Bound and Determined (4 page)

Appointment? What appointment?
Asia had known since the beginning of the week that Gram wouldn’t be working yesterday.

And then realization struck. More matchmaking attempts by Gram. She’d wanted them to spend time alone together yesterday. It had worked too, although not quite the way Gram had hoped, Asia was sure.

He waved off Gram’s apology. “Doesn’t matter. That’s why I dropped by. I wanted to see how Asia was today and I was hoping I’d bump into you as well.”

“Did you now? Well, here I am, so spit it out.”

He grinned, no doubt at her choice of words. “I need some help. I found an old chest of drawers in the attic. It’s in pretty rough shape but I’d like to know if it’s worth fixing.”

Her grandmother patted his hand. “You’ve come to the right place. Astrid’s Antiques has always offered this kind of help as a service to our customers.”

“That’s what I’d heard. When can you come out to have a look?”

Gram looked her way. “Depends on Asia.”

She did a double take.
What?
“You usually take care of that area.”

Her grandmother nodded. “Yes, but it’s in the attic. That’s a lot of stairs for my old knees to climb.”

Asia’s eyes narrowed in skepticism. “Since when have you had trouble with your knees?”

Her grandmother’s gaze flicked aside. “It’s a recent development.”

It would have to be, since it was the first Asia had heard of it. More than a little suspicious, Asia studied her grandmother, but she just gave Asia a wide-eyed look that was pretty darned convincing. How the hell her grandmother managed to look the picture of innocence when Asia strongly suspected she was lying through her teeth, she didn’t know. She was up to something. Most likely matchmaking.

Then again, Gram
was
sixty-five. Asia had never heard Gram complain of her knees before, but maybe something had changed.

Asia relented. “Fine, I’ll take care of it.” She turned toward Marcus, not at all noticing the way his gorgeous blue eyes picked up the cerulean of his shirt. “When should I come over?”

“Anytime. Tomorrow afternoon would be good.”

Before she could say anything Gram jumped in. “That’s perfect. I can watch the store tomorrow afternoon. We’re not heading out to the bed and breakfast until after Sam closes up anyway.”

Asia nodded, already freaking out at the mere idea of being alone with Marcus in his home. Gram had done it to her again. “Thursday afternoon it is. Around three okay?”

Marcus nodded. “Perfect. I can still get some writing done before you come.”

Of course, her mind went straight to the gutter. And the last thing she needed was her mind to be wandering off to thoughts of Marcus and coming. His cock hard and ready for her. Her body warm and soft to receive him. Her stomach plummeted with desire, something she hadn’t felt for a very long time.

Heat washed over her and Asia felt her face turning a lovely fire-engine red to match her sandals. She was in
so
much trouble.

Feeling boxed in and more than a little panicky, Asia worked to accept her fate. She was going over to Marcus’s house. They would be alone. And she was horny.

Shit
.

Could she handle her hormones for that amount of time? She called up her resolve. Of course she could, no matter how turned on she always felt around Marcus. She was made of tougher stuff than that. “I’ll see you then.”

Her grandmother nodded her pleasure at the arrangement. “You’re a good girl.”

Sure she was. Asia internally rolled her eyes at herself. What she
was,
was a sap.

Chapter Five

Asia still couldn’t believe she was standing on Marcus’s front porch. This was the
last
place she wanted to be. No, that wasn’t true. The last place was anywhere inside the house
alone
with him.

She couldn’t shake the recollection of how close she’d come to letting him kiss her the day he’d untied her. It was an unwanted memory burned into her brain with the laser from hell. She couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it. His closeness, his touch. Damn it, he’d almost
kissed
her and worse, she’d almost
let
him. And God only knew what that would have led to.

The fact that he’d given her the chance to pull away still surprised her more than a little bit. He had to have been able to see how much she’d wanted him to kiss her in that moment. Thank God she’d come to her senses in time. But what concerned her most was the question of whether she’d be able to stick to her resolve if she spent too much time alone with him.

