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refurbished townhouse is a piece of junk. It’s a pile of crap from top to bottom and if I ever get my hands on the so-called builder I’m not going to leave enough pieces for them to bury. I don’t know how things are done in Chicago, but there are laws against fraud and misrepresentation in D.C., and when I’m through with that piece of slime he’s going to be intimately acquainted with every one of them.”
    She didn’t raise her voice, but the calm, deadly words let him know she meant every single one. This impressed him, almost as much as her perfect complexion and her long silky eyelashes. “Well, that’s two things. What’s the third?”
    Dakota looked at him directly for the first time, her face a mask of weary disgust. “My cat, the lovely Cha-Cha, managed to lock me out of the house. I came outside to get something out of the car and before I realized the car keys were in the house, I heard the door slam shut and a loud click, which meant that girlfriend put her big fat paw right on the lock. So I’m out here with no keys and no cell phone and she’s in the house laughing at me.”
    Nick stared at her for a long moment and tried hard not to laugh, but when he turned to see Cha-Cha sitting on the windowsill looking innocent, he had to. He burst into laughter and surprisingly, Dakota didn’t seem to be offended. On the contrary, she shrugged. “Knock yourself out. If it was anyone else but me, I’d be laughing, too. You don’t happen to have a cell phone I can use, do you?”
    Nick gave her a genuine smile this time and assured her he could do better than that. “Here, these are for you. Peace offering. You don’t need a phone, you need a man who knows what to do, and that happens to be me. Be right back,” he added as he got up and dusted his pants off before heading for the truck.
    Dakota looked at the flowers and despite her miserable day, she smiled. They were beautiful: black-eyed Susans, purple freesias and some other blooms that were shades of pink that looked lovely with the bright yellow and purple petals. She turned to the window and waved them at her naughty cat. “Ha! I got flowers and you got nothing. Serves you right, little wench.”
    She watched Nick retrieve something from his truck and was amazed that she hadn’t noticed how handsome he was. Tall, with creamy skin and a body she knew was hard and muscular from their brief encounter the day before, he was a real treat for the eye, especially now that he wasn’t wearing that cap and those sunglasses. All that curly hair and those green eyes, super bone structure and those perfect white teeth…if she were in the market for a man, she would have been knocked off her feet for sure. And the way he’d slipped in the information that the young beauty was his niece was real cute, but it wasn’t going to get him any points. The way she was feeling towards the male of the species right now just made him an interesting specimen, nothing more. She had no more interest in him than she would in a statue. Although, when he started walking towards her again she had to admit that he reminded her of a Thomas Blackshear statue come to life—perfect features, rich coloring, undeniable sex appeal and total masculinity. She had to suppress a trembling sensation as she watched him walk. He was just a little bit bowlegged and it was incredibly sexy. Damn him anyway, she thought. Damn all men. They’re all critters.
    Nick had returned with a tool belt and a smile. Dakota was trying to look evil, but she was too taken with the sight of his long legs in his neatly pressed jeans and his broad chest covered with a nicely fitting blue T-shirt. Besides, she was curious. “So what are the tools for?”
    â€œI’m going to get your door open and then we’re going to have a little talk with your cat. It’s not safe for her to be locking you out.