“Turk, oh Turk!” Kitty purred and let out a moan so incredibly loud that I wondered if she was about to have a litter of kittens herself.
“You like that? You like how hard I’m giving it to you?” Turk’s voice drifted from the speakers just as a crash came from the front of my inn. I jerked upright so I could see over the monitor. Had someone just come in the front door?
“Yes! Yes!” Evidently, Kitty liked “that”.
I clicked the pause button on my computer and pushed away from my desk.
“Hello?” I called as I dashed to the foyer area. “Is someone there?”
As I rounded the corner, I came to an abrupt halt. A dark-haired man squatted in a sea of a million tiny pieces of crystal from a shattered vase. His cheeks turned a bright red as he rushed to clean up the mess.
“Oh, no! Don’t worry about that,” I gushed as I hurried forward and tried to wave his hands away. “I’ll get that, I don’t want you to get cut. You’re alright, aren’t you? You didn’t cut yourself, did you?”
The man, reaching for another of the larger pieces of crystal, startled and did a double take when he looked at me. In that moment, I got a brief look at a pair of hooded eyes.
“Are you alright?” I asked again as I assisted in the cleanup. “Please, it’s only a vase. A towel for the water and a broom for the glass, and it will be all gone.”
I glanced up and gave him the biggest and calmest smile I could. He blinked once, then again, before he shifted his gaze to travel down my neck and shoulders.
I cocked my head to the side. My, my, he was a looker—and not just because he was looking at me but because he was handsome. He had sharp cheekbones set into a full oval face with eyes so deep and dark blue that I thought I might fall into them and drown. His full lips opened and closed like a fish out of water.
“Are you alright?” I repeated quietly as he continued to stare at me.
He shook his head and cleared his throat at the same time. “Yes, I’m very sorry.” He drew his attention back to cleaning the mess.
I reached for his forearm, immediately noting the soft, almost silky quality of his suit jacket. Wow, that had to be expensive. “You don’t have to clean this up, I’ll get it.” I gave him another one of my award-winning smiles at which he blinked a few more times.
“Um,” I stood, holding my right hand out, “I’m Harper Reed, the owner of The Inn and Out Bed and Breakfast. Do you have a reservation?” I didn’t recall anyone scheduled to arrive this early in the day, but sometimes people showed up early.
The man ran his entrancing gaze from my toes all the way up, then from my face down my shoulder and along my arm to rest on my outstretched hand. As he began to reach for it, he unfolded himself from the floor, and my eyes widened with each inch that he grew.
“Good lord, you’re huge,” the words spurted off my tongue without thought. The picture of the man on the computer screen flashed to mind. Would this guy be that big in the equipment category? Without conscious thought, my eyes landed on the zipper area of his dress slacks. Huh, maybe they do exist. I averted my eyes immediately as my cheeks began to warm.
A husky laugh vibrated out of his chest as he took my hand. “I’ve heard that a time or two.”
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