag yourself out of bed after a night of partying, but I have a lot to get done today.”
    “I was working,” she said, tired frustration melting her smile into a tense glare, “until four A.M. And if you can’t bring yourself to be courteous enough to stop with the heavy machinery, I’m not above calling the police.”
    His only reply was a rude snort.
    “I’m serious,” she snapped, realizing somewhere in the back of her mind that she should maintain some hold on her temper, which had grown progressively shorter as she’d worked herself nearly to death in recent months. But his rudeness, combined with the unwelcome sexual sparks that were flying between them, sent her headlong over the edge. “I’ll lodge a noise complaint—”
    “And they’ll tell you that it’s past eight A.M. and that I’m abiding by all the noise ordinances of the city of Menlo Park, California. Trust me—Taylor, is it?—you don’t have a leg to stand on.”
    Rage coursed through her, hot, unbridled, and so intense she actually felt the prick of tears. All she wanted was a little sleep. Was that too much to ask for? Instead she said, in her most withering, icy manner, “I suppose I shouldn’t expect basic manners from someone like you.” She whirled and stomped away as he muttered something under his breath. Something that sounded suspiciously like, “Needs to get laid.”
    Though that same little voice warned her not to engage, to retreat to her house before she ended up in an all-out feud with her neighbor, she whirled around. “What did you say?”
    He sucked his bottom lip in and crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed for a moment, as though he was debating whether or not to speak. Honesty won out. “I said, somebody needs to get laid.”
    Taylor’s mouth opened and closed like a dying carp. She couldn’t believe he was not only rude enough to think such a thing, but to say it out loud. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything!”
    “Maybe if you had a boyfriend to take the edge off every once in a while, you wouldn’t be so uptight. And maybe,” he continued, leaning in closer so she could smell him, all salty sweat and clean man skin, “he could mow that disaster of a lawn of yours and help bring up your neighbors’ property values.”
    His scent washed over her in waves, making her nipples harden under the smooth cotton of her camisole and distracting her from the fact that he’d just insulted her landscaping in addition to her sex life. She shook her head. He was a dirty, sweaty, laborer—not the kind of man who should make her nipples tighten and her panties moist! Summoning up the icy hauteur that had become second nature, she snapped, “I have a boyfriend—a rich, successful man who has more important things to do than mow my lawn.”
    “No kidding. Your lawn obviously hasn’t been mown for a long, long time.” There was no mistaking the lascivious note in his voice.
    She closed her eyes and sighed. “Obviously you’re working some double entendre there, but I’ll have you know my relationship with Steven is just fine. What we have goes far beyond sex—”
    “Bingo, exactly as I thought,” he interrupted. “‘Beyond sex’ is code for no sex.”
    Taylor snapped her mouth shut, embarrassed to have revealed so much. She’d never been the type to share intimate details of her sex life, even with her closest friends. What in the world possessed her to have a conversation like this with a man she just met? “I don’t see that it’s any of your business,” she said lamely. “It hasn’t been that long.” Only four months, but who’s counting? “He travels a lot,” she said in response to his