It Started With A House: Lizzie. Book 1 (The Westport Mysteries) Read Online Free Page A

went on holiday.
    “Oh…um…hi,” was
the best I could do.
    “Hi, I’m Riley.
Would you be Lizzie, by any chance?” He had the most amazing voice. It was
gentle even though it was deep, smooth and extremely sexy. His voice pretty
much matched the rest of him. He stood very tall—I’d guess about 6’3”—looked
to be about my age, with blond hair, and the most amazing blue eyes I had ever
seen. Think of the sky on a really brilliant day. But what had me all aflutter was
his eyelashes. They weren’t overly long, but they were dark and thick. Slowly
lowering my gaze, my mouth hanging open very unattractively, I noticed he was
wearing a white t-shirt over jeans and, from what I could tell, had a pretty
damn good torso underneath.
    Oh…he was
looking at me expectantly. Shit, what did he just ask me?
    “Lizzie?” He
extended his hand for me to shake.
    “Um…. Yes. I’m
Lizzie!” I shook his hand, noticing my voice sounding remarkably like one of
the chipmunks. Wow, his hand felt amazing. It was strong and kind of rough, not
like Scott, whose hands were really baby-soft. I actually never liked that about
Scott. I always felt his hands were kind of girly, which is not a good thing to
think about your boyfriend’s hands.
    “Are you okay? It
looked like you fell down the stairs.” Damn, he noticed that did he?.
    “Oh, ha ha ha. Yes.
I’m fine thank you. Just took the express route down,” I laughed
self-consciously. God, I sound like a moron. I saw his left eyebrow rise but he
continued on.
    “You were
saying on the phone you need some help getting this place livable again. Like I
said to you before, I’m in between jobs at the moment, so I would be able to
give you a few weeks to get most of the bigger jobs underway,” he smiled.
    Oh, Wow! Great
smile, too. That was really important in a man. I mean who wants to look at
someone’s face for the rest of your life if they have a crappy smile? I was, at
present, giving him my very best sexy smile. But honestly, if you asked me what
he was talking about, I couldn’t tell you. I hadn’t actually heard a word of
it. Right now the only things my brain was receiving were his gorgeous blue
eyes and his super white smile.
    “Maybe you
should show me around,” he suggested helpfully, giving me a kind, yet
sympathetic look, almost as if he trying to weigh up if I was sane or not.
    “Hmm? Oh, show
you around. Yes…that would be…umm...great. Maybe we should start in the bedroom.”
I giggled, thoughts still not quite coming together in my brain.
    I watched his
eyebrows disappear into his hairline.
    Oops. That
didn’t sound right.
    “I mean that’s
the room I want to start work in,” I stammered. Oh my, what did I say that for?
He must be thinking I’m a nymphomaniac who just wants to get him into bed. Although
that wasn’t such a bad idea.
    Riley stepped
inside the door and closed it behind him. I started to walk up the stairs.
    Bad move. Now I
had Riley behind me and all he could see was my backside.
    This certainly
wasn’t my best attribute. Today I’d thrown on an old pair of jeans that were
slightly on the tight side and made by backside look three times bigger... like
it needed that sort of help. Maybe if I found that broken stair tread I could
hide underneath it.
    Looking over my
shoulder, I could see Riley making mental notes as he walked towards the
bedroom. I thought the look of my God,
what the hell have I got myself into? crossed his face, but I couldn’t be
sure. I was just hoping I’d remembered to make my bed this morning.
    “In this room I
want to take up the carpet. As you can see it’s really awful. I can live with
the wallpaper for now, but I think the carpet is causing my nightmares,” I
blabbered, tugging at the neck of my t-shirt. I was feeling quite flushed all
of a sudden. It felt like all the air was being sucked out of the room. Funny,
this room never felt this small before. Maybe it was the shock from the fall.
    “That