Rowan took his time assessing my outfit. He did not hide that he approved. Of my outfit. My body. His tongue ran over his lips as his eyes roved over me and I suppressed a shiver, trying my best to hide my need for him.

Last night was not rejection, no matter what I tried to tell myself. Because even I couldn’t deny that Rowan wanted me. He wasn’t hiding it. Not even a little.

Just when I thought I couldn’t handle another second of his attention, he cleared his throat, breaking the moment.

“Remember this place,” he said, cupping his mug while looking around the kitchen with an assessing eye. An experienced eye. He was moving out of sultry Rowan mode into construction guy mode.

Which was a disappointment in some ways but intriguing in others. I liked seeing these versions of him, wanted to know how many more there were.

“The last owner called me and Kip in for a quote to refurbish it. Didn’t like what we had to say.”

I chuckled, thinking of the crotchety old man who used to live here, who was incredibly bothered by the fact that I, an unmarried woman, was buying his house with her own money. But it was me or no one since the place was crumbling around him and would’ve cost him a small fortune to fix up. It had been on the market for a year when I bought it, and the owner’s children were anxious to get him out of the farmhouse that was almost falling down around his ears, and into a retirement community in Florida.

“Who did the work?” Rowan asked, moving around the room, running his hands along the wall and over to the archway that led into the hall. I loved arches for transitions. They made a house warmer, a little more unexpected and modern without compromising the history of it. Well, at least that’s what I thought. Who could tell what Rowan was thinking.

I was enchanted by the way his hands moved across the smooth surface. Confident, strong.

“Um, I did,” I replied, thinking I may need my head examined for getting turned on by watching a man caress my house.

Rowan’s attention turned from the walls to me, his eyes wide with shock. “You did all of this?”

I nodded, looking down into my coffee in embarrassment. I had no idea why in the hell I was embarrassed. I’d been proud up until a few seconds ago.

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. “I’m sure there are plenty of things you’ll be able to tell me I did wrong.” I shrugged. “The genius who had just started a new business the year prior then decided to sink most of her remaining savings into this place.” I gestured to the ceiling with my hands. “I certainly couldn’t afford a contractor, so I watched a lot of YouTube videos. I had plumbers in, of course, and Tina got some of her friends to come help me from time to time.”