Chapter 85

Ava

I turned to find Chris standing in the doorway, his eyes wide as he took in the chaos that had once been my tidy little cottage. Tools scattered across every available surface, puddles of water and paint splatters decorating the floors, various home repair supplies strewn about in organized disarray.

And there I stood in the middle of it all, my overalls completely disheveled and my hair askew, sweat beading on my brow—and the biggest shit-eating grin that I could possibly muster plastered across my face.

“Like what you see?” I teased, placing my free hand on my hip as I gestured to the renovated bathroom behind me with the hand that was holding a rather large paintbrush. “I’ve been making some much-needed improvements around here.”

Chris blinked slowly, his gaze flickering between me and the half-assembled sink faucet that I had been in the process of repairing when he arrived. I felt my smile begin to fade. For a moment, I was worried that he might scold me—that he would be upset that I had taken on such an ambitious series of tasks without his help or supervision.

That I, a woman, should not have been doing such things. And that I had made a bloody mess of it all.

Ethan certainly would have balked at the very idea of me handling things like plumbing repairs and spackle work all on my own. More often than not, he had treated me like a helpless little damsel, incapable of even the most basic household repairs or manual labor.

Hell, Ethan would have likely had a fit over the mess I had made. He would have seen the cloths covered in paint on the floor and he would have seen the debris all over and he would have yelled at me.

But Chris wasn’t Ethan. Not by a long shot.

Instead, Chris’s expression soon morphed into one of amusement… and something else entirely—something that made my pulse spike and my skin start to grow warm—that had nothing to do with the exertion of tackling odd jobs around the house.

“Well, well,” he murmured, his green eyes roving shamelessly over my body in a way that made my knees go weak. “Look at you, getting all sweaty and dirty.”

I felt my cheeks heat up at his words—at the honey sweetness dripping from his tone. Suddenly, I was acutely aware of how I must have looked in that moment: my hair, once a neat braid, was a tangled mess; my overalls covered in debris and paint; my t-shirt underneath soaked around the collar from sweat.

And yet, Chris seemed utterly entranced by the sight of me in such a state of disarray.

“I had no idea you were so… handy,” he continued, taking a few slow steps into the room.

My gaze followed him intently, scanning over the hard lines of his body as he moved—those broad shoulders, the flex of powerful muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt as he reached up to loosen his collar. Chris always had a way of commanding every ounce of my focus and attention whenever he was near.

Which was why I almost didn’t notice when his boot scuffed against the wall beside him, leaving a smear of forest green paint in its wake. Almost.

“Hey, careful!” I blurted out, crossing the room in a few quick strides to grasp his arm. “I just touched up that trim.”

Chris’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned down at me, not even bothering to glance at the mark he had made on the freshly painted wall. Instead, his gaze remained trained on me with an unsettling intensity—as if I were the only thing in the entire world that mattered in that moment.

“You know,” he murmured, taking another step toward me and effectively crowding me out into the hallway, “there’s something incredibly attractive about a woman who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.”

My cheeks burned hotter than ever. “You like it?” I whispered, feeling myself backpedal as he slowly towered over me.

Smirking, Chris snaked one arm around my waist and pulled me flush against the hard planes of his chest as his other hand found its way into my hair. I gasped at the sudden contact, instinctively winding my arms around his neck as my body responded to his in a way that was quickly becoming familiar—and insatiable.

“Of course I do,” Chris practically growled against the skin of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. “I like a woman who’s strong and capable.”

With a twist of his hips, he somehow maneuvered us until the backs of my thighs were pressing into the edge of the dining table, the solid wooden surface digging into me. I could feel his ragged breaths fanning across my collarbone, could see the fir burning in his eyes as his hands roamed over my body with growing urgency.

“Maybe you should show me just how handy you can be,” he huffed, his green eyes slowly rising to meet mine.

I whimpered involuntarily at the suggestion, but couldn’t help but nod. Something stirred deep in my lower belly, something hot and throbbing.

Before I could even begin to process what was happening, Chris’s smirk grew and his hand pressed into my shoulder. My back suddenly met the flat top of the table with a dull thud, the impact leaving me breathless as he began working at the straps of my overalls.

Part of me knew we should stop—that someone could walk up to my front door at any moment and catch us in such a compromising position. But another, more animalistic part of me didn’t care in the slightest.

All I wanted, all I craved, was the feeling of Chris’s body against mine. It had only been a couple of days, and already I was going through withdrawals for the warm slide of his skin against mine.

I was already fumbling with the buttons of his shirt, desperate to rid us of the fabric barrier keeping me from him. Chris groaned appreciatively as I finally managed to pull apart the fabric, his lips finding a sensitive spot beneath my ear.

It was all I could do to bite back a breathless moan as his fingers finally unhooked my overall straps and tugged them down just enough to slide his hand up underneath my shirt, cupping my—

Suddenly, a sharp rapping against the front door made us both freeze, our eyes flying open as our little bubble was abruptly shattered. We remained frozen for a few endless seconds, our ragged breaths filling the air as we strained to listen for any other sounds. And then, finally…

“Ava? Alpha Chris?” a familiar voice called out. “Are you in there?”

I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in a defeated rush, my grip on Chris’s shoulders slackening ever so slightly. Turning my head to look, I could just make out a disheveled head of red hair through the front window.

Bradley.

Chris sighed heavily, his forehead dropping to rest against mine as he lingered there for one more second. Then, he pulled back and held his hand out for me to take.

“To be continued,” he whispered as I hastily took his hand and affixed my overalls back together.

I let out a deep, disappointed sigh. Perhaps another time…