Blue-Collar Boys - Repairs & Maintenance (Book 2: Steamy Erotic Romance Stories) by Aria Hawthorne

But now, there was a young man outside her window, tangled up in bungee cord like a wise-cracking puppet, ridiculing her.  She quickly shut the window—shutting out everything that hurt her—despite the fact that everything that was hurting her was sealed deep inside. 
    “Okay, then.  See you later, Goldilocks,” Bruno called up to her, raising his voice beyond the thin pane of glass.  “But tomorrow, try not to play so hard to get.” 
     Lydia peered down at Bruno.  He restrung his rigging lines along one of the tree’s highest branches, then shimmed himself higher and higher into the infinite canopy of leaves and branches.  As he ascended past her window, he sensed her gaze and glanced back at her—his sage eyes twinkling with his own cavalier sense of adventure.  He was outgoing, spontaneous, impulsive—everything that Lydia was not—and he was determined to bring her out of her comfort zone without even realizing there were boundaries to respect.  They were boundaries that Lydia had established for herself long ago.  But Bruno ignored them and stared straight at her, unwilling to release her gaze through the window pane, and his interest in Lydia made her suddenly feel something she hadn’t felt in years—connected.
    She broke from his gaze and rotated out of sight.  When the grinding vvvvvvvvroom of the chainsaw started up again, Lydia melted down to the floor, her heart fluttering with emotion.  Lying on her back, she pushed her head against the baseboard of the wall and watched as leaves trickled down like confetti in her upside down world.  He was trying to save her tree , she thought as she followed the leaves upside down through the sky.  And a small part of Lydia hoped that he was trying to save the tree for her.
     
    * * * *
     
    Through the morning haze of her slumber, Lydia heard a soft rap against her bedroom window.  She had been dreaming about running along the beach, indulging in the warm squishy sand as it squeezed through her toes.  It was a wonderful dream.  The sky was blue.  The sand was white.  And Lydia was wearing a gold summer dress. 
    Goldie. Goldie. Goldie , she heard the voice say, followed by a tap, tap, tap against her window pane.
    Lydia had not left her house in over two weeks—except in her dreams. Now, she awoke from the blissful freedom of running along the beach to the menacing form of a hulky man lurking behind the sheer white curtains of her bedroom window.
    Lydia shot up and screamed.
    “Jesus Christ—” he cursed.  “What a set of pipes.”
    “Whoever you are, you better get out of here, before I call the police!” she warned.
    “I thought we moved past that yesterday—”
    Lydia paused, blinking over and over, unable to distinguish between the sharp rays of dawn and the surreal blur of reality.  “Bruno?” she heard herself say.
    She gathered blankets over her pajamas and swiped back the sheer curtains.  There was Bruno, grinning back at her like a Cheshire cat, perched atop a tree branch running parallel along the wooden frame of Lydia’s house.
    “Good morning, Goldilocks,” he said, his voice muted through the window pane.  “I figured since you didn’t want to go out for coffee, I’d bring it to you.”
    Bruno nodded to the styrofoam cup of Dunken Donuts coffee—a bribe to open the window.  But for Lydia, it was more than a bribe.  It was an unbearable temptation.  She lusted for Dunken Donuts coffee—with its hardy flavor and deep roasted scent.  Normally, Lydia hated cookie-cutter franchises that fueled the overblown consumerism of the outside world, and she intentionally avoided anything that contributed to modern society’s addiction to materialism.  But Dunken Donuts coffee was Lydia’s singular weakness.  It was the one thing that tempted her to venture out of her house—at least twice a month—and it was the one thing that persuaded her to open her window for Bruno now.
    The breeze wafted the bitter aroma into