Messing With Mac Read Online Free Page B

way?
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI won’t be in your way,” she said in lieu of a real answer.
    In his experience, clients couldn’t help but be in the way, always wanting to change the logical order of things, waiting until paint was on the walls or tile on the floor before deciding the color was off, or the brand not quite right. And he had the Town Counciland historical society to impress on this one. “Look, Princess—”
    â€œMy name,” she said, still smiling that cool smile as she carefully shifted the vase from one hand to the other in a way that suggested she was considering smashing it over his head, “is not ‘Princess.”’
    He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not trying to be a hard-ass here, it’s just that we’d all be better off if you’d just let us do our jobs.”
    â€œYou are a hard-ass, it’s one of the reasons I hired you,” she said, surprising him. “And I think you could try trusting me a little. I’m not going to bog you down.”
    Mac didn’t do trust, and even if he did, he’d be crazy to give in to a woman quite used to crooking her little finger and having the entire male population fall over its own feet to please her.
    â€œI’m not,” she repeated, a little softer now, watching him with those clear, clear eyes that weren’t going to give an inch.
    He ran his hands over his face, put them on his hips and stared at her, but she was still just waiting with what he figured was the patience of a cobra. “Okay, whatever.”
    She was wise enough to keep her smile to herself but he saw the triumph in her eyes, the eyes that only yesterday had turned him on.
    Still turned him on.
    â€œYou’ll finish the demo downstairs this week?” she asked.
    â€œAnd upstairs.”
    â€œOh.” Now something else flickered in her gaze. “Is it really necessary to push your men like that?”
    â€œLike…what?”
    â€œWell, I would think demolishing just the downstairs would be enough for the next week. In any case, it’s going to be awfully hot.”
    â€œWe’re doing both up and down this week,” he said firmly.
    â€œHmm.”
    The sound that escaped her throat suggested he was not only a hard-ass but a brutal boss to his crew. “Demolition is back-breaking, hot, filthy work,” he explained, trying not to resent having to do so.
    â€œI realize that.”
    â€œThen you also realize we’re far better off digging in and getting it over with quick as possible.”
    â€œOkay…well, maybe you guys can start and complete the entire renovation downstairs before moving to the next floor.”
    â€œNo. Not cost-effective.”
    â€œHmm,” she said again doubtfully, and he narrowed his eyes. Why didn’t she want them upstairs this week? He would have pushed for answers buteach of his crew’s heads were whipping back and forth between the two of them as if they were watching a tennis match.
    He was not going to make a scene. The woman wanted to breathe down his neck all day long? Fine. Today was going to be particularly brutal. By the end of it, her hair would be in her face, her creamy skin smeared with dirt and no way was that million dollar linen going to make it through unscathed.
    She’d be, at the very least, hot, sweaty and rumpled, and he could only hope he would get that insane urge to see it right out of his system.
    â€œLet’s move it,” he said to his crew, and they scattered.

3
    F OR SEVERAL DAYS , Taylor kept close tabs on the demolition, from a safe distance of course. She wasn’t stupid enough to rile the beast any further, though she had to admit, she had been able to rile him with little to no effort so far.
    She supposed that meant he felt the same irritating physical attraction she did. And it was purely physical. A man as alpha as Mac was only good for the physical. There was nothing