“Yeah.” He watched her back out, make the turn. She flipped out a wave as she drove down his mother’s lane. He continued to stand where he was as D.A. wandered over to sit at his feet, to stare out at nothing as Ryder did.

“Jesus, D.A., what is it about her? What the hell is it?”

A little uneasy he might just find out, he walked his dog back toward the house.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

EVERYTHING TOOK LONGER THAN HE’D EXPECTED, BUT that was nothing new. Rehabs ran on their own schedule, and when you bounced between two major jobs, schedules went to hell.

Unless you were Owen.

Still, one job had a roof ready to shingle, and the other was about to move into drywall and brick veneer. He glanced back across the lot, beyond the huge crane to the building. The new roofline changed everything, the shape, the sense of space and balance. He imagined even the untrained eye could see the potential now.

Then he put it out of his mind. He didn’t want to think about shingles and drywall. He wanted to think about taking Hope Beaumont to bed.

Actually, he didn’t want to think about it. He just wanted to act on it.

He let himself in Reception, took a quick glance around. Everything in place, as always. For a moment, he imagined himself as a guest, walking in for the first time. Yeah, he decided, he’d want to stay here, wouldn’t have a problem with that.

Even as he walked to the kitchen, she turned out of her office to meet him.

Everything in place there, too, from the short summer dress and the sexy stilts to the thick, shiny swing of her hair.

She pulled up short when his dog wagged his way over to her.

“Where I go, so goes the Dumbass,” Ryder told her.

“Oh. Well.” She gave the dog an absent pat. “I tried calling your cell.”

“I forgot to charge it.” And the fact that it hadn’t rung a thousand times to interrupt his work didn’t hurt his feelings. “If you needed me to bring something, I can go get it, as long as I can get it fast.”

“No, it’s not that. I—”

But he grabbed her, pulled her in. If she was going to go around looking the way she looked, she had to expect the man she’d agreed to sleep with would want a sample.

Sample hell, he decided in two seconds flat. They should head straight upstairs. If she wanted conversation, they could talk later.

A whole lot later.

“Let’s go upstairs. Pick a room. Grab a key.”

“Ryder, wait.”

“I’ll shower first.” He remembered belatedly he had a day’s worth of sweat and dirt all over him. “Better yet, you can shower with me.”