Chapter 1
Chapter One
Daniel
“You know, you really didn’t have to do that, Mel,” Daniel said as his sister drove him toward his neighborhood and a house he hadn’t seen in over two years.
“Eh.” She shrugged like handling post-storm renovations wasn’t a big deal. “You left me the keys and asked me to take care of the place while you were deployed. That included driving your car every few weeks and calling the insurance company for the hail damage. We’re just lucky I know a good contractor and snapped her up before she got too busy.”
“She?”
Mel shot him an evil look and scowled. “Don’t you even get all misogynistic about a female contractor. Sadie is really good. She did our bathroom last year.”
“I’m not.” Hoping to keep the peace with his feminist sister, he held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m sure she’s a great contractor. It just surprised me is all.”
Truthfully, he didn’t know shit about who was good and who wasn’t. He’d been out of the country too long. He was home for good now though. Well, mostly. He still had a few years to go as a reservist. Maybe once his house was finished, he could settle down, meet a nice girl, get married, and give his mother a few more grandkids she could entertain in feral splendor on her Happy Jack hobby farm.
Hell, he even had a job lined up as an air traffic controller for Flagstaff Pulliam. Hopefully, his house would be livable by the time he was scheduled to start work.
If he was especially lucky, he might even find a sweet little babygirl to spoil. Someone gentle, maybe a little bit shy, with just enough inner brat to deserve a spanking every so often would suit him down to his toes.
He’d visited clubs with his friends, Mark Luciano, Ryan Wood, Jake McBride, and Sean Franklin, otherwise known as the Four Horsemen, but it had been years, and he missed it. Unfortunately, he doubted he’d find a decent dungeon—much less play partners—in suburban Flagstaff.
Thinking about his old friends made him chuckle. They’d sworn up and down they’d open up a BDSM resort when they left the Navy. Maybe he should give them a call now that he was home too.
“Well, yeah,” Mel replied, dragging him away from his thoughts of a curvy bottom bouncing under a thorough spanking. “I mean, I get it. There aren’t that many female general contractors out there, but I promise you’ll be happy with her work.”
Judging by the photos of the damage Mel sent him, the place couldn’t get much worse. Besides, if Sadie managed to make his picky sister happy, she was definitely a good choice.
Daniel just wished he could have done the work himself like he’d originally intended when he bought the historic adobe fixer-upper. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time or the skills to get it into habitable condition before he was due to start his new job.
At least the insurance payout would cover most of it, so maybe the storm was a blessing in disguise, as it had damaged what already needed fixing.
“Oh, no. This isn’t good.” His sister pulled to a stop on the street in front of his house. Covered in scaffolding with workers patching the pale pink stucco and boasting a new terracotta tile roof, it was barely recognizable.
A woman dressed in jeans, boots, and a hard hat that matched her orange safety vest sauntered toward a man working on a brick retaining wall. A chestnut braid fell to the middle of her back, and a large sledgehammer rested carelessly on one shoulder.
“What’s not good?” he asked, staring at the woman.
Fuck, she was gorgeous. He couldn’t tell the color of her eyes, but she looked like a supermodel, with high cheekbones, a straight, aquiline nose, and juicy pink lips bowed into a smile.
“Sadie’s got her hammer,” Mel whispered. “Maybe we should come back later.”
“She’s on a construction site. Why is it surprising that she’s carrying a tool?”
“You don’t understand.” Mel slid down in her seat as if to hide herself. “That’s Sadie’s hammer .”
Rolling his eyes, he got out of Mel’s car and strode to the woman, meaning to introduce himself as the property owner.
As he approached, she focused her attention on the man laying bricks. “Hey, Jim. Got a question for you.”
“I’m busy, Sadie.”
“I can see that, but I wanted to know if you looked at the print I gave you.” She planted her feet and caressed the handle of her sledgehammer. “Because this looks like a brick shithouse.”
The man straightened and smiled, revealing a missing front tooth. “Thanks.”
“That wasn’t a compliment. You need to start over and follow the print like I asked you to.”
Jim snarled and spat; the effluvium landing inches from Sadie’s boots. Before Daniel could wade into the fray to protect her, Mel caught his arm and held a finger to her lips as she shook her head vigorously.
“Fuck you, Sadie. It’s good enough. I’m not spending another four hours on this stupid wall.”
“Huh. Is that your final answer?”
“Yeah.” He sneered, then added, “If you don’t like it, good luck finding another mason who will work for your bitchy ass.”
“Okay.” Sadie hefted the sledgehammer in both hands and swung, taking out a section of the retaining wall. Methodically, and with a faint smile on her pouty lips, she worked her way down, her hammer falling every few feet until the wall rested in a dusty pile of rubble.
“I guess I know what the hammer is for,” Daniel murmured to himself as he watched the show. He’d step in if Jim decided to become physically abusive, but was willing to give Sadie a chance to handle her business first.
Jim gaped at her, then his face reddened with anger. His hands clenching into meaty fists, he stalked toward her. “You little cunt. I ought to?—”
“Pack up your tools and get off my worksite,” Sadie interrupted. “You’re fired.”
“I’m going to—” Jim cut himself off as the rest of Sadie’s crew formed a semicircle behind her. More than a few of the ladies carried crowbars and other tools, and they did not look happy.
“What, Jim?” Sadie asked, without looking behind her. “Did you have a plan aside from getting off my worksite?”
“Fine.” Jim tossed his trowel to the ground at her feet. “Bitch.”
“Better a bitch than a moron who can’t read a fucking print,” she retorted.
