That McCloud Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

setting a platter of bacon and
stacks of golden pancakes in the center of the table. She took a seat,
gesturing for him to join her.
    "Have
you decided where you'd like to start work today?" she asked as she served
first his plate, then hers.
    Jack
pulled a napkin across his lap, but kept his gaze fixed on his plate. He wasn't
sure he trusted that robe of hers to stay in place, not with the way she was
flapping those arms of hers around, and he didn't think he could handle another
glimpse of those creamy breasts. He had to get out of this place, he told
himself, and the sooner the better. "You never said what all you wanted
done."
    Alayna
poured syrup over her pancakes. "Frank took care of the major repairs
before he left, but there are still quite a few things that need attention.
There are two baths upstairs. The shower leaks like a sieve in one of them,
though both could stand some remodeling. And there are a few changes I'd like
made in the bedrooms." She waved her fork vaguely. "Enlarging
closets. Adding shelving. Painting. That kind of thing." She parted her
lips and slipped a forkful of pancakes between them. She smiled at Jack as she
chewed. "But I think what I'd like to do first is tackle the wall in the
breakfast nook. You really aroused my curiosity with your
comments about the wood hidden beneath the wallpaper."
    The
emphasis she placed on the word "aroused" had Jack snapping his gaze
to hers. He immediately regretted the action. Her face was flushed with excitement,
her blue eyes bright with expectancy. The craziest notion bubbled up out of
nowhere … he wanted to lean across the table and cover her mouth with his, and
show her what it meant to be really aroused.
    Slowly
he dragged his napkin from his lap and wiped it across his mouth, then across
the perspiration beading his forehead before wadding it in a ball against his
thigh. "Then that's where I'll start," he said, picking up his fork.
    "What
will we need to do?"
    Jack
jerked his head up again. "We?" he repeated, his face going slack.
" You're planning on helping me?"
    She
laid down her fork, her shoulders drooping right along with her expression.
"Well, yes," she said uncertainly. "But I won't get in your
way," she added quickly, "if that's what you're worried about. I just
thought the work would go that much faster if I helped."
    Jack
set aside his own fork, his appetite suddenly gone. The idea of working
alongside Alayna and the forced intimacy involved had created another, more
dangerous hunger.
    Paper
hung in tattered strips, already revealing sections of tongue-and-groove boards
by the time Alayna returned to the breakfast room. Thankfully she had exchanged
her robe for a pair of baggy cotton slacks and a man's tailored white shirt.
Even though she was now covered from neck to toe, somehow she still managed to
look sexy, a fact that irritated Jack.
    Out
of the corner of his eye, he watched her roll up her sleeves and knew he was
going to have to think of some way to dissuade her from helping him. He wasn't
sure his system could take much more temptation.
    "Okay,
so what do you want me to do?" she asked, her voice full of enthusiasm.
    Keeping
his eyes focused on his work, Jack tipped his head toward the soggy wallpaper
he'd already ripped from the wall and dropped to the floor. "You can pick
up the scrap paper and put it in the garbage sack I've set out."
    "That's
all?"
    Jack
bit back a smile of satisfaction at the disappointment he heard in her voice.
Realizing that this might be just the way to get rid of her, he kept his gaze
on the wall in front of him. "Well, I suppose you could start on the
plumbing in the bath upstairs, if you'd rather do something that requires more
skill."
    "But
I don't know anything about plumbing."
    Jack
dropped his hand to his side, and slowly turned to look at her, his posture
that of a man at the end of his patience. "Well, then why don't you pick
up the paper, like I suggested?"
    To
his surprise—and