Which was why she really,
really
didn’t want to be here.

Before she’d met Marcus, she’d thought she had great self-control. But now, she wondered if it wasn’t just that she’d never truly been tempted in the past two years.

Not until a tall, dark, gorgeous stud like Marcus had come into her life.

Why the hell did he have to move to Forsythia Falls anyway? Couldn’t he have stayed wherever it was he came from? Nice and far away? Somewhere she wasn’t?

She sighed, oddly relieved now that she’d gotten her little internal rant out of her system.

Which was great, but she really needed to stop dawdling and get this over with as quickly as possible. There was no avoiding the meeting and the sky was looking very ominous to the north. With thunderstorms in the forecast, and dark clouds already headed their way, she needed to get this over with so she could get out of here and back home again before they hit. Some of these late June storms could be brutal, and the back roads she’d taken to get to his house on the outskirts of town flooded fast when there was a downpour.

She straightened her skirt and double-checked all the buttons were closed on her new short-sleeved blouse. And was once again annoyed that she cared about how she looked around Marcus. It had taken her far too long to decide what to wear around a guy she kept telling herself she didn’t care about.

She lifted her hand to knock, but before she made contact the door swung wide to reveal Marcus standing there dressed in casual jeans and a T-shirt. He looked yummy as hell and wore a slight grin on his face as if he knew something she didn’t.

Oh great. Now she felt stupid. How long had she been standing there in indecision on his front porch? Had he seen her? Did he know how close she’d come to hightailing it out of there?

Shit.
She always managed to do something embarrassing around this guy. She made a stab at covering. “I was just admiring your gorgeous porch. They did a great job of restoring it.”

The corners of his striking blue eyes crinkled with the amusement twinkling in their depths. It was obvious her attempted cover story hadn’t fooled him one bit.

Just peachy.

“Thanks. I think so too. Come on in.”

There he went being all nice and considerate again by not pointing it out. Even if he
was
laughing on the inside.

She shook off her embarrassment and stepped into the foyer.

Marcus closed the door and gave her a warm smile. “I’m glad you could come over today. It was probably a huge inconvenience.”

You have no idea.
“No problem at all. I didn’t have anything else I had to do.”
Aside from staying as far away from
you
as possible, that is.

“Well, I appreciate it anyway.”

She took in her surroundings with some surprise. “You have a lovely place here.”

And she wasn’t kidding. The whole place had a definite country feel to it but it was very eclectic. And very masculine. There was nothing fussy about it. All clean lines, plank hardwood floors, a minimal amount of knickknacks to the point of being almost sparse, juxtaposed with bold modern art on the walls. It shouldn’t have worked but somehow it did, feeling very inviting in the process.

“Thanks. This way.”

She followed him as he led the way up the stairs. Hard-pressed not to spend the time admiring his tight ass, she forced herself to look away and take in every detail of her surroundings instead. The second floor, where the bedrooms were, was the same as the main level with clean masculine lines and a wonderful feeling of spaciousness.

He led her up another set of stairs. “Watch your step here. These stairs are pretty narrow.”

At the top, he opened a small door and flicked a switch. When she followed him through, she was more than a little surprised at the sight she was greeted with.

She stopped and took in her surroundings. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an attic that was this clean and dust free.”

He laughed. “You wouldn’t have said that a couple of weeks ago.”

She crooked an eyebrow. “So this is a recent development.”

“Call it a project. It was packed with dust-covered boxes the previous owners left behind. I was determined to clean it out and see what was up here. That’s when I found the piece I want you to look at. It was buried behind a wall of boxes and a great old trunk.”

She spotted the old steamer trunk right away and immediately fell in love with it. “You must mean this one.”

Black with its original brass fittings and wood slats, in pristine condition. All it needed was a bit of cleaning to bring it back to almost new condition. “This is gorgeous. It couldn’t have been used very much.”

“I know. I was thinking of putting it downstairs somewhere.”

