Hot Property by Lacey Diamond Read Free Book Online Page A

coffee
table.
    For the first time since he charged inside
like an unexpected bolt of lightning, the man was giving Betsy more
than a quick glance. He was without a doubt undressing her with his
eyes as his gaze slowly traveled up her trembling body. Sensuous
blue eyes captured hers and held. The gaze was broken when Skylar
abruptly jumped to his feet.
    “Well, I won’t keep you then. I just wanted
to return your basket.”
    Betsy swallowed in order to speak. “Thank
you. I’d completely forgotten about it.”
    “Maybe you can salvage its contents,” Skylar
suggested as he stepped out around the coffee table and started
moving toward her.
    Betsy had trouble breathing normally as he
got near her. She took a few giant steps away from him, toward the
basket. “If you haven’t eaten you might as well take one of these
with you.” Her words were rigid as she lifted the lid on the basket
and pulled out a hoagie.
    “Keep it. I’m not fond of store bought
sandwiches.”
    “Well you won’t get a home cooked meal
around here.”
    “Did you hear me ask for one?”
    Betsy felt her face flush. Now she could add
insulting to the list of names she’d used before to describe
him.
    “I’m sorry. The meeting didn’t go as I
planned. But that’s no reason to take out my frustrations on
you.”
    Of course he had no right. But Betsy didn’t
give it another thought. She forgave him. She even wished she could
absorb some of the mental anguish he appeared to be suffering.
Though, she hadn’t a clue why.
    “You can’t be serious? The supervisors
wouldn’t dare deny you a building permit.”
    “They didn’t. The code enforcement officer
signed the permit for one house. But it seems the supervisors are
hell bent on reviewing my development plan before they’ll even
consider granting a variance.”
    Skylar returned to the couch and dropped on
the edge of an end cushion. He had his head down and used his
fingers to rake through the dark mass of hair.
    Betsy’s only thought when she sat down next
to him was to assure things would work out.
    “Holy cow woman!” His words startled Betsy
before he reached down and carefully lifted her foot. “You better
have a doctor look at this.”
    “It’ll heal.”
    He carefully brought her leg to his lap. “If
you won’t have it checked, you should at least keep it elevated to
prevent more swelling.”
    If he only knew the kind of sweet torture he
caused her as his hand rested over the top of her ankle. His flesh
touching hers, ignited fires to blaze out of control in every
minute cell to major organ of her anatomy.
    When he leaned forward reaching for the copy
of the house plans on the coffee table, Betsy automatically leaned
with him. She really didn’t have a choice since he held her leg
captive.
    He sat back. “Did you get a chance to look
at these?”
    The blue of Betsy’s eyes briefly met his. In
that glorious moment when it seemed the world belonged to only
them, she wanted to tell him his plans were brilliant. Miss
Sensible stopped her. She needed to stop gushing with teenage
idolism for the guy and get to the business at hand.
    A hot flash torpedoed through her. She
wondered if he realized he was massaging her ankle. Did he have any
idea what his touch was doing to her?
    “The house is going to be a castle.”
    Skylar chuckled. “Not quite.” His eyes met
hers and his expression became serious. “Doesn’t every little girl
grow up wanting to be rescued by a prince and carried off to his
castle?”
    Did he really believe this fairytale
nonsense of women? On the other hand, Betsy considered his analysis
close to the truth of many, but not for Betsy Alexander. She didn’t
need rescued from anything by Prince Charming. There was no such
man anyway.
    “I doubt little girls sit around fantasizing
about that fairytale anymore.”
    “Just because you don’t like men doesn’t
mean other women feel the same, Miss Alexander.”
    His words left her speechless even when