Blown Away: A Small Town Military Romance (The Moore Brothers Book 1) by Abby Brooks Page A

whole night fantasizing about his body, going on and on and on about his kindness, even gossiped with Ellie Charles about his past and then touched yourself in the shower, thinking about him. I think you can cut the guy a little slack if he's busy doing something similar with you. Besides, thinking about him thinking about her the way she’d been thinking of him felt damn good.
    Turned out Ian intended to tear apart the old porch and replace a lot of the rotting wood with new wood. Juliet had anticipated hard work, but this was grueling. And while Ian did the majority of the hardest work himself, Juliet was definitely sweaty and tired by the time afternoon rolled around. They only took a short break for lunch, and there wasn’t much conversation at that point. They were both too busy just trying to get food into their mouths so they could get back to work, that talking was pointless.
    After lunch, Ian took off his shirt and it proved to be just as magnificent as Juliet had hoped. She’d had her hands on him twice now, once the first night they’d met when she’d tried to brush sand from his chest. And then again yesterday when she’d reached up to hug him after he told her about the house. She had known he was going to be impressive without his shirt on, but that still didn't prepare her for the truth of Ian Moore in the flesh. It took every ounce of her considerable willpower not to just stand and gawk for minutes on end. He was so. damn. beautiful. His abs rippled as he bent and shifted, that delicious little v near his waistband making her wonder what he had hiding in his pants. His biceps flexed as he lifted and hoisted, as he wielded his hammer and saw.
    By the time Ian called it quits, Juliet hurt in places she didn't know she could hurt. Even her eyes stung from the sweat that kept dripping past her eyebrows. She had slammed her fingers with hammers. She had chipped and pulled her fingernails, grabbing at nails in the wood. Her hair plastered itself to her face with sweat and what little makeup she had put on that morning had to be smeared all across her face.
    Juliet was a little disappointed with herself. She’d wanted to impress him with her ability to adjust and learn quickly. She’d wanted to be invaluable help. Right there. Ready to take on any task Ian gave her. That hadn't been the case. She’d had to ask what the names of tools meant, she hadn't been able to lift some of the larger pieces of wood by herself, and she had no ability to use a power tool in the least. All in all, she was feeling pretty worthless right about now.
    Ian leaned on the deck railing and stared out towards the sea. “I'll be honest with you,” he said, handing Juliet a bottle of water he’d brought out earlier. “I didn't expect you to be much help at all. I'd say you just taught me a lot about what to expect out of a New Yorker.” Ian swiped a hand across his brow and then rubbed that hand over the back of his pants.
    I bet that butt feels as magnificent as it looks .
    “You’re sweet to try and make me feel good,” she said, trying to ignore the indecent thoughts parading through her head. “But go right ahead and call it like it was. That was hard and I wasn't any good at it. I was in the way more than anything.”
    “You're something else, you know that? When I got here today, did you know anything about what we were doing? Did you know the names of any of those tools? Did you even know how to properly swing a hammer?”
    Juliet hung her head and swiped a bit of damp hair out of her eyes. “No. Not really.”
    “But you do now don't you?”
    “Kind of. I mean I could show you which screwdriver goes to which screw, and I could tell you what that circular saw over there does, and I now know that just because you make all that wood look light and easy to carry, it doesn't mean it is light and easy to carry.”
    “There's a joke in there, but I'm gonna let it slide. Be a gentleman and all that.”
    “And what if