“You should. It would look amazing all cleaned up. I’ll give you some pointers if you want to do it yourself.”

“I would, thanks.”

When she finally tore her gaze away from the trunk, she spotted the Victorian dresser he wanted her to see. She went over and bent to take a closer look, running her hand over the bow front. “This will need a lot of work.”

Handles were missing, the front of the bottom drawer was sitting on the floor in front of it, the top was warped and the whole thing was covered in at least three coats of chipped paint. But it was an antique well worth restoring.

“I love the detail they used to put into their work back then. These grape and leaf carvings are beautiful.” She ran her fingers along the top. “There’s some pretty serious water damage here. But something can be done about that.”

“That was the main thing I was worried about.”

She nodded. “With good reason. But my grandmother’s a genius with this kind of thing. And if it turns out she can’t do it herself, she’ll know who can.”

He moved in close beside her, brushing against her as he bent to take a closer look at the chest of drawers. She was always so hyper-aware of him. If it had been anyone else, she would barely have noticed. But with Marcus she noticed everything. The heat radiating off his skin. His intoxicating scent, which was a combination of soap and clean male. The fresh stubble of beard darkening his chin, which only made him look hotter than he already was.

He stepped forward to examine the water damage and she immediately missed his closeness. It was official, she was in serious lust.

“So you think it’s worth restoring?”

“From what I can see here, definitely. We’ll know more about what needs to be done once we get it into our workshop. The lighting’s better there.”

He straightened and turned the full impact of his gorgeous blue eyes on her. “I appreciate you coming out here to have a look.”

Their gazes locked and the now familiar longing she felt around him increased tenfold. “No problem. I’ll arrange for the guys to come with the truck and pick it up on Monday.”

He didn’t break eye contact. “Perfect.”

Oh yeah. He was perfect all right. Unbidden, she leaned toward him, wanting what she shouldn’t have. Because kissing him would be a really bad idea.

She jerked back. She had to leave. Right now. Before she said or did something to humiliate herself. Like jump his bones. “Okay, so we’re done here. I’d better go before that storm hits.” She couldn’t keep her enthusiasm for escaping his tempting presence out of her voice.

He nodded but didn’t comment.

She had just turned toward the stairs when the first crack of thunder rent the air. She jumped. Hand to her heart, she gasped and then laughed. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Looks like the storm’s already here.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the rain came down in a torrent, pounding the roof shingles with enough force as to make it impossible to hear each other.

Marcus pointed at the stairs and led the way back down. Out in the hallway the pouring rain was more muffled, but there was no mistaking that it was coming down with a vengeance as it lashed against the windows.

Lightning illuminated everything, quickly followed by more booming thunder. It sounded like the storm was right overhead.

When they reached the first floor, Marcus turned to her and shook his head. “I don’t think you should go out in that. Why don’t you stick around for a bit? I’ll make us some coffee while you wait it out.”

It was a reasonable suggestion, she knew that. But reason had nothing to do with her desire to get away from his oh-so-tempting presence. Just looking at the man made her want to throw herself at him no matter how determined she was to keep her distance.

The problem was, her reactions to him had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with raging hormones, rampant desire and raunchy sex. None of which she was going to engage in or even allow herself to think about. No sirree. But the only way to accomplish that was to get away from his broad shoulders, sexy bedroom eyes and mighty fine ass.

And the last thing she should be focusing on was his ass and how great it looked in his well-washed threadbare jeans. But being in close proximity to Marcus always had this dismaying effect on her. And when the hell had she gotten so damned horny anyway? Was it the storm? The atmosphere? Her crazy out-of-control hormones?

Whatever it was, staying was a bad idea. She chanced a look his way. He was still waiting for her to tell him if she was going to stay for coffee but she was feeling more panicky by the second.

Breathing hard as if she’d been running, she fought the urge to run her fingers over his soft-looking denim shirt. The cuffs were turned up, exposing his strong, mouth-wateringly sexy forearms. And when had forearms become sexy?