Turn My World Upside Down: Jo's Story Read Online Free Page A

trouble getting your point across—even if it meant using a hammer! So if you’re
not
being clear, maybe you’re not as disinterested as you think you are.”
    Oh crap
.
    That was a helluva thought.

Two
    Cash Hunter focused his frustration and funneled it into his work. Hell, no wonder people called him a master craftsman. With this kind of energy pumping through him, he could probably tear down and rebuild the Louvre inside a week.
    A tall man, with black hair that always needed a good trimming, he had shoulders broad enough to carry the chip that had been lodged there since he was a kid. His dark eyes promised pleasure and guarded secrets. His smile charmed, but didn’t necessarily welcome.
    He liked his privacy, and there was nothing wrong with that. He preferred keeping a distance between himself and the rest of the world and figured that it saved a lot of trouble—both for him and everyone else.
    But then he’d gone and shattered his nice, easy life by running into Josefina Marconi.
    No matter how many times he told himself to steer clear of her, he somehow ended up wandering back into range. The woman had a temper that could melt steel at a hundred yards and a disposition better suited to a pit bull.
    And, she had blue eyes that looked like a cloudless summer sky and lips full enough to tempt a man to taste them, despite the danger involved.
    “Damn it.”
    Shaking thoughts of her out of his mind, Cash gathered his focus again and concentrated on the work in front of him. His hands gripped the planer tightly, until his knuckles stood out white against his darkly tanned skin. He regulated his breathing, steady, even, fighting for control over the roar of aggravation within. But he’d had years to practice. Years to refine his technique for mentally compartmentalizing whatever happened to be bugging him. This he knew. This he was good at.
    Over and over again, he stroked the precision tool over the edges of the rich teak wood. Inch by painstaking inch, he shaved away the excess, smoothed the rough edges. Small curls of wood rose up and dropped away, littering the workshop floor and the toes of his battered boots.
    Aerosmith pumped from the radio, the clashing instruments jangling along his nerve endings, soothing in a weird sort of way. Afternoon light slid through the open double doors and lay in a long rectangle of gold across the brick-colored concrete floor of the massive workshop behind his house.
    Immune to the beauty around him, Cash centered his mind and tried to tuck all thoughts of Josefina Marconi into the tidy little compartment he’d reserved for her in his brain. Unfortunately, though, thoughts of Josefina just wouldn’t be contained.
    The woman irritated him on every possible level andattracted him on even more. Hardheaded and funny, generous and loyal, she snarled at him every time they crossed paths and had a body that kept him locked in sweaty dreams night after night.
    The woman was wound so tight, she practically gave off sparks. She vibrated with energy even when she was still—which wasn’t that often. She kept her long, thick dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail that never failed to capture his attention.
    He’d even been watching that fall of hair to judge her moods. It measured her emotions like a damn metronome did music. When she was angry, it flew around her head in vicious swings. When she was thoughtful, she tipped her head to one side, letting that fall of hair hang there, like string dangling over a playful kitten.
    He wanted to know what that hair felt like. What it looked like, spread across his pillow. What it smelled like when he buried his face in it.
    “Great. Good job.” Muttering darkly, he shifted uncomfortably, trying to adjust his jeans to ease the ache in his suddenly hard, uncomfortable body.
    There was no relief in sight and he knew it.
    He wanted her and he couldn’t have her.
    That was the plain, simple truth of it.
    Lifting his head, he inhaled sharply,