“This is where I’d like the outlet,” Jeff told her, indicating a section of white-painted Sheetrock wall in his den.
She studied the wall. “No problem, but you have a receptacle just a few feet away from there,” she pointed out.
“It’s not convenient. To plug in the vacuum cleaner I have to crawl behind that chair,” he replied.
Plug in the vacuum cleaner? She wondered how often he performed that particular operation himself. “You could move the chair.”
“I like it where it is,” he answered with a bland smile. “Do you want the job or not, Autumn?”
She shrugged. “It’s your money.” Frowning, she examined the grin that had finally broken across his gorgeous face. “I suppose you want to watch me work?”
“If you don’t mind.”
As if it mattered whether she minded or not. She sighed and tried one more ploy to get him a bit farther away from her. “Don’t you doctors ever work?”
“Thursday’s my day off,” he answered genially.
“Then your meter loop was blown off on a convenient day, wasn’t it?” she murmured, remembering that she had met him on a Thursday. Two weeks ago today, she thought. She refused to dwell on how often she had thought of him during those two weeks.
He shrugged, an obvious imitation of her. Autumn glared at him and started to work.
It was the last time all over again. Jeff hovered around her, helping whenever she’d let him, chatting with her whenever she’d bother to answer. It was apparent that he was going out of his way to charm her. And, dammit, she thought glumly, after he’d unexpectedly made her laugh out loud at one of his quips, he was doing it. She found she had a definite weakness for Dr. Jeff Bradford, a weakness that she had no intention of indulging. Despite his many attractions, she had learned her lesson about getting involved with charming, old-fashioned males. Five years earlier she’d broken her engagement to a very nice man who had tried and failed to break her rebellious spirit. She’d never regretted that decision.
“Almost finished,” she announced, tightening the screws on the plastic outlet plate.
“This is going to be very handy. Thanks.”
“You paid for it.” She stashed the screwdriver in her pouch as she stood and pulled the hem of her jeans from behind the tab at the heel of her gray nylon-and-suede jogging shoes.
“How was your date?” Jeff asked unexpectedly.
Autumn lifted one dark eyebrow. “What date?”
“The one you turned me down for two weeks ago,” he reminded her, watching her closely.
“Oh.” She’d almost forgotten that date. It had been quite forgettable. She’d thought about Jeff all evening, which had not put her in the best of moods for the amusing, attractive and manageable man she’d been with. “It was fine.”
“Will you go out with me tonight?” Jeff asked immediately.
She’d been expecting an invitation this time and had decided in advance that she was going to turn him down. But doing so was even harder than it had been the first time. Deep inside she liked Jeff Bradford. She knew she’d have a good time if she went out with him. She also knew that it would only take a touch from him to smash her norma
lly formidable willpower into quivering blobs. And that was a dangerous, sobering realization. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
“Tomorrow night?”
When had he moved so close to her? Autumn looked straight up into his eyes as she declined again. “No, I…” Since when had her voice ever been breathless and fluttery? she asked herself in disgust. She cleared her throat and spoke more firmly. “I can’t,”
He took another step forward. “Saturday?”
There seemed to be a short developing in her breathing apparatus. Her breath was coming in uneven little jerks, growing worse in direct proportion to Jeff’s increasing proximity. She swallowed and stepped back, only to find herself backed against the arm of the massive chair they had discussed earlier. “No, thank you,” she managed.
“Should I keep asking?” he inquired gently, lifting his hands to take her by the forearms, steadying her when she would have stumbled against the chair.
“No, you…you needn’t bother,” Autumn answered with a firmness she found somewhere deep inside her. Finding his bright blue eyes too mesmerizing, she dropped her own gaze to his chest, only to find herself staring in admiration at the glistening V of tanned skin exposed by the neckline of his sweater. A nest of dark curls lay there, looking soft and all too tempting.
“Is there someone else?” Jeff persisted, bringing her face back up to his by way of a gently insistent hand beneath her chin.
Becoming annoyed, she lifted her chin further to avoid his hand. “There’s not anyone else specifically. I’m just not interested in going out with you, Jeff.”