Read Gypsy Beach for Free Online Page B

entire
town.
    “Uh,” he stammered, and tried to remember how
to speak.
    “Did you figure out what’s wrong?”
    He nodded and swallowed back another flood of
saliva brought on by the melody of her voice and the movement of
her lips. “Yeah, you’ve just got a dirty thermocouple.”
    Her lips pursed, and his entire body tensed.
She wrinkled that adorable nose. “I don’t know what that is.
Redoing this place was probably such a stupid idea.” The dejection
that took over her body had him moving to her. He stopped short of
running his thumb over her cheek in an effort to bring back her
smile.
    “No, it’s a great idea, and you’ll be great
at running this place. We’ll get it back in working order before
the season starts up, and you’ll be making money in no time.”
    “Do you really think so? I’ve never owned
anything, much less an entire Inn. I’m not sure I know what I’m
doing.”
    And there it was. That quizzical, questioning
look that said whatever his answer was that she would believe him.
How, after everything he’d done to her, did she possibly still
believe in him? He didn’t deserve that, but suddenly nothing was as
important and keeping his word to her.
    “I think you’re perfect,” fell from his lips
without him quite meaning for it to come out that way. “Uh, I mean
I think you’ll be the perfect person to run the Inn, Sienna. You’re
amazing.”
    That vow was met with disbelief, however.
“Thanks. So, can you fix the water heater or do I need a new
one?”
    Thankful to be able to discuss something that
wouldn’t make him sound like a complete idiot, Ryan smiled.
    Dear God, that smile! Sienna’s pelvic
muscles clenched tightly as if to pull that devastatingly sexy
smile inside of her body. Okay, he needs to stop smiling . Smiling is bad. There should be no smiling while we redo this
house. If he kept looking at her like that, she was likely to
spontaneously burst into flames. Burning down the Inn would only
make the repairs go on longer. Did he just say I was
amazing?
    “Yeah, this heater’s only a couple of years
old. Thermocouple got a little rusty. Probably from the storm. I’ve
got some sandpaper in my truck. As soon as it cools back down from
me lighting the pilot, I can clean it up for you. You’ll have hot
water soon. And maybe you could tell me a little about what you
want to do in the house while we wait on it to cool. We can turn
this into the place to stay on Gypsy Beach.”
    Sienna grinned at him. His heart and his
groin mocked him with internal laughter at his vow to keep his
hands and his cock away from her.
    Her bottom lip slipped through her teeth, and
his hands shook. He shoved them in the pocket of his jeans. “This
is kind of weird,” she finally admitted.
    His head fell and air escaped his lungs in an
audible hiss. He lifted it again and had to nod his agreement.
    “But it doesn’t have to be, right?” The utter
hope in her question speared through him and did a decent job of
shutting up both his heart and his groin.
    “Right.” He offered her another kind smile
and ran his hands back through his hair, not entirely certain what
else to say but deciding just to go with the truth. “Sienna, I
really am sorry about all those years ago. Like I said, I know that
means nothing to you now, but I’d really like to just be friends
with you. If you think that’s okay. If not, I’ll just be your
contractor, completely at your service, and then I’ll leave you
alone. I won’t bother you anymore.”
    Being completely at her service was about the
closest thing to heaven Sienna had ever heard. She allowed her mind
to conjure images of Ryan doing her sexual bidding before she
ordered them away, because leaving her alone sounded a lot like the
hell she’d already lived through all those years ago.
    Why had he just stopped calling? What had
happened to him? She had no idea why she wanted to know. She had no
business associating with him at all, but the only voice