Chapter 2

2

MAC

I could have grabbed anyone from that group of volunteers. There was the tall, bony woman in leggings and ballet flats who looked like she was heading out for dinner and a movie instead of a day of hard work on tornado recovery. There were young women, older women, and even a few women who dressed for the task at hand. But none of them were this gorgeous blonde with eye-popping curves and full, kissable lips.

I tried my best to shove her image out of my mind as I headed straight to the house with no roof. It looked like a giant with a machete had come along and chopped off the top.

We'd been lucky enough not to have rain since that night, but that luck was about to end. Rain was in the forecast. That meant a group of us would put a tarp on the home at some point today.

I stopped on the front stoop, turning back in the blonde's direction. She was still walking across the front lawn, her stride determined. This was a woman who could handle her shit. She wasn't like the others who'd shown up looking for the Cyclone Stud, as they'd called him online. No, she was here to work.

"They missed this house when they were doing water remediation," I said.

Water remediation. Two words I'd never heard, let alone spoken. They'd become part of my vocabulary over the past few days.

"It hasn't rained, but no telling how much water got in here the night of the storm." I looked back over my shoulder at the door. "It's our job to remove the contents."

She came to a stop several feet away from me. More than several feet, actually. She was keeping her distance, like she was afraid to get too close.

"Just the two of us?" she asked.

The question threw me. I found myself staring at her, not sure how to respond.

"For now, yes," I finally said. "We don't need a bunch of people traipsing through here. Let's just say I'm looking out for the owner."

We both wore sunglasses. For me, they acted as a shield. I didn't want this woman to see that my gaze kept drifting to her chest.

Damn, she had one hell of a rack. Maybe I should have chosen another woman to help. This one was sure to be far too distracting.

"Just the two of us," I finally said. "The homeowner is away. I told her I'd take care of things for her."

My helper still didn't move. I couldn't drag her into the house, and I had work to do. If she wanted to help, she'd follow. Otherwise, I'd just have to forget about the way her curves made my fingers itch to touch her.

Maybe I'd rub one out later, thinking of her. I might not even make it to lunch before I did that.

I turned and dug the key out of the right pocket of my cargo shorts. Then I unlocked the door and pushed my way in.

The smell hit me immediately. It wasn't bad, necessarily. Just stale and musty, like a swamp. Yes, water had definitely gotten into this house, even if it didn't look like it at first glance.

My heart broke for my buddy, who'd called me asking me to check on his mom's house. She was in a nursing home and not in good shape. And nobody had thought to clear out her house when the roof blew off, including me.

The guilt weighed me down. But I'd make it up to him by taking care of things today.

"Looks great, right?"

The woman's voice filled the room, making me aware I wasn't alone. She'd followed me inside. I should be jumping for joy, but I was too busy beating myself up over my failure as a rescuer.

"Water damage," I said, pointing toward the second story. "You can smell it."

When my gaze landed on her face again, her eyes were wide. "Is that bad? Can it be fixed?"

"Let's go take a look," was all I said.

I really didn't know the answer. None of us did. This was the first natural disaster I'd been part of, and I'd seen some hairy stuff in my time in the Navy.

I'd moved here to get away from all that, but I couldn't just hide when people needed me. I'd take care of this, then return to my quiet life in my cabin.

Again, I didn't wait for her, heading up the stairs in full scent detection mode. I braced myself for what I'd see when I got to the top of the steps.

But halfway up, I could see things were off. It was way too bright. As I stood on the very top step, all I could do was gape. I'd never seen anything like it. There was a clear view of the sky where a roof should have been.

"Holy shit," I said, moving out of the way as I heard footsteps behind me.

My helper said nothing as she joined me, looking up. "Do you think they'll total it?"

That question pulled my attention off my surroundings, refocusing it on the woman standing next to me. I'd a thousand times rather look at her than the ugliness the tornado had left behind.

"The house," she said when I didn't answer right away. "Isn't that what they call it? Totaled?"

"Like a car?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah."

Our eyes met, and that brief connection did something to me. It wasn't just my cock that stirred. No, I was drawn to this woman in a way I'd never been drawn to anyone. I wanted to wrap my arms around her and keep her safe from everything. Tornadoes, bears, dangerous people…

"I think they call that red tagging," I said, not even sure where that information came from. I wanted to impress her with my knowledge, though. "And that's up to the insurance companies to decide. I need to get everything on the top floor out of here so we can get started on remediation."

With that, I started walking, heading into the bedroom to the left. It had a desk with one of those gigantic computer monitors that were around back in the early days of the internet. Next to it was an equally outdated printer—the kind that made a ridiculous amount of noise.

All of it would have to be trashed, but I doubted my buddy would be brokenhearted over that. He was more interested in things that couldn't be replaced, like pictures and childhood trophies.

"Let's get to work," I said.

I headed straight for the monitor. The thing would be heavy as hell, if I remembered right. Part of protecting this woman I'd just met was taking on the heaviest stuff.

"I'm going to look for boxes," the woman said. "Be right back."

I didn't even have time to respond. I stopped halfway across the room and turned, and she was gone.

Boxes made sense. Did I expect her to carry one item at a time out of this place? But what really struck me was that this was a take-charge kind of person, and I liked that even more than anything else I'd seen of her.

For the first time in my life, I realized that was exactly what I wanted in a woman.