Read The 48 Hour Hookup (Chase Brothers) for Free Online

thick coat, but she didn’t need him to strip down to fuel her imagination.
    She’d seen the picture circling the Internet. He’d worn a shirt. A white, dirt-smudged, soaking wet shirt. His presumably sweat-darkened hair made those eyes pop like crazy, but it was the fabric clinging to every ridge of defined muscle that had made the man a star. Now, despite the number of times she’s seen that image, she realized what little justice it did to the man in the flesh.
    He was… breathtaking .
    Clearly, she’d spent too much time at work, around all those soft-in-the-middle stuffed-shirt types. This guy was stupidly ripped.
    And she, stupidly staring. Again.
    “Nice place,” he said, as if he hadn’t noticed her attention.
    Flustered, not even having realized he was off the phone, she glanced around. The ceiling soared, cobwebs billowing between the exposed beams. The two-story main room was lined on its upper half by a natural wood-railed balcony, from which hallways led to guest rooms. There were ten suites, all upstairs. Downstairs, adjacent to the common room, there was a large kitchen, a dining area, and a couple of club rooms. Some of the space had been repurposed over the decades, she was sure, but the current version held all of her memories.
    And the Hot HVAC Guy.
    “It was pretty amazing back in its day,” she said, somehow managing to trip over the words.
    “It’s amazing now,” he said. “I love old buildings like this.”
    “You do?” He’d surprised her, though she wasn’t sure why. Just…the only two people who knew where she was—her best friend, Jessie, and her station manager—had both made faces when she mentioned retreating to an abandoned lodge. Jessie had pointed out the city was plenty big to disappear into, if she just kept her head down, but her station manager had actually looked relieved, once the initial reaction to I’m going to hide in the woods had faded.
    “Yeah,” Liam said, still looking around, his eyes even brighter with interest than they had been when he was glaring at her for wrecking his truck. “We work in a lot of old places in the city. There’s just something about the history that fascinates me.” He turned his attention from a visual tour of the walls to rest his gaze on her. “Old buildings are kind of like people,” he said. “They all have a story.”
    “Do you?” she asked. “Have a story?” Belatedly, she realized the question had an odd intimacy in the cavernous old lodge. Being the only two people in the place, and probably on the mountain, made intimacy a thing whether they wanted it or not. And though she didn’t, she was pretty sure she’d just asked a loaded question that could easily be interpreted as a flirtation.
    After a measured moment, he said, “Considering you dropped a tree on my truck, you can consider yourself the most interesting part of it.”
    He softened that sentiment with a smile she couldn’t help returning. “I don’t know if I should be impressed or feel sorry for you.”
    He laughed. “To be honest, I don’t know either. What kind of sleeping accommodations do you have in here? Just the floor?”
    “You may have heard we don’t have any heat,” she said. “Except for the fireplace. I’ve spent the last three nights in a recliner, but you can have your choice of guest rooms if you don’t mind being cold or stale odors. The linens are folded and put away, and all the furniture was covered, but it’s all been sitting for a few years now.”
    “I’d rather camp out by the fire, if that’s okay with you.”
    “Sure, we can share.”
    His brow lifted.
    “The room. The fire. The…never mind.” She wiped her hands on her pants. “Can I get you some coffee?”
    “Yeah,” he said, a smile tugging at his mouth. “That would be great.”
    Sure it would. Because she was alone with a man who had no clue how many orgasms he’d coaxed out of her. A man who liked to sleep naked. One with whom she was now