Free Cara O'Shea's Return by Mackenzie Crowne Page B

found paradise, had been a distinct possibility considering the way he’d been feeling…until she turned into a spitting cat.
    When he broke the kiss and stared into her eyes, he found anger there, anger that didn’t quite conceal the same fear he’d seen in her expressive eyes several times before.
    If she hadn’t been responding to him, he would have understood her reaction. Having a man’s tongue halfway down your throat would be alarming to a woman who kissed like a twelve year-old. But he had held enough women to know when one was fully engaged, and Cara O’Shea had been more than engaged. She burned like a flame in his arms. His nerve endings were seared wherever their bodies touched.
    It didn’t make sense. She didn’t make sense. The woman was a puzzle, and dammed if he wasn’t itching to get his hands on the pieces again.
    Suddenly, Monday morning couldn’t come soon enough.

Chapter Eleven
    A heavy knocking rattled Cara’s door at seven-o-five Monday morning. Five cups of coffee and three dozen donuts were shoved into her hands the moment the door opened and Finn, followed by Ryan, and two men she had never met, filed inside.
    Ryan swept her into a hug, forcing her to juggle the coffee before she scalded one or both of them. Plucking one of the cups out of the box, he grinned.
    “Finn decided he needed a little slave labor to get those shelves out of here this morning. If it had been anyone other than you getting me out of bed this early, when I’m technically still on my honeymoon, my wife would have knocked me over the head with that new rolling pin Meggy gave her as a shower gift.”
    Cara returned his grin, trying to picture her petite sister wielding the culinary weapon against her six foot groom.
    “These other two slaves are Bob and Steve Burns.” Finn lifted three cups from where she balanced them in front of her. He handed one to each of the Burns brothers as he made introductions.
    His tone of voice was friendly and though he wore that dimpled smile she’d begun to hate, she sighed with relief. She hadn’t known what to expect after their last encounter. Apparently he’d decided to put his hostility behind him, or ignore it while they were working together. Either possibility worked for her. It would make the job a lot easier if they weren’t snarling at each other constantly.
    Cara took the last coffee and opened the first box of donuts on the counter. Two boxes were polished off while the men discussed the best way to remove the shelving without damaging the woodwork or the floor. An hour and a half later, the shelving units were loaded and lashed on a trailer out front. Finn would deliver them to the day camp later.
    Cara thanked Bob and Steve for their help before they left, and stood marveling at the amount of space removing the shelves opened up. The room was huge!
    She scrambled to help when Finn and Ryan pulled the mounting from the counter cabinet and maneuvered it to the center of the room. She had decided to keep it to use as a wet bar that would be the focal point of the seating area she envisioned for the front corner.
    “Oh, wow!” Dropping to her knees, she ran her hand over the six foot expanse of hardwood flooring exposed.
    Finn stood with his hands on his hips beside her.
    “Let’s pull the carpeting up and see what kind of shape the rest of the floor is in.”
    “Now?” Sitting back on her heels, she spun her head to stare up at him.
    “Did you want to wait?” Amusement was clear in his tone.
    “No, I just didn’t think…” She scrambled to her feet and dusted her hands on her jeans. “Where do we start?”
    Ryan pulled a claw-like tool from a toolbox and went to the far corner of the room. With an easy tug, he peeled back a section of the carpet, exposing the padding beneath. Finn and Cara spread out along the front of the room, and together, the three of them accomplished the dusty job of rolling the carpeting in sections and removing the padding.
    Cara