“You’re going the wrong way.”
“I have an apartment down here.” She led him to the kitchen. Even though he was handling the renovations, she’d never given him a tour of the rest of the house.
She flipped on the lights, and her kitchen lit up too brightly. Perfect for her videos, not perfect for a basement kitchen.
“Wow, that’s bright,” he said.
“A properly lit kitchen is important. You know that.” She smiled at him, hoping he’d buy that excuse.
Blue set his toolbox on the floor and eyed her laptop sitting open on the counter.
Thank goodness for power saver mode. She snagged it off the counter.
“Do you rent this space out?”
“No.” She clutched the laptop to her chest, a shield between Blue and her secret.
“So…” He shifted his eyes to the oven and turned it on. “That oven looks older than you. You cook down here often?”
She laughed nervously, trying to think up something better than, Only when I’m selling my body for my sister’s tuition. “Sometimes. I like to mix things up.”
He leaned across the counter with a lazy smile. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you called me over just to see me, which I wouldn’t mind at all.”
She walked around the counter and stood beside him, staring accusingly at the oven. “The oven’s really broken, Blue. Besides, if I wanted to see you, I’m pretty sure you’d be okay with me asking you to come over just for that.”
He grinned, and her stomach fluttered. Damn stomach.
“It really is broken.” She pulled open the oven door and warm air rushed out. Of course it did.
“It’s definitely heating up in here,” he said in a low voice that made all her best parts take notice.
She sensed his heat behind her. If she leaned back a fraction of an inch she’d be pressed against him. The man oozed sexuality in the very best of ways, and he was in full-flirtation mode, which made him even hotter and more difficult to resist. His scent was potent, earthy and heady and purely male, and it was doing strange things to her resolve to keep a safe distance between them. She gripped the counter to keep herself from leaning in to him.
“I swear it wasn’t working last night. It shut off all by itself.”
“Maybe we should leave it on for a while and see if it turns off.” He leaned against the counter, his eyes skirting over the white, builder-grade cabinets, dating back to the early eighties, and the Formica countertops.
Lizzie closed the oven door and crossed her arms to keep her greedy fingers from touching him. “What would make it turn off like that?”
He held her gaze as he answered. “I can’t imagine anything turning off around you.” Smiling with the flirtation, he added, “Probably the heating element.”
How did he make that sound seductive? “Can we fix it?”
“Sure, we can fix it. It’s an old oven, and if it’s turning on and off, at some point you should probably consider swapping it out for a new one.”
“You treat your women like you treat your ovens? When they start to break down you just swap them out?” Lord, where did that come from?
His lips curved up in a wicked grin, and his eyes darkened. “I’d never swap you, Lizzie.”
“I…” Great, he’d completely scrambled her brain. If he could do that with five words, what could he do with those capable hands and that sexy mouth of his? She had to stop. This was why she left before he arrived most mornings. This was why she turned down his invitations to go out. Blue was utterly irresistible.
“I’ll tell you what. Hunter’s having a bonfire tonight, and the hardware store closes in half an hour. Why don’t we go to the hardware store and pick up the heating element, and then we can hit the bonfire for a little while? Afterward, we can come back and fix the oven.”
Lizzie rolled that around for a minute in her head. She loved hearing we slide off his tongue full of innuendo, probably loved it too much, considering that she was still mulling over the idea rather than nixing it. She could tell him she had work to do, which was true. She still needed to edit her webcast, but she needed the oven fixed before she had to tape the next show, too. She couldn’t do the Naked Baker webcast in her upstairs kitchen. On the off chance that anyone who knew her watched the webcast, they’d recognize her bright orange kitchen in a heartbeat. But if she tried to beg off this time, after hours, wasn’t that rude? She was asking him to work on her oven late at night.
“Okay,” she finally said.
Blue’s brows lifted with surprise. “Okay?” He pushed from the counter and grinned.
“Yes, okay. I’ll go to the bonfire. But it’s not a date, so get that look off your face.”
He turned off the oven. “Why do you always turn me down? I don’t get it.”