Free Crush on You by Christie Ridgway Page B

climbing out of a car. “Oh, God.”
    “I was hoping to hear that in an entirely different context,” he murmured.
    A rattlesnake would have envied the venom she put into the look she sent him over her shoulder. “No way.”
    “Way,” he replied. “Maybe not now, maybe not today, but between your history and our combined combustibility, we’re not going to be able to ignore this chemistry forever.”
    It was too late to put him in his place, not with the other women almost over the cottage’s threshold. Alessandra settled for pasting a smile on her face, and it was a genuine one, too, full of the welcome only a woman who’d been saved—partly from herself, she had to admit—could feel. “Sally! Clare! I am so happy to see you!”
    She pretended not to hear the dark chuckle behind her.
    Lucky for her, it seemed the mother-daughter pair’s preoccupation with the upcoming wedding caused them to overlook her flustered state and still-burning face. At their request, she showed the bride and her mother around the cottage, describing her vision of the finished product.
    They ended in the bridal boudoir, where Penn was at work again. He’d removed his T-shirt, revealing the contrast between the pale blue of his low-slung Levi’s and the toasty, warm color of his skin.
    Clare nudged Alessandra with an elbow. “Poor you,” she whispered. “Having to work all day with a guy who looks like that .”
    Pretending she didn’t notice the play of muscles in his shoulders, arms, and back, Alessandra shrugged. “The fact is Penn doesn’t really need me. I’ll be back to my regular work in the office tomorrow.”
    The hitch in his hammer stroke told her he’d heard. His backward glance touched her face, then moved on to Sally’s. “Ah,” he said. “But I don’t think I can guarantee this place will be wedding-ready without that extra pair of hands you provide.”
    The instant alarm on Tommy’s mother’s face goaded Alessandra into stepping closer. She ignored the distracting ripple of Penn’s pec muscles as he turned to face her. “Listen,” she told him, “there’s no doubt whatsoever—”
    “We had a deal, didn’t we?” he said. “And you said you had someone filling in at your desk.”
    The intern was nearly as good as Alessandra herself, not that she’d tell him that. “I know, but—”
    “And face it,” he continued. “You’ll have a better chance of restarting your social life out here with me than if you’re holed away in your office.”
    Oh, that rat.
    Sally was already swinging toward Alessandra, a new distress in her expression. “Allie, are you . . . are you dating ?”
    “No.” When Tommy’s mother’s tension didn’t ease, Alessandra shot Penn a sharp look and raised her voice. “ No .”
    “My bad, Mrs. Knowles,” Penn put in affably. “I can’t help myself. Around my friends, I’m always the one match-making.”
    Oh, please.
    He smiled at Alessandra, all pearly whites and Hollywood-style sincerity. “I see a pretty young thing like this,” he pointed to her with the business end of his hammer, “and I just can’t help myself from wanting to . . .”
    “Wanting to what?” Sally prompted.
    His glance slid to Alessandra, his eyes laughing. Her neck burned again as she relived the sensation of his fingers on her breast. Admit you like me touching you.
    “He wants to embarrass me,” she muttered.
    Clare was regarding her with raised eyebrows. “I think he’s right, you know I do,” she murmured. “It’s past time you returned to the dating circuit.”
    Dating wasn’t what Penn had in mind, and unfortunately, Alessandra’s traitorous body wasn’t interested in miniature golf or a night at the movies, either. “I’m not looking for anyone.”
    Sally sidestepped closer and slid her arm around Alessandra’s shoulders to hug her close. “Because it would be impossible to replace Tommy in her heart. Everybody knows that.”
    “Everybody knows that,” Alessandra