Beatrice and Douglas Read Online Free PDF Page A

way you want it.”
    “That’s the way it is.”
    Beatrice took another deep breath still captured by his now
shuttered eyes.  Then she turned, pulled open the door of the Jeep and got
in.  Douglas came around to the window as she started the motor.  She
met his eyes in challenge when he leaned over and tapped on the window. 
Beatrice rolled it down quickly but didn’t say anything, just raised a brow in
question.  At this point, she wasn’t sure what was going to come out of
her mouth if she opened it.
    “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” 
Then he reached forward and ran a finger down her cheek.  “Bumble Bee.”
    Beatrice didn’t bother to berate him this time, she wasn’t
sure she could say anything with the feel of his finger burning her
cheek.  She just put the clutch into gear and peeled out.  Lucky for
Douglas he moved before she could run over his toes or cause any other
injuries.

Chapter
4
     
    The next week went rather well considering everything. 
It was almost as if, after what had nearly happened between them, they were
both determined to convince the other that they were unaffected.  If the
men thought it was strange to see Douglas and Beatrice leaning side by side
over blueprints without a fight, they kept it to themselves.  Meanwhile,
the work progressed smoothly despite the tension that seemed to grow daily
between the two bosses.
    After nearly two weeks of continuing tension, smiles that
showed a lot of teeth and pleasant conversations through narrowed eyes and
hardened chins, the men were making bets, quietly and from a safe distance, as
to who would blow first.  So far, the odds were two to one on the redhead .
    Douglas was working on flooring for the top floor, cutting
boards to replace the ones that were rotted out, when Beatrice came up the
stairs to give him the cell phone.  She was unprepared to find him
shirtless.  Even more unprepared for her own reaction to his
semi-nudity. 
    The man had the most incredible shoulders, between them the
strong sensuous lines of his back and the way his jeans clung to his firm butt;
while he sawed back and forth, she was struck with a raging case of lust. 
Since the night he had touched her, she had continued to notice things she had
no business noticing.  Like the way his hair just brushed his collar and
that he had the most incredible hands she had ever seen.  She even seemed
to see them in her sleep these days.  She completely forgot about the
phone and just stared.
    Douglas had known the minute she entered the room.  He
could feel her eyes on him and he almost growled.  He had felt her eyes on
him a lot lately.  It didn’t do anything for his blood pressure to know
that she felt the pull to watch just like he did.  Just the opposite in
fact, but he was determined that she would be the one to make the move this
time.  He was through being rejected, damn it.  But it was getting
harder in more ways than one.  If something didn’t give soon, he was going
to do something stupid.  Like drag her down to the dusty floor and put
them both out of their misery.
    “You want something, Bumble Bee, or you just going to stand
there gawking all day?”
    Beatrice jumped at the sound of his voice.  Her cheeks
reddened when she realized how much of an idiot she was being, then she walked
forward and, when he turned, jabbed the phone at his washboard stomach, making
him grab for it or watch it fall to the floor.  He grabbed it, but managed
to drop the saw at the same time and it landed with a clank on his boot. 
Luckily, it didn’t make much of a dent on his steel-toed tips . . . but it
pissed him off royally.
    “Goddamn it!” he yelled, but Beatrice was already stalking
away and out of reach.  He grabbed the phone up to his ear.  “What?!”
    “Interesting phone manner.  I take it things are
progressing as usual with you and my niece.”
    “You don’t want to mention your niece right now, Jack, you
really