Page 56 of V is for Valentine
He came down the stairs, his white-coated pantlegs showing first, followed by a white-coated chest, and finally a clean face topped with white dusted hair.
“You were wearing a ventilator mask, right?” she said, her eyes going wide at the sight of him.
“Thus the clean face,” he said.
“You look like… I can’t think of anything pale enough.”
“Sea slug?”
“Are those white?”
“I don’t know.” He went to the overturned empty compound bucket he’d left his lunch and water bottle on and took a long drink. “I had a few mishaps adjusting the pressure.”
“It’s been a while since you’ve run the thing?” she guessed.
One corner of his mouth tipped up. “A long while, and it is not like riding a bike.”
“What is?” she asked, going to retrieve her coffee mug. She tried to ration caffeine through the day, and she was close to the end.
“When I finish spraying this last hopper, I need to go home and shower so that I can meet with Sandra.”
“She’ll probably appreciate you not flaking all over everything.”
He smiled a little. “What are you going to do?”
“Not get locked in with Bertha.” He lifted an eyebrow at the non-answer, and she said, “I’ll leave with you. Sandra will appreciate you not having to come to the rescue.”
“But I would, you know. Anytime. Anywhere.”
The words were lightly spoken, but the expression in his gray eyes was startlingly serious.
“We can’t be a thing, Danny.” The words hung between them.
He blinked in surprise. “I disagree,” he said as his expression edged toward amusement. Felicity’s cheeks warmed as she realized that she’d misread his statement. He hadn’t been making a declaration.
“You always were disagreeable,” she muttered, resisting the urge to put her hands on his chest and push him backward a step or two.
“And stubborn. You aren’t the only one with an iron will. I’ll rescue you if I want to.”
His gaze moved to her mouth, held for a moment, and she tipped up her chin. “No kissing on the jobsite.”
He lifted an eyebrow in a way that made her heart thump against her ribs. “Care to step outside?”
She couldn’t hold in the laugh, even as she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to smother it. The thing was that it felt a little hysterical. She was losing it. Pressure from the job deadline. Pressure from working in proximity with a man she didn’t know what to do with.
“I need to get to work.” She spoke in a suddenly serious voice.
“Me, too.” He followed the words with a smoldering look and Felicity had to remind herself to breath as he walked away.
Drat the man.
She adjusted her bandanna and headed back to the last eight feet of office where she’d left off. Heaven help her, he was stubborn. And attractive.
And not at all what she needed.
So why was he rapidly becoming what she wanted?
You need to back off.
