A Dangerous Expectation (The Gentlemen Next Door) by Gray Cecilia

Author:Gray, Cecilia [Gray, Cecilia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: The Alpha Division, LLC
Published: 2012-03-27T23:00:00+00:00

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Cassandra’s gaze strayed once again out the glass pane of the bathroom window to the front yard. Gray Abernathy had climbed the apple tree in front of the cottage. He was boyishly charming as he did so, the wind ruffling through his hair. She could see his strong, broad back as he lay against the trunk and reached one muscled arm toward the branches. He pulled the early red fruit and let it drop into the basket perched on the branch at his side.

The housekeeper stood her ground beneath him, barking that he should get down, straying beneath his feet like a dog while her husband next to her motioned for Gray to pick the larger fruit closer to the tree’s crown.

Cassandra bit back a smile. He’d come up with a plate of ham and toast for her then sheepishly said he’d been summoned to help around the house.

She supposed she should find it emasculated him, the way he had succumbed to manual labor. But she did not. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She’d made absolutely no progress on studying his pipe design as she’d listened to him dragging the carpets outside and hanging them in the sun for the housekeeper to beat, and now she was staring at him as he picked apples.

Best of all, that anxiety she’d been expecting—that awkwardness—had yet to make an appearance since the wedding, ever since he’d said he did not find it untoward that she preferred to fend for herself. Now she understood why. He was a man who fended for himself as best he could.

If only she could figure out why his design forced pressure through the pipes. She had reconfigured the piping a half dozen ways since last night. Each had resulted in hot water, but only a trickle. How was it that his supplied the added benefit of force through the pipes?

Shrill female laughter drew her eyes back to the window. It was the housekeeper, who was now guffawing as Gray swung upside down, his legs anchored over the branches like a little boy, to hand her the basket of apples.

Cassandra felt an ache deep inside her chest—she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so carefree. It had been before her father made his money, when she and Chastity still lived in the slums and would play hide and seek and other games to pass the time.

She glanced back at the pipes and, quite decidedly, put her wrench down and went to dress.

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