“Well…” she said in a thoughtful voice, flouncing toward the kitchen. “Let’s see. There was that time that Brynn told Vicki Morales that you had crabs, and you got so pissed that you let the air out of the tires of the car my parents bought her for her sixteenth birthday. She’d had the car for exactly four days before you put it out of commission, and I honest to God thought she was going to kill you…”

Will had started to follow Sophie into the kitchen, but he stopped abruptly at the long-forgotten memory of Brynn and that car. He felt a small smile slide over his face.

Little did Sophie know that she’d just provided the next step in his plan.

CHAPTER SIX

A tasteful watch is always in style,

as a lady is never late.

—Brynn Dalton’s Rules for an

Exemplary Life, #21

Brynn was going to be late.

She never ran late. The inability to keep track of the hour and plan for potential mishaps was just so crass.

“And of course it would be today,” she muttered as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse.

Normally Brynn’s work schedule could withstand the occasional delay. She trusted her partner completely, and Dr. Wee would be more than happy to cover one of Brynn’s patients.

But today, Brynn really wanted to be there in person. Seattle’s mayor was bringing her daughter in for an initial consultation. And while it was hardly the president, the mayor was still something of a local celebrity. It was just the sort of reference that Brynn could put on her website that would set her apart from the other orthodontist practices that were popping up with increasing regularity.

Only one tiny problem…

Her tire was flat. Beyond flat.

She flipped through the list of contacts on her phone until she found AAA. She’d been a member ever since buying her first car. She’d never needed assistance before, but she’d found it prudent to plan for emergencies. She just wished it hadn’t happened today.

Brynn patiently pushed all the requisite numbers to get through their automated call-intake system and calmly explained her situation to the woman on the other line.

“What do you mean it’ll be ninety minutes?” Brynn exploded.

Suddenly her silk blouse started sticking to her back. She hissed in frustration. She hated perspiration. It was so…pedestrian.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the polite voice was saying. “We’ll get there as soon as we can, but we only have so many available agents.”

She glanced at the Chanel watch she’d bought herself for her thirtieth birthday. The mayor’s daughter would be in her office in a little over an hour and ten minutes. There was no way she’d make it in time. Dr. Wee would just have to take the appointment with Liz Blanton.

Unless…

Brynn’s eyes fell on the house next door.

Will’s house.

The thought still made her vaguely queasy.

“You know, I think I’ll see if an, um…friend can take care of the tire for me,” Brynn heard herself saying to AAA. “Thank you anyway, though.”

She dropped her phone back into her purse and delicately pulled at her shirt with her nails to keep it from sticking to her body. Of course this would happen on what would probably be Seattle’s one hot day of the year.

Although, truthfully, she wasn’t sure what was making her sweatier: the weather, or the thought of asking Will Thatcher for help.

But Brynn was nothing if not practical. AAA wasn’t nearby, and she knew firsthand that Will was just a few hideous steps away. She’d seen him preening in front of his kitchen window that looked directly into hers.

She avoided looking in the direction of his house as often as possible, but the occasional glance had been inevitable. Best as she could tell, Will Thatcher did not seem to own a shirt. He probably enjoyed the reflection of his own pecs too much.

Brynn started marching toward his front door. If he wanted to torture her by living next door, she’d just let him see exactly what it meant to be neighborly.

She should have been prepared for it when she opened the door, but she still gaped. “For God’s sake, Will, put some clothes on. You’re going to scare the neighbor kids.”

Will stretched and leaned against the door. “Yeah, but their moms will be happy.”

“Gross,” she muttered, scooting past him into the air-conditioned home, being careful not to brush against his impeccably carved chest.

He made a valid point, though. The soccer moms would be drooling if they could see him. The man was wearing only black boxers, and the rest of him was nothing but golden skin and defined muscles.

“Why are you all shiny?” she asked with a sneer as she gingerly scraped a nail down his bicep. “You look like you just got done with a wrestling playdate with Hercules and Achilles.”

“Is that your way of saying I look like a Greek god?” he asked as his fingers locked on her finger. She jerked her hand back. She hadn’t meant to touch him.

“That’s my way of saying you need a shower,” she snapped. “And would you quit with the flexing? You look like you’re having seizures.”

“Can I help you with something or did you interrupt my workout just to come ogle me?”

Right. Keep your eye on the prize. And not that prize. Do it for the mayor’s daughter.

Brynn tried to let her eyes go soft while maintaining her smile. It wasn’t easy when she had the irrepressible urge to strike at him. Or maybe pull him closer. Or maybe…

“Brynn?”

“I need help,” she blurted out.

His cocky grin abolished all traces of the sexual awareness she’d been feeling a second earlier. Or mostly abolished them, anyway. If only he’d put a shirt on…

“I have a flat tire,” she said, trying to keep her voice helpless and innocent. “And I called for help, but it’ll be a while, and I have an important appointment at work, and I know you hate me, but if you could just be a decent human for like thirty seconds out of your entire year—”

“Sure,” he said, interrupting her plea-slash-demand. “I can help.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised by the lack of a fight. “Thanks…You know about cars, right?”

“Seems to me all women assume that men being born with a cock somehow correlates to auto-mechanic expertise, but in my case, you’d be correct.”

She gave him a bland look. “Were you just looking for a reason to say ‘cock’ just now?”

He grinned. “Maybe. Probably. Let me put pants on and I’ll come take a look.”

“Don’t forget a shirt!” she called after him. “I wouldn’t want you to be embarrassed when all of the neighborhood dads see your beer belly!”

She let herself out the front door and headed back to her own driveway, where she called her partner to let her know she’d be late, but that she wouldn’t miss the Blanton appointment.

At least she hoped she wouldn’t. If Will could use his hands on her car like he had on her body…

Firm palms bracketing her waist, pinning her to the mattress as his head dipped lower, licking and loving…

“Ah!” Brynn rapped her knuckles against her head in a futile effort to erase the mental images from her mind. It had only taken her an entire year to forget how good it had been between them. Taken her two more years to remember all of the reasons why they should never ever do it again.

She was not a savage.

She was a lady.

And ladies did not fantasize about soulless men who made a career out of making themselves disposable.

“So what happened?” Will asked from behind her. She turned, expecting him to still be half-naked just to annoy her. Thankfully, he’d thrown on jeans and an old college T-shirt. Unfortunately, neither did much to hide the body beneath it.

Think of James. James is fit. James is sexy. James is—

“Oh, you know, I just went off-roading on a bunch of spikes,” she snapped to distract herself. Fighting with Will was vastly preferable to thinking about his really delicious-looking shoulders.

“Probably just a nail or something,” Will said, ignoring her bitchiness as he knelt to look at the front left wheel. “You got a spare?”