I sneezed again, throwing my face into his chest. He chuckled, blanketing me with the comforting sound before I sniffled deeply. He set me down onto my feet and smoothed his hands over my arms, waiting until my eyes stopped watering.
“Maybe I should dust the fans, hmm?” he asked.
“Anything you say, Bossman,” I said.
I handed him the rag and he playfully swatted my ass with it. I squealed and bounded from the room, but I was going to get him back. I picked up the duster and ran it along the blinds, knocking all of the dust to the floor and onto the furniture that would eventually be cleaned.
I walked by him in one of the bedrooms, taking stock of his shirtless form.
Sweat dripped down his back as he reached up to dust off the fan. His muscles flexed, pebbling and twitching with his dusting movements. I followed a trail of sweat down past the hem of his pants, glistening his skin as it disappeared. I walked into the room and held out the feather duster, then reached up and tickled his underarm with it.
He snapped his arm down and threw me a look before a grin crawled across my cheek.
“Oops. Must’ve slipped,” I said.
“Be careful,” he said. “You might open something you can’t close.”
“I’m stronger than I look,” I said with a wink.
We went from room to room, dusting and wiping things down. I reached up to nail some cobwebs in the corners of the rooms while Gray opened up the attic for us to go explore. I shook the feather duster outside, then made a mental note to sweep the deck off with a broom.
Holy hell, Anton’s yard really did need to be mowed.
I set the duster in the sink and started for the storage shed. I pulled out the mower and struck it up, then started at the back end of the property. I mowed along the fence, making the lines I always made that I knew Anton liked. He showed me how to do it a few times before I got the hang of it, and all of that information came barreling back to my mind. I pushed the mower up and down the lawn, following the pattern of the fences on his property.
And when I looked up, I saw Gray standing on the back porch with a grin on his face.
“You know if you go up and down instead of side to side, you’ll get it done quicker!” he exclaimed.
“But that’s not how Anton wanted it done!” I called back.
“That’s how I did it sometimes!”
“And he hated it!” I said as laughter poured from my mouth.
I passed by Grayson as I went up the side of the house, wiggling my butt as I passed by. I saw his gaze run up and down my body as my shirt began to soak with sweat. I disappeared to the front lawn and began to mow the massive front yard, and when I looked up I saw Gray had stepped out onto the front porch.
He was holding a glass of water and sat right down to watch me.
“Enjoying the view!?” I called out.
“I would more if you were shirtless!” he exclaimed.
“I’m sure I can make that happen!”
His eyes locked with mine before I wiggled my ass at him and continued mowing.
The entire day was like that. We danced around one another and cracked jokes. I felt his eyes on me and I’d swipe my eyes over him. There were moments where he would even rub up against me, playing like he didn’t mean to even though there was plenty of space for us to move throughout the house. Especially with the bulk of Anton’s possessions already gone.
“The furniture cleaners will be here soon,” Gray said. “Is there anything else we need to do? Because once they clean it down, we won’t be able to sit on it or anything until at least tonight.”
“Are they going to clean that thing?” I asked.
I nodded over to the leather sofa that sat in the middle of Anton’s living room.
“It looks like it was made before the Civil War. If they try to clean it, the damn thing might disintegrate,” I said.
“I’m not sure if that’s true. Hold on,” Gray said.