Messing With Mac Read Online Free Page A

already starting to simmer.
    Taylor stroked perfectly manicured fingers over the smooth, porcelain surface of the vase as she talked, caressing the thing like she would a lover, and Mac’s blood began to beat thick, and not with just annoyance now. An ache, purely sexual, began to spread through his belly.
    Which proved it, he was insane.
    â€œIt’s worth a small fortune,” Taylor said, seeming lost in the delicate etching on the vase, sighing over the beauty of it as she touched.
    The sound of her soft sigh didn’t help Mac’s inner ache, and he spent a moment brooding over the facthe hadn’t been with a woman in a good long while. He hadn’t wanted to, not since Ariel and her cruel betrayal.
    But not having a sexual urge wasn’t the same as ignoring one. He looked at the vase in Taylor’s hands and concentrated on her words.
    Worth a fortune, she’d said.
    Enough to cover the wasted labor for however long she stood there occupying his men’s every thought?
    But what did she care how much money he lost in wages unearned? Mac wasn’t exactly sure what had happened yesterday, why she’d momentarily drawn him, given who and what she was—that being a woman too close to Ariel’s type to make him comfortable. But whatever it was, whatever little spark or electrical current of attraction he’d felt in spite of himself, he wouldn’t feel again.
    She wore a pair of pale blue capris with a matching short, little cropped jacket, looking like she should be getting ready to walk down the runway instead of standing on the step of her ugly building.
    Her hair was pulled back in a careful twist and she wore more of that peach lip-gloss from yesterday.
    She was a long, cool drink of water, and even knowing it, even having prepared himself to see heragain, he was suddenly dying of thirst, and couldn’t seem to tear his eyes off her.
    When she saw him, she stopped talking, rubbing her lips together in a little gesture that signified either nerves or arousal. Either way, awareness shot straight to his groin.
    So much for ignoring her. “Why are you here?” he asked.
    She lifted a brow, assuring him and everyone around that she considered him a Neanderthal for asking such a question. And okay, yes, maybe his tone had been a bit brusque. After all, she did own the place. But there was some inexplicable… thing going on between the two of them, some amazing thing that reminded him of…a shark bite. Painful, and probably lethal.
    But they’d signed a contact, he and she. Every possible little detail had been decided on, down to the last shade of paint on the walls. Her presence here wasn’t required, and in fact, he knew the ratio of work done today would be directly related to how far away she was.
    The further the better. “You agreed to move out for the duration of the restoration,” he reminded her.
    â€œI agreed to make sure there were no tenants during the duration. Suzanne and Nicole are gone.”
    â€œBut you’re not.”
    â€œI’m not a tenant.”
    Shaking his head, he took the last step that put him on even ground with her. Mostly he towered over everyone around him, and knowing it, he usually made a conscious effort not to use his size as an intimidation. But right now he wasn’t thinking intimidation so much as self-preservation. He wanted this job. He needed this job. It was the first thing he’d cared about in far too long. And in a way he was just beginning to understand, he needed to lose himself in the pure joy of the work itself, something he couldn’t do with her parading around all damn day.
    â€œYou can’t mean to be here while we work.”
    She lifted that chin, eyes flashing. “I’ll do as I please.”
    Damn. She did, she meant to be here while they worked. Because she didn’t trust him, or because she wanted to drive him crazy every step of the