After giving her a poisonous glare, Jim collected his things and strode to a dusty gray pickup, then sprayed gravel as he tore out of Daniel’s driveway.
“Um… Let’s give her a few hours to cool down,” Mel said, edging to her car.
“Go ahead,” he murmured before grabbing his kit bag from the trunk. “I’m sticking around.”
Sadie was the complete opposite of the women he usually dated, but she fascinated him. It wasn’t just her stunning physical beauty; he was attracted to her obvious strength. Judging by the way she destroyed the retaining wall, he’d bet there was more than a little brat in there too.
“Your funeral.” Mel gave him a wave as she drove away.
Sadie sniffed, then turned a brilliant grin on her crew. “Now that the trash is gone, who wants to learn bricklaying?”
Sadie
That’s the last time I scrape the bottom of the barrel at the union hiring halls.
She’d known better than to leave her newest hire unattended—especially during an historic restoration. They were delicate, time consuming, not very profitable, and quite possibly her favorite thing in the world. The thought of some redneck good old boy messing with one of her babies…
Worse, this one belonged to an active-duty serviceman who was due to come home any day, so it had to be perfect. At least she’d gotten most of the inside done and was just waiting for the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. With luck, the work would be finished before the end of the week.
Even storm-damaged, the Pueblo-style bungalow was magnificent, with three bedrooms and what would soon be a gorgeous suite with a sexy bathroom complete with soaking tub. It about broke her heart to replace the century-old leaded windows that had been lost in the storm, but at least she’d managed to save a good percentage of the original roof tiles.
“Any takers?” she asked. “Full wages while you learn, just like always.”
Although she hired skilled tradespeople for electric and plumbing, she loved absconding with women. And by absconding, she meant stealing them from shelters or off the streets and giving them well-paying jobs and marketable skills.
Potato, potahto.
Lourdes brushed a stray braid from her face, leaving a smear of cement on her brown cheek. “I will.”
“The kitchen cabinets are being delivered in less than an hour, and I need you for the install.”
Giving her a smile, Lourdes asked, “Next time?”
“Absolutely.” She turned Lourdes toward the house and gave her a gentle nudge. “You’re a fantastic carpenter and I want you supervising.”
“Me,” Beatriz said. “I want to learn, and I can’t start the bathroom wallpaper until the grout finishes curing. Maybe we can do a video for your blog.”
“Perfect. Let’s get you started on the mortar while I clean up my mess.”
“And me,” a man said, surprising her.
She spun to look at him and about swallowed her tongue.
Well, hello, Daddy.
Dressed in faded jeans and a black T-shirt that clung to a set of washboard abs she could have cheerfully climbed like a tree, he was gorgeous.
And mercy, those dark blue eyes combined with a strawberry blond crew cut… Sadie resisted the urge to fan herself, but there wasn’t much point in flirting with a man that fine. If he didn’t already have a wife or girlfriend, she doubted he’d be interested in a woman who once thought a manicure was a treatment for nail fungus.
“Hi.” She stuck out a dirty hand, then jerked it back and wiped it on her jeans before offering it again. “Sadie Windham. Are you looking for a job?”
“You could say that.” He took her callused hand in his and squeezed gently. “Daniel Palmer.”
“Nice to meet you.” She grabbed a shovel and started clearing the mess she’d made of Jim’s half-assed retaining wall. “Tell me about yourself.”
“What do you want to know?” Without being asked, he found another shovel and started at the other end of her path of destruction.
“First, are you addicted to alcohol or drugs? No judgment, but for safety reasons, I can’t allow substance abuse on a construction site.”
“Nope. Just coffee.”
She shrugged and scooped a shovel full of rubble into a bin. “That goes without saying. Do you have construction experience?”
“No.”
“That’s cool. Most of my new hires don’t.” She straightened and rested her chin on the handle of her shovel. “Why should I hire you?”
“Well, let’s see…” He shoveled a pile of busted mortar into the bin and winked, making her heart race. “I’m pretty good at following orders.”
Mmm. Daniel’s raspy baritone would be perfect for giving orders too. Like, lie down so I can eat your pussy .
“Can you read a drawing and printed instructions? If you can’t, I know a tutor at the community center who helps adults with literacy,” she replied, dragging her head out of the gutter. If she was going to hire him, she had no business wondering what his orgasm face looked like.
“Not sure on the drawings.” His arms flexed as another shovelful of rubble went into the bin. “Yes, for printed instructions.”
She considered asking him if he minded working for a woman but figured she had a better than even chance of him lying. Instead, she decided to rephrase the question. “My crew is female, aside from my electrician and plumber. Is that going to be a problem for you?”
“As long as I can swear when I hit my fingers with a hammer, nope.” He dumped the last of the broken bricks into the trash and rested his hands on the top of his shovel handle. “Looks like you and your ladies had things under control with Jim the asshole.”
“Isn’t the first time it’s happened,” she muttered. “We take care of each other here.”
“And we don’t give a shit about swearing,” Beatriz replied. “We all cuss like fucking sailors.”
Daniel laughed, a warm throaty sound that sent another dart of very inconvenient arousal into her core. At this rate, she’d need to bring fresh panties to work if she hired him. Unfortunately, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and she needed another pair of hands if she wanted to finish before her soldier got home.
Well, not hers, but her friend Mel’s brother.
Close enough.
Hoping she wasn’t making a mistake, she asked, “Can you start right now?”
He gave her another smile, this one making her knees wobble. “I’m all yours, Ms. Windham.”